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First published in 1990, focusing on the enigma of the ageing process, this title considers the problems associated with the life course in a variety of cultures. By examining the cultural construction of ageing and extending to the life course as a whole, it opens up the debate on ageing and makes an important contribution to the topic.
List 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 Organisations
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 Georgian Society
Tamara Dragadze 7. Metaphors the Chinese Age By
Stuart Thompson 8. Growing Old Gracefully: Physical, Social and Spiritual Transformations in Venda Society, 1956-66
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 Master: 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 Âge: Communitas or Conflict
Judith Okely. Name Index. Subject Index.
About the author
Paul Spencer was reader in African Anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London at the time of original publication. He has written on aspects of maturation and ageing with reference to East African pastoral societies where age provides a major dimension of social organisation.
