Culture in Children's Drawings

Children's drawings are surprisingly interesting and can reveal a lot!
Yay! Anthropology! Sociology! Child psychology, I guess! Don't mind me, just want this video to show up for those searches :P
Sources:
M Cox, Children's Drawings
M Cox, Children's Drawings of the Human Figure
M Cox et al, Children's human figure drawings in the UK and Japan: The effects of age, sex and culture
M Martlew and K Connolly, Human Figure Drawings by Schooled and Unschooled Children in Papua New Guinea
Image from:
pixabay.com/ph...
"Ambiment" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
creativecommons...

[@HiloHello]

This made me think of Onfim, the 13th-century boy whose homework doodles have been preserved forever. Like, the way he draws (or doesn't draw) torsos seems odd until you remember that it's 13th-century Russia, and everybody was wearing long robes.

[@AnkhAnanku]

Thank you so much for turning me to this boy. This made my day

[@josephlongbone4255]

Dang, you beat me to it.

[@xenomorph6599]

Me who drew a really shoddy cat from the side, front, top, and bottom when I was like 6 or something because I wanted to make a robot of a cat because I really wanted a cat and my parents didnt and I was convinced these would be my entire working blueprints to literally build a cat. Somehow

[@horseenthusiast1250]

I'm going to cry, little bits of anthropology like this are SO, SO IMPORTANT ♥️

[@hya2in8]

How has this not gone viral?

[@Alice-gr1kb]

Móboĉo honestly!

[@moontruther7865]

This video was really interesting and I enjoyed it a lot. Just a small note: I'm assuming from the pronunciation you were talking about Maori, people of New Zealand. Its not pronounced May-ori (as I see a lot of non-nz speakers say) and even know I'm personally of European descent generally you hear it more like mowri (as in [Mao] of China, [Ree]) or mohri (as in [Moe] from the simpsons, Ree with a softer r [ree]). Not a big deal though as it's an easy mistake to make and overall this is a very informative video on a topic I hadn't thought about.

[@NakariSpeardane]

Thank you for letting me know, and I'm glad you enjoyed the video! Yeah, I guess I'd gotten used to the wrong pronunciation and I never thought to check if that was the preferred pronunciation of actual Maori people. I'm trying to improve on checking that kind of thing!

[@jankima8646]

in the IPA, the true pronunciation is /'mα:o.ri/, if that helps

[@KenHilton]

This video is as cute as the drawings it contains - great research! Didn't know that children drew differently based on cultural norms or teachings. Learned a lot!

[@readingdino711]

It's nice to know I started drawing early. I loved drawing ever since I could finger paint, which was around when I could sit up on my own (according to my grandma at least).

[@tikaal]

only 2 videos in and i already find this channel amazing

[@Alice-gr1kb]

4:50 it’s funny because dinosaurs were actually very smooth and feathery

[@Kadaverbaby]

I am Swedish, but honestly I don't believe that changed how i drew people when I was little. I'd draw a big round face with black hair, black eyes and often no nose with large smiles, the bodies would be a stripe with two stripe arms with 5 stripes sticking out from the tips as fingers, another circle in the middle with a dot in the middle as as stomach and then two stripes under the stomach as legs with tiny stripes as feet. The pictures are kinda creepy but that's how I drew them, I'm not sure why thought. This video kinda makes me think about it, its very cute.

[@paulg1964]

Learned so much from this great video. Your mum nose best. Please make another video.

[@jankima8646]

Hah!

[@Littlekoji-df1cf]

Shows how imagination should be free and not restricted.

[@mojavefry2617]

Lovely Nakari opening my eyes to forms of cultural expression I never would have though of.

[@edn2674]

I've just realized I haven't left a comment yet. This is such an amazing video!! It's a super interesting topic and so adorably presented, so lovely!!

[@edn2674]

Quick update: I was drawing with my nephew and he drew a nose exactly like the one at 1:03 I asked him who taught him how to draw a nose, and he replied "I learnt it by myself!" It was a really heartwarming moment

[@ThatOneMan830]

God this is so fucking good! I love this sort of content. Need to start thinking about things like child lore in my setting. It even made me think of how I drew as a child.

[@happynihilist2573]

I always wander about things like this and I love seeing such a good video on covering it 👍

[@ciaotiziocaius4899]

this. needs. more. VIEEWS!

[@juansamano8159]

I had never thought about that! This is an amazing video. Well done

[@cursedalien]

Dinosaurs and animals aren't separate topics. Dinosaurs ARE animals.

[@sortingoutmyclothes8131]

Not really, they WERE animals.

[@tux_duh]

To kids they aren't, they're more like dragons or a mythical thing (depending on the age ofc)

[@S2Alie]

this is fascinating!!

[@indiraarispe6581]

Where can I find this info? I would like to study this

[@LeaniStar]

What a lovely video! When you were discussing the children that draw side profiles were you referring to Māori children? That is so fascinating, since anecdotally it does seem that all the māori peers I meet tend to me more artistic than my white European friends. Interesting!

