Population Biology of the Elderly

Citation: Carey, Gruenfelder (1994) Population Biology of the Elderly.
Internet Archive Scholar (search for fulltext): Population Biology of the Elderly
Tagged: uw-madison (RSS), wisconsin (RSS), sociology (RSS), demography (RSS), prelim (RSS), qual (RSS), WisconsinDemographyPrelimAugust2009 (RSS)

Summary

"The overall theme of this paper is that, as a subgroup, the elderly [human and non-human] play important roles in the cohesion and dynamics of groups, populations, and communities. They serve as care-givers, as guardians, as leaders, as stabilizing centers, as teachers, as sexual consorts, and as midwives [depending on species]. The elderly are at an evolutionary forefront when their brood-care behavior contributes to population fitness, which, in turn, may lead to evolutionary sociality in insects and perhaps to evolutionary pathways in other species. Virtually all behaviors exhibited by the elderly have an evolutionary basis, yet evolutionary aspects of behavior are seldom considered in the contest of aging biology. Perhaps the time has come to expand the scope of gerontology and demography of aging to include behavioral to better incorporate the contributions of the elderly to the fitness of populations" (p. 152). Two key examples of how elderly contribute to the fitness of human populations are (1) care giving of grandchildren, which may help to explain the evolution of longevity since such care maximizes the probability of gene survival, and (2) leadership, which utilizes social experiences gained through longevity to maximize group cohesion and cooperation. As an interesting aside, "in humans, the role of the elderly at the oldest ages is becoming almost synonymous with the role of elderly women. The aging society is increasingly becoming a society of older women, often widows. Our future studies will examine whether this feminization of the elderly is general, whether there are gender-specific roles of the elderly, and, if so, how and why these exist" (p. 154)