Age-Class Societies in Ancient Greece?*

AGE-CLASS SOCIETIES IN ANCIENT GREECE?* Abstract: This article assesses the validity of claims that Greek city states were ‘age-class societies’, a type of social ordering found in acephalous societies, in which males grouped into age sets attain different degrees of power and status as they progress collectively though a system of age grades. After a survey of the anthropological terminology, drawn mostly from studies of age-class societies in northeastern Africa, three Greek case studies are presented: Athens, Sparta, and Crete. Examination of literary and epigraphical evidence reveals that while Athens manifested an abundance of age designations they did not cohere into the official, universally applicable age scale necessary in an age-class society. The ephebate proves to be neither compulsory nor all-inclusive, qualities typical of age-class systems. In contrast, the Spartan citizen training system was compulsory for all young Spartiates, but no evidence exists for the further collective movement of Spartan males through an official set of graded age designations, despite a recent detailed argument in favor of Sparta being organized along generation-set lines. The mixture of different ages was moreover integral to the functioning of important Spartan institutions such as the army and common messes. Crete offers the only evidence for universally-applied official age designations, nonetheless without any indications that citizens belonged to age sets or age-grade scales were systematically arranged. This nega- tive finding leads to the conclusion that no single theory can explain how ancient Greek societies were organized and that more profitable insights may be gained from comparisons with evidence from places such as early modern Europe. A strong current of interest, bubbling more and more to the surface recently, in the question of whether Greek cities were what anthropologists call ‘age-class societies’ has long flowed among ancient historians, archaeologists, and art historians.1 As part of a discussion about transitions between age categories, initiation rituals, and the construction of identity, age-class systems have been seen as providing a key to the fundamental structure of Greek society and even, as a recent article has * I thank the Warden and Fellows of All Souls College Oxford for awarding me a Visiting Fellowship for Hilary Term 2009 to pursue the research that led, surprisingly, to this particular article. I also thank Angelos Chaniotis, Edward Harris, Michael Herzfeld, and Peter Rhodes for their helpful suggestions for improving my argument. Of course, any remaining errors, inconsistencies, or omissions are my own responsibility. 1 E.g. Sallares (1991) 160-192, but see the criticism of Osborne (1996) 77-78; David- son (2006), (2007) 71-78, (2009) 353-354; Ferrari (2002) 152-153; Persky (2009). Ancient Society 43, 1-73. doi: 10.2143/AS.43.0.2992604 © 2013 by Ancient Society. All rights reserved. 996421_AncientSociety_43_01.indd6421_AncientSociety_43_01.indd 1 33/10/13/10/13 110:130:13 2 N. KENNELL claimed, to the Greek conception of time.2 The existence of Greek age- class societies would also provide support for the idea, now under some debate, that poleis were acephalous or ‘stateless’ societies, in which legal power was vested in the citizen body, not concentrated in the hands of a hereditary ruling elite, and where decisions were taken collectively, without any idea of The State as a separate entity.3 Crete, Sparta, and Athens are all places identified as either having age-class systems or being fully fledged age-class societies. The claims for Athens are rela- tively new, but Cretan and Spartan customs relating to age transitions, in particular those marking the attainment of civic maturity, are familiar to most. This very familiarity, and the fact that Sparta has even appeared in a classic work of anthropological literature as an example of an age- class society, could inevitably lead to the wholesale acceptance of the idea that age-class systems were ubiquitous in ancient Greece.4 The idea is an attractive one, but the qualifications of these three places (and, by extension, the many other cities for which we have little or no informa- tion) to be considered true age-class societies have to be put to the test. In other words, what is the evidence? First, we must clarify our terms, beginning with the concept of age. Anthropologists and other social scientists distinguish three ways of expressing an individual’s age: chronological age, which is determined mathematically by the number of years from birth; physiological age, which is determined by bodily development, usually puberty; and, most important for our purposes, structural age, which is determined by an individual’s chronological relationship to ceremonies or rituals marking the passage from one life stage to another.5 In an age-class society or system, structural age is determined solely by the position of one’s age class in the hierarchy of age grades. An age class is a formally consti- tuted group of individuals of roughly the same chronological age who by virtue of belonging to the same class are considered to be of the same structural age. An age grade, on the other hand, is a fixed stage in a chronologically ordered social system through which all age classes 2 Davidson (2006) 51. 