Age Classes

a feature of the tribal era. In such a system the society is divided into several age categories, each having its own rights and obligations. In one form or another the division into age classes was an inherent characteristic of almost all the peoples of the world during this particular stage of social development. According to ethnological data, for example, the Australian aborigines, Papuans, African Zulus, and American Indians had three or four age classes (children, youths, adults, and elders). Having arisen from a natural di-vision of labor based on age and sex, age classes disappeared during the process of the social division of labor and the disintegration of the primitive communal system.