Maturity and Aging in Cross-Cultural Perspectives Report - Book Report/Review Example

Maturity and Aging in Cross-Cultural Perspectives Introduction Previous studies on age concepts seem to bring to terms a greater perception of the slowly degrading culture among the aged people across many communities of the world. She puts to fore the relationship of age and culture as a new form of exploring new confines of culture by highlighting the roles older people ought to play in order to create, and sustain these cultures as well as reducing the age related tensions resulting from the same (Apt,1996). The paper that follows will analyze the two books and depict the perspective of the two books on the issue of maturity and aging across different cultures. Besides, it will discuss the impacts of migration history on aging, the ethnic resources in various cultures and the source of financial support to cater for the aging people demands. Jay Sokolovsky, on the other hand, offers intriguing tales or rather reflections on an aging population and the subsequent neglect aged persons undergo (Sokolovsky, 2009). He draws experiences from as far as Japan, India’s rural population and south East Asia. For instance, India being referred as the elderly country for having the largest numbers of elderly across the globe, he observes that the Shankaracharya, the great Hindu philosopher once commented on the issue of late adulthood and the consequent detachment from the material wealth of this elderly population. This report tends to look at these issues through a discussion of the major issues affecting the elderly population and the major cross cutting issues developed as discussed below using a comparison of two books: one by Malcolm Johnson and the other by Jay Sokolovsky. Impacts of migration history on aging Migration history can be looked at in different perspectives. First, the younger generation upon which the aged are looking up to, and second, at the aged population migrating to other places the likes of aged people houses. An in-depth look in China depicts a picture of immigrants valuing their return visits in their rural homes initially (Sokolovsky, 2009). But as time goes by, new relations are formed whilst responsibilities come in handy despite the harsh economic times. This slows down the rate at which they visit their parents back home. More so, as the network of extended family immigrants increases, people less feel the effects of being homesick hence the reduced urge to visit their parents back home. This in turn, builds up a neglect feeling upon the aged as they feel other people do not care for them, less still looks up to their needs. On the other hand, migration could prevail itself in the form of the children taking their parents to old people homes, in order to reduce expenses and monthly remittance systems. As much as it could be beneficial to the working children, it creates a dramatic bad feeling on the parents which is coupled with a sense of nothingness which later on causes depression which in turn, results to premature deaths since most of them commit suicide (Johnson, 2005). In addition, migration of young people in the course of their duties, brings a sense of loneliness to their parents which may cause them to have health issues most of which results from depression. Financial Support. Financial Arrangement: personal savings, children’s contribution, pensions or social security income and current work income among others. In China, there has been strong calls to children who already adults to take care of their parents financially as previous reports indicates a strong relationship between elderly deaths mainly suicides, and levels of abuse in the form of torture and having no access to medical plans treatment. In India, the same situation depicts itself. Financial arrangements prove quite a burden to the children working hard in an attempt to curb problems resulting from the increased cost of living. It is notable finding aged people in the streets begging for food particularly rice, in order to satisfy their hunger (Sokolovsky, 2009). He observes that, despite a larger portion of the family working out of the confines of the homestead and offer support, it could have detrimental effects of young people being incapable of covering for their parents needs. This is because, they may not have ample time to visit their aged parents and they may also have a lot of expenses on their side. Consequently, it becomes remarkably difficult for them to meet the demands of the elderly people in their families such as their parents and their grandparents (Johnson, 2005). In the rural confines of countries in South East Asia, most parents show their dissatisfaction when the claim that they feel that their children are doing less for them than they ought to do. In addition, they argue that, their children are doing less than their parent did for them as they brought them up (Alun, 1992). In fact, a considerable number of these parents stated that, a great share of their poverty is contributed by the fact that their neglecting them when they migrate to town when they get jobs. In contrast, Yoshiko Matsumoto depicts the condition of Japan whereby the elderly live a life that is full of economic sustenance and no worries (Sokolovsky, 2009) this has been as a result of the changes in the attitudinal structure of the aged necessitated by the fact that the numbers of them who want to live with their grandchildren is quite dwindling and more favorable pension plans have been put in place. He draws from a conference conducted to look in to different cultural perceptions