Anthropology is particularly well suited to explore the contemporary predicament in the coming of age of young men. Its grounded and comparative empiricism provides the opportunity to move beyond statistics, moral panics, or gender stereotypes in order to explore specific aspects of life course transitions, as well as the similar or divergent barriers or opportunities that young men in different parts of the world face. Yet, effective contextualization and comparison cannot be achieved by looking at male youths in isolation. This volume undertakes to contextualize male youths’ circumstances and to learn about their lives, perspectives, and actions, and in turn illuminates the larger structures and processes that mediate the experiences entailed in becoming young men. The situation of male youths provides an important vantage point from which to consider broader social transformations and continuities. By paying careful attention to these contexts, we achieve a better understanding of the current influences encountered and acted upon by young people.
Table of Content
Introduction. Pursuing Respectable Adulthood: Social Reproduction in Times of Uncertainty.
Vered Amit and Noel Dyck
PART I: JUST TRYING TO FIT IN
Chapter 1. ‘Shining’ in Public: Masculine Assertion and Anxiety in Globalizing Kerala.
Ritty A. Lukose
Chapter 2. “There will be a lot of old young men going home”: Combat and Becoming a Man in Afghanistan.
Anne Irwin
Chapter 3. Institutionalizing an Extended Youth Phase in Chinese Society: Social Class and Sex Differences in the Pursuit of the Personal and the Pragmatic.
William Jankowiak, Robert Moore, and Tianshu Pan
PART II: MAKING DO IN CHANGING TIMES
Chapter 4. Young Men’s Struggles for Adulthood in Urban Ethiopia: Unemployment, Masculinity, and Migration.
Daniel Mains
Chapter 5. Gendered Modernities and Traditions: Masculinity and Nationalism in the Society Islands.
Deborah A. Elliston
Chapter 6. Good Hearts or Big Bellies: Dzmak’atsoba and Images of Masculinity in the Republic of Georgia.
Martin Demant Frederiksen
Chapter 7. Being ‘Made’ Through Conflict: Masculine Hardening in Northern Ireland.
Rosellen Roche
PART III: DEALING WITH BEING ‘TROUBLE’
Chapter 8. Young Men, Trouble, and the Law: A French Case.
Susan J. Terrio
Chapter 9. Incarcerable Subjects: Working-Class Black and Latino Male Youths in Two California Cities.
Victor M. Rios and Cesar Rodriguez
Chapter 10. Managing Urban Disorder? ‘The Street’ and its Malcontents in the London Borough of Camden.
Gary Armstrong and James Rosbrook-Thompson
Chapter 11. Big Man System, Short Life Culture: Working-Class Boys and Street Violence in Southeast London.
Gillian Evans
Notes on Contributors
About the author
Noel Dyck is Professor of Social Anthropology at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. The author of several books on relations between Aboriginal peoples and governments, he has subsequently conducted field research on sport, childhood, and youth mobility in Canada. His books include Sport, Dance and Embodied Identities (2003, with Eduardo P. Archetti) and Games, Sports and Cultures (2000). He is currently completing studies of the social construction of children’s sports.
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