Elderly women in a Hungarian village: Childlessness, generativity, and social control

This study considers the meaning of biological and cultural continuity, and the changing roles of older women in general and childless elderly women in particular in a Hungarian rural community, Cserepfalu. Data gathered from participant observation, life histories, and formal and informal interviews are supplemented with statistical, archival, secondary, and other documented material. After a glance at how childlessness is conceptualized in Cserepfalu, an overview of the social history, economy, demography, and ideology of the village is given. Then women's roles in the domestic economy, courting customs, and reproductive strategies are examined from a diachronic perspective. Finally it is suggested that, increasingly during the past four decades of radical, community-threatening social change, older women, including the childless, assumed the generative role of Kulturtrager (upholder, perpetuator of culture). They endeavor to guard selected, emically meaningful elements from the past, labor to govern the present, and thus attempt to guide the young thereby ensuring the future of their community.