This article presents the results of a study whose objective was to identify forms, meanings and modes of transmission of cultural and social body-related elements among young children in a context of early childhood education. The study group consisted of 2-3-year old girls and boys in a full-time public school situated in an urban area. From information given by the children themselves, the gender category was highlighted as central and constitutive of their relations and interactions. For an analysis of variations within the same genre, the focus was directed to the boys, trying to observe how close or how far their behavior is from the expected behavior of being a boy in that context. The text also examines the boundaries between the genres, without losing sight that the separations are not fixed, nor are given a priori, but are elaborated in cultural practices.
early childhood education; gender relations; child-child relationship; sex differences