Fred, I completely agree about historical concepts of childhood and adulthood. The concept of "adolescence," in fact, is considered by social scientists to be pretty much a modern phenomenon that wasn't recognized until after child labor laws and public education became widespread.

As an aside, the in-some-ways distorted nature of our concept of "adolescence" is reflected in the misuse of the term "pedophile" to refer to adults who molest under(legal)age "children." While molesting anyone is and should be a crime, as is an adult taking advantage of the inexperience and lack of judgment of adolescents, it is not a "perversion" or a "psychosexual disorder" to be sexually attracted to pubescent teenagers (especially when they dress and move like Britney Spears). Such attraction is part of our biological programming.

Back to the point of the thread: I agree about "art" and "nature," too. I'm not sure Rubens's ladies were any more typical of real women of their era than Twiggy was of the women of hers. But I don't think there have been many cultures/populations in the history of humankind where the average, healthy, properly nourished female, after bearing a child or two, was shaped much like today's top models are.

Genie