[HPforGrownups] Longevity and Youth (was Re: Why Voldemort is a fascist..)

[manawydan]

No: HPFGUIDX 109296

 Eustace wrote:
>And yet on the other side of the coin, we have a significant number of
>characters who seem to assume major responsibilities immediately after
>secondary school, there apparently being no college or university
>level education in the WW.  We know that the Potters, Sirius and
>others were in the Order at the age many muggles (in the US anyway)
>are joining fraternities and muddling through college.  Percy Weasley,
>for goodness sakes, is at the right hand of the Minister of Magic at
>the age of 19.

I've noticed this also. Whatever else it is, the WW is certainly not the
gerontocracy that you might imagine that it would be, given the greater
longevity of wizards (and the likely absence of things like retirement ages
and old age pensions!) People get into positions of responsibility early.

It's also worth noting that the age of puberty is comparable with that of
Muggles, suggesting that wizards stay fertile for much longer than Muggles
do. Although the parents we've encountered _seem_ to be on the youthful
side, the sample we've seen is probably too small to draw any conclusions
about whether (say) James and Lily were typical in having children young.

>We know that in the 11 years prior to Godric's Hollow, significant
>numbers died violently and prematurely.  In fact, we know of few
>grandparents of current Hogwarts students, if I'm not too far
>mistaken.  That Harry's grandparents (both the magical Potters and the

Agree entirely. you'd expect there to be not only grandparents but also (if
it's correct that WW families have children early) great grandparents in
abundance.

>Perhaps this is a result of the first war with Voldemort.  Or perhaps
>it's an authorial oversight or just a decision that this doesn't bear
>on the plot.  If the former, it seems there may be a generation or two
>in the WW that's been decimated...and this may also have an effect on
>attitudes about the more distant past.  In any case, it does seem that
>the WW is heading towards a situation in which there are the very old
>and the very young with the middle aged cohorts much smaller in
>comparison.  If the very old die off before passing along their
>knowledge of the past, then the WW is in danger of losing that
>connection with their heritage.

Possibly, though the WW doesn't appear to be a society recovering from so
severe a trauma that almost an entire generation has been wiped out. Perhaps
it's just the characteristics of the sample that we've seen in the books
(who aren't typical, by any means, given that people like the Potters and
the Longbottoms were in the front line against Voldemort.

>Then again, the WW's attitude toward history is another thing that
>gets me musing...it doesn't seem to be valued much academically, does
>it?

Agreed once again, I've wondered elsewhere why so much of it is kept under
the carpet: why Binns's class (and just how old is Binns anyway) dwells so
much on non-human history and on the administrative historical issues...

Cheers

Ffred

O Benryn wleth hyd Luch Reon
Cymru yn unfryd gerhyd Wrion
Gwret dy Cymry yghymeiri