This Is Not Our Culture! Discourse of Nostalgia and Narratives of Health Concerns in Post-Socialist Tanzania

Africa ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 78 (3) ◽  
pp. 359-383 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vinay Kamat
Keyword(s):  
Life Histories ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Unique Form ◽  
Cultural Economic ◽  
Community Values ◽  
The Past ◽  
Socially Excluded

Oral accounts of the past play an important role in the construction of cultural memories as they are reconstructed in dynamic social contexts. Based primarily on participant observation in a peri-urban village in Dar es Salaam, and life-history interviews with twenty-five elderly residents, this article focuses on reminiscing and cultural understandings of neo-liberal policies in Tanzania's post-socialist context. The article examines how people use narratives to understand and to give meaning to their individual experiences in the context of broader socio-cultural, economic and political changes. Narrators' oral life-histories and illness narratives reveal the ways in which the transition from Tanzania's unique form of socialism (Ujamaa) to Western-style neo-liberalism has led to the erosion of social cohesion at the community level, disrupted existing social support networks and limited access to healthcare. Participant observation and analysis of discursive data draw attention to the fact that the expression ‘This is not our culture!’ and its attendant sentiment ‘Life is hard!’ have become formulaic pronouncements, especially among poor and socially excluded people. These expressions indicate a loss of community values, and a decrease in respect and deference towards the elderly in the post-socialist era that is inextricably bound up with the hardships engendered by neo-liberal economic policies.

scholarly journals Elders and transactional relationships in Sierra Leone: rethinking synchronic approaches

Africa ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 90 (4) ◽  
pp. 701-720
Author(s):  
Luisa T. Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Life Course Perspective ◽  
Specific Point ◽  
Urban Networks ◽  
The Past

AbstractIn Sierra Leone, transactional relationships – so-called agreement relationships – have a life-course dimension. Not only are they employed by young people but they are equally important among elders, and they serve different purposes as people age. Long-term ethnographic research with the elderly uncovers that they remember the past and engage with the present through agreement relationships. The elders’ love and life histories from the 1930s to today form ‘accumulated history’. They reveal a shift from kin-based rural hierarchies, where agreement relationships were carefully concealed, to larger, more dynamic urban networks that are openly held together through such relations. Leaving the former and finding one's feet in the latter become possible through transactional relationships that provide alternatives to fosterage and strategies of fictive or aspirational kin. The case of Sierra Leone invites us to rethink the focus on transactional relationships at a specific point in time for a life-course perspective that reveals the enduring nature of the phenomenon and sheds light on its changing texture in individual biographies, with the potential for capturing large-scale social trajectories within and across countries.

Contributory Factors for Obesity in Elderly: Review of the Literature

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nur Raihan Ismail ◽  
Noor Aman Hamid
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Dietary Factors ◽  
Health Concern ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Contributory Factors ◽  
The Past ◽  
Prevalence Of Obesity ◽  
Program Intervention ◽  
Future Education

Introduction: The prevalence of obesity has been rising, adding to morbidity and mortality. As the proportion of elderly aged 60 years and above grows, so too the prevalence of obesity among this population. Obesity in the elderly is a rapidly growing public health concern as it contributes to significant changes in the health of older people. Objective: This review aims to assess the contributory factors for obesity in the elderly over the past decade. Methods: A literature search was conducted. The search was restricted to articles written in the English language published from 2008 to 2018. Qualitative studies were excluded. Results: A total of 19 full articles were retrieved, of which 18 cross-sectional and one cohort were included. The contributory factors were divided into three components: (a) socio demographic characteristics, (b) medical history and dietary factors and (c) environmental factors. Conclusions: This review informs an emerging knowledge regarding contributory factors for obesity and has implications for future education and program intervention in fighting obesity in the elderly.

