What;s the difference?

Question

Whats the difference between age grade and age set (Anthropology)

Answer 1

Age grade is basically a way of organizing society that sets up different roles or groups for people to pass through as they age. (The most common of these is some kind of "coming of age" adulthood initiation ritual.) As an individual gets older, he or she passes through these different groupings.

An age set is a way of organizing society BY age - those born at a certain time are grouped together.

Take school as an example for both. The age grade would be the groupings of elementary, middle and high school - there are different rituals and practices associated with each of these, there are certain ceremonies (e.g. exams, graduation) to mark the passing from one to the other.

But your class in school coul be an age set - different people with little more than their age in common move through society as one. Being "the class of 2004" - your age set - would be the way the school views you.