Connection Between Conflicts Involving Child Soldiers and Anthropology, Psychology, and Sociology

Introduction

Thousands of children under the age of eighteen are serving as soldiers in armed conflicts around the globe, some as young as eight years old. These boys and girls are forced to serve in the army by fighting on the front lines, partaking in suicide missions. They are also used as spies, messengers, or lookouts. The act of recruiting child soldiers remains to be a very relevant political issue and continues to disgust families and governments around the world. These child soldiers are used as pawns to kill and commit acts of violence.

If being reaped from their family and home isn’t enough, child soldiers are un-ethically and illegally used as weapons of war, meat shields, or even objects for their “superiors” to commit sexual acts upon. This is happening in many countries around the world such as Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Congo, Iraq, Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia, and many more. A common misconception is that all child soldiers are African – not the case. Since 2000, most armed conflicts around the world involve child soldiers (an estimated 250,000 child soldiers globally) (Human Rights Watch, 2016). Child soldiers have an unseen connection to Anthropology, Psychology, and Sociology.

Anthropology

Intro

Anthropology is defined as a field of study that covers humans and human behavior and societies in the past and present. Social anthropology and cultural anthropology study the norms and values of societies. Linguistic anthropology studies how language affects social life (Wikipedia, 2000). Child soldiers directly relate to several branches of anthropology, such as the unique rites of passage, an isolated subculture, and the sub-culture constructed around child soldiers.

Rites of Passage

A rite of passage marks an important event in one’s life, like birth, puberty, marriage, or death (Dictionary), however in a child soldier’s life it is the coercion and intimidation of child soldiers to participate in violence. The rites of passage vary based on geographical location. Several different countries including Angola, Burma, Columbia, Liberia, Nepal, Sierra Leone, and Uganda have their own different ways of assimilating child soldiers into their movement. Common ground across all seven of these countries include the general mistreatment of their soldiers. In Angola, child soldiers faced harsh penalties for attempted escape.

To deter desertion, commanders forced child recruits to watch and participate in the execution of the escapees. Another example of a rite of passage in the grim world of child soldiers is in Columbia, upon being reaped, they give you a gun and you have to kill the best friend you have. They do it to see if they can trust you. If you don’t kill him, they will kill you. Tests such as killing men, taking hard drugs, combat training, and more are common rites of passage into the life of a child soldier. These rites of passage can, in extreme cases, lead to death. If the child lives and is removed from the warzones, they are subjected to undergo the rites of passage back into childhood.

Subculture

Child soldiers can be seen as a viscous cult or subculture, within mainly Africa, sharing beliefs and interests except with that animal-like variation that the child soldiers are taught to have. This subculture we classify as child soldiers only continues to thrive because of the constant warzone raging between the government and rebels, based off of poverty. This “culture” is built around the fact that the general African culture has so many faults within the country itself.

Culturally Constructed

Child soldiers are also a spiraling loop because many commanders were once child soldiers themselves, and were brought up in a life that was so desensitizing that they didn’t see the issue with recruitment, and continued to build on their commanders’ legacy. This creates a roaring subculture that continues to thrive in many parts of the world. The act of recruiting child soldiers is culturally constructed by the first ones to do it, and created such a system that they knew it would be consistent and never ending. This is due to how the children are constructed and brought up by commanders, who hope to find a kid who can replace them one day. This is the effect of the mastermind who built this culture, and constructed it so that child recruitment is passed on from generation to generation.

Sociology

Intro

Sociology is the ongoing study of development, structure, and functioning of human society (Dictionary). From a sociological standpoint, child soldiers are heavily impacted by their unique set of agents of socialization, and have a critical role to play in how these children develop socially. Sociology can also tell the story of a child soldier from a whole new perspective when looking at their isolation from their parents, as well as the resocialization process when child soldiers are rescued because of how affected they’re social norms become.

Agents of Socialization

During childhood, this is predominantly where majority of one’s social skills are developed. Common factors that are imperative to a child’s social development include; family, school, peers, mass media, religion, and workplace. A child soldier only gets three of these things; peers, religion and workplace. However, none of these have a positive impact on the children’s development. They are stripped from their family and school, as well as very little if not any media exposure. The only peers they have are other child recruits that either have blood lust, or are so scared they can’t bear the thought of what they have been forced into doing (not the greatest peers). Furthermore, their religion and workplace consist of killing, raping, and looting innocent villages for the “cause”, and also a whole lot of drugs, violence, and swearing. The agents of socialization for a child soldier are not very complimenting.

