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As a developmental period, adolescence varies from one culture to next. In less industrialized cultures this period may be very brief and adulthood may begin early. For example. in some groups of African hunter-gather, adulthood is considered to begin once girls menstruate and boys participate successfully in a hunt. Similarly, among Punanbah, a tiny ethnic group in the rain forest, boys and girls are supposed to understand and participate in adult life from the age of 9 or 10. By 13 or 14 they need to take up the responsibilities of the adult society.
Many adolescents undergo initiations or rites of passage (initiations that mark an adolescent’s new status and roles within the community), that mark their new status and roles within the community. The nature of these rites varies across cultures.
Example 1: In some African cultures, 13 year old boys receive months of training on basic skills needed for adulthood and then undergo circumcision to mark their new status.
Example 2: In Chinese cultures, Chinese adolescents are not expected and do not expect themselves to act independently as early as Western adolescents do. In some other cultures, the notion of adolescence as a period of development separate from childhood to adulthood, does not exist.
Thus different cultures hold different concepts about adolescence. Even sub cultures within a country have different expectations for adolescence.
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