The New Development of Age Research in Western Historiography
For a long time, historians have not ignored the role of age as an identity marker in history, but age itself has become the object of historical research relatively late.
Beginning in the 1960s and 1970s, with the cultural turn of historical research, Western historians began to pay attention to the age stages of childhood, adolescence, and old age. In the 1980s and 1990s, there was a small upsurge, and the study of children's history suddenly emerged and became the history of Western society. With the advent of the aging society, the research on the history of old age has gradually been paid more and more attention.
Peter Lasslater, a professor at Trinity College, University of Cambridge, UK and the founder of the Cambridge Research Group on the History of Population and Social Structure, pointed out in a 1995 academic conference on old age and older people that learning about age and aging from history " "Necessary Knowledge" is an issue of the times facing the new century.
Entering the 21st century, a large number of collections and monographs of age-specific research objects have begun to emerge, and historical research on adulthood and middle age has enriched the existing research content.
Inspired by gender history research, historians advocate that age should be regarded as an independent unit of historical analysis, set up professional research organizations, and issue professional journals.
In 2001, the Children and Youth History Association was established, which is a platform dedicated to providing exchange activities for children and youth history researchers in Europe and the English-speaking world.
In 2008, the association published the journal "Journal of Childhood and Youth History", the first volume of which published several articles on the relationship between age and historical research.
Steven Mintz, a professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin, published "Thinking about Age as a Category of Historical Analysis". He compared age and gender as categories of historical analysis. It is so complex that it is necessary to become an independent branch of historical research.
Western historians have carried out research on different age types, age identities, age qualifications, age awareness, age stratification, etc., which can be roughly divided into two fields: age stage research and chronological age research.
Age stage, also known as life trajectory or life stage.
Age stratification can roughly describe the level of development of a society: in a society with relatively backward productivity and relatively simple social organizational structure, people will think that its members are composed of children, adults and the elderly; in a more developed society, The embryonic period, infancy period, early childhood period, childhood period, pre-adolescence period, adolescence period, youth period, middle-age period, young-old period, old age, etc. may be carefully distinguished.
Historians regard the distinction of each age stage as a product of social construction, and therefore focus on excavating the social function contained in each age stage and its manifestation in the social power structure.
People's perception of age stages is not as clear and widely recognized as people think.
For example, the entry for the word "youth" in the Oxford English Dictionary presents an indeterminate sense of age.
Judging from the six quotations published in the 17th to 19th centuries, the age boundary of "youth" is very vague, and it seems that anyone between the ages of 8 and 24 can be regarded as a young person, so the lexicographer gave the following definition: "Generally Refers to childhood to adulthood, sometimes earlier." Historians are good at using comparative methods to break people's thinking about a certain age stage, and they are also good at explaining from a functional point of view the process of entering and ending an age stage. functional characteristics.
For example, the researchers found that dependence is not a phenomenon unique to old age, but a common phenomenon of all age groups, reflecting the "common cooperation" process of interaction among all age groups.
Therefore, there is no reason to regard the dependency of the elderly as a burden on the family and society.
For another example, it is also difficult to determine entering old age.
From a historical point of view, there are several ways for people to judge the criteria for entering old age: the chronological age is roughly determined to be between 60 and 70 years old; the functional criteria are based on physical health, disease, working ability, dependence on family and society, etc.; cultural Standards are based on behavior, appearance, dress, etc.
The basis for judging entering old age also varies by gender and culture.
The interaction between the history of various age stages and iconic concepts, and social and economic development is also a focus of research.
Some age groups take on new meanings with the development of an industrialized society, which, according to historians, are "inventions" of industrial society, such as youth, teenagers, and middle age.
In medieval England, the term "middle age" continued the meaning since Aristotle, referring to "the heyday of life" and "the perfect stage of a person's life".
But in the Victorian period, the labor market of the industrial capitalist society discriminated against the elderly and favored the more energetic young people. The middle age between the youth and the old became the beginning of the so-called aging stage of life, full of the melancholy of life subtraction. , Mid-life crisis awareness is also quietly rising.
In the process of subordinating the youth to production discipline in capitalist society, the youth's sense of resistance comes suddenly.
Teenagers have also re-entered the vision of society, and how to prevent them from becoming a reserve army of resistance forces has become an urgent issue for the industrial society.
The definition and distinction of juveniles and youth has become a hot topic of discussion in society.
Time-series age research pays more attention to the emergence and development of age awareness and age stratification.
The former regards the generation and development of age consciousness as a cultural phenomenon through the analysis of cultural history; the latter focuses on the emergence of age stratification in history. The researchers use the research methods of political history, legal history, and social history to analyze the Industrialized society and how industrialized society divides society into different age groups according to age standards.
From the early modern period to the colonial period to the industrialization period, the importance of chronological age has increased day by day.
The early modern era was a time when many people did not know their date of birth or age, and chronological age has appeared in judicial and church materials, which may or may not correspond to an individual's chronological age.
The state and the church have the right to "determine" a person's age as needed to determine whether he or she has a right.
Age thus became a means of asserting authority by the state and the church.
In colonial America, the colonial government had the right to require white men over the age of 16 to participate in militia service, a sociopolitical age that gradually took on personal and family significance.
Today, Americans see 16 as the age of boy-to-man transition and an important sign of citizenship.
Historians note that at the end of the 19th century, age-based certification was gradually accepted, following calls from educators, medical workers, and social reformers.
These age proofs are closely related to people's daily life.
Public health reformers advocated for the government to register births and issue birth certificates, which became an important basis for activities such as mandatory vaccinations, milk purchases, and compulsory education.
By the early 20th century, government-issued birth certificates had universal legal force, leading to the belief that age was an important element of one's identity and heightened awareness of age.
From informal personal age records to government-issued birth certificates, people's social and political lives were gradually organized according to government-approved chronological ages, and personal life was brought under the purview of public administration.
Age eligibility becomes the standard for various activities, marriage, voting in elections, driving, military service, drinking, employment, retirement, immigration, etc. are all related to a specific time series age.
Researchers generally agree that age awareness and age stratification have been recognized and strengthened with the formation and development of industrialized societies, making chronological age one of the important means of social governance and state management, reflecting what Foucault called "biopolitics". concept.
The historical process in which chronological age is gradually valued and applied in society is a history of the development of human social governance, and this history has also become an important channel for historians to understand the interaction between the state, society and individuals.
After experiencing the turn of the new social history and the new cultural history, western historians have integrated the research methods of gender history and race history, as well as the research results of physiology and psychology in the study of age. Therefore, their research presents a multi-disciplinary and multi-field intersection. comprehensive tendencies.
The study of age in the field of history is a historical process oriented to the past, but its academic concerns point to the present and the future.
In today's society, age has increasingly become a factor that cannot be ignored in the process of social development.
For example, the degree of social aging continues to deepen. Globally, the proportion of people over 60 years old was 8% in 1950, 10% in 2000, and is predicted to reach 21% in 2050.
So "how to extend" and "how long" to delay retirement?
There is also the "35-year-old phenomenon", that is, all kinds of recruitment require "the age limit of 35 years old". Is it age discrimination in employment or the fact that the physical inflection point and social role inflection point that mark "job burnout" are superimposed?
Thinking of these issues requires the active participation of historians.
(Author: Liang Yuetian, associate professor at the School of Marxism, Jiangxi Normal University)