Anthropology & Aging Quarterly 2010: 31 (3-4) 53 Features AAGE 2010 Guide to the Meetings: Navigating and Networking at the 2010 American Anthropological Association (AAA) and Gerontological Society of America (GSA) Meetings Association for Anthropology and Gerontology (AAGE) Table at AAA: AAGE members and authors of anthropology and aging related books will be hosting the table beginning Thursday at 9a.m. At the booth, issues of AAQ, tee-shirts, book displays, and a silent auction of new books for the Climo Student Award will be featured. Make a bid for a book (or books) in the Silent Auction. New books in this year’s Silent Auction include Mary Catherine Bateson’s Composing a Further Life: the Age of Active Wisdom (Knopf, 2010); Janice Graham and Peter Stephenson’s edited volume, Contesting Aging and Loss (U. of Toronto Press, 2010); and Satsuki Kawano’s Nature’s Embrace: Japan’s Aging Urbanites and New Death Rites (U. of Hawai‘i Press, 2010). INTEREST GROUP EVENT: AAA Aging and Life Course Interest Group Meeting and Interlocutor Event, Friday, 12:15-1:30 (Salon 801), 8th floor, Sheraton. Reception and Interlocutor Discussion with noted gerontologist Dr. Anne Basting, Director of the Center on Age & Community at the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee. She will be interviewed by anthropologist Jay Sokolovsky regarding her new book Forget Memory: Creating Better Lives for People With Dementia (2009). This pathbreaking volume looks at the cultural forces at play in shaping the way we value and care for people with memory loss. AAGE DINNER: Friday, 7:30 p.m.. Place to be determined and posted on the AAGE website (www. clubexpress.com/aage). Sign up at the AAGE table in New Orleans or e-mail jsoko@earthlink.net. We welcome all to join us. AAGE BUSINESS MEETING AND NETWORKING EVENT: Saturday, 12:30AM-1:30PM in Melrose Room at Hilton New Orleans Riverside (2 Poydras Street). Students, early career faculty, experienced scholars, practitioners, and others interested in exploring sub-disciplinary professional development opportunities and service opportunities are warmly welcomed. OTHER PARTICIPATING AGING AND GERONTOLOGY ORGANIZATIONS AAA Aging and the Life Course Interest Group: The consequences of global aging will influence virtually every topic studied by anthropologists, including the biological limits of the human life span, generational exchange and kinship, household and community formations, symbolic representations of the life course, and attitudes toward disability and death. A major goal of this interest group is to bring together anthropologists whose work addresses such issues both in and outside of academia. Membership is free but you must be an AAA member. Convener Jay Sokolovsky (jsoko@earthlink.net) The Gerontological Society of America (GSA): The meeting of this organization that supports aging research is overlapping in New Orleans with the AAA, from Nov 19-23 at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside Hotel (2 Poydras Street). The AAGE networking event on Saturday afternoon is at the Hilton. In addition, several AAA Aging and the Life Course Interest Group and AAGE members are giving papers and posters at this meeting. GSA Interest Groups include Qualitative Research, Rural Aging, International Aging and Migration, Aging in Asia, and Chinese Gerontology. Anthropology & Aging Quarterly 2010: 31 (3-4) 54 Features Anthropology and Aging at the 2010 American Anthropological Association Meeting Note: Titles in bold are AAGE key events or featured presentations. Abstracts for featured presentations (in alphabetical order by first author’s last name) follow the listing of events. Wednesday, November 17 • 12 p.m. Alexandra Crampton: THE CIRCULATION OF GLOBAL AGING THROUGH SOCIAL INTERVENTION WORK • 12 p.m. XOCHITL RUIZ FOOD, KINSHIP, AND GROWING OLDER IN BOGOTÃCOLOMBIA • 12:30 p.m. Marty Martinson CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE PROMOTION OF OLDER ADULT VOLUNTEERISM • 2:15 p.m. Jessica Robbins MORAL AND MEMORIAL NARRATIVE PRACTICES: AGING AND MEMORY IN A POLISH REHABILITATION CENTER • 3 p.m. Michele Gamburd MIGRANT REMITTANCES: POPULATION AGEING, AND INTERGENERATIONAL FAMILY OBLIGATIONS IN SRI LANKA • 3 p.m. Elizabeth Finnis ENVIRONMENTAL UNCERTAINTY, AGING, AND MIGRATION: EXAMINATIONS OF AGRICULTURAL DECISION-MAKING IN RURAL PARAGUAY • 3:15 p.m. Catrin Lynch CIRCULATION PERSPECTIVES ON AGING, WORK, AND THE GRAYING OF SOCIETY • 4 - 5:45 p.m. Session AGING, BEREAVEMENT, DEATH AND DYING • 4 - 5:45 p.m. Jason Danely MEMORIAL AS THE CIRCULATION OF DESIRE: MOURNING, SUBJECTIVITY AND