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Age set
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What is an age set in sociology?
In sociology, an age set is a formally organized group where every member is of similar age and gender. Common in tribal societies, individuals belong to a named age set from birth (or a determined age), progressing through stages or age grades, each with distinct roles.
Among the Nuer of South Sudan, male age sets create a social hierarchy, with equality within sets and deference between junior and senior ones. The Nandi of Kenya have seven male age sets with specific duties, such as military training for the young. North American Plains Indians tribes use ceremonial societies based on age grades for social stratification, especially where economic inequality is absent.
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How are people grouped into age sets?
An age set is a formally organized social group where every male or female of comparable age belongs. Individuals are assigned at birth or a determined age to a named age set, which progresses through stages, each with a distinct status or role.
For instance, among the Nuer of South Sudan, male age sets form a social hierarchy where members of the same set are equal, but junior sets defer to senior ones. These sets are created roughly every 10 years through initiation rites that mark the transition from boyhood to manhood. The Nandi of Kenya have seven male age sets: two of boys, one of warriors, and four of elders. The warrior set is in charge of warfare and tribal government for about 15 years before becoming one of the elder sets, and governance is handed to the next age set.
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What is the purpose of having age sets in a society?
Age sets are formally organized groups of people of similar age that exist in some societies. Individuals belong to a named age set from birth or a determined age, and the set passes through a series of stages or age grades, each with a distinct status or role.
Among the Nuer of South Sudan, male age sets create a system of social stratification. The Nandi of Kenya had seven male age sets with specific activities allocated to each set in each grade, such as military training for the young men.
In five of the Plains Indians tribes of North America, ceremonial societies were organized based on age, which provided a basis for social stratification.
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How do age sets affect social roles and responsibilities?
Age sets are formally organized groups of people of similar age that go through a series of stages that give them a distinctive status, social roles, and political roles.
Among the Nuer of South Sudan, male age sets create a system of social stratification in which members of the same age set are equals, while junior age sets defer to and are subordinate to senior age sets.
In other societies, age grades allocate specific activities to age sets. For example, the Nandi of Kenya had seven male age sets, including two of boys, one of warriors, and four of elders. The warrior set was in charge of warfare and tribal government for about 15 years, after which it became one of the sets of elders, and the government was handed over to the next age set below it.
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Can age sets change over time, and if so, how?
Yes, age sets can change over time, particularly in their social status and roles within a society.
In societies where age sets are formally organized, individuals belong to a named group based on their age, progressing through stages or age grades that have distinct social and political roles. The status of an age group is generally related to its effective influence and function in productivity within its society.
In industrialized nations, shifts in socioeconomic conditions and technology have altered the status of the elderly, potentially reducing their social standing compared to agrarian societies where their knowledge and experience are highly valued. Factors such as changing employment opportunities, the decline in self-employment, and the introduction of new technologies requiring specialized training contribute to this shift.
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How do age sets function in different cultures or societies around the world?
Age sets are formally organized groups of people of similar age that exist in various societies. These groups often consist of males or females who, from birth or a determined age, belong to a named age set that progresses through stages, each with a distinct status or role.
Among the Nuer of South Sudan, male age sets form a system of social stratification, with equality among members of the same set and deference between junior and senior sets. The Nandi of Kenya have seven male age sets, including sets for boys, warriors, and elders. The warrior set is responsible for warfare and tribal government for about 15 years before moving up to become elders.
In North America, five Plains Indians tribes (Blackfoot, Atsina, Arapaho, Mandan, Hidatsa) had ceremonial societies organized by age-grading. The prominence of age grading in these tribes may be due to the absence of division of labor or economic inequality.
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Age set, a formally organized group consisting of every male (or female) of comparable age. In those societies chiefly identified with the practice, a person belonged, either from birth or from a determined age, to a named age set that passed through a series of stages, each of which had a distinctive status or social and political role. Each stage is usually known as an age grade.
Among the Nuer of South Sudan, the age sets (formed among males only) constituted a system of social stratification in which there was equality among members of the same age set and deference and subordination between junior and senior age sets. The sets were formed at about 10-year intervals by initiation ceremonies that marked the passage from boyhood to manhood, and each individual remained for the rest of his life in the age set into which he had been initiated. The Nuer had no system of age grades apart from the original transition from boyhood to manhood, and there were no clearly defined activities assigned to each age set; a particular set advanced slowly to a position of acknowledged seniority as older sets died out.
In other tribal societies, age grades were found having a more specific allocation of activities to age sets in each grade; thus, the age-grade system might provide for the military training of the young and the organization of military expeditions. The Nandi of Kenya had seven male age sets—two of boys, one of warriors, and four of elders. The warrior set, which was responsible for warfare and for tribal government, retained its position for about 15 years, after which it moved up to become one of the sets of elders, and the government was handed over to the next age set below it.
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Among five of the Plains Indians tribes of North America (Blackfoot, Atsina [Gros Ventre], Arapaho, Mandan, Hidatsa), there were ceremonial societies organized on the age-grading principle. It has been suggested that the prominence of age grading in these tribes (contrasted with its absence among other Plains Indians) may be partly attributable to the absence of any extensive division of labour or economic inequality in these tribes. Whereas such tribes as the Crow had large numbers of horses (in a warring and buffalo-hunting culture that demanded horses) and made their possession the chief basis of individual wealth and social status, the five tribes were relatively poor in horses, and age grades provided the basis of social stratification.
This idea is useful in considering the differences between tribal societies and other forms of society, including modern societies. In the last-named—though age differences are recognized, particularly in youth movements and organizations—there is no formal and elaborate organization of the population in age sets and grades. It may thus be that social classification mainly in terms of gender and age belongs to an early period of social development, when obvious “natural” differences provide a means of differentiation, and that these factors lose their prominence with the more extensive division of labour and the growth of economic inequality.