Anthropological research on coming of age and “extended youth”: Youth “well-spent” in Serbia

While focusing on the phenomenon of “extended youth”, this paper presents the results of anthropological research on coming of age: classical and contemporary. The paper questions the parameters of “normality” when it comes to “extending” phases, youth in particular. While examining what it means to be young, the paper emphasises anthropological contributions to life course research. First of all, the paper focuses on research that highlights concepts seen as universal and biological. Moreover, it approaches classical anthropological research that analyses lifecycle customs and rites of passage. By emphasising classic anthropological works, such as the contributions of Margaret Mead, the paper shows how ethnographic examples have helped present the diversity of the perception of “adequate”, “normal”, and “good” when it comes to life stages or transitions from one life stage to another. In addition to the work of Mead, special attention is paid to the work of Arnold van Gennep, whose research on rites of passage had a great influence on generations of Serbian ethnologists and anthropologists. Van Gennep's scheme of successive stages made up of the pattern of rites of passage (separation, transition/liminality, and aggregation) has been particularly important in the context of the transition into adulthood. Finally, this paper analyses how young people in Serbia perceive their youth and life stages in the contemporary context. The presented results are part of a qualitative research study based on in-depth interviews conducted in 2019 and 2020. The results highlight the cultural representations of the “normal” life course and life stage transitions, then present how some young people manage their transition to adulthood in order to perceive their youth as “well-spent”. The conclusion examines how time, life phases, and expectations have been constructed in the local context. Moreover, the paper highlights the layers of the transition to adulthood and autonomy (residential, financial, emotional etc.) that, furthermore, show the complexity of the phenomenon of “extended youth”. By questioning the mainstream explanations of extended youth as an exclusive consequence of structural factors and political crisis, the paper offers an alternative explanation of extended youth through the analysis of cultural logic.