Age Sets

1. Age sets can be thought of as a group of people close in age who go through events together and become a very tight group. • Think about it like this, the people in your class room with you, except the teachers, are all pretty much the same age. Age Sets

2. So you are a group of same aged children, going through an event, school, and then one day you graduate. • Perhaps in a different culture you would consider people in your class to be part of your age set, a very important group.

3. Another example is among East African herders. • Sometimes here the boys go through a ceremony called the nitha together and become an age set called `rora` which can be translated into `junior elders`.

4. Their job is to help the age set that is older than them, the `bara` translated as `senior elders` keep their community safe and herd the animals. • If you lived here, boys might not be considered adults when they turned 18 but instead when their age set graduated from rorato bara. They might be as old as 30 before they can be adults.

5. Here is a picture and video of an age set being named. http://www.mursi.org/film-and-video/film-clips-and-video-footage/the-nitha

6. Sources • age set. (2008). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved November 22, 2008, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/8942/age-set • Stoodley, Bartlett H. (1957). Some Aspects of Tagalog Family Structure. American Anthropologist 59(2) 236-249. Pictures • http://www.mursi.org/ • http://www.culturalanthro08sam.blogspot.com/