This study provides a cross-cultural examination of the definitions of old age. Further research on these definitions and their implications is suggested.

This study examines the status and treatment of the elderly in non-industrial societies. Associations are found between social complexity, subsistence type, and the status and treatment of the elderly.

This study discusses the distribution of the treatment of the aged across a sample of pre-industrial societies. Data illustrate that the elderly were treated in a non-supportive or death-hastening manner in the majority of societies, dispelling the notion that a golden age/isle existed in pre-industrial societies in which the elderly were revered and supported. Results also suggest a relationship between age and treatment of the elderly and climate, social, and subsistence variables and the treatment of the aged.

This article describes categories of deference toward elderly men and women. The authors test for significant differences in the types of deference elderly men and women enjoy, finding that men experience more victual and linguistic deference. Elderly women enjoy more service deference than men, but the difference is not significant.

This study examines the treatment of the aged in different societies. Support was found for the hypothesis that the amount information controlled by the aged is positively associated with the degree of esteem in which they are held by other members of the society.

This article focuses on the cross-cultural data comparing the relationship between changes in status and availability of important roles, with an emphasis on women. Cultural and structural aspects of society are examined to discover their relationship to the position of women after their child-bearing years.

Explores 109 traits relating primarily to physical habitat, economy, political and social organization, and religion, to see how they relate to the role and treatment of the aged. General patterns were sought. Numerous ethnographic examples are given.

This article examines the status of the elderly cross-culturally, proposing that familial complexity, unlineal descent, and unilocal residence are predictors of high status. The authors theorize that elderly male status will be highest in patrilineal and patrilocal societies; elderly female status will be highest in matrilineal and matrilocal societies. Some support is found for these patterns, but the authors ultimately regard them as too simple to adequately predict status of the elderly.

This article examines the relationship between respect for the elderly and their socially valued activities. Support is found for this association under certain conditions: it is significant with independent families in societies with no belief in a single god and absence of slavery. Theories of disengagement and activity among the elderly are also discussed, and the authors propose that they be considered as a continuum.

This chapter examines correlates of gerontrocide. Previously suggested predictors, such as nomadism and harsh climate, were not found to be associated with gerontrocide, but data suggested that several other variables such as social stratification, subsistence type, and rule of descent, are significant predictors.