Social and philosophical analysis of childhood in his retrospective dynamics encompasses two fundamental social and philosophical issues — the formation of the individual and the family. The article highlights the results of a study of the phenomenon of childhood using genealogical, psychoanalytic and civilizational approaches. Social and philosophical aspect of the analytics of childhood is presented in the context of social and philosophical understanding of nature: the relations between the elements of nature and the attributes of childhood, the relations between nature and a primitive man that are contained in primitive art as in imitation of nature and as the manifestation of the qualities of childhood are considered in the article. The value of archaic myths and structures of the human psyche in the understanding of the phenomenon of childhood as a distinct set of social and psychological characteristics is examined. And the universal essence of the phenomenon of childhood, which is expressed in the unity and diversity of the characteristics of the child as a primary integrity of organic and social is detected.