Isolation

Child soldiers are not brought up in complete isolation like some of the extreme cases such as Oxana Malaya or Genie Wiley, however they are the next closest thing. Child soldiers are isolated from friends, family, and all the agents of socialization they are entitled to. Child soldiers can be disregarded and casted away by commanders and peers within the army, this can leave them feeling isolated and lonely, desensitizing them to the war around them. This is why isolation is dangerous, especially for the world’s youth.

Resocialization

The resocialization of child soldiers can be difficult. These kids have seen so much, done so much, and have been victim to so much. Reintegration efforts seek to return the child to a safe environment, often trying to create a sense of forgiveness of behalf of the child’s family and community. Some of these kids come back so brainwashed they come back with a new identity, like a new name like “striker” and new morals. The resocialization process is even more difficult because of the stigma that children who belonged to armed groups are immoral, dangerous, or untrustworthy therefore many individuals are rejected by the community. Female child soldiers have it even worse. Female child soldiers report higher rates of rape and sexual abuse. They often face worse stigmatisation on their return because they are considered tainted before marriage. This is why the culture of Africa and subculture of child soldiers do not coincide nicely.

Psychology

Intro

Psychology is the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those affecting behavior in a given situation (Dictionary). Many children recruited into the child soldier scene become psychologically scarred and are left with serious mental health conditions such as major depression, PTSD, and anxiety. All are a result of traumatic events, and all need professional treatment that they might not have access to.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

PTSD is an anxiety disorder that can occur after a subject has lived through one, or a series of traumatic events. A traumatic even can be something dreadful and scary that might either be experienced or seen. It is possible for anyone who has seen or experienced a traumatic event to develop PTSD. Examples of traumatic exposure can go anywhere from a car crash, to sexual or physical assault, or child abuse, or primarily combat or military exposure. PTSD can affect these children to the point where it is hard to continue with your daily activities, or even to socialize with the ones who were once closest with you. This disorder elevates when not treated, and it rarely is in the case of rescued child soldiers looking to be rehabilitated.

Major Depression

Unhappiness or depression is a common mental disorder and end result for these kids. It is characterized by sadness, feelings of guilt or low self-worth, loss of interest or pleasure with everything you used to enjoy, disturbed appetite or sleep, and also lack of the ability to concentrate. Depression is a grave disorder and can substantially impair a person’s ability to function at work or school, or to cope with daily life. In extreme cases, depression may lead to suicide. In the graph to the right, it shows the statistics of child soldiers relating to trauma over the past 10 years. Being held witness to all these extreme crimes, you expect nothing less than trauma.

Anxiety Disorder

Anxiety disorder is another possible response to trauma (anxiety is a more broad topic, as opposed to PTSD which is a manifestation of the anxiety disorder). Anxiety can be developed as a result of exposure to more than one traumatic event, or an extended exposure to specific stimuluses where the child develops classical conditioning (type of learning where a once neutral stimulus comes to produce a particular response after pairing with a conditioned response). Anxiety is a natural human defense mechanism and is healthy to an extent to keep us safe. However, when it gets severe people can develop itself into several forms of disorders, and is a terrible way for someone to lead their lives. Many of the estimated 250,000 child soldiers globally suffer from these mental disorders and are not equipped with the ideal treatment care.

Conclusion

Generally, I believe that the recruitment of child soldiers is inevitable no matter what we try to do to inflict change. The number of children used in armed conflict around the world has more than doubled since 2012 with a 159% rise and almost 30,000 recruitment cases verified (child-soldiers.org, 2018). Not only is recruitment consistently inclining, girls’ exploitations rates are rising as well. I believe, based off of stats and facts, that child soldier recruitment will only continue to incline. Due to the constant population inflation and raging conflicts globally, child soldiers will continue to be reaped from their villages and families, and continue to be mistreated.

An essential law that must be bypassed and enforced globally, is setting 18 as the minimum age for recruitment. The only viable option is to respect all the children’s full range of economic and societal rights and reasonable alternatives to military recruitment are made available. A smart alternative, already put into play in Greece since 2009, all males are required to serve 9 months in the army. This would be a healthy alternative to prevent all the gruesome Anthropological, Societal, and Psychological issues that the child soldiers are guaranteed to experience. As promising as these solutions seem, child soldier recruitment is happening over such a vast area that it would be next to impossible to prevent. Ultimately, child soldiers have it very tough and continue to be recruited globally, along with the long term side effects it can cause to developing youth.