Cornelius says:
>you mentioned the importance youth gained in modern society. In recent decades
>of 'youth culture' and 'teenager culture', full status of adulthood is not
>transferred until age 18 or even later. I wonder how significant youth
>actually
>was in pre-modern societies, and to what biological age it would refer. In
>ethnographic contexts, initiation rites which make children into adults (sic)
>often take place already at age 10-12. Where does that leave youth?
Well, okay, how do we define "youth"? Is it not by definition a period of
transition?
Its transitoriness does, at least, appear to be part of its attraction in
Greece, where paeans to young men with the first down sprouting on their
cheeks definitely include a suggestion of the awareness of passage of time
and loss of what we call "innocence." Which brings up the major topos of
dying young, which may perhaps be considered glamorized in grave reliefs
and poetry -- any connection to the current Kate Moss/heroin chic craze?
How much of a role does Death play in the cult of Youth?
But is all of this getting away from Steve's quest for youth as a sub-culture?
Cheers
Cze
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Constanze Witt, PhD
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Instructional Technology Specialist
UT Austin Classics Dept.
Waggener Hall 17, C3400
Austin TX 78712
(512) 471-8684, fax (512) 471-4111
http://www.utexas.edu/depts/classics/
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