A Fijian Perspective on American Elder Care

During my anthropological fieldwork in Fiji’s main island of Viti Levu, a conversation with a local villager who had visited the United States revealed profound cultural differences in elder care. This Fijian man expressed admiration for certain aspects of American life but was particularly disturbed by how Americans treated their elderly. In Fijian villages, elders remain in their ancestral communities surrounded by relatives and lifelong friends. Adult children provide comprehensive care – from housing and financial support to the intimate act of chewing food for toothless parents. His accusatory finger pointed at me as he declared: “You Americans abandon your elderly parents!”

This encounter sparked my comparative investigation into how traditional societies worldwide treat their aging populations, revealing a spectrum ranging from veneration to abandonment that challenges Western assumptions about elder care.

Defining “Old Age”: A Cultural Construct

Before analyzing these differences, we must recognize that “old age” is culturally relative. The U.S. government defines it as 65+ for Social Security eligibility, while my personal perception has evolved from viewing 30-year-olds as “middle-aged” in my youth to now, at 75, considering my 60s and early 70s as my prime. In New Guinea highland societies where few reach 60, people in their 50s are considered elderly. When I visited at age 46, villagers exclaimed “setengah mati!” (half-dead!) and assigned a teenage boy to comfort me, illustrating how aging is socially constructed.

Demographic realities shape these perceptions. In societies with life expectancies under 40, American-style elderly barely exist. Yet even in New Guinea villages where reaching 50 makes one a “lapun” (elder), I occasionally met septuagenarians who remembered 1910 cyclones. Despite physical limitations, these elders remained vital community members. Anthropologists have documented similar cases among Paraguay’s Ache Indians (with individuals living to 78) and Botswana’s !Kung San (an 82-year-old maintaining nomadic life).

The Spectrum of Elder Treatment

Traditional societies demonstrate remarkable variation in elder treatment, ranging from extreme reverence to calculated abandonment:

Veneration Societies:
– Fiji: Multigenerational households with children chewing food for toothless parents
– Confucian cultures: Filial piety codified in laws like China’s 1950 Marriage Act
– Mediterranean/Mexican families: Patriarchal structures maintaining elder authority
– !Kung San: Respect for elders surviving lions, diseases, and tribal warfare

Abandonment Societies:
– Arctic Inuit: Leaving elders on ice floes during food shortages
– Ache Indians: Violent elder euthanasia (“I’d stomp old women to death”)
– Amazonian tribes: Migrating groups abandoning the infirm with minimal provisions

These practices aren’t random but reflect calculated survival strategies in resource-scarce environments.

The Harsh Realities of Survival

Five methods of elder abandonment emerge across cultures, escalating in directness:

1. Passive Neglect: Reducing food/water until death (Inuit, Hopi)
2. Migration Abandonment: Leaving elders during moves (Ache, Sirono)
3. Encouraged Suicide: Cultural pressure to self-terminate (Chukchi, Crow)
4. Assisted Suicide: Family participation in death (Kauul strangulation)
5. Active Killing: Direct euthanasia (Ache neck-breaking)

Anthropologist Holmberg documented Sirono Indians departing camp while a sick woman watched silently from her hammock, left with only a water gourd. Three weeks later, her half-eaten remains were found along the migration path.

The Utility of Elders

Societies maintaining elders typically benefit from their contributions:

– Subsistence Support: Hadza grandmothers spend 7 hours/day gathering tubers
– Childcare: !Kung elders enable parents’ hunting expeditions
– Knowledge Preservation: My Rennell Island informant remembered 1910 cyclone survival strategies
– Craft Specialization: Semang elders produce superior blowpipes
– Political Leadership: Tribal “elders” literally govern

Historical records show Finnish/Canadian children with living grandparents had higher survival rates, and post-menopausal women’s presence correlated with increased fertility in their daughters.

Cultural Values and Family Structures

Elder status correlates with societal values:

– Patriarchal Families: 95% of traditional societies practice patrilocal residence maintaining elder authority
– Neolocal Families: Modern Western independence creates “empty nest” challenges
– Honor Cultures: Mediterranean/Mexican families prioritize familial duty over individualism
– Youth Cultures: America’s emphasis on independence pathologizes elder dependence

Max Weber’s Protestant work ethic, American individualism, and youth obsession have devalued aging in Western societies. Harris polls show even seniors internalize negative stereotypes about their demographic.

Modern Paradoxes of Aging

Contemporary societies present elders with unprecedented contradictions:

Advantages:
– Life expectancy nearly doubling (79 vs. 40 in traditional societies)
– 98% child survival vs. 50% in preindustrial societies
– Medical advances enabling active octogenarians

Challenges:
– Inverted population pyramids straining pension systems
– Obsolete skills in rapidly evolving economies
– Retirement isolation replacing multigenerational households
– Elderly women disproportionately widowed (40% of US elderly women vs. 12% men)

The shift from 2% elders in poor nations to 20% in developed countries creates unprecedented social challenges.

Lessons from Traditional Societies

Three potential adaptations emerge:

1. Grandparent Caregiving: Leveraging elders’ childcare skills (as with !Kung and Hadza)
2. Intergenerational Knowledge Transfer: Tapping elders’ historical perspective (like my Rennell Island cyclone survivor)
3. Strength-Based Roles: Redirecting elders toward mentoring and strategy (as Verdi did composing into his 80s)

Modern societies must creatively reintegrate elders rather than isolate them in retirement communities. As composer Richard Strauss acknowledged at 67, while raw creativity may fade, distilled wisdom produces different but equally valuable contributions – evidenced by his “Four Last Songs” at 84.

The challenge remains: How can we honor our elders’ humanity while adapting traditional wisdom to modern realities? The answer may lie in balancing respect for autonomy with recognition of our enduring interdependence across generations.