Week 3 dq 1 post

To mark adulthood each culture marks the event differently.

Many times those cultures sub divide even further and create little caveat aspects within the larger whole.

The Amish is a striking example of an extremely isolated culture from the cultures they are around and from (Nolan, 2015). The Amish adulthood is about 17, marked by Rumspringa. Although not all Amish cultures enact Rumspringa the same way. Some the kids go absolutely wild and venture into the world, leaving behind almost every aspect they can of being Amish. Example the fictional character of Leanne from Orange is the New Black Netflix series (Stevick, 2008). That fictional character is obviously not a real person the actress who plays her Emma Myles other than being of similar to the Amish in heritage as in northern European, the two have little in common culturally. Hence the concept of being an actor. However the fictional counterpart of Leanne is a caricature of how some Amish venture out into the world and are unable to shake the “trappings” of the cultures they encounter out in the world.

A slight example of this is the Amish characters portrayed in the tv show Longmire. One of them is killed and her fellow Amish who house share have issues trying to understand how to exist between the world they grew up in and the modern world. The fictional characters in both shows allow for a real-life fictionalized version of what actually happens in the reclusive Amish communities.

Another culture which is in most cases vastly different from the Amish are most western cultures where until the person is between 21-25 they are not really considered adults. This specifically relates to the offspring of “Trust Fund” kids. Where they come into inheritances in the several million if not 10s of millions of dollars when they reach between 21-25. The ideas are that they might be mature enough at 25 to be able to handle coming into a fortune in money mid-20s.

At times this is accurate and at times entirely inaccurate. Some of the families involved have petitioned the courts to keep the trust locked away till they are several years if not pushing 30 before they receive their fortunes.

Agricultural communities perceive people as in effect more mature in their teens than people who are almost a full decade older. Although as the facts show not all 17-year-old Amish are mature, and not all 25-year-old Trust fund babies can make proper decisions either.

Comparing the cultures is interesting since each culture operates based on sets of rules which their ancestors created those rules based on centuries if not millennia old rules. Almost none of the founding of those rules are understandable anymore. Why x is a habit which turns into a cultural rule, which then turns into a “this how we have always done it”. I have been a person from the start who questions why things are done that way.

A huge amount of the answers to the cultures I have interacted with some of the origins of how a person comes an adult based on sometimes very inappropriate actions which turn into not bad things. But they start as very bad. Example the Yule log origins date back to 3500 bce when an invading army from Mecca invaded Egypt circa 3800 bce, it took them 300 years to work their way conquering their way several hundred miles north to Heliopolis (Kaizer, 2016). The main temple of Heliopolis was burned to the ground by the invaders (Leiser, 2010). The story behind this is actually on the extreme side of really bad, but the burning of the yule log commemorates the destruction of that temple (Bersch 2005). Although that temple was a copy built specifically to be destroyed. The original was removed from Egypt and sent elsewhere. That Temple and associated Yule Log Ceremony plays a huge part in at least three cultures “adulthood” ceremonies (Dodgson, 1998). Jewish, Egyptian, and of course Christian. The end of the old year and the start of the new. An altered version of said Yule Log is the Christmas tree, found in most homes in the western world. For ease sake, the 3 main pillars were compressed to just one.

A new family e.g. when the children move out to start their own families. Those families have to decide what Christmas traditions they will follow (Sorokina, 2019). A maturity ceremony which began 3800 bce is the basis of the Christmas tree in the present.

The limitations are how much modern cultures have little idea of the origins of most of their maturity ceremonies. That is a huge limitation to them all. Another limitation is as mentioned above, not all 17-year-old Amish kids are ready to take on the responsibilities of their culture. However some are more than ready at 15. Some trust fund babies are more than ready at 16-17, but do not have access to their funding for almost a full decade later. Maturity is neuropathway and neuro network, not in a lot of cases realted to age.

Of course there is also the drivers license, right to vote, have your own bank account, etc. each of which are societally created rules which are based on an statistical average of “this is about the age when we adults think youths are ready for x responsibility”. Which behavior pattern wise legal rules and religion rules there is no difference. Both are based on adults making decisions. However not all “adults” are adults and not all kids are kids. I knew a 14-year-old who was forced to grow up and be incredibly mature at the age of 4; mom relied upon big sister to be Defacto co parent. The so-called adult and adults in the situation in most cases do not act like adults, making solid and substantial decisions which benefit the whole. Age in a lot of cases has nothing to do with maturity, neither do the legal classifications (Arnett, 2016). If you are old enough for a license than means x, but that is not true in a lot of situations. Farm kids the needs of the farm are usually so intense that kids start chores at the age of about 18 months (Lamb, 2013). Carry this tool to that person. Give this person a note, wait for the reply and come back. From 20 months to 16 years the neuropathways develop different than a city kid. Not better or worse, just different. Those differences between a rural culture and city culture fundamentally change who the individuals are (Saraswathi, 1999). Each culture has different milestones for maturity for the most part they apply, but species wide the questions actually apply differently since the neuropathways are, for the most part, very different (Jensen, & Arnett, 2012).

References

Arnett, J. J. (2016). Does emerging adulthood theory apply across social classes? National data on a persistent question. Emerging Adulthood, 4(4), 227–235. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167696815613000

Bersch C. (2005). From the editor. Loiter ’round the Yule log. MLO: Medical Laboratory Observer, 37(12), 4. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost-com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=rzh&AN=106406463&site=eds-live&scope=site

Dodgson, P. M. (1998). EDITORIAL for the Perfect Yule Log. R&D Enterprise, 1(1), 2. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost-com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edb&AN=87483758&site=eds-live&scope=site

Jensen, L. A., & Arnett, J. J. (2012). Going global: New pathways for adolescents and emerging adults in a changing world. Journal of Social Issues, 68(3), 473–492.

Kaizer, T. (2016). Lucian on the Temple at Heliopolis. The Classical Quarterly, (1), 273. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost-com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsgea&AN=edsgcl.526831830&site=eds-live&scope=site

Lamb, S. (2013). Personhood, appropriate dependence and rise of eldercare institutions in India. In C. Lynch, & J. Danely, (Eds.), Transitions and transformations: Cultural perspectives on aging and the life course. New York, NY: Berghahn Books. (Chapter 11)

Leiser, G. (2010). The first flight above Egypt: The great week of aviation at Heliopolis, 1910. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 20(3), 267. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost-com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edb&AN=51284132&site=eds-live&scope=site

Nolan, J. D. (2015). Growing up Amish: The Rumspringa years. First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life, (251), 64. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost-com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsgea&AN=edsgcl.403049670&site=eds-live&scope=site

Saraswathi, T. S. (1999). Adult-child continuity in India: Is adolescence a myth or an emerging reality? In T. S. Saraswathi (Ed.), Culture, socialization and human development (pp. 214–232). New Delhi, India: Sage.

Stevick, R. A. (2008). Rumspringa: To be or not to be Amish. Mennonite Quarterly Review, (1), 200. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost-com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsgea&AN=edsgcl.218190482&site=eds-live&scope=site

Sorokina, Svetlana P.. (2019). Representation of Christmas rituals in Leonid Solomatkin’s paintings as a Folkloristic and Ethnographic Source. Studia Litterarum, (1), 330. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.22455/2500-4247-2019-4-1-330-347