Between protection and exploitation: Children in temple and palace households as a socioeconomic phenomenon in Early Southern Mesopotamia (3200-2000 BC)

南美索不达米亚早期的楔形文字记录了一个显著的社会现象：寺庙和宫廷家庭养活了无数来自贫困阶层的儿童。虽然向这些未成年人提供了食物和住所，但他们从幼年起就被征召为劳动者。他们的社会流动性受到严重限制，他们往往是疾病和暴力的受害者。该项目的目的是调查机构家庭中儿童的支助作为一种社会现象，并查明其原因、形式和后果。我认为，家庭对儿童的支持具有明确的社会经济目的。一方面，没有受到社会保护的儿童没有被单独留下，从而缓解了早期城市社会中的社会紧张局势。另一方面，作为未成年人和最终的成年人，他们是寺庙和宫廷经济的重要劳动力来源。为了收集数据，将建立一个与儿童有关的文本参考数据库。将在三个专题组中系统地审查这些问题：a)术语和人口结构：将对文本中记录的性别和年龄类别以及儿童发病率和死亡率进行量化。因此，他们的人口结构将得到重建。b)涌入和再生产：将查明儿童涌入收容所家庭的原因。同时，将评估受供养工人的家庭在多大程度上促进了机构家庭劳动力的增加。c)作为劳动力的支助和使用：将从历时的角度审查儿童配给和组织童工的情况，并将其与性别和年龄类别挂钩。数据分析将分为两个阶段。首先，将使用历史--语言学的方法来解释涉及儿童的文本文件。其次，将使用统计和历史人口学方法来跟踪儿童S生活的这些方面的动态，并确定历史趋势。这项研究的预期结果超越了古代近东研究的传统界限：除了填补美索不达米亚早期社会史的空白之外，该项目还将有助于在经验数据和理论讨论的基础上，对童工的原因和国家在儿童保护中的作用进行社会相关的讨论。

Cuneiform texts from early Southern Mesopotamia record a remarkable social phenomenon: temple and palace households supported numerous children from underprivileged social strata. While these minors were provided with food and shelter, they were recruited as labourers from early childhood. Their social mobility was severely restricted and they were often victims of disease and violence.The aim of the project is to investigate the support of children in institutional households as a social phenomenon and to identify its causes, forms and consequences. I suggest that the support of children by the households had a clear socioeconomic purpose. On the one hand, socially unprotected children were not left alone, whereby social tension within the early urban society was alleviated. On the other hand, as both minors and eventual adults they were an important source of labour for the temple and palace economies.For data collection a database of relevant text references to children will be created. These will be systematically examined within three thematic clusters:A) Terminology and demographic structure: Gender and age categories documented in the texts, as well as morbidity and mortality rates among children will be quantified. As the result, their demographic structure will be reconstructed.B) Influx and Reproduction: The reasons for the influx of children into institutional households will be identified. At the same time the extent to which the families of dependent workers contributed to an increase in the labour force in institutional households will be evaluated.C) Support and use as labour: Rations for children and the organization of child labour will be examined in a diachronic perspective and linked to gender and age categories.The data analysis will consist of two phases. First, the text documents which contain references to children will be interpreted using a historical-philological approach. Second, statistical and historical demography methods will be used to track the dynamics of these aspects of children´s lives and to identify historical trends. Quantitative and qualitative data will be consolidated and placed in the historical context of early Southern Mesopotamia.The anticipated results of this study go beyond the traditional bounds of Ancient Near Eastern Studies: besides filling a gap in the social history of early Mesopotamia, the project will contribute to socially relevant discussions of reasons child labour and the role of the state in child protection on the basis of empirical data and theoretical discussion.