LIMITATIONS OF AN AGING BODY: SOCIO-CULTURAL AND NATURAL FACTORS

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to try to answer what kind of limitations do people whom science and society classify in the category of old, elderly people, encounter – these limitations are directly connected with bodily changes determined by the passing of time. The difference between scientific and societal definition of old age is that science defines old age as a period beginning once a person turns 65, while society identifies it with time following the exclusion from the sphere of labor, i. e. retirement, which additionally enlarges the span of people perceived as old in a society. Data consists of answers of ten informants divided into two categories based on their activity and self-dependence in their everyday lives: the category of active old persons, and category of inactive elderly people, who are dependent on the assistance of others.