THE LIFE CYCLE IN JAPAN • 4:30 p.m. Elana Buch ORDERING THE HOUSE OF SQUALOR: PROTECTING PERSONHOOD AGAINST PATHOLOGIZING PRACTICE IN US HOME CARE OF OLDER ADULTS • 5 p.m. Daniella Santoro ACT YOUR AGE: LOCAL CONCEPTIONS OF HEALTH AND THE AGING BODY IN NEW ORLEANS SECONDLINES • 5:15 p.m. Deborah Durham MAKING PARENTHOOD IN TURKEY: AN INQUIRY INTO AGING PARENTS • 5:30 p.m. J Dylan Turner OUT OF CIRCULATION? LATE-LIFE EXCHANGES OF CHILDLESS MEN • 8:30 p.m. Matthew Lauer FROM YE’KWANA EPISTEMOLOGY TO AN ANTHROPOLOGY OF GROWTH AND HUMAN REPRODUCTION IN AMAZONIA • 9:15 p.m. Alexis Matza CIRCULATING TESTOSTERONE Thursday, November 18 • 8 - 11:30 a.m. AAA Invited Double Session Andrea Sankar and Athena Mclean, organizers CIRCULATING THE LIFE COURSE: TOWARDS AN ANTHROPOLOGY OF CARE AND CAREGIVING • 8 a.m. Session, Bjarke Oxlund, organizer AGING AND DYING • 11 a.m. Maria Cattell TIME’S LABYRINTH: UNWINDING THE THREAD IN WESTERN KENYA. Note: Senior Anthropologists’ invited session on long-term research (aging and the life course). This session on long-term research, “Return to the Natives,” was organized by Alice Kehoe. It will take place on Thursday, November 18, 8:00 to 11:30 am. Marjorie Schweitzer, a past AAGE president, is listed as a presenter, but Marge is busy with caregiving for her husband John and will not be able to go to New Orleans. Friday, November 19 • 9 a.m. Patti Meyer CARE FOR THE CAREWORKERS: SUBJECT POSITIONS AND HEALTH- Anthropology & Aging Quarterly 2010: 31 (3-4) 55 Features SEEKING STRATEGIES OF IMMIGRANT CAREWORKERS LABORING IN THE HOMES OF ELDERS IN GENOA • 12:15 - 1:30 p.m. AAA INTEREST GROUP, AGING AND THE LIFE COURSE MEETING AND INTERLOCUTOR SESSION: Salon 801, Eighth Floor, Sheraton. 12:15-12:30 p.m. Reception and Presentation of the book authors donating books for the Climo Memorial Student Fund. 12:30 – 1:10 p.m. Interlocutor discussion with noted gerontologist Dr. Anne Basting on her new book, Forget Memory, hosted by Jay Sokolovsky with additional questions from the audience. • 4 - 5:45 p.m. Isabelle Joyal Poster THE RETIREMENT OF SENIOR EXECUTIVES WOMEN: TURNING POINTS AND CREATIVITY • 4:30 p.m. Andrea Nevedal I`M DAMAGED GOODS: UNDERSTANDING HOW HIV CIRCULATES THROUGH THE LIVES OF OLDER AFRICAN AMERICANS WITH HIV • 7:30 p.m. AAGE Dinner. SIGN UP AT THE AAGE TABLE. We welcome you to join us. Saturday, November 20 • 8 - 9:45 a.m. Poster, organized by Peggy Perkinson THE NAPA-OT FIELD SCHOOL IN ANTIGUA, GUATEMALA: CIRCULATING THEORY AND PRACTICE ACROSS DISCIPLINARY BOUNDARAIES OF ANTHROPOLOGY, OCCUPATIONAL SCIENCE/THERAPY, AND DISABILITY STUDIES • 10:15 a.m. – 12pm Kimberly Jones TWENTY YEARS OF UNIVERSAL PUBLIC HEALTHCARE IN BRAZIL: A CASE STUDY FROM THE BRAZILIAN SERTÃO • 1:45 to 3:30 p.m. AFAA Invited Roundtable honoring Nancy (Penny) Schwartz DREAMING IN COLOR ABOUT BLACK MARYS: WOMEN’S POSTMORTEM AGENCY, TRANSSPECIES ANTHROPOLOGY, ELEPHANT DRUG, AND OTHER ASPECTS OF KENYA LUO CULTURE AND THEIR BROADER IMPLICATIONS • 3-5p.m. Poster, Vendelin Tarmo Simon SEXUALITY AMONG ELDERLY PEOPLE IN TANZANIA; IS IT MYTH OR TABOO • 4:45 p.m. Jeanne Shea “I’M NOT WILLING TO DEPEND ON MY CHILDREN”: RESISTANCE TO LATER LIFE FAMILIAL DEPENDENCE BY OLDER CHINESE WOMEN IN BEIJING Sunday, November 21 • 9:30 – 11a.m. Invitation only Brunch for the Berghahn series on aging and the life course editorial board and authors. • 10:15 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Session, Lori Jervis and Wayne Warry, organizers CULTURE, HEALTH, AGING AND NATIVE NORTH AMERICAN COMMUNITIES o Sylvia Abonyi and Marie Favel. Marie’s Story of Aging Well: Toward New Perspectives on the Experience of Aging for Aboriginal Seniors in Canada. o Lori L. Jervis and William Sconzert-Hall. Abuse, Neglect, and the Meaning of Respect for Urban and Rural Native Elders. o Wayne Warry and Kristen Jacklin. Forgetting and Forgotten: Dementia in Aboriginal Seniors. o Jessica E. Pace. Understanding the Impacts of Culture and Cognitive Health on Contemporary Aboriginal Peoples’ Experience with Aging. o J. Neil Henderson, L. Carson Henderson, Ryan Blanton, and Steven Gomez. Perspectives on Brain Autopsy, Diabetic Amputations, and End-of-Life Issues among Elderly American Indian People. Anthropology & Aging Quarterly 2010: 31 (3-4) 56 Features Anthropology and Aging at the 2010 Gerontological Society of America Meeting Friday, November 19 • Pre-Conference Workshop on Using Film and Digital Media in Aging Research Saturday November 20 • 12:30 a.m. -1:30 p.m. AAGE BUSINESS MEETING AND NETWORKING EVENT: Melrose Room at Hilton New Orleans Riverside Students, early career