ABSTRACT
Anthropologists have not, on the whole, shown much interest in aging. With few exceptions, ethnographic reports seem to mention the aged only in passing, if at all, and then only in the context of quite general statements. The reader is left with the impression that the population being studied is made up of males in maturity, with women and children as peripheral figures. Even the culture and personality theorists, with their interest in the various stages of the life cycle, gave little attention to the aged. This neglect is odd, in view of the fact that, as Bromley (1966, p. 13) has pointed out, “we spend about one quarter of our lives growing up and three quarters growing old.”
