Abstract
The successful aging paradigm so popular in North America envisions postponing and even eliminating the negatives of old age through individual effort and lifestyle choices, via exercise, a healthy diet, positive attitude, and productive activities. On the face of it, this bold new vision of successful-healthy active aging is highly appealing. But it also rests on a deep cultural discomfort with aging and being old. Our society seems to tell us that we have a moral duty to stave off oldness, that being old is sad, meaningless and, to a degree, self-inflicted. What might be more meaningful alternatives?
By exploring ideas from her years of fieldwork on aging in both India and the United States, cultural anthropologist Sarah Lamb will help us ask: Are there other—more realistic, accepting, and meaningful—ways of envisioning the later phases of our lives? Why is ageism—even especially internal or self-directed ageism—so prevalent in US society, yet much less so in India? Does a belief in life after death make the prospect of aging and dying that much easier, or not? How do those in India approach the human need for care, and should we in the U.S. loosen our fierce commitment to individual independence? How can we make the most of our older years in ways that do not deny being old as part of the self and life?