Taming Oblivion: Aging Bodies and the Fear of Senility in Japan
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.
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Taming Oblivion: Aging Bodies and the Fear of Senility in Japan
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.
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Taming Oblivion: Aging Bodies and the Fear of Senility in Japan

Taming Oblivion: Aging Bodies and the Fear of Senility in Japan

by John Traphagan
Taming Oblivion: Aging Bodies and the Fear of Senility in Japan

Taming Oblivion: Aging Bodies and the Fear of Senility in Japan

by John Traphagan

Hardcover

$40.00 
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Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9798887190969
Publisher: Academic Studies Press
Publication date: 12/06/2022
Series: Contemporary Eastern Studies
Pages: 330
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.00(d)
Language: Russian

About the Author

John W. Traphagan is an anthropologist and Professor in the Program in Human Dimensions of Organizations at the University of Texas at Austin. He also is a Visiting Professor in the Center for International Education at Waseda Universityin Tokyo. His most recent books on Japan include Cosmopolitan Rurality, Depopulation, and Entrepreneurial Ecosystems in 21 st Century Japan (2020) and The Blood of Gutoku: A Jack Riddley Mystery in Japan (2021).
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