This article presents an ethnographic study of how children in rural southern Mongolia became competent at pastoral and domestic chores in the years 2006 and 2008–2009. Previous research shows that children's spontaneous interest in learning to work in order to be helpful is cross‐culturally pervasive. Little attention has, however, been paid to the fluctuating nature of children's motivation. In this article, I argue that like learning, motivation needs to be “situated.” Following six children's trajectory of participation in work activities at different ages, we see that their involvement was paved by different injunctions from adults, who at times welcomed or required their participation, and at others challenged or rebuffed their involvement. I examine how these children responded to these different modalities of participation and how those shaped their learning practices and motivation to work. The study demonstrates the importance of disentangling children's motivation to learn and participate from children's motivation to work.

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Jouer à l’étiquette, apprendre le respect dans le Gobi Moyen contemporain (Mongolie).L’étiquette mongole (yos), héritée du mode de vie pastorale, est une « technologie morale » omniprésente qui ordonne les relations selon les valeurs de respect et de calme. À la fin des années 2000, les enfants du Gobi Moyen grandissent dans un contexte de changements économiques et sociaux qui remettent en question les régimes de valeur traditionnels. Ce texte examine dans quelle mesure, et comment, les enfants s’approprient l’étiquette en soulignant la façon particulière dont la yourte, en tant qu’« espace moral ordonné », joue un rôle important dans l’apprentissage de celle-ci. L’article vise à montrer que l’étiquette est renouvelée, mais qu’elle se reproduit, à chaque nouvelle génération, tout en restant le vecteur de valeurs intergénérationnelles partagées, notamment celles du respect et du calme.

As infants and toddlers, Mongolian children grow up as the centre of attention in their home, promptly taken care of and tenderly indulged. In this paper, I seek to explain why young children in the middle Gobi enjoy a privileged status, in contrast with their status as older children. I show how the physical, emotional and moral peculiarities of infants’ and toddlers’ personhood converge in conferring upon them ‘kingly’ prerogatives. I then examine what leads to their loss of privileges, as they grow older. Unlike most studies examining the changes of status that children undergo, I do not focus on rites de passage, but analyse daily interactions. The loss of young children’s privileges occurs according to different timelines for each aspect of their personhood, while the prerogatives enjoyed by young children also reoccur at different periods in life, thus inviting us to reconsider what is meant by infancy as a discrete stage.

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