3 Supporting: Pope (1988); Berent (2000); Cartledge (1999) 468. Opposing: Rhodes (1995); Hansen (2003) 265; Harris (2007). Anderson (2009) takes the middle position. 4 E.g. Sallares (1996); Murray (2009) 519 writes of “the age class systems that were widespread in the archaic world”; Le Bras (2003) 32 even refers to “la supériorité du système grec sur le système des grades maasai.” In his famous study on age-class societies Eisenstadt (2003) 141-144 describes Spartan age-related customs. 5 Bernardi (1985) 9-10. 996421_AncientSociety_43_01.indd6421_AncientSociety_43_01.indd 2 33/10/13/10/13 110:130:13 AGE-CLASS SOCIETIES IN ANCIENT GREECE? 3 pass.6 Anthropologists tend to refer indiscriminately to ‘age-class systems’ or ‘age-class societies’, but for ease of comprehension I shall distinguish between the two. An age-class system I define as a societal mechanism by which individuals, grouped into age classes, pass collectively through a series of age grades until death or retirement from the system. An age-class society I define as a society in which an age-class system is the dominant institution, socially, politically, and religiously, through which all individuals must pass. A consequence of these defini- tions is that a society may have an age-class system without necessarily being considered as an age-class society. This represents a departure from normal anthropological usage, but necessary, I think, to avoid some of the problems of definition that have plagued the specialist literature.7 In addition to these basic concepts, we need to distinguish between two types of ritual that are closely associated with age-class systems. An initiation ritual is a ceremony or set of ceremonies which immature individuals undergo, usually at or after the age of puberty, to enter an age-class system and thereby create a new age class.8 Promotion rituals are ceremonies that allow the passage of an entire age class from one age grade to the next.9 In an age-class system (which is almost always male-centered) power is diffused among various age groups, each of which theoretically per- forms a socially useful function. The type of power and level of status enjoyed by individual group members change as the group advances through a system of age grades, each of which has a particular set of responsibilities and privileges attached to it. Pure age-class societies tend to be highly decentralized and sometimes display marked egalitar- ian tendencies, with power often based on consensus under the super- vision of the age class that occupies the grade of elders. Age-class systems thus consist of two essential elements: first, a system of static age grades dividing up the lifespan of an adult male into 6 The distinction between age grades and age classes was first made by Radcliffe- Brown in 1929: Stewart (1977) 10. On the importance of distinguishing between the two concepts, see Prins (1953) 17. 7 See, for example, Tornay (1988) 285-286 on the “primary” and “secondary” mod- els of age-class societies used by Bernardi (1985) 42. On the complexity of age-class systems generally, see Peatrik (1995a). The Nuer people are an example of a society in which the age-class system does not play a predominant role: Evans-Pritchard (1940) 253. 8 On the problematic use of this term, see Graf (2003). 9 On the distinction between initiation and promotion rituals, see Bernardi (1985) 4-5. 996421_AncientSociety_43_01.indd6421_AncientSociety_43_01.indd 3 33/10/13/10/13 110:130:13 4 N. KENNELL several periods during each of which he is expected to perform certain duties and enjoy particular rights; second, age classes consisting of men who reach social maturity at the same time and who pass collectively through each age grade. To use an analogy familiar to North Americans, age grades are similar to the grades of elementary and secondary school, while an age class is equivalent to a graduation ‘class’. In 2012, a fifty- seven-year-old man is no longer in Grade 12, but he is still a member of the ‘Class of ’73’. Age is one of the fundamental ways by which societies are ordered. Informal age categories such as child, youth, adult, teenager, senior citizen, and the expectations for behavior, dress, and sometimes even thought associated with them are ubiquitous. But age-class systems are characterized by their formal, explicit nature, in which age grades and age classes have an acknowledged institutional significance.10 Age-class systems can be found in some societies on all continents, in varying guises, but study has privileged those of Africa, particularly northern East Africa, because of their complexity, ubiquity, and variety.

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