Kurt W. Back - Böcker

Each society has its own ways of integrating members into its community, and in times of rapid social change these methods for asserting and continuing communities change their form and meaning. Current society has spawned new devicessuch as encounter groups and self-realization techniquesdesigned to exalt community purely in terms of interpersonal relations. The contributors to this volume study this phenomenon from a cross-disciplinary point of view, drawing on the fields of anthropology, psychology, social psychology, sociology, and history. Their approach enables us to evaluate the new groups and techniques in comparison with other phenomena in the society and with rituals in other societies and times, clearly placing them in the history of ideas. The articles also provide us with a clearer understanding of the particular techniques used.

In this interdisciplinary study of the human life course as a unit, scholars examine aspects of the life course, looking at several features over a short span and at a few traits over a longer period. provides an overview from disciplines (e.g., history, demography, sociology) that are concerned with understanding the human life course; contains studies of special populations in which integration of a variety of experiences over time can be accomplished. Based on these approaches, new methods appropriate to a science of human life are proposed and discussed in a form suitable for students, faculty, and professionals in human development (sociology, anthropology, psychology), demography, and gerontology.

This book consists of papers presented at two symposia at AAAS Annual meetings. It enables us to evaluate the new groups and techniques in comparison with other phenomena in the society and with rituals in other societies and times, clearly placing them in the history of ideas.

This book provides an overview from disciplines, such as history, demography, and sociology, that are concerned with understanding the human life course. It contains studies of special populations in which integration of a variety of experiences over time can be accomplished.