The emergence of the child subject in the Qajar era: An introduction to materiality of the history of ideas in contemporary Iran

The present article studies the emergence of the child subject in the Qajar period and theoretically it is based on an interdisciplinary approach to technological studies. With regard to collecting first-hand data, we used the "index paradigm" or "thinking with cases" technique (scrutiny of extra-textual details) whereas for the data analysis, we applied the "thinking the way of thinking" technique (metaphorical analysis). The article is based on the fact that photography technology during the Qajar had been used as a cognitive model to describe the child and how he acquires the knowledge. The child is understood as a flexible and receptive category that records or captures their own perceptions (sensations) and hearings (movements). Seeing the child is passive and hence supervised object, and power (in the sense of fertility and the productivity of subjects) is exercised through photographic epistemology. Supervision means taking care of and controlling everything in the presence of the child; because the presence or "being in front of something" has found a theoretical meaning for children, that is, "impressionability" or imagery. The child records everything before him, like an automatic camera. The article traces the exercise of power through photographic epistemology in places where children are present (home, alleys, library and schools).