Attitudes towards family and the aged

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7.2.1 Attitudes towards family and the aged

Three examples of attitudes displayed by certain Rotokas people give an overview of respect towards different age groups starting with the youngest. The councilor of Togarao village had five daughters when we came to live next door. His wife was expecting their sixth child. He was very hopeful that it would be a son. When his wife gave birth to another daughter, he was very angry. Unfortunately, the little girl was born with a deformed foot and a cleft palate. Because of these physical conditions and his desire for a son, the man reminded us from time to time that the child was a great disappointment. Over the years, we saw this attitude change, and today the teenage girl is a very happy part of the family. This same man would often see our tape recorder in operation during language analysis sessions. We would record his children’s voices and play it back for the family to hear. One day the father came to me and wanted us to buy a tape recorder for his children. He indicated that he actually wanted to buy a radio, but the children had asked for the tape recorder, so that was what he intended to buy. In those early years, tape recorders were not in common use and were very impractical. This fact did not seem to affect his commitment to satisfying the children’s desires. He was going to buy the recorder for the children’s sake. As it turned out, he lost interest after learning what the price was for tape recorders. The children seemed to love him just as much. It is interesting that in the years since, with income from cocoa and the popularization of tape recorders, there is no lack of expensive portable stereo sound equipment in Rotokas villages today. An expatriate nurse told us of an incident which reflected the attitude towards the very aged at that time 1968. While visiting a neighboring village, the residents asked her to look at a “sick old woman.” The nurse found the woman and guessed that they had left her to die. She was very hungry and thirsty, being too ill to get her own food. None was being supplied for her. She was living a short distance from the village in a hut with a meager supply of firewood. The old woman was seen lying on a banana leaf out in the village one day. I asked if she were sick. Another woman replied that she was and that she had said that her legs were too weak to walk to the Government Aid Post. The old woman knew that she would die soon. Someone else said to just leave her alone; that she would, in fact, die in the near future. No efforts were made to carry her to the Aid Post. Not a great deal of concern was shown for her as she lay there. The old woman somehow survived that ordeal and lived on. Some time later, she was again near death. She was considered past the recovery stage. A coffin was made for her. Again, however, she recovered to everyone’s surprise. As recently as 1982, the coffin was still unused. The old woman was as healthy as ever, carrying firewood and babysitting. In contrast to these examples of attitudes towards aged women, at the same time, there was a well-cared- for older woman living in Togarao village. Being strong enough to continue bringing firewood and gathering food for herself, she was no burden on the family. I believe it is important to note that in the early 1980s, as an effect of the “spiritual renewal” in the several Rotokas villages located in the upper Wakunai river valley, the attitude towards older people changed remarkably. Groups of young people took it upon themselves to gather firewood for the elderly. If an older person were unable to handle gardening chores, the young people would organize themselves to spend a day or more preparing a garden area, cleaning the garden, harvesting, or whatever was necessary. There was agreement among them that this was the right thing to do, according to the Bible.

7.2.2 Attitudes toward the sick