Full Description
The proliferation of old age homes and increasing numbers of elderly living alone are startling new phenomena in India. These trends are related to extensive overseas migration and the transnational dispersal of families. In this moving and insightful account, Sarah Lamb shows that older persons are innovative agents in the processes of social-cultural change. Lamb's study probes debates and cultural assumptions in both India and the United States regarding how best to age; the proper social-moral relationship among individuals, genders, families, the market, and the state; and ways of finding meaning in the human life course.
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Note on Translation and Transliteration
1. Introduction: The Remaking of Aging
2. The Production of Tradition, Modernity, and a New Middle Class
3. The Rise of Old Age Homes in India
4. Becoming an Elder-Abode Member
5. Tea and the Forest: Making a Western Institution Indian
6. Living Alone as a Way of Life
7. Moving Abroad
8. Changing Families and the State
Afterword
Notes
Bibliography
Index
