Linked Lives: Elder Care, Migration, and Kinship in Sri Lanka

ISBN

9781978815308

Document Type

Book

Publication Date

11-2020

Subjects

Older people -- Care, Gerontology, Older people -- Sri Lanka -- Social conditions

Abstract

When youth shake off their rural roots and middle-aged people migrate for economic opportunities, what happens to the grandparents left at home? Linked Lives provides readers with intimate glimpses into homes in a Sri Lankan Buddhist village, where elders wisely use their moral authority and their control over valuable property to assure that they receive both physical and spiritual care when they need it. The care work that grandparents do for grandchildren allows labor migration and contributes to the overall well-being of the extended family. The book considers the efforts migrant workers make to build and buy houses and the ways those rooms and walls constrain social activities. It outlines the strategies elders employ to age in place, and the alternatives they face in local old folks’ homes. Based on ethnographic work done over a decade, Michele Gamburd shows how elders face the challenges of a rapidly globalizing world.

Rights

© Copyright 2020 Rutgers University Press

Locate the Document

Published by Rutgers University Press

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/34020

Link to Book

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