Taming Oblivion

Aging Bodies and the Fear of Senility in Japan

John W. Traphagan (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

225 Seiten

2000
State University of New York Press (Verlag)
978-0-7914-4499-3 (ISBN)

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Examines the cultural construction of senility in Japan and the moral implications of dependent behavior for older Japanese.

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.

John W. Traphagan is Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Center for Gerontological Anthropology at California State University, Fullerton.

List of Figures and Tables

Preface

1. Introduction: The Road to Oblivion

PART I: Of Old and New

2. Inaka

3. History and Continuity: Household, Community, and Old Age in Jonai

PART II: Age-Structuring Practices

4. Talking about Age

5. Age Grading around Jonai

PART III: Aging, Activity, and the Body

6. Being a Rojin: Activity and Camaraderie in the Elder Age Grade

7. Boke and the Disembodiment of Social Values: Mental and Physical Health as Social Responsibility

8. Taming Oblivion: Power, Collectivity, and the Body Politic

9. Conclusion: In the Shadow of Obasuteyama

Appendix

Notes

Bibliography

Glossary

Index

Reihe/Serie	SUNY series in Japan in Transition
Verlagsort	Albany, NY
Sprache	englisch
Gewicht	431 g
Themenwelt	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
ISBN-10	0-7914-4499-6 / 0791444996
ISBN-13	978-0-7914-4499-3 / 9780791444993
Zustand	Neuware