Youth Association
A youth association can be described as the grouping of mainly unmarried male youths and young men ( bachelors ) of one age group into a more or less institutionally established organization, which is widespread in different cultures .
Folklorists and sociologists in particular, but also historians, research the manifestations of youth leagues.
German-speaking area: present
While in the Rhineland in particular the designation bachelor association predominates, in Bavaria and Austria the term fraternities is predominant , while in Switzerland the traditional designation boys 'association or boys ' society dominates.
In Austria the associations are also called Zechen, Irten, Ruden or Pass.
Today they are important bearers of traditional customs.
German-speaking area: history
The majority of the statutes of youth leagues are from the 19th century, only a few pieces date from before 1800.
Often premodern youth groups were involved in rural Rügesuche such as the Charivari (or cat music ) or Haberfeldtreib , in which deviant behavior that was not in accordance with the norms of the community was punished.
In the early modern sources, it is often not possible to determine whether aggressive nocturnal troublemakers that Norbert Schindler examined belonged to a youth association. The transitions between youth groups and youth gangs were fluid.
Swiss research (Wackernagel, Schaufelberger et al.) Has highlighted the close connection between boyhoods and warfare and the feud .
France and Italy: History
The late medieval-early modern conditions in France (Davis, Robert Muchembled) and in Renaissance Italy have been well studied. In England the evidence regarding formal associations is extremely thin (Griffiths p. 171).
In late medieval France, youth gangs dragged women through the night hunting and raping (Roussiaud).
See also
literature
- Natalie Zemon Davis, The Reasons of Misrule: Youth Groups and Charivaris in Sixteenth-Century France, in: Past and Present 50, 1971, pp. 41-75
- Norbert Schindler: The Guardians of Disorder, in History of Youth, ed. by G. Levi, J.-C. Schmitt, Vol. 1, 1996, pp. 319-382, (Italian 1994)
- Paul Griffiths: Youth and Authority: Formative Experiences in England 1560-1640, Oxford 1996, p. 168 Book at Google Print
- Rahul Peter Das, Gerhard Meiser (ed.): Regulated impetuosity. Brotherhoods and youth leagues among Indo-European peoples (publications on Indo-European studies and anthropology, vol. 1) 2002. ISBN 3-934106-22-6