The Cultural Context of “Successful Aging” Among Older Women Weavers in a Northern Okinawan Village: The Role of Productive Activity

Abstract

Basho-fu (Musa liukiuensis) weaving has long been part of the cultural identity of Ogimi villagers and has continued in the village as a cottage industry despite its almost complete disappearance throughout the rest of the Ryukyu archipelago. It has survived largely due to the concerted efforts of a few villagers and is now carried on mainly by middle-aged and older women. Almost every elderly woman in Ogimi has at least some experience in basho-fu weaving, and most still participate in some stage of the production process. Aged women form the bulk of the core group of workers that carries out the labor-intensive u-umi (spooling) and u-biki (fiber-cleaning) activities. Without this core group of elderly women, the whole production process would be in jeopardy. Thus, older women in Ogimi play a key role as valued workers in maintaining the basho-fu production process. In exchange for their continued participation, these elderly women receive symbolic capital in the form of respect and honors, as well as wages for their labor. We argue that participating in traditional basho-fu weaving helps these older women maintain an active engagement with life as healthy and productive members of society, a role that has been culturally sanctioned and has taken on moral import in Japan's rapidly aging society. Interestingly, "doing basho" may be considered one means to help achieve successful aging in this particular cultural context.

Alcohol dependency, recovery, and social words

“…Similarly, we can say that the friends, as a reference group, appear with equal weight in both samples' autobiographies, which can be read as identity expressions, but in the case of relapsed patients it includes also their fellow drinkers, while family members are less expressed and the communities representing sobriety, and the groups of any other social activity (not the drinking) are totally missing from their texts. The measured differences in the frequency of social words with verbal root have importance, not only in identity expressions, like the nominal, but they can refer to the degree of social activity (because they are verbs), which plays an important role in life longevity according to the research of the brothers Willcox et al (2007). Furthermore, a long life span in the case of alcohol-dependent patients evidently means recovery.…”

“…Some research about life longevity and its background factors proved that the elderly retained social activity, besides alimentation and sleeping habits, which play an important role in a long human life span (Willcox, Willcox, Sokolovsky, & Sakihara, 2007). Pressman and Cohan (2007) proved in a recently published study that life longevity is measured in connection with the individual's social support network.…”

Yaşlanma, birey ve toplum: Yaşlanmaya sosyolojik bakış

“…Sosyalizasyon süreci içinde genç kuşaklardan başlayarak bu değerler aile, okul gibi temel sosyalizasyon ajanları yardımıyla kazandırılmaktadır. Sosyal bir çevreye sahip olma, herkes tarafından beğenilme, değişime olumlu yaklaşma gibi nitelikler de üretkenlik ve başarıya eşlik eden kültür içindeki diğer önemli sosyal değerler olarak ortaya çıkmakta ve benimsenmektedir (13). Buna ilişkin bir örnek, ABD'de yaşayan ve oraya gençken göç etmiş ABD asıllı Japon yaşlıları ile ABD yaşlıları arasındaki başarılı yaşlanmaya ilişkin tutum karşılaştırma çalışmasıdır.…”

“…Bu dokuma işinde çalışma onları, sosyal yaşamın içinde tutmakta, para kazandırmakta, geleneksel anlamda statü sahibi yapmakta, kendilerini daha iyi hissetmelerini sağlamaktadır. Geleneğin koruyucusu olarak adlandırılan bu kadınlar için başarılı yaşlanma, bu aktiviteyi yapabilmektir (13).…”

Progress in Infant Health in Okinawa, Japan

“…5 Others have concentrated on social factors and have noted that older persons are valued in Okinawan society and culture. 6 Apart from being known for its longevity in 1980, Okinawa has shown a considerable improvement in child health during the past 4 decades. Secular trends of infant mortality rate (IMR) shows there were 3 phases to achieve the improvement.…”