ABSTRACT
Hazelrigg argues that beyond its use by individuals and groups to date events, a simple marker in the regulation of the process of living, age itself is of little importance. From the perspective of the individual, age classification introduces signposts which Hazelrigg describes as 'linking memory and anticipation, an iteratively remembered past and an iteratively expected future'. Hazelrigg comments: Chronological age is clearly associated with state-level societies. Age defined chronology becomes the basis for universalistic norms in regulating large populations. Age defines the responsibilities of citizenship. While historians had been using the concept of generation for some time, the sociological concept of cohort appears to have been introduced by Ryder in 1965; Cohort location then became established as a central variable in sociological analysis. Like gender and ethnicity, both age and life course are socially constructed. Most arguments have accepted the longevity of humans as given, and then asked what type of selective forces would result in the menopause.
