Senescence, the Last Half of LifeHall, G. Stanley (Granville Stanley)
Science
Senescence, the Last Half of Life
Hall, G. Stanley (Granville Stanley)
Geriatrics
Otis T. Mason and A. F. Chamberlain have stressed the significance
of woman’s work in the early stages of the development of the human
race, and if it be true that in witchcraft we have a recrudescence of
the reactions of man to this preëminence of the other sex, in which
woman in her least attractive form--all shriveled, toothless, and as a
vicious trouble-maker--is caricatured in the long war of sex against
sex, we certainly have here considerable confirmation of some of the
views now represented by John M. Tyler[63] that prehistoric woman led
mankind in the early stages of its upward march toward civilization.
In the eternal struggle of old people to maintain their power against
the oncoming generations which would submerge or sweep them away,
witchcraft on this view represents the very latest stage of a long
and losing struggle of old women for place and influence who in the
last resort did not scruple, handicapped though they were by ugliness,
neglect, and contempt, to cling to the least and last remnants of their
ancient prerogatives.
The attitude of children toward old people is interesting and
significant, but it is very difficult to distinguish between their own
indigenous and intrinsic feelings and the conventionalities of respect
and even the outer forms of convention that society has imposed upon
them. Many children live with their grandparents and the attitude of
the latter toward the former makes, of course, a great difference.
Both, especially grandmothers, are prone to be over-indulgent and
often allow children greater liberties than the mother would--under
the influence, doubtless, of the very strong instinct to win their
good-will. But it is very doubtful if the average child loves the
grandmother as much as it is loved by her.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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