Word.ws English Dictionary

neontocracy

neontocracy noun: any society in which young children are highly valued (despite their relatively low social utility in objective terms); the practice, prevalent in the West, of so valuing young children.

Noun

neontocracy (plural neontocracies)

  1. Any society in which young children are highly valued (despite their relatively low social utility in objective terms); the practice, prevalent in the West, of so valuing young children.
    • But looking at the neontocracy from up, down, and sideways—that is, cross-culturally, historically, and holistically—leads quickly to the realization that in many cases, institutional attention to families benefits the institutions themselves more than it aids families.2014, Rachael Stryker, “Chapter 7: On Family: Adoptive Parenting Up, Down, and Sideways”, in Rachael Stryker, Roberto J. Gon, editors, Up, Down, and Sideways: Anthropologists Trace the Pathways of...
    • And, incrementally, the gerontocracy becomes a neontocracy. But I would argue that the neontocracy has, lately, gotten out of control.2015, David F. Lancy, The Anthropology of Childhood: Cherubs, Chattel, Changelings, 2nd edition, Cambridge University Press, page 71

Forms of neontocracy

pluralneontocracies

Origin of neontocracy

Coined by American anthropologist David Lancy and popularised through his 2008 book The Anthropology of Childhood; modelled on and contrasted with gerontocracy (“society in which elders are esteemed”).

Questions about neontocracy

What does neontocracy mean?
Neontocracy means any society in which young children are highly valued (despite their relatively low social utility in objective terms); the practice, prevalent in the West, of so valuing young children.
What part of speech is neontocracy?
Neontocracy is a noun.
What is the plural of neontocracy?
The plural of neontocracy is neontocracies.

Words near neontocracy in the dictionary

  1. Neonomianism
  2. Neonomians
  3. neonomous
  4. neons
  5. neontocracies
  6. neontocracy
  7. neontologic
  8. neontological
  9. neontologist
  10. neontologists
  11. neontology

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: neontocracy (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “neontocracy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/neontocracy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.