This article explores factors affecting the status of the elderly, looking particularly at type of family, economy, and wealth transfer.

This article explores factors affecting the status of the elderly, looking particularly at type of family, economy, and wealth transfer.

This article explores factors affecting the status of the elderly, looking particularly at type of family, economy, and wealth transfer.

This article explores factors affecting the status of the elderly, looking particularly at type of family, economy, and wealth transfer.

This article reassesses the cross-cultural work on status of the elderly and tests two additional variables, socialization values and ancestor worship, as predictors of the status of the elderly.

This article reassesses the cross-cultural work on status of the elderly and tests two additional variables, socialization values and ancestor worship, as predictors of the status of the elderly.

This article examines the status of the elderly cross-culturally, proposing that familial complexity, unlineal descent, and unilocal residence are predictors of high status. The authors theorize that elderly male status will be highest in patrilineal and patrilocal societies; elderly female status will be highest in matrilineal and matrilocal societies. Some support is found for these patterns, but the authors ultimately regard them as too simple to adequately predict status of the elderly.

This study discusses the distribution of the treatment of the aged across a sample of pre-industrial societies. Data illustrate that the elderly were treated in a non-supportive or death-hastening manner in the majority of societies, dispelling the notion that a golden age/isle existed in pre-industrial societies in which the elderly were revered and supported. Results also suggest a relationship between age and treatment of the elderly and climate, social, and subsistence variables and the treatment of the aged.

This article examines the status of the elderly cross-culturally, proposing that familial complexity, unlineal descent, and unilocal residence are predictors of high status. The authors theorize that elderly male status will be highest in patrilineal and patrilocal societies; elderly female status will be highest in matrilineal and matrilocal societies. Some support is found for these patterns, but the authors ultimately regard them as too simple to adequately predict status of the elderly.

This article examines the status of the elderly cross-culturally, proposing that familial complexity, unlineal descent, and unilocal residence are predictors of high status. The authors theorize that elderly male status will be highest in patrilineal and patrilocal societies; elderly female status will be highest in matrilineal and matrilocal societies. Some support is found for these patterns, but the authors ultimately regard them as too simple to adequately predict status of the elderly.