The cultural construction of aging and dying in a Melanesian community

Contrasts that have been drawn between premodern and modern societies with respect to aging and dying suggest that modern medical technology has introduced profound changes into these processes. Drawing on the anthropological literature and their own research in Papua, New Guinea, the authors argue that in most respects the contrast is spurious. As both the processes of aging and of dying are cultural constructs, they are as likely to be complex phenomena in simple societies as they are in our own.