This volume is a transcultural study of knowledge transmission, a process which is constantly reinterpreted and reinvented by children and youth. The essays in this volume deal with a wide variety of socialization contexts ? schools and youth culture, apprenticeship, ideals of youth and childhood ? from India, China, South-East Asia and Europe. They also include examples from indigenous peoples, from particular occupational groups in ?traditional? societies as well as youth in ?modern? society. The knowledge transmitted spans from dance, painting or weaving to astrology, traditional medicine and business acumen, but these skills are everywhere framed by culturally specific conceptions of the person as differentiated by age, gender and ethnic identity ? or indeed of the ageing process itself. While transmission of knowledge is a complex process where children and young people take an active part in reshaping and reformulating the cultural content of the society in which they live, this agency of children and youth remains linked to what is handed down from their elders. The volume aims to provide a corrective to this approach