Old age and cultural identity. Ethnological considerations

Abstract

The analysis is based on the assumption that the cultural phenomenon of old age may be defined as a type of identity and placed in the category of cultural identity. The assumption is derived from premises that determined the ontological structure of traditional communities which constitute the context for the analysis. These include the specific domain of actions and social practices characteristic for local communities and included in the hermeneutic framework of culture. The sphere of behavioural and cognitive references reveals a change in the designated roles, functions and activities that construct the types of old age (mediational, contemplative and religious, ceremonial and ritual, customary, everyday). It also points to the transformations pertaining to the elders’ functions within the community expressed through signs and symbols (verbal or non-verbal), the system of axionormative interactions that determined the status of an individual within a family, the type of participation (active or passive) in the existence of a given group, as well as self-esteem and the perception of reality in the final stage of life.