The aging of America: culture, stress, and sex

Mary Moore Free, PhD

From Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, Texas.

Corresponding author: Mary Moore Free, PhD, House Anthropologist, Baylor University Medical Center, 3500 Gaston Avenue, Dallas, Texas 75246 (e-mail: MaryFre@baylorhealth.edu).

This paper provides a brief discussion of some physiological and social stresses that are peculiar to old people who live in industrial societies (also referred to as modern societies) and those who live in traditional societies (also referred to as undeveloped societies). While research shows that variation occurs in the typical view of elders everywhere in terms of their authority, control, power, and treatment, the discussion in this paper will be limited to a comparison between industrial and traditional societies. Albeit its scope is limited to these cultures, the body of literature dealing with elderly people suggests that specific cultural views of old age in any particular society influence these differences. (BUMC Proceedings 2002;15:74-76)