heather
2008-05-22 19:35:52
heyjude: in OUR western culture, a 14 year old boy is a “child”. In others, a boy becomes a MAN at the age of 12. Even in WWII, the British Royal Navy had 12 year old midshipmen.
In Afghanistan, a boy of 12 is a man and is given a rifle. In the mid 1700s, in Great Britain, 14 year old boys were deemed to be adults and treated as such by the law and by society. In most human societies throughout human history, almost everyone was dead by the time they were 30 years old. Half of every population was dead by the time they were 20 years old.
We live in a very unusual society today.
