シリオノの高齢者の取り扱い（Holmberg 1950:85）

OLD AGE： The aged experience an unpleasant time of it in Siriono society. Since status is determined largely by immediate utility to the group, the inability of the aged to compete with the younger members of the society places them somewhat in the category of excess baggage. Having outlived their usefulness, they are relegated to a position of obscurity. ActuaJIy the aged are quite a burden. They eat but are unable to hunt, fish, or collect food; they sometimes hoard a young spouse but are unable to beget children; they move at a snail's pace and hinder the mobility of the group.

Where existence depends upon direct utility, however, longevity is not great. The aged and infirm are weeded out shortly after their decrepitude begins to appear. Consequently, the Siriono band rarely contains many members who belong to generations above the parent or below the child. At Tibaera there were only four grandparent-grandchild relationships, and great-grandparents and great-grandchildren did not exist. Although this is a hazardous guess, the average life span of the Siriono --- discounting infant mortality --- probably falls somewhere between the ages of 35 and 40.

Besides the inability of the aged to perform as well as younger members of the society, certain physical signs of senescence are also recognized. Women who have passed through the menopause are assigned to the category of anility. Deep wrinkles, heavy beards in men, gray hair (occurs very rarely), stooped shoulders, and a halting gait are regarded as signs of old age.

When a. person becomes too ill or infirm to follow the fortunes of the band, he is abandoned to shift for himself. Since this was the fate of a sick Indian whom I knew, the details of her case will best serve to illustrate the treatment accorded the aged in Siriono society .. The case in question occurred while I was wandering with the Indians near Yaguaru, Guarayos. The band decided to make a move in the direction of the Rio Blanco. While they were making preparations for the journey, my attention was called to a middle-aged woman who was lying sick in her hammock, too sick to speak. I inquired of the chief what they planned to do with her. He referred me to her husband who told me that she would be left to die because she was too ill to walk and because she was going to die anyway. Departure was scheduled for the following morning. I was on hand to observe the event. The entire band walked out of the camp without so much as a farewell to the dying woman. Even her husband departed without saying good-by. She was left with fire, a calabash of water, her personal belongings, and nothing more. She was too sick to protest.

After the band had left, I set out in company with. a number of Indians for the Mission of Yaguaru to cure myself of an eye ailment. On my return about 3 weeks later, I passed by the same spot again. I went into the house, but found no sign of the woman there. I continued my journey down the trail in the direction of Tibaera and soon came upon a hut in which the band had camped the day I parted from them. Just outside of this shelter were the remains (and hammock) of the sick woman. By this time, of course, the ants and vultures had stripped the bones clean. She had tried her utmost to follow the fortunes of the band, but had failed and had experienced the same fate that is accorded all Siriono whose days of utility are over.

［出典］Nomads of the long bow : the Siriono of Eastern Bolivia / Allan R. Holmberg, U.S. Government Printing Office (1950)

【設問】

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リンク

• 加齢現象（エイジング）の文化人類学［エイジングの文化人類学］／グローバルエージングと人類学的アプローチ／老年人類学入門・加齢現象の文化人類学入門／／／
  

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出典：「嬰児殺しと棄老に関する考察ノー ト」

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