南アジア・インド洋世界研究会

International Seminar on Aging in USA and Sri Lanka

Date and Time: Tuesday 20th May, 16:30-
Venue: Medium size meeting room, 3rd Floor, Inamori Building.
Map: http://www.asafas.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/about/access/campus_maps

Presentation 1.
Sae Nakamura,
When 'Destitute' Turn Into Respected Old People:
Performative Aspect of Dana (gift) Relationship at Old Folks’ Home in Sri Lanka.

Presentation 2.
Caitrin Lynch (Olin College of Engineering) Recognition on the Line:
Membership and Mattering for Older Adult Factory Workers in the United States

Discussant
Yoko Hayami, Center for Southeast Asian Studies

Moderator
Tatsuro Fujikura, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies

Co-organized by South Asia and Indian Ocean Studies Group, Kokoro Center, KINDAS Seminar and KIDAS Group 2.

Contact: Tatsuro Fujikura fujikura[at]asafas.kyoto-u.ac.jp
http://www.asafas.kyoto-u.ac.jp/

ABSTRACTS

When 'Destitute' Turn Into Respected Old People:
Performative Aspect of Dana (gift) Relatioship at Old Folks’ Home
in Sri Lanka.

Sae Nakamura

Old folks’ home was first introduced to the island in the colonial period as a form of Christian charity, and today is proliferating around its urban centres. While it is a very controversial phenomena, image of ‘destitute elders’ has gathered people’s attention to engage in da-na practices. Donors do pity old inmates. Interestingly, however, they are at times deeply involved in and ideally moved by during the gift practice, displaying a feeling of esteem and respect towards old inmates. In turn, inmates perform memorial service for the deceased kin of the donors as upasika/upasaka(religiously inclined old laymen/women), thereby participating together in the merit-making activity.

This presentation seeks to discuss following issues. First, by examining the historical process of indigenization of Christian charity into a more locally nuanced practice, it will give an example of transformation of function/meaning of conventional gift practice through an encounter with other religious tradition. Second, against existing understanding of da-na which explains its ethics in terms of‘intention’ and ‘status of the recipient,’ I will argue that meaningful experience for those engaged in gift relations may be understood by looking at the performativity of gift practice. The fact that even in philanthropic gift relations its face-to-face encounter turns both the donor and recipient into ‘moral agents’ may have a great importance, especially in modern context where more and more old people live in alternative social relationships apart from family.

Recognition on the Line:
Membership and Mattering for Older Adult Factory Workers
in the United States

Caitrin Lynch

Abstract: Vita Needle Company is a family-owned factory in a Boston suburb where the median age of the 40 employees is 75, and the eldest recently stopped working a week before her 101st birthday. The fiscal significance of the paycheck varies among Vita’s employees who have diverse financial circumstances. More than a place to earn a paycheck, Vita enables life for older adults who may otherwise be written-off in U.S. society as useless, invisible, and no longer human. Workers contrast their lives inside and outside work. The assembly work process enables daily instances of importance and recognition: the speed and quality of one person’s work affect that of the next person on the line. The workers’ sense of value comes through being needed and useful, a strong contrast to American cultural expectations that old people are useless and should be “put out to pasture” (like useless farm animals too old to work that are left to spend their days grazing in the pasture). Their sense of value comes from doing something for someone and in the company of others; it also comes from being able to sell their labor, even if at minimum wage. Workers relish the sense of cooperation and support on the line―and the value of being appreciated and recognized as good workers whose labor is essential to the business. By analyzing the dynamics of recognition and invisibility for Vita Needle’s older workers, we can begin to understand how mis-recognition or non-recognition (invisibility) pose different problems and demand creative solutions at different stages of the life course.