ABSTRACT
Giving and receiving care is a biological imperative for human beings. Throughout the thousands of years of human existence, the fact that the period of youthful dependency lasts between ten and twenty years has necessitated care. For most societies, the corresponding dependency at the end of life has also generated complex social and cultural arrangements and obligations. Giving and receiving care is something which no individual can escape from at some points in the life cycle. This leads Abram de Swaan to argue that human beings are by nature interdependent: each depends on someone else, and in turn is needed by others. He exalts this practical necessity of mutuality into an issue of existential purpose and value – ‘That is what conveys to people their significance for their fellow human beings and that is where they find the fulfilment of their existence’ (de Swaan, 1990, 21).
