Talking Like Children is a series of captivating stories that show how age comes to be. Elise Berman analyzes adoption negotiations, efforts to keep food, and debates about supposed child abuse. In these situations, age differences emerge through the decisions people make, the emotions they feel, and the power they gain.

• Acknowledgements


• List of Figures and Tables


• Note on Marshallese Language and Orthography




• Introduction: Becoming different


• Chapter 1: "Give Me My Child": An ethnographic introduction to the power of age in Marshallese social life


• Chapter 2: What is Age and Where Does It Come From? A theoretical analysis of age and language socialization


• Chapter 3: On the Road: How to get out of giving to adults


• Chapter 4: "Give Me My Food": How to avoid giving to another child and produce relative age


• Chapter 5: Aged Agency: What children can do that adults cannot (and vice versa)


• Chapter 6: Socializing Age Differences


• Conclusion: Toward an Anthropology of Age


• Appendix: Transcripts


• Notes


• References


• Index

Elise Berman is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She has spent more than two years living, teaching, and conducting research in the Marshall Islands, and earned her PhD in the department of Comparative Human Development at the University of Chicago. She has published in American Anthropologist, Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, Childhood, and Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. She is currently working on a project on language, race, and education in the Marshallese diaspora.