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Age and Anthropological Theory
Book by Kertzer, David, Keith, Jennie
340 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 15, 2024
Miguel Kottow, Towards a medical anthropology of aging.
The social situation of the elderly is not so much the result of fulfilling a role but, rather, it reflects the loss of roles previously occupied and the difficulty of post-retirement social reinsertion.
“The marginalization older people in society demonstrates how closely physical and social “weakness” are related.” (Van der Geest 2007.
The individual is his social roles; these roles are, in themselves, the annoying fact of society.
Humanity develops culture as an artificial way of covering basic biological needs in the form of social arrangements. Individual biological needs can only be satisfied by participating in socially mediated production processes that pursue lucrative goals, causing disparities that favour the efficient and the lucky, at the cost of the less empowered.
“Achievement is not only of great significance within capitalistic societies but remains open for historically and inter-culturally different ideas of what kind of achievement should count as relevant.”
Johan Huizinga (18721945) presented us in 1938 with his book “Homo ludens.” Man, he claims, was engaged in play and games even before developing the basics of culture; consequently, Huizinga insists on treating the subject as the “play element of culture,” resisting frequent suggestions that the correct phrasing should be “play in culture.” He laments that modern culture has asphyxiated its pristine play element. Civilization today is no longer played, and even where it still seems to play it is false play…When we do not play we are serious. “What is play? What is serious? We shall find the fixed, unmoving point that logic denies us, once more in the sphere of ethics. Play, we began by saying, lies outside morals. In itself it is neither good nor bad.
Bonds between human beings, whether through love, friendship or contractual exchange, are essential to growth and development. To relate, means reaching out beyond the confines of the body and creating interactions with others in the form of interdependence, cooperation, assistance, and participation. We perceive and interpret reality through interpersonal exchange –social construction of reality.
Human differences are turned into pathologies.
Ageing is an individual experience occurring in the midst of social processes. “Ageing is something we do, although it remains a mystery to all of us, those who study it as well as those who undergo or endure it. That’s everyone.” (Ibid., 1) This opening statement is doubly surprising: We do ageing, or does it happen? And, if it’s cloaked in mystery, how to approach it?
Paraphrasing a remark by D. Le Breton, ageing is less a matter of age than of changing relations with the world. A diversity of factors contrive to reduce the relationality of the aged: death of family members, friends or even pets; moving to less costly quarters and losing neighbourly relations, decreased mobility that reduces social intercourse, contraction of the nuclear family to a minimum that cannot, or will not, care for their elderly members, estranging them even if it means losing their support in everyday chores.
The most prevalent criticism of the successful ageing idea is its neglect of socioeconomic factors that have a major influence on individual life-courses, and its failure to acknowledge that human beings live in and with a social environment where competitiveness will often prevail over cooperation, self-aggrandizement over solidarity and altruism.
Demedicalization is a social process that “occurs when a problem is no longer defined in medical terms and the involvement of medical personnel is no longer deemed appropriate.” (Conrad 2007, Kindle ed. loc. 2002) Sexual issues such as homosexuality and masturbation have been demedicalized, and there are good resons to free unburdened ageing from the constraints of surveillance and medicalization.
The social situation of the elderly is not so much the result of fulfilling a role but, rather, it reflects the loss of roles previously occupied and the difficulty of post-retirement social reinsertion.
“The marginalization older people in society demonstrates how closely physical and social “weakness” are related.” (Van der Geest 2007.
The individual is his social roles; these roles are, in themselves, the annoying fact of society.
Humanity develops culture as an artificial way of covering basic biological needs in the form of social arrangements. Individual biological needs can only be satisfied by participating in socially mediated production processes that pursue lucrative goals, causing disparities that favour the efficient and the lucky, at the cost of the less empowered.
“Achievement is not only of great significance within capitalistic societies but remains open for historically and inter-culturally different ideas of what kind of achievement should count as relevant.”
Johan Huizinga (18721945) presented us in 1938 with his book “Homo ludens.” Man, he claims, was engaged in play and games even before developing the basics of culture; consequently, Huizinga insists on treating the subject as the “play element of culture,” resisting frequent suggestions that the correct phrasing should be “play in culture.” He laments that modern culture has asphyxiated its pristine play element. Civilization today is no longer played, and even where it still seems to play it is false play…When we do not play we are serious. “What is play? What is serious? We shall find the fixed, unmoving point that logic denies us, once more in the sphere of ethics. Play, we began by saying, lies outside morals. In itself it is neither good nor bad.
Bonds between human beings, whether through love, friendship or contractual exchange, are essential to growth and development. To relate, means reaching out beyond the confines of the body and creating interactions with others in the form of interdependence, cooperation, assistance, and participation. We perceive and interpret reality through interpersonal exchange –social construction of reality.
Human differences are turned into pathologies.
Ageing is an individual experience occurring in the midst of social processes. “Ageing is something we do, although it remains a mystery to all of us, those who study it as well as those who undergo or endure it. That’s everyone.” (Ibid., 1) This opening statement is doubly surprising: We do ageing, or does it happen? And, if it’s cloaked in mystery, how to approach it?
Paraphrasing a remark by D. Le Breton, ageing is less a matter of age than of changing relations with the world. A diversity of factors contrive to reduce the relationality of the aged: death of family members, friends or even pets; moving to less costly quarters and losing neighbourly relations, decreased mobility that reduces social intercourse, contraction of the nuclear family to a minimum that cannot, or will not, care for their elderly members, estranging them even if it means losing their support in everyday chores.
The most prevalent criticism of the successful ageing idea is its neglect of socioeconomic factors that have a major influence on individual life-courses, and its failure to acknowledge that human beings live in and with a social environment where competitiveness will often prevail over cooperation, self-aggrandizement over solidarity and altruism.
Demedicalization is a social process that “occurs when a problem is no longer defined in medical terms and the involvement of medical personnel is no longer deemed appropriate.” (Conrad 2007, Kindle ed. loc. 2002) Sexual issues such as homosexuality and masturbation have been demedicalized, and there are good resons to free unburdened ageing from the constraints of surveillance and medicalization.
October 10, 2012
I have only read the introduction and the bioanth part of this so far, because that's what I needed some more basic grounding in. The bioanth was only 2 chapters: The Primates: Age, Behavior, and Evolution, by Phyllis Dolhinow and Theoretical Dimensions of a Focus on Age in Physical Anthropology, by Cynthia M. Beall. I assumed the latter would be more useful to me, given my more sociocultural approach, but I actually found the Dolhinow's really fundamental points to be grounding and very helpful. I hope I have time to go back and read more of the sociocultural chapters soon.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews