Both Hall and Erikson assumed that once you achieved maturity, you left home. Thus the end of adolescence came to mean getting a job, leaving home and having a family, and its endpoint fluctuated not because of any biological changes -- boys and girls still reach physical maturity, on average, at about age 18 -- but for reasons of the economy and social custom.
(Perhaps they need a term for the stage between adolescence, with its biological changes, and "high adulthood" or "mortgaged breederdom" or whatever one calls it.)
Neoteny: it's not just for raver kids anymore.
Neoteny Or Monotony
I call it: "Keeping Your Hardcore"
After 30 it becomes more difficult to justify
your encumbrance of your elders, especially
after a hard nights dancing
Well, you could always use the standard repost:
I was just dancin' Mom,
good luck.
they should have chucked (sorry - thrown) you
out before they turned sorrowfully back to their own
remembrences and given you sad fucks the better
of their minds.
Benefit of What Doubt?
what doubt had you?
what would it's benefit donr you?
you have no doubt
good on you.
live without it
and know no love either
always confused
without a great love
nor great loss
this is your load
until you you find
yourself
i remember this <a href="http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/07/18/michael_lewis/print.html">salon interview</a> with michael lewis about <a href="http://neoteny.org/">neoteny</a> that boing boing posted awhile back. i heard it's becoming a real problem in italy where increasingly men have just stayed home, even well into their 40s.