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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.
697:. 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 it ceases to exist. It is often the case that cultures with either cyclical or progressive systems have equivalent ideas about
686:. 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.
747:
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
759:
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
742:
into the most junior, which is closed after fifty or sixty years, and a new one formally opened. As befits the complex nature of many East
African systems, Karimojong age sets are themselves grouped into
652:, 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
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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.
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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
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682:, where in many societies the importance of social groupings based on age eclipses that of social groupings based on
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are also another good example of a society whose social organization resolves around age sets.
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ornaments and are symbolically regarded as yellow, alternating with two whose members wear
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738:, among whom around six age sets are active at any one time, with young adult men being
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Age sets and the systems within which they exist can be regarded as either
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South-East
African systems provide the classic examples, such as the
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Dyson-Hudson, Neville. 1963. "The
Karimojong Age System."
656:, through which people pass individually over time.
808:(2nd ed.). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
806:Cultural Anthropology: A Contemporary Perspective
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617:
624:
610:
552:Network Analysis and Ethnographic Problems
16:Social category or corporate social group
572:Political and Legal Anthropology Review
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670:. The phenomenon is most prevalent in
228:Societies without hierarchical leaders
846:Anthropological categories of peoples
708:
13:
14:
862:
659:While a year group or class in a
546:Political economy in anthropology
730:(1981) gives the example of the
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408:Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges
1:
791:
579:Journal of Legal Anthropology
247:The Art of Not Being Governed
7:
774:
10:
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585:Journal of Law and Society
305:Colonialism and resistance
259:Non-western state systems
235:African Political Systems
284:and the State in Africa
526:Circumscription theory
313:Europe and the People
282:Technology, Tradition,
804:Keesing, R. M. 1981.
600:cultural anthropology
388:E. E. Evans-Pritchard
241:Papuan Big man system
393:Wolfgang Fikentscher
368:Henri J. M. Claessen
123:Pantribal sodalities
748:whose members wear
724:based on age sets.
720:system of fighting
684:kinship and descent
536:Left–right paradigm
701:and the nature of
531:Legal anthropology
433:Thomas Blom Hansen
363:Robert L. Carneiro
152:Segmentary lineage
89:Leveling mechanism
39:legal anthropology
709:A typical example
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358:Jeremy Boissevain
343:Georges Balandier
338:E. Adamson Hoebel
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520:Related articles
503:Douglas R. White
493:Jonathan Spencer
473:Marshall Sahlins
463:Sally Falk Moore
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541:State formation
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498:Bjorn Thomassen
453:Elizabeth Mertz
438:Ted C. Lewellen
383:Pierre Clastres
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332:Major theorists
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315:Without History
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133:Paramount chief
65:Achieved status
60:Ascribed status
52:Status and rank
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769:Gadaa System
765:Oromo people
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650:social group
641:
638:anthropology
635:
584:
577:
570:
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458:Sidney Mintz
448:Ralph Linton
443:Edmund Leach
403:Morton Fried
398:Meyer Fortes
348:F. G. Bailey
280:
245:
233:
218:Case studies
177:Ethnic group
147:Band society
83:
22:
829:2: 353-401.
695:progressive
672:East Africa
428:Ulf Hannerz
423:Lesley Gill
840:Categories
792:References
781:Generation
767:and their
732:Karimojong
680:New Guinea
674:, central
320:Cargo cult
223:Acephelous
113:Matriarchy
108:Patriarchy
95:Leadership
827:Ethnology
740:initiated
722:regiments
699:cosmology
668:societies
654:age grade
508:Eric Wolf
80:Age grade
34:Political
775:See also
691:cyclical
565:Journals
162:Chiefdom
139:Polities
25:a series
23:Part of
728:Keesing
642:age set
270:Mandala
103:Big man
84:Age set
812:
786:Coeval
754:copper
736:Uganda
676:Brazil
665:tribal
661:school
596:Social
265:Negara
750:brass
644:is a
640:, an
254:State
157:Tribe
128:Chief
118:Elder
75:Caste
810:ISBN
763:The
718:impi
715:Zulu
703:time
598:and
299:Kapu
734:of
693:or
636:In
36:and
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27:on
816:.
625:e
618:t
611:v
82:/
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