Causes of Death

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Anderson ◽  
Corinne Roughley
Keyword(s):  
Heart Disease ◽  
Pulmonary Tuberculosis ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Causes Of Death ◽  
Whooping Cough ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
World War Two ◽  
World War ◽  
The Past ◽  
Disease Mortality

The principal reported causes of death have changed dramatically since the 1860s, though changes in categorization of causes and improved diagnosis make it difficult to be precise about timings. Diseases particularly affecting children such as measles and whooping cough largely disappeared as killers by the 1950s. Deaths particularly linked to unclean environments and poor sanitary infrastructure also declined, though some can kill babies and the elderly even today. Pulmonary tuberculosis and bronchitis were eventually largely controlled. Reported cancer, stroke, and heart disease mortality showed upward trends well into the second half of the twentieth century, though some of this was linked to diagnostic improvement. Both fell in the last decades of our period, but Scotland still had among the highest rates in Western Europe. Deaths from accidents and drowning saw significant falls since World War Two but, especially in the past 25 years, suicide, and alcohol and drug-related deaths rose.

Cranford

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Gaskell ◽  
Dinah Birch
Keyword(s):  
Social Contexts ◽  
Social Worlds ◽  
Victorian England ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
Personal Tragedy ◽  
The Way

A man … is so in the way in the house!’ A vivid and affectionate portrait of a provincial town in early Victorian England, Elizabeth Gaskell’s Cranford describes a community dominated by its independent and refined women. Undaunted by poverty, but dismayed by changes brought by the railway and by new commercial practices, the ladies of Cranford respond to disruption with both suspicion and courage. Miss Matty and her sister Deborah uphold standards and survive personal tragedy and everyday dramas; innovation may bring loss, but it also brings growth, and welcome freedoms. Cranford suggests that representatives of different and apparently hostile social worlds, their minds opened by sympathy and suffering, can learn from each other. Its social comedy develops into a study of generous reconciliation, of a kind that will value the past as it actively shapes the future. This edition includes two related short pieces by Gaskell, ‘The Last Generation in England’ and ‘The Cage at Cranford’, as well as a selection from the diverse literary and social contexts in which the Cranford tales take their place.

Ela Longespee's Roll of Benefits: Piety and Reciprocity in the Thirteenth Century

Traditio ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 64 ◽  
pp. 1-56
Author(s):  
Emilie Amt
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Religious Activities ◽  
Specific Content ◽  
Reciprocal Relationships ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
The Past ◽  
National Archives

Ipsa autem, bonorum temporalium liberalissima ac spiritualium avida beneficiorum …— 1293 charter of Oxford University, describing Ela LongespeeIn 1293, the elderly and twice-widowed Ela Longespee, countess of Warwick, or someone acting on her behalf, gathered together eighteen charters that had been issued to her over the past dozen years and sent them to the bishop of Lincoln, to be confirmed and copied into a single roll. The original charters have long since vanished, but the enrolled copy survives in The National Archives at Kew. Its component documents, all of them detailed grants to Ela by religious institutions in the Oxford area, are highly unusual; even when compared to the few surviving parallels, they stand out for their specific content. The roll itself, comprising eighteen such documents in a private archive created for a thirteenth-century laywoman, is unique. And when it is examined along with other surviving evidence of Ela's religious activities, it provides us with an extraordinary perspective on the reciprocal nature of religious patronage at this time. What is especially unusual about Ela's case is that we know much more about what the religious promised to Ela than what she granted to them. Thus Ela Longespee's records tell us the side of the story that is seldom told when we look at records of religious patronage; they reveal the return that donors expected in the late thirteenth century, with increasing precision and urgency. Using a chronological framework, this essay will examine the surviving documents, tell the story of Ela's life, and explore the most interesting dimension of that story: her startlingly explicit reciprocal relationships with religious institutions.

scholarly journals A Bibliometric Analysis of Human-Machine Interaction Methodology for Electric-Powered Wheelchairs Driving from 1998 to 2020

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (14) ◽  
pp. 7567
Author(s):  
Xiaochen Zhang ◽  
Lanxin Hui ◽  
Linchao Wei ◽  
Fuchuan Song ◽  
Fei Hu
Keyword(s):  
The Elderly ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Human Machine Interaction ◽  
Research Directions ◽  
The Past ◽  
Power Wheelchairs ◽  
The Disabled ◽  
Future Research Directions ◽  
Machine Interaction

