The construction of childhood in Guapi: Child development and Agency from a cultural

This article aims to characterize how the children of Guapi appropriate cultural offerings and become agents of possibilities for the construction of their de-velopment. Information is collected about some forms of studying and perceiving childhood throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, evidencing that new pers-pectives have emerged around childhood, which consider culture as a transversal axis in the lives of children. The information was gathered through ob-servations, interviews and daily conversations with children and adults whose occupation was directly related to children in the municipality of Guapi, Cau-ca. The data was analyzed in the light of theoretical approaches to childhood anthropology and cultural developmental psychology, such as child agency, guided participation, and socio-cultural construction of childhood. The results of this research allow us to approach the recognition of children as main social actors of their experience, and adults-in their role as cultural agents-as facilitators and promoters of auto-nomous child development.