Taming Oblivion: Aging Bodies and the Fear of Senility in Japan (SIGNED FIRST EDITION)

Traphagan, John W.

ISBN 10: 0791445003 / ISBN 13: 9780791445006

Published by SUNY, 2000

About this Item

First Printing (full # line) SIGNED by author to anthropological colleague C. Scott Littleton direct to half-title page, a bright tight unread copy; 8vo; (xii) 235pp indexed & illus.

Seller Inventory # 32365

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Taming Oblivion: Aging Bodies and the Fear of Senility in Japan (SIGNED FIRST EDITION)
• Publisher: SUNY
• Publication Date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0791445003
• ISBN 13: 9780791445006
• Binding: Soft Cover
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: As New
• Signed: Signed by Author
• Seller catalogs:
  • Asian History
  • Sociology
  • Anthropology

About this title

Synopsis

Examines the cultural construction of senility in Japan and the moral implications of dependent behavior for older Japanese.

Taming Oblivion examines the cultural construction of senility in Japan and the moral implications of dependent behavior for older Japanese. While the biomedical construction of senility-as-pathology has become increasingly the norm in North America, in Japan a folk category of senility exists known as boke. Although symptomatically and conceptually overlapping with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of senile dementia, boke is distinguished from unambiguously pathological conditions. Rather than being viewed as a disease, boke is seen as an illness over which people have some degree of control. John Traphagan's ethnographic study of older Japanese explores their experiences as they contemplate and attempt to prevent or delay the boke condition.

About the Author

John W. Traphagan is Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Center for Gerontological Anthropology at California State University, Fullerton.