Old age in indigenous contexts and extreme poverty in Chiapas

Abstract

Objective: This work seeks to understand how indigenous societies, specifically the Zoque people from northeast Chiapas, devise survival strategies to confront old age in an economically and socially disadvantaged situation, especially given that they live in extreme poverty and highly marginalized societies. Despite facing adverse situations in old age, some indigenous groups are growing above the national average, although the growth of most groups continues to be below average.

In indigenous communities old age can no longer be explained in terms of the native culture, as did ethnographers who generally described an idyllic and homogeneous old age, and elderly males as being full of gerontocratic characteristics. The reality is more complex. There are various “routes” or ways for people to age, depending on their “degree of ageing”, their sex, their general health, their social status, their social support networks, the economy and the spiritual and religious aspects of their lives. The sum of these defines, to a great extent, a way of ageing that may or may not be “successful”. According to this characterization there are different types of “old age”, not only one.

The indigenous populations continue to be the most unprotected. If government assistance programmes were aimed only at the needs of the elderly, they would grow and live longer than reported in the official statistics.

Methods: To analyze the survival strategies that allow them to reach advanced ages, 25 elderly persons (16 men and 9 women) over 75 years old (the average life expectancy in Mexico) and living in extreme poverty were selected. During the field work in-depth interviews were conducted of all 25 participants. Each interview was video recorded – with the permission of the interviewee – and transcribed for inclusion in the work.

Main results: Given the situations of extreme marginalization and poverty in which people grow old in indigenous communities, and how they cease productive activity without any social benefits, the elderly have to work with all their might (physical work), skills (the religiously devoted, healers, dancers, etc.) and capabilities (mental, such as lucidity; health, auditory capacity; support from family, friends, neighbours, the church, etc.) to develop survival strategies that help them avoid death at an early age. As a result, their numbers are growing on par with or above the national average. Support links in old age are formed through religious community support networks, affective and supportive relationships with family and friends, and government programmes of economic support for the elderly.