[@jankima8646]

Which is your favourite? Mine is the Iranian child

[@xxbarry_blyat69xx5]

Hey bit of a nitpick here, It's actually pronounced mouldy not May-ori I'm a new Zealander I know

[@rancidprince3133]

this is absolutely fascinating! I've never considered what children's art says about culture, but now i want to go down a rabbit hole and learn everything!

[@lipamanka]

Who disliked this!?!? How dare you!

[@felipenascimento6118]

For me, nobody has disliked it

[@Reuel-Jazwa]

@@felipenascimento6118 because you dont have the plugin installed

[@jankima8646]

I have created a children's drawing for my own culture, inspired by these, if you're interested. This culture (called the Aikin) lives in thick forests near the equator. They usually draw on dried Kafarin leaves, which are abundant. As they are hunter gatherers, all possessions are highly valued, as they have to be carried, however, discarding the creation of a child is considered abominable. In the neighbouring tribes, which similarly believe that the destruction of a child's creation is an act of evil, children are encouraged (and sometimes forced) to not create anything, so the parents don't have to lug it around. But for the Aikin, drawing is a prized skill and children will be taught art from very early on (starting with drawing trees and plants), and the Aikin will draw on the smooth barked trees a picture every time they make camp, which contains lots of information. When the Aikin find a new place to camp, they will look for these pictures, which will tell them what food is common where they are, where the previous Aikin tribe made their campfire, where the nearest spring is, and so forth. As it is very hot in these forests, clothes are only worn when hunting, or when they encounter many midgies apart from the lion cloth, which is only worn by adults. The drawing generally faces forwards. Peoples' hair stands straight up, because the Aikin never cut their hair, but if you only draw the front of a person, then you can't see the hair, so children draw the hiar as seen from the back, up-side-down above the face. It looks kind of like a turban. Because this is how hair is normally drawn, even when people are drawn side-on, young children will draw their hair standing up. The outline of their face is not drawn because their skin is the same(ish) tone as the tree bark around them (fairly dark). The eyes are drawn very big because they are very important for seeing in the forest, and are very prominent in the dark. The nose is similar to Nakari's proper nose, but the bottom is flat. Sometimes, the bridge of the nose is drawn as an extra line thru the middle. The mouth is drawn as a line with a dot underneath because that is really what a mouth looks like. The dot is the chin. The body has also no outline, but it does have a line down the middle, representing the backbone, because the spine is of religious importance to the Aikin (It is linked with the creation story.) The arms and legs drawn as oblongs on men, but as lines on women, because men generally go hunting and so large muscles are prized for throwing spears and running fast, whilst woman are considered more beautiful if they have skinny arms and legs. The loin cloth is drawn as if the body did have an outer shape, making it look very strange beneath the single line of the backbone. Due to thorns and snags in the forest, the loin cloth (and clothes, when they are worn) fit rather tightly. Hands are drawn as 4 plump sausages for fingers, with the palm not being drawn, and the thumb being usually 2x the size, due to its importance, and usually bent. Feet are drawn as 5 plump sausages for toes, with the actual feet not being drawn. If you read this far, then thank you! please tell me what you think it!

[@NakariSpeardane]

Oh wow, I absolutely love this! So many neat little details, like how the hair is drawn in a different perspective from the rest of the body (this seems especially realistic), and how the spine is considered more important to depict than the outline of the torso. And the idea of children's drawings being used like signposts is adorable. I wonder what would happen if the Aikin children and the children of neighbouring tribes got together, and how they'd influence each other's art :o

[@jankima8646]

@@NakariSpeardane Thank you! In truth, I thought of about half of what I said whilst I was writing this! My plan for this worldbuilding proyect is to evolve it once I have made a start I am pleased with, so I'm sure the art will change. I'll let you know!

[@HlootooThunderhammer]

@@NakariSpeardane Holy frick please link an example! love the detail you put into this!

[@RisingRose]

ooo this is so cool!!

[@vanivanov9571]

This makes me wonder how elven children would draw.

[@reallycool]

This is a good video, I really enjoyed it.

[@gal749]

Time to go analyse my old drawings

[@vipza72130]

This wholesomely mindblowing ! Truly a great videos ^^

[@bazoo513]

But your channel avatar still has a cute little dot nose :o) This was fascinating.

[@bijtmntongaf]

thank fucking god ewa linked this channel this is soooooooooo good..... love your channel sooooo much :D

[@davi4306]

Wow. This video got me emotional

[@BrimaBelise]

Fascinating! You need more views really

[@skyhornet8677]

I hope your channel explodes. Excellent video!

[@voidify3]

Nitpick- Māori is not pronounced “mayori”- the “mao” part is actually closer to the vowel sound in “cow” (well that’s the closest English approximation, there’s proper IPA on Wikipedia but only linguistics nerds know how to read that)

[@voidify3]

Oh someone already commented about this