ABSTRACT

Rojek and Jensen (1982, 25) noted that the division of the human life cycle by age into childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, middle-age adulthood, and old age is a relatively recent phenomenon that developed in the latter part of the 19th century. Up until that time, children, with the exception of the children of the nobility who might someday inherit property or wealth, were treated as property. ­ey had no rights except those they received through being members of a family.