faculty, experienced scholars and practitioners in the field, and all others interested in exploring sub-disciplinary professional development are warmly welcomed. • 2:30 - 4:00 p.m. Poster, Lori L. Jervis and William Sconzert-Hall CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF MISTREATMENT AMONG AMERICAN INDIAN ELDERS • 2:30 – 4 P.M. Poster, Caitrin Lynch WORKING RETIREMENT: LESSONS ABOUT AGING, PRODUCTIVITY, PURPOSE, AND SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT FROM A SUBURBAN BOSTON FACTORY • 8 - 9:30 p,m. Short Film Festival on Aging Grand Ballroom A, $10 Sponsored by: the UWM Center on Age & Community. For more information go to www.geron.org/2010 Sunday, November 21 • 1:30 – 3 p.m. Peggy Perkinson, Organizer SYMPOSIUM ON AGING IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES o Sharon Williams & Gillian Ice. Cultural Contexts, Nutritional Transitions: The Anthropology of Global Overweight & Obesity Trends of Older Adults o Margaret Neal, Keren Wilson, Alan De La Torre. Service-Learning and Older Adults in Nicaragua: Designing a Program that Fits o Stan Ingman & Iftekhar Amin. Developing Gerontological Educators in Mexico: A Partnership between USA and Mexico o Tara McMullen & Candace Brown. GAGE: A Non-Profit Organization Bringing Gerontological Awareness to Ethiopia. o Discussants: Ed Rosenberg & Margaret (Peggy) Perkinson Monday, November 22 • 9:30 a.m. Rebecca Berman and Madelyn Iris INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES FOR EVALUATING THE DEVELOPMENT OF A CAREGIVER SUPPORT PARTNERSHIP • 12 p.m. Poster, Robert W. Schrauf and Madelyn Iris THREE METHODS OF MEASURING CROSS- CULTURAL VARIATION IN MINORITY GROUPS’ BELIEFS ABOUT DEMENTIA • 4 - 5:30 p.m. Poster, Iveris Martinez A COMMUNITY-BASED APPROACH FOR INTEGRATING GERIATRICS AND GERONTOLOGY INTO MEDICAL EDUCATION Tuesday, November 23 • 11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Gillian Ice, J. V. Yogo, V. Heh, and E. Juma PREDICTORS OF NUTRITIONAL STATUS IN GRANDPARENT CAREGIVERS IN KENYA ABSTRACTS FOR FEATURED PRESENTATIONS CATTELL, Maria. Time’s Labyrinth: Unwinding the Thread in Western Kenya In the mid-1980s I went to rural western Kenya to unwind the thread of Samia culture and learn, specifically, about aging and social change in this Luyia community. What I learned of social change was derived in part from written sources, but mainly from asking older Samia (in interviews and a survey) about their life stories and the “old days” and comparing what they said with what my research revealed of the present. Since then I have been “there and back again” a number of times and have learned about social change by observing and recording it for more than 25 years. In those years globalization has made enormous changes even in this remote rural area where nowadays many people have cellphones and use email. Ethnography has become social history. I have also done research projects in Philadelphia and South Africa, but have not made the Anthropology & Aging Quarterly 2010: 31 (3-4) 57 Features return visits or maintained relationships in those places. In Kenya personal relationships have deepened over time and I have an intimacy of knowledge not achieved elsewhere. Over the years my own life experiences have expanded to include becoming a grandmother and a widow, which has given me new perspectives on these topics in my Kenya research. Doing research in time’s labyrinth, over a period of many years, means that returning to Kenya means going home again, even though that home is always changing. It has been challenging, exciting and satisfying. CATTELL, Maria. Remembering Nancy (Penny) Schwartz Penny Schwartz was a long-time member of AAGE and a faithful helper at the AAGE booth for a number of years. Penny was a practitioner of “retail therapy” for her own down times (which were many, as she was an “academic butterfly” for 15 years before she settled at the College of Southern Nevada). She was also a born saleswoman. I still laugh when I remember the time Penny made a sign for the AAGE t-shirts: “LAST DAY SALE: ONLY $10.” The joke was that $10 was the price every other day as well. Penny was a remarkable scholar. Her fieldwork among Luo of Kenya (Obama’s group) resulted in a monumental dissertation on glossolalia (speaking in tongues) in an African instituted church. Over the years she wrote papers about Black Madonnas, the power of older women, and other gender issues among Luo. In recent years her scholarly interests expanded into the area of human-animal relations among Luo and in the wider world. The Association for Africanist