Pretty much the title. It seems 18 is universally recognized as the age of adulthood and I’m wondering why such a specific number. Why not 20 for example?
I know there are tribes around the world where children step into adulthood at a younger age, but usually there is some sort of rite of passage involved.
In: 74
It basically comes from medieval pattern for nobles of a child until 7 then 7 more years as a page (7-14) then you became a squire looking to be come a knight at 21 but 18 was seen as the lowest if you had preformed some heroic act or political/economic reason. Land and title that need someone to look after it.
For lower classes you 7 was the age you could become a servant or expected to start to work on the farm. 14 is when you could expect to be paid for working or become an apprentice for 7 years bringing us to 21 again.
Legally you were considered to have limited legal responsibility starting at 7 then increasing at 14, to criminal responsibility but you were not financially responsible until 21 until then your parents, boss or master had to sign off on money matters.
So 21 was the benchmark and was the voting age.
This was moved to 18 in fairly modern times due to middle/upper class late 19th century schooling. You were expected to finish school at 17 before going to university or entering business at 18. When voting was extended to universal suffrage and with mass drafts and age to enlistment ages.
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