From generation to generation: age groups and social structure

The purpose of this book is to analyze the various social phenomena known as age groups, youth movements, etc., and to ascertain whether it is possible to specify the social conditions under which they arise or the types of societies in which they occur. It is the main thesis of this book that the existence of these groups is not fortuitous or random, and that they arise and exist only under very specific social conditions. We have also attempted to show that the analysis of these con ditions is not only of purely antiquarian or ethnological interest, but that it can also shed light on the understanding of the con ditions of stability and continuity of social systems.

The problem of age groups has been in the forefront of what may be called the comparative study of institutions from the beginning of scientific anthropology. Schürtz's classic essay on "Altersklassen und Männerbünde" attempted to show the im portance of these groups in the general evolutionary develop ment of human society. With the decline of evolutionary schemes the theme was taken up on a comparative ethnographic basis by R. Lowie in his various analyses, summed up in Primitive So ciety. Since then interest in the problem has abated somewhat, although the problem of youth movements, youth cultures, etc., has quite often been discussed in sociological literature. It is our hope that this book may renew this interest to some extent, and show the importance of the subject for a comparative analysis of social structures.