For the middle of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th there is little information on Andean childhood. The image of childhood is mainly linked with Castilianization and evangelization measures. Children were considered in a double sense, on the one hand as a victim of sin as well as of devil rituals, e.g. the sacrifice of children, on the other hand as a potential factor for changing cultural habits to be loyal to the Spanish monarchy. Between these two aspects, there is information on Andean childhood that was less important for colonial policy, but very meaningful for the survival of the vernacular social group. In those years of social and political transition and transformation, different aspects of precolonial times adapted to new trends. Others were the latent substrate. Based on information from vocabularies and chronicles of this epoch, I explore in this paper this substrate about children, its characteristics, relations and functions that coexist with the official norm.

?Cuales son los limites de la infancia? ?Donde empieza y donde termina? ?Sucede al mismo tiempo para hombres y mujeres? ?Que impacto tienen los procesos fisiologicos? ?Que impacto las instituciones sociales como la escuela? Estas preguntas, familiares para muchos investigadores de la infancia desde la perspectiva de su construccion cultural, emergieron nuevamente en el curso de una investigacion sobre la menarquia en cuatro regiones del Peru. Este articulo se concentra en una de ellas, la region Ucayali, donde se recupera investigacion que la autora realizo en anos previos en diversas comunidades, a la luz de un trabajo mas reciente, a fin de examinar las caracteristicas de la infancia en el pueblo shipibo, con particular atencion a las ninas, y como un proceso biologico como la menstruacion involucra representaciones y acciones sociales, refleja las normas de genero del grupo, experimenta cambios en su tratamiento, afecta y es afectado por la presencia de la escuela y configura oportunidades desiguales en las trayectorias y experiencias escolares de las ninas. Los resultados apuntan a un imaginario en el que la maduracion sexual de las ninas y su posibilidad de ser madres marcaria el fin de la infancia, inaugurando un periodo de peligro y necesidad de mayor control, que no se verifica para los varones del mismo grupo etario. Siendo ademas un proceso tan definitorio, se encuentra una palpable falta de informacion con respecto al mismo entre las propias ninas, y se identifican vacios y silencios en la escuela que contribuyen a reproducir esta falta de informacion. Asimismo, el temor y la verguenza, alimentados por la falta de informacion, generan inasistencia o una participacion restringida en el espacio escolar que afectaria negativamente sus aprendizajes y experiencias escolares, reproduciendo y reforzando las desigualdades de genero desde la infancia.

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