ABSTRACT
In this chapter we shall describe some typical age group systems of various societies. Hitherto we have been discussing age groups in general without calling attention to differences between them. We discussed them also in the abstract, without describing them concretely in any detail. In this chapter we shall give rather detailed descriptions of various types of age groups, using in so far as possible the original descriptive material of ethnographers, historians and modern sociologists, with only slight changes and paraphrasing. We shall not describe and enumerate here all the societies in which age groups are found. We shall rather describe some age group systems which seem to be most representative of a much wider range. In each case we shall also indicate briefly in which societies we find similar organization and characteristics of age groups. All the age groups dealt with here will represent, on the whole, the main types of age groups known to exist in various societies. We shall not give here detailed analysis of the societies in which these age groups are found, but shall dwell only on the internal organization of the age groups.
