No doubt Marrou's guess that the divide between youth and adulthood goes back to Indo-European societies is close to the truth. It's not really all that curious as to why human life is divided into these two parts. Humans love stories, and stories always have turning points. Plus, the oldest stories that survive are predominantly heroic stories. Stories that fit Joseph Campbell's model of the Hero's Journey (a plot outline that fits very snugly over modern classics like Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, the Harry Potter series, and so on).
Campbell's model is also a map of the coming of age story, as the hero moves from his/her hometown towards the unknown, eventually returning to that hometown a changed person. Having left a child and returned an adult. The division of life into youth and adulthood is definitely deeply entrenched.
This brings to mind all of the rituals that cultures and civilizations practice to mark the entrance of a child into adulthood, and that the West really doesn't have any such thing. You might consider moving out of your parents' house the North American rite. It takes a person out of their comfort zone and faces them with a whole set of unknowns.
In fact, moving out could well be the ritual. Why else would there be such a reaction to the struggles of the millenials and their returning to live with their parents again? I mean, setting aside the concrete reasons people might give, moving back in with your parents could all too easily be seen as a refusal of the adulthood initiation ritual.
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