Anthropology has organized an invited roundtable, Dreaming in color about black Marys, women’s postmortem agency, transspecies anthropology, elephant dung and other aspects of Kenya Luo culture and their broader implications in honor of Penny Schwartz, who died April 24, 2009. Penny Schwartz received her PhD from Princeton University in 1989 after writing a magisterial study of the glossolalia practices in Legio Maria, an African independent church founded by Luo of Kenya. During her peripatetic teaching career Penny Schwartz dazzled and inspired colleagues and students in many parts of the U.S. with her shrewd wit and unbridled enthusiasm for anthropology and Africa. Equally dazzling was a series of papers in which Penny, with an appreciation of metaphors and metacommunication and the expressive politics of gender and the marginalized, took Princeton-style symbolic anthropology out to the very edges of its human ethnographic possibilities—and then stepped over into other domains of human and animal interaction. She wrote of “magical and mundane powers of African birds,” dealt with African snakes as “charismatic and non-phallic megafauna,” and found “something fishy in Lake Victoria” in regard to water abuse and political ecology. Her papers tickled funny bones and poked holes in what she felt were anthropology’s “anthropocentric” and “logocentric” pretensions. In one paper Penny documented ways that Kenya Luo and Luyia women have both pre- and post-mortem agency. This celebration of her life will confirm that Penny also remains “active dead or alive.” PERKINSON, Margaret A. (Saint Louis U.) with YATCZAK, J. (E. Michigan), KASNITZ, D. (Society for Disability Studies), RODRIGUEZ, M (Wayne State U.), and FURGANG, N. (U. of New Mexico). The NAPA-OT Field School in Antigua, Guatemala: Circulating Theory and Practice across Disciplinary Boundaries of Anthropology, Occupational Science/Therapy, and Disability Studies With backing from NAPA and AAA, colleagues in medical anthropology, disability studies, and occupational science/occupational therapy developed a six-week interdisciplinary field school to enable faculty and students to refine the interplay of disciplines in collaborative research and occupational therapy practice. Theories of social and occupational justice within a life course perspective direct and integrate the four components of the field school: Pediatrics, Disability Studies, Community-Based Gerontology, and Medical Anthropology. With a critical perspective on globalization and development and focus on social and occupational justice, the field school develops leadership for social transformation among its students and faculty. Based in Antigua, Guatemala, our principal NGO partner is Common Hope, a non-profit working in Guatemala for 25 years (www.commonhope.org). Common Hope employs a community development approach and has partnered with over 8,000 Guatemalan children and adults in low-income rural and urban Anthropology & Aging Quarterly 2010: 31 (3-4) 58 Features areas to improve education, housing, and health care. Our faculty includes Guatemalan anthropologists Rolando Duarte and Teresa Coello, Centro Cultural el Romero (Panajachel, Solola), and we collaborate with various Guatemalan professionals in health and community development. Our students develop skills in research, practice, Spanish language communication, and interdisciplinary collaboration in clinical and community field sites that include residential care facilities for older adults, a residential hospital for low- income Guatemalans, an Independent Living Center, an NGO/community development organization for rural Mayan families, a Guatemalan sign language school, and community-based home visits with local social workers. The poster includes the field school curriculum and brief summaries of faculty and student research and practice. INGMAN, Stan and AMIN, Iftekhar. Developing Gerontological Educators in Mexico: A Partnership between USA and Mexico As low income societies experience rapid aging of their populations, they face major challenges in developing educational policies to prepare their workforce for the future. With over 50 % of the population in poverty in Mexico – mostly in rural areas – policy makers and gerontological researchers are joining forces to respond to the “senior crisis” as poverty crisis. In response to global aging across the world, we have a responsibility to assist our colleagues in younger societies to prepare for the aging of their populations. University of North Texas faculty and graduate students have joined forces with colleagues in