On the Decline of Age Grading in Rural Hippie Communes1

Ethnographic data from a study of rural hippie communes suggest a clear attenuation of the normative differences usually ascribed to children on the grounds of their age. The participation of children in drug use and sex, as well as their autonomy in the settlement of their disputes, are cited as examples of this decline in age grading. Interpretations are offered of the ways in which this equalitarian conception of children is systematically sustained by other facts of communal life and by the ideological postures of parents. Finally, inferences are made from the decline of age grading in the communes of the counterculture for possible changes in the relations between the generations in the future.