Auf der Suche nach einer verlorenen Zeit? – Visuelle Perspektiven der Kindheit in Mittelasien vor 1917

Abstract

Abstract The following article argues that vintage postcard photographies from Russian Central Asia before 1917 could be read as “conventional” historical sources. The way that provides access to their historical contents beyond the photographers’ intentions and no matter how staged the photographies were could be the praxeology, i. e. the conception that vintage postcards images are a manifestation of both local and central social practices in the Central Asian region under Russian rule. Using the example of the debate on childhood in traditional society initiated by French historian Philippe Ariès in his book The Child and Family Life in the Old Régime (1960) the author discusses theoretical and methodological approaches to his topic based on the praxeology.