Age Sets and Retirement Communities
Comparison and Comment
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2582406 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Asmarom Legesse (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1979 |
| Volume | 52 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 61 |
| Publication date | 1979-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Anthropological Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-5491 • E-ISSN: 1534-1518 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/3317815 |
| OpenAlex | W2326362876 |
| Language | FR |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 5 |
Ethnographic research on communities of the elderly in complex societies raises important questions about the role of in human society and about the types of social organization that are linked with specific stages of the life course. It is useful therefore to compare the body of research reported in this symposium with the corresponding body of data on the structure and operation of sets and generation grading systems in traditional societies. Retirement communities are homogeneous groups and as such they share a basic structural feature with graded societies. The two phenomena are different in the sense that set systems incorporate a series of groups ranked by and seniority whereas retirement communities represent a single stage of the life course and hence a single grade. A second factor that distinguishes the two institutions is the fact that retirement communities are always localized whereas sets rarely are. Perhaps the closest example of localized groups in traditional societies is the case of Nyakyusa age villages described by Monica Wilson (1951). Most often sets are not territorially segregated but continue to function as an integral part of the wider community. From time to time, they do come together to participate in special corporate activities during transition rituals and in the performance of agespecific activities such as seasonal work, warfare, and athletic contests
Demographic economics · Economics · Retirement community · Sociology · African history and culture analysis · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Demography · Land Rights and Reforms · Medicine · Gerontology
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,11 |
| Citation span | 1988 - 2021 (34) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |