Page 166 - Berkshire Encyclopedia Of World History Vol I - Abraham to Coal

age stratification 51

In many societies,
young men and
women undergo a
ritual when they
move from one age
status to another.
This drawing shows
a young Tohono
O’odham (Papago)
man in Arizona
fasting in the desert
as part of the ritual
initiation into
adulthood.

For most of human history
and for small-scale cultures,
age was an important principle
of social organization, but time
was not as important as it is in
industrialized societies today.
People became old, for exam-
ple, not because they turned
sixty-five but rather because
their abilities to function were
diminished. In preindustrial
descent through either the maternal or paternal line Europe historical accounts suggest that most people
only) kinship systems, which create age-based groupings, “stepped down” from work in a gradual manner, but at
have been common.Anthropologists have suggested that some peasant family dinners the family members
in Latin America and Africa, the relationship between age requested that the head of the family “rest” and let the old-
and kinship often functions to decrease conflict either by est son take over the leadership of the farm.
separating groups or binding them. Age stratification is In industrialized society age stratification is influenced
also interwoven with class stratification and may serve as by the social policies of the state, for example, in setting
the basis for power and privilege. During the 1860s in minimum ages for work, driving, or mandatory retire-
Italy, for example, the annual household tax register ment. Major stages of the life cycle include childhood,
shows that for the property-owning classes, adulthood adolescence, adulthood, and retirement.At each of these
was divided into two groups: younger than twenty-one stages the modern state regulates work and family issues.
and older than twenty-one. Three groups existed for Age determines when people go to school, serve in the
peasants: younger than eighteen, eighteen to fifty-nine, military, vote, and are eligible for retirement benefits.
and older than sixty. The social meaning of these dis- Increasing involvement of the state in the life cycle of peo-
tinctions was that when property-owning males turned ple may suggest that age is increasing in importance as a
twenty-one, they could take responsibility for their hold- principle of social organization in Western industrialized
ings. Peasants became adults at eighteen, when they societies.
were able to begin manual labor, and gave up this status
Sally Bowman
when manual labor became more difficult.Women were
not divided by age at all. See also Childhood; Adolescence