Shifting meanings of time, productivity and social worth in the life course in Meru, Kenya.

Formal 'age sets' and 'age grades' no longer function as integral components of social organization among the Meru of Mt. Kenya. Three analytic perspectives-historical time, life time, and social time-reveal the changes in the life course which accompany the decline of age set social organization in Meru. These changes include: (1) an increasingly flexible and informal age grade structure for both men and women and (2) a fundamental shift in the meanings of time and social worth. In the past, the life course was conceptually organized around age-graded variations in reciprocal kinship interactions. Today, age-related abilities to produce and reproduce provide the underlying conceptual anchor.