Age grades were the ritually marked life stages (such as junior, elder, and senior elder) through which groups of people of a similar age range (called age sets) moved together. In many regions of Africa, especially among pastoralists in East Africa, age grades were a key principle of social organization, clearly defining a person's rights, responsibilities, and relationships with other people. Although age grades were primarily male institutions, sparse evidence suggests the existence of female age grades among some groups before colonialism. Women were, however, central to the practices and rites that constituted age grades in many societies.
Age Grades and the Life Course.
The recruitment of age sets and the promotion of members up the ladder of age grades followed a common pattern. Within a certain “open” period that was usually several years long, boys deemed mature enough—often between twelve and twenty years old—participated in initiation rituals at their homesteads that transformed them into “junior men.” Many of these rituals included forms of hazing (such as being taunted with abusive songs), circumcision, feats of bravery, dances, feasts, and a liminal period of healing. Once the initiation period had been closed to new participants, junior men from the same area assembled for a collective ritual in which they were blessed and named by a selected group of elder men. The same unique age-set name was given to all junior men in a society, with some regional variations. Approximately fifteen years later these men came together for another collective ritual that marked their promotion to the age grade of “elders,” and another group of boys began the process of forming a new age set of junior men. Thus, as each age set was promoted to a more senior age grade, all the age sets switched age grades accordingly, so that elders became “senior elders” and eventually “venerable elders.”
Each age grade was associated with specific rights, responsibilities, and restrictions that shaped relationships among men and between men and women. These often included rules concerning food (for example, junior men were prohibited from eating alone or in front of women), sexual and marital relations (delaying marriage until junior men became elders or forbidding men of a certain age set from having sexual relations with their classificatory daughters, that is, the daughters of their fellow age-set members), respect behaviors (for example, the protocol for who greeted whom, and how), responsibilities for livestock (junior men guarded the herds from raiders and predators; elder men decided where to graze and water animals), and conflict resolution (perhaps the responsibility of senior elders). To facilitate easy recognition of a man's age grade, each grade was signified by distinct forms of dress, ornamentation, and weaponry (spears, swords, knives, and clubs).
Women and Age Grades.
Although differences in women's age status were recognized in these societies, they were not marked by collective rituals or unique names. Instead, many aspects of women's lives were determined by their association—as daughters, wives, or mothers—with men of particular age sets. In addition to determining the appropriate practices and interactions, such as those described above, between different categories of women and different age grades of men, male age grades were a source of power and pleasure to many women. As young girls they danced, sang, and flirted with junior men. As wives some risked the anger of their husbands (who were often much older) to become the lovers of junior men. As mothers their status increased with each age-grade promotion of their sons, beginning with the boys’ initiation into the age grade of junior men. Women young and old made beaded jewelry and other ornaments for men and themselves to symbolize these diverse relationships. Finally, as mothers and wives women were often key participants in age-grade rituals. Among Maasai, for example, the peak moment of the Eunoto ceremony occurred when a mother shaved her son's long hair to ritually transform him from a junior man into an elder. Sometime afterward, men drank milk alone in front of their wives to signal the transfer of their primary commitments from their age set to their households.
Past and Present.
Documentary and linguistic evidence suggests that age grades existed in East Africa by at least the sixteenth century and perhaps even as early as the first millennium b.c.e. For pastoralist peoples who lacked centralized political systems, age grades facilitated social organization and political decision making among dispersed, mobile populations. In contrast to clans, which divided and organized communities along vertical lines, age grades joined together men (and women) of similar ages across clans and communities. As men traveled across the land, they could seek hospitality with their age mates, even if they were complete strangers. If an age mate was absent, his wife was expected to treat the visitor as she would treat her husband, providing food, shelter, and sometimes sex. Male age mates consulted with one another, especially about determining access to and use of range lands and resources. But age sets could also be divided by clan and homestead in times of conflict, when junior men of different areas were mobilized by age set to fight against one another. Although men, especially junior men, had strong loyalties to their age sets, their commitment usually lessened as they devoted more time and effort to the concerns of their families, livestock, and homesteads. However, their ties with their age mates were renewed at feasts and celebrations, where they sat together, eating, drinking, and sharing stories about their past feats.
Under colonialism age grades disappeared in some societies (including Pokot and Nandi) but flourished in others (Maasai). Reasons for these different outcomes include differential treatment by colonial administrators, efforts to outlaw livestock raiding, missionary evangelization, new economic opportunities for young men, the availability of alternative legal regimes, and shifting political structures. In some areas, colonial efforts to forcefully suppress the age-grade system backfired, leading to a fierce revitalization of the institution. In others, age grades simply faded away.
Age grades still exist among some societies, including Maasai, but their meaning, forms, and rituals have changed. For example, in many communities the liminal period has been drastically shortened to accommodate school calendars. Junior men now spend more time cultivating their fields or working in towns as guards than wandering the plains with their age mates. Educated junior men increasingly challenge the political power and prerogatives of senior elders. Nonetheless, age grades still guide respect relations, marriage decisions, and other forms of social interaction.
The effects on women of the changing nature of age grades are unclear, in light of the many other changes in their lives. Moreover, the influence of age grades differs by class, rural versus urban location, education, and other variables. Young women must still comply with fairly strict standards of respect behavior toward men of their father's age set and more senior age grades. Moreover, the age grade of a woman's father remains an important factor in determining eligible marriage partners. Married women, however, especially those who are educated and live in urban areas, are no longer expected to have sex with visiting age mates of their husband or even host them when their husband is away. (The spread of Christian principles of monogamy and sexual fidelity has also reshaped these expectations.) The changes in age grades have perhaps affected women most as mothers, as they have lost a key source of status and prestige.
