I’m not asking this from a biology lens, I get that aspect, but more from the sociology/anthropology lens. My question is which culture started using 18 as this hard cutoff, when, and under what reasoning.
In: Other
It fits well with the K-12 educational system and balances the needs of allowing people to mature and educate themselves while maintaining a productive workforce.
not every society does.
in the usa it was changed from 21 to 18, largely because of voting and military draft. at age 18 most students are graduating high school which means they are educated to base/minimum national standards for navigating life
First, it’s **not** a “hard cut-off in most societies.
In most societies, the process of encouraging, developing, and requiring increasing degrees of decision-making an autonomy starts around puberty. That’s when we start allowing children to make decisions in their education in terms of elective classes and scheduling. Labor laws allow limited employment at early teenage years, with restrictions on scheduling and hours worked easing the closer said child gets to 18. Driving laws allow for conditional driving permits as early as 14, with various stages leading up to an unrestricted license at 18. Many banking regulations allow deposit accounts for minors with a parent on the account before allowing sole-ownership accounts at 18. And many places have “Romeo and Juliet” laws allowing for sexual consent *between* minors provided they are above a minimum age and the gap between partners is small enough.
So it’s greatly misleading to say that this is a hard-cut off, rather than being the very end of a gradual progression of increasing rights and privileges that began years earlier.
It’s worth pointing that at a social/cultural level, 18 is not the complete end of this spectrum. Some countries restrict the use of alcohol, tobacco, and/or cannabis to 21. Most car rental businesses restrict rentals to persons over the age of 24.
And this concept, of a gradual progression of growing autonomy, that starts as early as 12, assumes that young people will spend their teenage years getting limited-but-increasing experience with working, and thus with managing their money, dating, and with general concepts like keeping promises and making commitments. So the underlying idea is that after two to six years of this, people will have enough experience to not be too horribly exploited, so we allow 18 year olds to enter into contracts, including borrowing, military service, voting, employment, and so on.
We’ve actually been slowly walking the Age of Majority forwards for thousands of years. A couple centuries ago the age of majority was 16.
We don’t. At least not we as humanity and not even within a concrete society. So in German the age of majority by law is 18. Unless it’s about you geting persecuted with a criminal law, then you reach adulthood only at 21. Culturally we celebrate the change from kid to adult with 14. That’s the age when it’s usual for your teachers to ask if you want to get formally addressed (we have a formal you and an informal you).
I know in the us the sweet 16 is a thing
In the USA it wasn’t always 18. It was 21 years of age until the 26th amendment lowered it to 18 years of age.
The attempt to lower it started in Works War I when people were being drafted to fight but unable to vote on matter of government.
https://www.history.com/topics/united-states-constitution/the-26th-amendment
We have to set *some* age. 18 is a reasonable one because it lines up with high school graduation and when people are expected to start their adult lives.
Coincides nicely with people finishing their formal education and taking steps to join the real world.
As with everything else, it’s all arbitrary.
I was reading a biography about the Marquis de Lafayette (famous for his participation in the American Revolution) he was not legally and adult until age 24. That was the law France at the time, partly because a nobles inheritance was a huge part of the economy and arranging marriages, and buying jobs: for example military posts was done by parents and gaurdians Before children aged into legal independence.
It was about protecting family dynasty and nobility. The different view of adulthood was very intriguing to me.
Parents and gaurdians were expected to be very controlling especially with money and relationships until age 24!
In England the age of majority was lowered from 21 to 18 in 1969. There are still many things that you can do at ages below that – particularly 16, sometimes only with parental consent but often without.
For example, at 16 you can without parental consent leave home, choose to enter further education, take full-time employment, open a bank account and have full capacity over medical treatment.
Latest Answers