What does the following quote mean?
"...it is biologically natural that children should, in imagination, live through the life of remote savage ancestors"
What does that have anything childrens books?
2007-03-14 05:08:56 · 3 answers · asked by Anonymous in Education & Reference ➔ Quotations
I have to write an essay and i don't know what this means! :
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2007-03-14 11:46:39 · update #1
Difficult to say out of context but it sounds as if the quote is making the supposition that children in their imaginary games are responding to primitive urges such as defending territories and fighting for resources etc.
In any case it is badly phrased and obvious balderdash.
2007-03-14 05:19:54 · answer #1 · answered by Shona L 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I have to say. Whoever come up with the quote has to work on it a bit more. The sentence started now with a theory to elaborate, and then the word, "imagination" is thrown into the mix. The whole sentence is just not credible. Live "through" the life of "remote" "savage" ancestors? Remote? Savage? How remote is remote? Savage? Are we talking about pre-historical times? Without the background text, I can't really say anything for sure, but sure don't like the direction it is going. It definitely does not have much to to do childrens' books. So far, it sounds like some analysis of children behavior...
XR
2007-03-14 05:24:53 · answer #2 · answered by XReader 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Context is everything! Where did the phrase come from? Without knowing the source I can only hazard a wild guess.
It may be that the speaker is discussing the behavior of children, and saying that it is normal for them to exhibit aggressive behavior, because they are descended from "savage ancestors".
How does it relate to childrens books? Perhaps the speaker is saying that it is okay for authors to include aggressive actions in such books.
2007-03-14 05:57:49 · answer #3 · answered by BlueFeather 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