Play cultures, social worlds and youth in familial settings, 1700-1904

Debates on youth culture have frequently focused on rituals of misrule, gangs, the music industry, and other activities and institutions external to the home and family. Yet from 1700 to 1900, many young people developed play cultures within domestic and familial settings. This chapter focuses on outdoor play, imaginative play, and young people's writing and dramatic performances from 1700-1900. While the activities of girls and young women have received far less attention than those of males, recent research reflects a rich social world of activities generated by young people on the threshold of adulthood in all social classes, which was shared with siblings and friends, male as well as female. As mainly self-generated and distinct from adult worlds, these activities are as worthy of the definition "youth culture" as twentieth-century developments which were strongly influenced by adult celebrities, the mass media and commercial interests. Although this essay argues that, for all the idealistic visions of play as a youth-generated activity, the intervention of adults was necessary for such play cultures to develop, it casts new light on the definition of "youth culture," and on the transition to adulthood