on the aged in the lives of Japanese and aged people from Denmark meant to screen evidence and shed some light on the “ageists” perception in their countries (Alun, 1992). It indicates that the increased level of economic wellness among these elderly people promoted a positive outlook of their overall lives. Intergenerational Relationship: Companionship and social support; role reversal In Amatango, Jay observes that traditional cultures and the way of life have not been affected by the modernization of the society and rather they tend to both coexist. For instance, in the Mexico public fiestas, it is not unusual to spot an eight year old girl sharing the dance floor with a man of say 50 or even at times 80 (Alun, 1992). More so one is bound to seeing the will with which they fight the modernization current sweeping in their culture enclosements. This is seen in the kids’ ways of conduct as they salute their elders by bowing in a gentle way to kiss the slightly raised hand of the grandparents whilst whispering some words in Aztec (Johnson, 2005). Despite all these traditions, Amatango families have not been left unshaken and there has been a major deviation on the level of large extended families (Sokolovsky, 2009). In such families, sons who were already married were mandated to live in the compound working and taking care of their parents. However, drop in the land productivity caused them to shift to other money oriented activities outside their homesteads. As a result, this led to only one son being left to guard the homestead and the parents. This in turn, resulted to the shift of the extended families comprising of daughters married into the homesteads (Johnson, 2005). Emotional format of these families have also changed as observed In the Aztec traditions as elders seem to have very less control on their juniors’ compared to the previous year’s though this is controlled by the fact that the junior are more educated book wise and not life wise leading to a situation where roles are reversed(Sokolovsky, 2009). More so, single daughters who bring their children to their parents to cut the cost of spending on the urban life inflict a burden on the parents to search a living for their grans when no support if offered. A cross sectional survey of third world economies gives vivid examples. The old and ethnic resources that are involved Jay argues that the elderly impact has a lot of variation and relies on issues like how well a society is organized, its major gender constituent and subsequent class as per the society rating (Sokolovsky, 2009). For instance, a study of a poor village in India reveals that respect and status are a prerequisite to harnessing modernization programmes which in turn, form the platform on which ethnic resources are passed on. At this time, the young adults developed an air of superiority over their elders hence resulting to massive loss of these ethnic resources. In order for these resources to be harnessed, a major balance has to be struck between the old and the new generation with an exchange of ideas following on the same Formal Government Support for old age. Senior Centers, Social Security, Pension Plans A discussion based on the government of China depicts the 4-2-1; one child/one family policy situation whereby one child is obligated to look after both parents and grandparents from both sides of the parents (Johnson, 2005). As a result, this inflicts so much pressure on the child to ensure that they provide good lives to their aging parents during their old age as well as their grandparents. Nevertheless, the move by the government to re-establish the family as the most fundamental unit of the growth of economy in the government public sector, did not bear fruits aged people lost their pensions following the collapse of enterprises owned by the state and the consequent privatization of housing that saw the move from the neighborhoods they are well conversant with to unknown territories (Johnson, 2005). Similar cases across the globe have been witnessed through the collapse of schemes meant to provide for retirement period (Kendig,1992). Instead of having a cozy life that they desired, they end up living a life of hand to mouth. This leads to an increased level of frustration in the lives of the aged people. The contrast of this has been occurring in Denmark which happens to be a developed country where the government stipulates better terms for the aged, apparently the majority population, in line with pension plans and senior centre (Kendig, 1992). Conclusion This report gives inkling to the pointer that almost all countries Japan, China, South East Asia and Mexico portray a certain characteristic of a neglected aged population which in turn causes a spur in cross cultural issues and perspectives as per psychologists’ survey. References Apt, N. (1996). Coping with Old Age in a Changing Africa. Aldershot United Kingdom: Aldershot, : Avebury. Alun, J. a. (1992). Ageing in rural China: impacts of increasing diversity in family and community resources. Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, , vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 153-168. Johnson, M. (2005). Cambridge Handbook of age and aging. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kendig, H. (1992). Ageing and family support in Mexico. New York: Oxford University Press. Sokolovsky, J. (2009). The cultural context of aging: worldwide perspectives. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. Jay Sokolovsky. (1997). African widows, culture and social change. In The Cultural Context of Aging, 2nd , 71-79. Read More