ISBN:
0-415-04089-2
ISSN:
0567-414X
Language:
English
Pages:
xii, 222 Seiten
Series Statement:
ASA Monographs 28
Keywords:
Anthropologie, soziale Alter
;
Jugend
;
Übergangsritual
;
Lebenszyklus
;
Altersklasse
;
Soziale Organisation
;
Xhosa
;
China
;
Venda
;
Finnland
;
Sowjet-Union
;
Sudan
;
Berti
;
Kulturvergleich
;
Beziehungen zwischen den Generationen
;
Tagungsbericht
Abstract:
This study seeks to relate the problems of maturation and ageing to the life course as a whole. As it is treated here, the riddle posed by the sphinx asks "What is it that changes as we age?" and is concerned with the enigmas of this total process. Ultimately, the ways in which we experience these problems stem from our view of ageing and the contradictions of soicety itself. The essays in this volume consider aspects of this problem with reference to a variety of cultures. The young, the mature and the elderly have distinctive identities, but they form a continuum whose profile is culturally contructed. "Anthropology and the Riddle of the Sphinx" is intended as a contribution to the growing literature on ageing, deliberately broadening the topic in the search for a wider understanding. The volume aims to stimulate interest in neglected aspects of the aging process within social anthropology and to present an anthropological point of view to others who have an interest in problems associated with the life course. It should be of interest to students of social anthropology and medical sociology.
Description / Table of Contents:
List of contributors -- Preface -- 1. The riddled course: theories of age and its transformations, Paul Spencer -- 2. A dangerous age: from boy to young man in Red Xhosa youth organizations, Philip Mayer and Iona Mayer; -- 3. The social process of adolescence in a therapeutic community, Iain Edgar -- 4. Coming of age among Jews: Bar Mitzvah and Bat Mitzvah ceremonies, Leonard Mars -- 5. Interpreting life texts and negotiating life courses: youth, ethnicity and culture, Paul Yates -- 6. The notion of adulthood in rural Soviet Georgia, Tamara Dragadze -- 7. Metaphors the Chinese age by, Stuart Thompson -- 8. Growing up gracefully: physical, social and spiritual transformations in Venda society, 1956-1966, John Blacking -- 9. Dimensions of adulthood in Britain: long-term unemployment and mental handicap, Richard Jenkins -- 10- The social construction of parenthood in the people's Republic of China, Elisabeth Croll -- 11. Old master, young masters: retirement on Finnish farms, Ray Abrahams -- 12. Strategies for old age among the Berti of the Sudan, Ladislav Holy -- 13. Dimensions of change: three studies of the construction of ageing, Haim Hazan -- 14. Clubs for le troisième age: communitas or conflict, Judith Okely -- Name index -- Subject index
Note:
Enthält 14 Beiträge"The topic selected for the 1988 Conference of the Association of Social Anthropologists was 'The Social Construction of Youth, Maturation and Ageing'. [...] Our thanks are also due to the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, as our host for the conference" (Preface)
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