Child universe autonomy versus child autonomy: the children's agency in the Capuxu peasant context

Abstract

This article starts at a debate about children’s universe autonomy versus children’s autonomy to analyze the case of the Capuxu children and their agency. The Capuxu people are a peasant group whose ethnicity is defined by a strong sense of belonging as well as by some diacritical signals. Among the enunciating aspects of the Capuxu identity, three major systems stand out: kinship, naming and godparenting, which are strongly modified by children’s actions. The system of proper names designates names in childhood which are replaced by the nicknames attributed by children among themselves. These nicknames are used for lifetime and become the formal designations of their bearers. Although the godparenting system assigns to children godparents chosen by their parents, children participate in alternative godparenting rituals by replacing their formal godparents by those they have chosen, circumventing the Capuxu godfathering system. On the other hand, the endogamous system of kinship, with a preference for unions between cousins, delimits the possible spouses for children, but this system entirely depends on the relationships these children will develop with their potential spouses. This is the way this article uses to reveal how the Capuxu children change systems built by adults, imprinting their autonomy.