["Sex-daring games": sexuality and gender socialization in the working-class children's universe].

This article focuses on the socialization of children and youth with respect to gender and sexuality, from a socio-anthropological perspective. The work is based on ethnographic research in a group of 5-14-year-old boys and girls in a community in Baia de Todos os Santos, Bahia, Brazil. Despite the strong influence of family and school in primary socialization, the children reproduced and re-elaborated norms and practices on appropriate gender and sexual conduct, especially among their peers, and primarily in the context of play. The research analyzes the children s representations and practices in this socializing process, showing how gender and sexuality are socially constructed according to the contexts in which the different social interactions take place.