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Gorri and banderari. Luzaide (Nafarroa), 2013. Photo credit: Emilio Xabier Dueñas.

In traditional European collectives, the socializing process of transition to adulthood and the role attributed to the age category of young adults have been of essential importance, manifesting itself in their gradual social implication, younger birth cohorts being the natural generational replacement of older workforces and actively committed to social responsibility, while implementing a balanced dichotomy between social control and the possibility of taking certain liberties or permissibility inherent to this stage in life. Their duties included the following: defence of local geographic limits and organized use of arms, supervision and censorship of deviations from customary practice, invitations to fellow young folks as token of inter-local good-neighbourliness and interventions as effective agents in cases of overt rivalry, courtesy visits and accompaniments to authorities and notables, and provision of obligatory services to the neighbourhood. Indeed, it could not be otherwise, they epitomized the regenerative potential, so necessary for the generational continuity of communities.

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