MAP Forum

The age of consent (or rather, statutory rape laws) was first implemented in medieval England in 1275 via the statute of Westminster, with other European fiefdoms following England's example during the early modern period. Ancient China is the only non-European civilisations to have developed its own statutory rape laws independent of European/American influence, as the Ming dynasty that overthrew the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty implemented such laws via the Ming codes. Of course, such laws only applied in the cases of man-girl sex as opposed to other couplings (woman-boy being punished under anti-adultery laws, man-boy with anti-sodomy laws, and woman-girl being unclear since it doesn't involve penetration per se).

While the ages of 10-12 seem to be borrowings of Roman pagan marital laws (which put the minimum age at 12 for female Roman free spouses, and 114 for their male counterparts) as well as based on the normative age for onset of menarche in females at the time, it's unclear where the idea of 18 and 21 being the age of reason for humans came from. That is, until I found the actual source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climacteric_year

The legacy of these climacteric years is still with us to some extent: the age of reason is often taken to be when a child reaches 7, and in many countries the age of full adulthood is taken as 21.

For astrologers, the discovery of the planet Uranus in 1781 confirmed what may have originated as the mundane observations of the ancients on living things. Uranus has an orbital period of 84 years, which divides into four periods of 21 years each. Astrologers take Uranus as the bringer of abrupt changes, so when it forms a square or 90 degree relationship with its original position in a nativity at age 21, this brings the change from irresponsible youth to responsible adulthood. The opposition occurs at age 42, traditionally the time of midlife crisis. Thus the second square at age 63, the climacteric, would be the most dangerous for the ancients who rarely lived long enough to see the conjunction (return to the natal position) at age 84. This combination of the periods of Saturn and Uranus are powerful indicators of life changes for astrologers.

Of course there are other legal traditions from which the age of 21 is borrowed from (such as medieval knights ascending from squires who were typically 14 years olds, to receiving an accolade typically once they reached the age of 21 aside from some exceptions), as well as 18 if this rabbinical discussion regarding the age of adulthood is any indication: https://www.dafdigest.org/masechtos/Sha ... %20056.pdf

There's also an European precedent for the age of 25 being the age of adulthood at least for legal contracts: https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/ ... rator.html

The Lex Plaetoria allowed those under 25 to contest disadvantageous agreements in case of fraud, later extending to other circumstances, and the other party might escape repercussions only if a curator was involved. To enter a contract, individuals in this age group could request the praetor for such a curator, thus ensuring protection for both sides: this shielded the other contracting party from legal risk and allowed transactions to proceed, as no prudent person would engage without this safeguard. Unlike with a tutor, the requester retained full legal capacity to act, and the role of the curator was merely to prevent fraud. Later, under Marcus Aurelius, their appointment became mandatory. Someone under 25 who wanted to enter a contract had to request a curator, and could propose a candidate, which the praetor could reject. The curator's control over property became closer to that of a tutor, but it was only applied to the properties that the praetor assigned to him, not those acquired by the requester after his appointment.

Over time, via astrology, legal precedents, and property law (keep that in mind), the age of majority in various countries went from being 12-14 to 21, shaped in no small part by liberalism which itself arose because of the 17th century property disputes between the various nobles as a result of them contesting the legitimacy of the British Isles' "Glorious Revolution". As for the modern age of 18, despite the precedent in Jewish pulpits, the closest precedent seems to the 26th amendment passed in response to the anti-war movement in 1970s America, which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18 in line with the minimum age for military recruitment, it certainly is no coincidence how that also coincides with how 18 is also the age at which people transition from secondary to higher education in most European and American states.

What does it say then, about the age of adulthood and the age of majority as legal concepts? That "adulthood" and "maturity" are far more socially contingent than what society is willing to give credit for, and definitely far more socially constructed than traditional gender roles are, given that throughout history it has been heavily contingent on not just biology to a small degree, but also to a greater extent by astrology and property rights (which was what the basis of suffrage originally revolved around) as well as subjective changes. Regardless, it can't be denied that contract theory and vibes influence "adulthood" and "maturity" in the legal and public realms more than biology and empirical science do.

Hopefully this thread can serve as a way to document the various changes made worldwide as to what constitutes an "adult", because honestly I see people having a harder time answering "What is a child?" than "What is a woman?".