age‐set theory and Plains Indian age‐grading: a critical review and revision

Abstract

This paper critiques Diffusionist, Functionalist, Acculturation and Holocultural theories bearing on the evolution and spread of age‐societies among Northern Plains Indians. It is suggested that such studies have advanced our knowledge of the form, content, and function of age‐set organization, but they remain insufficient to account for the reasons that age‐set organization developed in these tribes in contrast to coordinate societies. A revised theory is advanced, which correlates the presence of age‐sets with low horsewealth and demographic‐territorial stability among historic Plains tribes. Age‐set organization developed in, or diffused to, politically decentralized, pedestrian tribes that were engaged in frequent warfare and exhibited relative demographic‐territorial stability. [age‐set theory, Plains Indians, horsewealth, demographic‐territorial stability]

Hierarchy, symmetry, and the xavante spiritual life cycle

“…Some scholars argue that they serve as alternate forms of political integration in societies that lack centralized authority while others propose that they provide a standard mode of military recruitment between otherwise unrelated societies (Bernardi, 1952;Eisenstadt, 1954;Hanson, 1988;LeVine;Sangree, 1962). Based on a global cross-cultural examination of age-group organization, Ritter (1980) concluded that age-group organization serves to integrate men in societies that face constant warfare and in which local group composition fl uctuates due to ecological conditions.…”

Age-graded Sexualities: The Struggles of Our Ageing Body

“…This presupposes the existence of age-related norms and status that are systematically tied to bodily ageing, thus, as this has an influence on behaviours, expectations and values, age-grading has a strong importance on social time, which emphasizes ageing as a social dimension rather than a mere biological condition. Age-grading operates forms of regulating relationships; there are societies where age systems regulate their individuals' idiosyncrasies in which age can be measured by social/biological maturation, or by the calendar or some other devices, such as periodic flowering (Dickerson-Putman and Brown 1994;Hanson 1988;Prins 1953). This perspective tends to blur the relevance of age-grading in modern societies, but becoming male or female is directly related to age-grading.…”

Cahokia: a World Renewal Cult Heterarchy, by A. Martin Byers, 2006. Gainesville (FL): University Press of Florida; ISBN-13 978-081302958-0 hardback, £46.50 & US$69.95; xiv+600 pp., 53 figs., 24 tables

“…The age-grade sodalities Byers proposes are explicitly modelled on Nyakyusa age-grade villages in East Africa. Other than his reliance on Monica Wilson's (1951) Nyakyusa ethnography, Byers does not refer to literature on age-grades, such as Stewart (1977) or Hanson (1988). In North America, age-grades were present historically only among five groups in the Plains (Arapaho, Mandan, Hidatsa, Blackfoot, and Atsina).…”