Tamagotchi in the Kindergarten

From Japanese toy markets to children’s discourse communities

Authors

• Minna Ruckenstein University of Helsinki https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7600-1419

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30676/jfas.v33i2.116441

Abstract

The study of processes of consumption, of engagements with toys, media and technology, is an emerging research agenda for the anthropology of children and childhood (Schwartzman 2001: 10). The interest in the topic reflects the growing economical potential of the so-called ‘kids market’ (McNeal 1997); it seems that in the wealthier parts of the world “[t]o be a child is to be a consumer within a very specific market” (Langer 2004: 255). Consumption appears to have become a necessary and indispensable context in which children develop, but it is not sufficient in itself. From the perspective of anthropology, it is thus important to study how exactly children construct their social belongings and understandings when much of their material world is commercially branded. Detailed ethnographic analysis can demonstrate how commercially imposed meaning blends with children’s everyday talk and practice, possibly supporting current forms of consumer capitalism and its globalizing hegemony (Cook 2004: 151).