Taming Oblivion - Aging Bodies and the Fear of Senility in Japan

Taming Oblivion examines the cultural construction of senility in Japan and the moral implications of dependent behavior for older Japanese. While the biomedical construction of senility-as-pathology has become increasingly the norm in North America, in Japan a folk category of senility exists known as boke. Although symptomatically and conceptually overlapping with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of senile dementia, boke is distinguished from unambiguously pathological conditions. Rather than being viewed as a disease, boke is seen as an illness over which people have some degree of control. John Traphagan's ethnographic study of older Japanese explores their experiences as they contemplate and attempt to prevent or delay the boke condition.

Über den Autor / die Autorin

John W. Traphagan is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Texas at Austin and also Secretary General of the Japan Anthropology Workshop. He is the author of Taming Oblivion: Aging Bodies and the Fear of Senility in Japan and the coeditor of Imagined Families, Lived Families: Culture and Kinship in Contemporary Japan (with Akiko Hashimoto); Wearing Cultural Styles in Japan: Concepts of Tradition and Modernity in Practice (with Christopher S. Thompson); and Demographic Change and the Family in Japan's Aging Society (with John Knight), all published by SUNY Press.

Produktdetails

• Autoren: John W Traphagan, John W. Traphagan, Traphagan John W.
• Verlag: Ingram Publishers Services
• Sprache: Englisch
• Produktform: Taschenbuch
• Erschienen: 17.02.2000
• EAN: 9780791445006
• ISBN: 978-0-7914-4500-6
• Seiten: 225
• Abmessung: 152 mm x 229 mm x 25 mm
• Gewicht: 336 g
• Serien: Suny Japan in Transition; SUNY series in Japan in Transition
• Themen: Ratgeber > Lebenshilfe, Alltag > Lebensführung, Persönliche Entwicklung; Sozialwissenschaften, Recht,Wirtschaft > Soziologie > Soziologische Theorien; Japan, Cultural Studies, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Gerontology, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social, Age groups: the elderly, Age groups: the elderly / old age