Histories of the Life Course

Abstract

As noted, the literature on rites of passage has provided one of the traditional bases for studies of the life course. Within this, the life course is represented as a series of relatively fixed stages — infancy, childhood, adulthood and old age — through which individuals pass as they grow older. Yet, once we begin to work with historical material within one society we cannot explain differences in conceptualisations and experiences of the life course purely in terms of cultural and geographical distance. Rather, we have to account for change — not just within the individual life course — but also change in the shape of the life course itself. That is to say, it is not only individuals who change, but also the categories they inhabit.