Sociology 1020 Chapter Notes - Chapter 22: Aleut, Special Functions, San People
18 Oct 2016
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Chapter 22-> Aging Around the World: The Aged as Teachers
Donald O. Cowgill
• Control of useful knowledge is a primary basis of the esteem in which people are held in
societies in the past
o Conversely, the loss of such control in modern societies helps explain the decline
in the status of the elderly in these societies
• The Aleuts had one or two men whose special function was to educate the children
• Among the !Kung Bushman, the grandparents would care for the children
o Spend much of their time teaching
• The Baganda define a grandparent as one that teaches
• In Dahomean society, older people use storytelling to educate their grandchildren
• Age and wisdom were closely identified
• Among the Zulu, only older people were seen to have knowledge about the natural
environment
• The elderly of the Maori are a veritable storehouse of nature lore
• The older men among the Aranda of Australia teach the young the tracks of various
animals and the location of the best food sources
• Japan grandparents took the young folk art
• The Bantus of southern Africa taught the young dances
• The elders of the Coast Salish taught about methods of construction and canoe making
• In the Asmat tribe, storytelling was a main way elders educated
o Same in the !Kung Bushmen
• In China, the elders were told to only talk about their lives before the Revolution of 1949
to express their hardships and attest to the progress made
o Become heroes in Chinese society
• What do elders get in return for these activities?
o Get a living
o Some get rewards such as sheep, or horses
o Some get food
o All get forms of honor, respect, prestige, and a sense of importance to the
community
• The role of being an educator eroded in the process of modernization
o Rapid social change (contemporary process of modernization, developed
technology of recording, and retrieving information) renders old people obsolete
o Much that they know is no longer pertinent and much that they don’t now is
essential
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