Attitude Towards Old Age and Older People Through History
Keywords:
age, older generation, attitude to old age, postmodern societyAbstract
The paper points to the current attitude of wider society to the old age, aging and older people in postmodern society through historical perspective. Due to the intensive aging of the population in Western societies, a global sociological analysis of the situation of older people and intergenerational relations is required also considering other cultures and the past. For this purpose, the author highlights the fundamental features of the perception of age and older people in ancient cultures, pre-industrial societies and postmodern societies. On the basis of analyses of a wider professional literature, the author notes that throughout the history there has been an ambivalent attitude to old age and older people, which tends to have negative attitudes in modern societies – which can even be described as a fear of aging.
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