Age Class Systems: Social Institutions and Polities Based on Age (Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology, Series Number 57) (Volume 0)

Bernardi, Bernardo

ISBN 10: 0521314828 / ISBN 13: 9780521314824

Published by Cambridge University Press, 1985

About this Item

Seller Inventory # I-9780521314824

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Age Class Systems: Social Institutions and Polities Based on Age (Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology, Series Number 57) (Volume 0)
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication Date: 1985
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521314828
• ISBN 13: 9780521314824
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

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.

Book Description

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.