Age Class Systems: Social Institutions and Polities Based on Age

by Bernardo Bernardi, David I. Kertzer (Translator)

Overview

All societies are differentiated by age. But in some, this differentiation takes the form of institutionalized, formally graded age classes, the members of which share an assigned 'structural' age, if not necessarily the same physiological age. The nature of formal age group systems has become one of the classic issues in modern social anthropology, although until now there has been no comprehensive explication of these complex forms of social organization. In this book, Bernardo Bernardi, one of the pioneers of the anthropological study of age class systems, provides a way of making sense of the diversity of such systems by analysing cross-culturally their common features and the pattern of their differences, and showing that they serve a general purpose for the organization of society and for the distribution and rotation of power.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521314824
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/27/1985
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology , #57
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 8.98(h) x 0.51(d)

Table of Contents

Translator's preface; Preface; 1. Characteristics of age class systems; 2. The anthropological study of age class systems; 3. Legitimation and power in age class systems; 4. The choice of ethnographic models; 5. The initiation model; 6. The initiation-transition model; 7. The generational model; 8. The residential model; 9. The regimental model; 10. The choreographic model; 11. Women and age class systems; 12. The ethnemic significance of the age class system; 13. History and changes in age class systems; Glossary; References; Index.