In anthropology, an age set is a social category or corporate social group, consisting of people of similar age, who have a common identity, maintain close ties over a prolonged period, and together pass through a series of age-related statuses. This is in contrast to an age grade, through which people pass individually over time. Anthropology (from the Greek word άνθρωπος = human) consists of the study of humankind (see genus Homo). ... In sociology, a group is usually defined as a collection consisting of a number of people who share certain aspects, interact with one another, accept rights and obligations as members of the group and share a common identity. ...

While a year group or class in a school could be regarded as a simple example of an age set (e.g. 'Class of 2004'), the term is most commonly used to refer to systems in tribal societies. The phenomenon is most prevalent in East Africa, central Brazil and parts of New Guinea, where in many societies the importance of social groupings based on age eclipses that of social groupings based on kinship and descent. Age sets in these societies are formed by the periodic grouping together of young people—usually men—into a corporate unit with a name and a collective identity. As its members age the set stays together and increases in seniority as older sets die off and new ones are formed beneath it. A school is most commonly a place designated for learning. ... This article is on the social structure. ... A society is a group of people living or working together. ... East Africa is a region generally considered to include: Djibouti Eritrea Ethiopia Kenya Somalia Tanzania Uganda [[Image:Example. ... Kinship and descent is one of the major concepts of cultural anthropology. ...

Age sets and the systems within which they exist can be regarded as either cyclical or progressive. In a cyclical system there is a finite number of sets and each recurs over the course of a few generations, with new membership. In progressive systems an age set appears once and when its members have died ceases to exist. It is often the case that cultures with either cyclical or progressive systems have equivalent ideas about cosmology and the nature of time. Cosmology is the study of the large-scale structure and history of the universe. ... 8:17 am, August 6, 1945, Japanese time. ...

A typical example

East African systems provide the classic examples, such as the Zulu impi system of fighting regiments based on age sets. Keesing (1981) gives the example of the Karimojong of Uganda, among whom around six age sets are active at any one time, with young adult men being initiated into the most junior, which is closed after five or six years, and a new one formally opened. As befits the complex nature of many East African systems, Karimojong age sets are themselves grouped into generation sets consisting of five consecutive age sets. There are four such generation sets in all; each permanently named and recurring cyclically roughly every century. At a given time, two of the generation sets will be active: one junior and one senior. Generation sets are paired in alternate fashion, with two whose members wear brass ornaments and are symbolically regarded as yellow, alternating with two whose members wear copper ornaments and are symbolically regarded as red. The names of individual age sets are chosen from a stock associated with each pair of generation sets, but do not have a fixed sequence. The Zulu are an African ethnic group of about 11 million people who live mainly in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. ... An Impi was a Zulu warband. ... A regiment is a military unit, larger than a company and smaller than a division. ... Professor Roger Martin Keesing (16 May 1935 – 7 May 1993) was a linguist and anthropologist, noted for his fieldwork on the Kwaio people of Malaita in the Solomon Islands, and his writings on a wide range of topics including kinship, religion, politics, history, cognitive anthropology and language. ... Initiation rites are formalized, ceremonial rites of passage as an individual moves from stage to stage within a social career or formally acquires such status. ... Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc. ... General Name, Symbol, Number copper, Cu, 29 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11 , 4, d Density, Hardness 8920 kg/m3, 3. ...

When most members of a generation set have died off, its surviving age sets are retired and the junior generation set becomes senior. At this point, new initiates become the first members of the next generation set in the sequence. The senior generation set is responsible for initiating new members into the most junior age set of the junior generation set, and each age set is formally subordinate to the one above it. While members of an age set live with their immediate families and local kin groups, and age sets are not tightly organised internally, they serve to apportion roles and status in wider social situations, with senior age sets having a judicial function, for example.

References

• Keesing, R. M. 1981. Cultural Anthropology: A Contemporary Perspective (2nd ed.). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. ISBN 0-03-046296-7.
• Keesing cites Dyson-Hudson (1963) as his source for the Karimojong example, but no full reference is given.