God, culture, and old age: social constructions of gerontological experience in a muslim society
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Date
2008
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Casa Verde Publishing
Abstract
The paper explores the social constructions of “gerontological experience” in the context of
Muslim society, particularly Pakistan. Old-age occupies a socially significant mode of collective
experience through which social continuity of tradition as well as practice is communicated to
the posterity. It is predominantly associated with wisdom, self-poise and benevolence in the
general social experience of the society. The “old” is looked upon as the cultural repositories of
knowledge, experience and historical connectivity. The “gerontological experience” is deeply
embedded in the social structure of the family, wherein the process of “aging” is taken as natural
and social given to be revered by the young ones and joyfully lived by the “old.” The social
perception of being an “oldman” as a meaningful construct in the society is derived from the
unique spiritual, ontological and historical symbolism of the society and its continued traditions
of such forms of social legitimization. Finally the paper concludes with a contemporary
redefinition of the “gerontological experience” amidst the emerging “technological” transformation
currently experienced by the society and future shape of social recontextualization of the
“old-age” facing new social scenarios.
Description
Keywords
Gerontology, Pakistan, Islam, culture, old age
Citation
Journal of Societal and Social Policy, 7(1-2), 89-103