History Professor Jason Eden and St. Cloud State alumna, Naomi Eden ’08 ’13, have worked together to publish a book on age norms in colonial North America.
“Age Norms and Intercultural Interactions in Colonial North America” is an interdisciplinary study of how age norms shaped the experiences of Europeans, Native Americans and African Americans in colonial North America.
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The Edens use evidence drawn from a variety of sources to show that as these populations interacted in colonial North America their views of specific age cohorts evolved and clashed in important ways.
The book analyses childhood, youth and old age among Native Americans, Europeans and African Americans living in North America during the 1600s and 1700s.
“The field of history seemed to underutilize age as a category of importance,” Jason said. “It felt like most historians didn’t even think of age in their research, and certainly they have not considered age as deeply as other important identifiers or categories such as gender, ethnicity and culture.”
The couple had an interest in studying aging since they married 12 years ago inspired by Naomi’s grandmothers — one who passed away when she was a teenager and the other who lived a long and healthy life independently in her own home until her passing at 104.
The Edens sought to fill the void of age-related research in the field of history. They first co-authored an article for “Cross-Cultural Gerontology” in 2010. In researching their book they first focused on older adulthood but soon branched out to cover all stages of human development.
Their research took the Edens from coast to coast as they searched through old documents for information about people living in colonial times.
“Sometimes what we found broke our hearts, made us laugh or spurred lively debates and discussions,” Naomi said. “We are both looking forward to writing more books and articles together. We are definitely best friends, and we look forward to growing old together!”
Naomi has dual master’s degrees from St. Cloud State in gerontology (’08) and marriage and family therapy (’13).
