| Popis: |
The Alaska Native (AN) life cycle is circular and fluid, with each aspect explaining and informing the process of aging within one’s context and understood through concepts of quality of life, successful aging, and life span development. This is particularly critical given the changing social, familial, and cultural structures of the AN context, beginning at colonization and persisting to the present. Holistic, strengths-based, and indigenized approaches to aging and caregiving are imperative to unraveling the systemic, community, and group stigma and marginalization, while simultaneously underscoring the resilience and power of AN cultural models of aging well. This chapter discusses research findings based on a grounded theory approach that was used to understand AN Elder perceptions of memory and views on aging through a wisdom-based, cultural framework. A purposive sample of 12 Alaska Native Elders were interviewed, and qualitative analyses revealed eight overarching and interconnected themes. These themes are inextricably linked to cultural group identity, collectivism, and a spiritualized view of eldership embedded in the AN life cycle. Conceivably, life span developmental theories may provide foundational tenets for the AN life cycle, thus providing a framework to enhance and expand an explanatory and culturally based theoretical framework for understanding aging as a process from birth to the grave and beyond. |
