Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Respect and reciprocity: Care of elderly people in rural Ghana

  • Published:
Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This article deals with ideas and practices ofcare of elderly people in a rural Kwahucommunity of Ghana. It is part of a largerproject on social and cultural meanings ofgrowing old. Four questions are addressed: Whatkind of care do old people receive? Whoprovides that care? On what basis do peoplecare for the old or do they feel obliged to doso? And finally, what are the changes takingplace in the field of care for old people?Concepts of respect and reciprocity take acentral position in accounts of care and lackof care. The article is based onanthropological fieldwork, mainly conversationswith 35 elderly people and observations intheir daily lives.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Apt, N. A. (1993). Care of the elderly in Ghana: An emerging issue, Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology 8: 301–312.

    Google Scholar 

  • Apt, N. A. (1996). Coping with old age in a changing Africa: Social change and the elderly Ghanaian. Aldershot: Avebury.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arhinful, D. K. (2001). ”We think of them” How Ghanaian migrants assist relatives at home. Leiden: African Studies Centre.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bleek, W. (1975). Marriage, inheritance and witchcraft: A case study of a rural Ghanaian family. Leiden: African-Studies Centre.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bleek, W. (1977). Marriage in Kwahu, Ghana. In S.A. Roberts (eds), Law and the family in Africa (pp. 183–204). The Hague/Paris: Mouton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Desjarlais, R. R. (1991). Poetic transformations of Yolmo “sadness”, Culture, Medicine & Psychiatry 15(4): 387–420.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Witte, M. (2001). Long live the dead! Changing funeral celebrations in Asante, Ghana.Amsterdam: Aksant.

    Google Scholar 

  • Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of culture. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heidegger, M. (1962). Being and time. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackson, M. (1989). Paths towards a clearing. Radical empiricism and ethnographic inquiry.Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayerhoff, M. (1971). On caring. New York, etc.: Perennial Library, Harper & Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Neugarten, B. L. (1985). Interpretive social science and research on aging. In A.S. Ross (eds), Gender and the life course (pp. 291–300). New York: Aldine.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oppong, C. (1974). Marriage among a matrilineal elite. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ]Radstake, M. (2000). Secrecy and ambiguity: Home care for people living with HIV/AIDS in Ghana. Leiden: African Studies Centre, Research Report p. 59.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stucki, B. R. (1995). Managing the social clock: The negotiation of elderhood among rural Asante of Ghana Ph.D. Thesis, Northwestern University, Evanston, US.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tronto, J. C. (1993). Moral boundaries. A political argument for an ethic of care. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van den Brink, G. (1999). Een schaars goed. De betekenis van zorg in de hedendaagse levensloop. Utrecht: NIZW.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van der Geest, S. (1995). Old people and funerals in a rural Ghanaian community: Ambiguities in family care, Southern African Journal of Gerontology 4(2): 33–40.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van der Geest, S. (1997a). Money and respect: The changing value of old age in rural Ghana, Africa 67(4): 534–559.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van der Geest, S. (1997b.). Between respect and reciprocity:Managing old age in rural Ghana, Southern African Journal of Gerontology 6(2): 20–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van der Geest, S. (1998a). panyin: The ideal of elder in the Akan culture of Ghana, Canadian Journal of African Studies 32(3): 449–493.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van der Geest, S. (1998b). Yebisa wo fie: Growing old and building a house in the Akan culture of Ghana, Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology 13(4): 333–359.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van der Geest, S. (1998c). Akan shit: Getting rid of dirt in Ghana, Anthropology Today 14(3): 8–12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van der Geest, S. (2000). Funerals for the living: Conversations with elderly people in Kwahu, Ghana, African Studies Review 43(3): 103–129.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van der Geest, S. (2002). The toilet: Dignity, privacy and care of elderly people in Kwahu, Ghana. In S. Makoni & K. Stroeken (eds), Sociolinguistic and anthropological approaches to ageing in Africa (pp. 227–244). Aldershot: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wengle, J. (1987). Death and rebirth in fieldwork: A case study, Culture, Medicine & Psychiatry 1(3): 357–385.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Medical Anthropology Unit, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Sjaak Van der Geest

Authors
  1. Sjaak Van der Geest
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Van der Geest, S. Respect and reciprocity: Care of elderly people in rural Ghana. Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology 17, 3–31 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1014843004627

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1014843004627

Search

Navigation