Electric power wheelchairs (EPWs) enhance the mobility capability of the elderly and the disabled, while the human-machine interaction (HMI) determines how well the human intention will be precisely delivered and how human-machine system cooperation will be efficiently conducted. A bibliometric quantitative analysis of 1154 publications related to this research field, published between 1998 and 2020, was conducted. We identified the development status, contributors, hot topics, and potential future research directions of this field. We believe that the combination of intelligence and humanization of an EPW HMI system based on human-machine collaboration is an emerging trend in EPW HMI methodology research. Particular attention should be paid to evaluating the applicability and benefits of the EPW HMI methodology for the users, as well as how much it contributes to society. This study offers researchers a comprehensive understanding of EPW HMI studies in the past 22 years and latest trends from the evolutionary footprints and forward-thinking insights regarding future research.

scholarly journals A Theoretical Framework on the Determinants of Food Purchasing Behavior of the Elderly: A Bibliometric Review with Scientific Mapping in Web of Science

Foods ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 688
Author(s):  
Khaled Alhammadi ◽  
Luna Santos-Roldán ◽  
Luis Javier Cabeza-Ramírez
Keyword(s):  
Elderly Population ◽  
Web Of Science ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Purchasing Behavior ◽  
Food Purchasing ◽  
The Past ◽  
Bibliometric Review ◽  
Food Market ◽  
The Common ◽  
Elderly Consumers

The past few years have seen significant demographic changes in most regions, including an increased elderly population. Subsequently, elderly citizens comprise an important market segment of consumers, with the food industry one of the most affected areas in this context. However, food market managers previously believed that elderly consumers’ needs were stereotyped in nature. The lack of focus on this sector, therefore, left elderly consumers as an untapped market, without realizing the financial independence of this segment regarding their nutrition. This research will attempt to provide the key determinant factors on elderly consumers’ behavior related to food. For that purpose, a complete literature review of more than 123 papers regarding these concepts has been carried out. Once analyzed, we highlight the common insights to give clear guidance for supermarket managers and food manufacturers to have a better knowledge of the reasons behind elderly people’s food acquisitions.

scholarly journals COVID-19 in comparison with other emerging viral diseases: risk of geographic spread via travel

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Wilder-Smith
Keyword(s):  
Reproduction Number ◽  
Emerging Infectious Diseases ◽  
Case Fatality ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Air Travel ◽  
Viral Diseases ◽  
Fatality Rate ◽  
The Past ◽  
Geographic Spread ◽  
Emerging Viral Diseases

Abstract Purpose of review The COVID-19 pandemic poses a major global health threat. The rapid spread was facilitated by air travel although rigorous travel bans and lockdowns were able to slow down the spread. How does COVID-19 compare with other emerging viral diseases of the past two decades? Recent findings Viral outbreaks differ in many ways, such as the individuals most at risk e.g. pregnant women for Zika and the elderly for COVID-19, their vectors of transmission, their fatality rate, and their transmissibility often measured as basic reproduction number. The risk of geographic spread via air travel differs significantly between emerging infectious diseases. Summary COVID-19 is not associated with the highest case fatality rate compared with other emerging viral diseases such as SARS and Ebola, but the combination of a high reproduction number, superspreading events and a globally immunologically naïve population has led to the highest global number of deaths in the past 20 decade compared to any other pandemic.

scholarly journals Psychosis Without Meaning: Creating Modern Clinical Psychiatry, 1950 to 1980

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel T. Braslow
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Psychiatry ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Psychotic Disorders ◽  
Clinical Care ◽  
Signs And Symptoms ◽  
Primary Treatment ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Clinical Practices ◽  
State Hospitals ◽  
1960S And 1970S

AbstractOver the last fifty years, American psychiatrists have embraced psychotropic drugs as their primary treatment intervention. This has especially been the case in their treatment of patients suffering from psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia. This focus has led to an increasing disregard for patients’ subjective lived-experiences, life histories, and social contexts. This transformation of American psychiatry occurred abruptly beginning in the late 1960s and 1970s. My essay looks the ways these major transformations played themselves out in everyday clinical practices of state hospital psychiatrists from 1950 to 1980. Using clinical case records from California state hospitals, I chronicle the ways institutional and ideological forces shaped the clinical care of patients with psychotic disorders. I show there was an abrupt rupture in the late 1960s, where psychiatrists’ concerns about the subjective and social were replaced by a clinical vision focused on a narrow set of drug-responsive signs and symptoms. Major political, economic, and ideological shifts occurred in American life and social policy that provided the context for this increasingly pharmacocentric clinical psychiatry, a clinical perspective that has largely blinded psychiatrists to their patients’ social and psychological suffering.

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