I have long been struck by the curious inattention to the subject of old age by ethnographers and folklorists. This is ironic insofar as fieldworkers have always sought to gather the fruits of their ethnological labor from old people. While it may be true that old people are more likely to be around during the day and have a larger corpus of information drawn from their chronological status, this doesn’t mean we should see them only as “data points.” It’s fair to wonder whether we shouldn’t interpret the nature and value of information drawn from elders within the context of its production, and whether the subjective and social experience of age itself might influence the character of that data. So, the question becomes not “what is culture?” but “what is old age?”
Folklorist Jon Kay, editor of the present book, is one of the small number of scholars within folklore to shift attention to the role that old age plays in cultural expression. Memory, Art, and Aging is a continuation of Kay’s work, now carried on for several years through Traditional Arts Indiana, his dissertation research, and the publication of Folk Art and Aging: Life-Story Objects and their Makers (2016). Building on his research and the contributions of his participants, Kay has now directed the production of a handbook and resource guide that will enable communities around the world to transform study into practice. In this effort, he collaborated with a host of researchers, editors, university units, and humanities organizations, not to mention a handful of amazing creative elders.
The thrust of this publication is both to illuminate the concept of wellbeing in late life and to provide a path to wellbeing through creative expression by elders, as may be enabled by communities and arts advocates. This is done by example, and this publication is replete with wonderfully rich examples of art, both traditional and contemporary, as produced by older Hoosiers. We see Hoosier canemakers, sculptors, woodcarvers, doll makers, miniaturists, painters, dancers, fiddlers, broommakers, old time music makers, storytellers, quilters, carriers of culinary traditions, railsplitters, hoop net makers, drummers, birdhousers, and, in bringing other traditions to Hoosierland, ceramicists, origamists, and calligraphers. What a wonderful cast of contributors brought together for this book!
The authors group creative expression into six major domains, each one introducing elder artists with lovely visuals, biographical information, and meaningful comments. These include Memory Art, Music, Quilting, Foodways, Generativity, and Daily Practice. Expression in each domain fulfills a number of important life tasks. Memory objects stimulate personal memory and reflection which can also be shared with others, or not. As the gerontologist Robert Butler suggested, reminiscing is a natural, or at least common, way to reflect upon one’s life in the search for meaning at the end. Much of the work that Kay has revealed over the years is embedded in this psychological process. Whether they are positive memories or recollected struggles, the memory objects bring meaning. Functions in other domains are social in nature: connecting people with music, building community and relationships through quilting, carrying on family traditions and lore through foodways, promoting generativity and legacy through intergenerational contact, and supporting good healthways through daily ritual, dance, and the physical labor of creative practice.
Kay demonstrates the common experience of flow, cited by multiple artists who note the accomplishment of another goal, one that would otherwise be impossible—the stoppage of time. Insofar as the “anti-aging” rhetoric of the advertising world is concerned (a rhetoric I abhor), it seems that creative expression is the truest form of that lifestyle.
While we learn much about the psychology of aging from this publication, it would narrow the contribution to assert that creative expression in late life primarily fulfills personal needs. That would be a reductive position, and, to its great credit, this publication positions the subject within a much broader social-cultural framework. It does this through complementing every story with ideas the reader can use to engage in creative practice through self-assessments and activities, guides for community events, suggested readings, related programs, and, to top it off, wonderful links to actual audio and visual performances of and by the creative participants featured in the work. Want to see and hear Archie Krout on his fiddle? Go to go.iu.edu/2kVR. Want to hear Jenny Kander discuss her whimsical dolls? Go to go.iu.edu/2FQ2. And that’s just a sampling.
As a student of aging myself (and now old), I would argue that this publication needs to reach a wider audience, beyond folklorists, though it paints a superlative picture of the role that folklorists can play in our society. Older adults themselves will find inspiration and a bit of instruction for the taking up of creative practice, whether it has been ignored lifelong or resuscitated in late life. Younger community members (from littles to adults) will experience similar inspiration and come away with increased knowledge about the experience of aging. Community activists and professionals in the field of aging will find new ways to build authentic community through luring elders back into the fold by tapping their memory, time, and talent. Gerontological scholars and researchers will move away from reductive models of aging that foreground physiology and see aging as a medical phenomenon. There is certainly plenty of public discourse lamenting the so-called tsunami of dementia in the community. This fine publication may help address the more serious problem of community dementia—the loss of community memory.
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[Review length: 901 words • Review posted on March 25, 2022]