Suchergebnisse

Introduction: the remaking of aging -- The production of tradition, modernity, and a new middle class -- The rise of old age homes in India -- Becoming an elder-abode member -- Tea and the forest: making a western institution Indian -- Living alone as a way of life -- Moving abroad -- Changing families and the state

This rich ethnography explores beliefs and practices surrounding aging in a rural Bengali village. Sarah Lamb focuses on how villagers' visions of aging are tied to the making and unmaking of gendered selves and social relations over a lifetime. Lamb uses a focus on age as a means not only to open up new ways of thinking about South Asian social life, but also to contribute to contemporary theories of gender, the body, and culture, which have been hampered, the book argues, by a static focus on youth. Lamb's own experiences in the village are an integral part of her book and ably convey the cultural particularities of rural Bengali life and Bengali notions of modernity. In exploring ideals of family life and the intricate interrelationships between and within generations, she enables us to understand how people in the village construct, and deconstruct, their lives. At the same time her study extends beyond India to contemporary attitudes about aging in the United States. This accessible and engaging book is about deeply human issues and will appeal not only to specialists in South Asian culture, but to anyone interested in families, aging, gender, religion, and the body

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In India, many are participating in a shift from the intergenerational family as the central site of aging and elder care, to an increasing reliance on individual selves, the state, and private institutions. Over recent years, the nation has witnessed a proliferation of old age homes and a new industry of aging-focused institutions offering social, emotional, and practical support for older persons living alone. This article examines Indians' perspectives on elder care and the significant changes underway in their nation and world. Qualitative ethnographic fieldwork was conducted primarily in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) among older persons, their families, and community members, with a focus on old age homes. Beliefs and practices surrounding competing models of elder care—such as in the family or in old age homes—speak not only to elder care per se, but also to broader cultural-moral visions of the relationship among persons, families, and states, and the nature and aims of the human life course.

Soon after I returned from India, where I had been studying aging among Bengalis,2 I met an older man from Gujarat. He lived with his wife in his daughter's spacious Palo Alto home, having come to America after retiring as a minor railroad official to be with his US-settled children in his old age. "You are interested in Indian aging?" he inquired eagerly when I met him at an "Indo-American seniors" meeting. "Well, you must visit me." He had spent much of the past few years reflecting on "Indian" versus "American" modes of aging.

This paper explores widowhood in rural West Bengal from the perspective of age. Although widowhood in India has grabbed the attention of scholars and social reformers for a good century now,1 the focus of this attention has been (usually without explicitly acknowledg ing it) on women widowed at a relatively young age. Debates over widow remarriage, the perceived dangers of a widow's sexuality, a young widow's anomalous childlessness etc., all—it turns out—have to do largely with the social and economic concerns surround ing young widows. For the many women widowed in late life, the social expectations and dilemmas faced are significantly different. Scrutinising such differences not only helps us understand widowhood in India better, but sheds valuable light on local constructions of gender, sexuality and age.