the Guadalajara area to expand the number of the applied gerontologist in Mexico. This paper reviews the strategies we employed to reach this goal and discuss which ones were successful, e.g. informal certificates, gerontology conferences, and seminars for seniors and health care professionals in the State of Jalisco. JERVIS, Lori L., AND SCONZERT-HALL, William. Conceptualizations of Mistreatment among American Indian Elders The problem of how to conceptualize elder mistreatment goes back several decades. Issues of conceptualization are especially important for ethnic minority populations, who may have perspectives that differ from the dominant society. This mixed methods CBPR study, which examined perceptions of mistreatment among 100 urban and rural older American Indians, permits a rare glimpse into how Native elders themselves understand this issue. Here, good treatment emerged as a complex mixture of behavioral factors (being taken care of, having one’s needs met, spending time with family members, and being included in things) and attitudinal factors (being respected and being loved). Poor treatment, conversely, was defined as financial exploitation, neglect, psychological abuse, physical abuse, as well as lack of respect. Many of the elders who stated, in response to open-ended questions, that they had been mistreated did not endorse abuse items on the structured survey. Some of these elders sincerely felt that they were not treated well by family and were quite unhappy about it, but their perceived mistreatment did not come close to the level of a reportable offense. The complaints of these elders often revolved around feeling taken advantage of in a variety of ways (e.g., being unappreciated, financially exploited, babysitting excessively, not getting the help they needed). These findings point to the importance of understanding the underlying constructs that elders have in mind when they describe optimal and suboptimal treatment, and suggest that behavior that is highly distressing to elders may be outside the purview of elder protective services. MCMULLEN, Tara L. and BROWN, Candace. GAGE: A Non-Profit Organization Bringing Gerontological Awareness to Ethiopia Ethiopia is the second most populous nation in Africa; however, it is one of the least developed counties in the world. Recent strategic governmental policies, used to increase life expectancy, lack balance between population growth, resources, the economy, and the age structure. The culture of caregiving is transitioning from familial to social. Further, services rendered by current non-governmental organizations are neither well known throughout Ethiopia nor available to aging individuals in many areas. To aid with these challenges, GAGE, a gerontologically focused international organization is assisting with the development Anthropology & Aging Quarterly 2010: 31 (3-4) 59 Features and implementation of a community senior center supported within a functional gerontology certification program at Addis Ababa University. The presence of this organization may bring a greater quality of care and increase life expectancy through educating future gerontologists and the community about the effects of aging. This paper will describe current research and developmental challenges experienced while completing this international project. NEAL Margaret B., WILSON, Keren and DELATORRE, Alan. Service-Learning and Older Adults in Nicaragua: Designing a Program that Fits Portland State University (PSU) recently received a major gift to establish an initiative, “Aging Matters, Locally and Globally,” aimed at enhancing the lives of older adults without adequate resources. The gift expands on PSU’s partnership with the Jessie F. Richardson Foundation (JFR) in an interdisciplinary service learning course on global aging and health focusing on Nicaragua. Since 2004, JFR, PSU faculty, 100+ students, and Nicaraguan government and community stakeholders have worked together to create sustainable solutions to support a growing Nicaraguan elder population. This presentation describes the program’s rationale, components, and modifications over time. Challenges (e.g., student recruitment; program cost, course content and requirements when students have widely varying backgrounds and interests; coordination of multidisciplinary faculty; in-country resources, logistics and politics) are discussed and potential solutions are offered. Strengths (e.g., the partnerships established with local and national organizations) and lessons learned for helping to assure program success are shared. PERKINSON, Margaret A. 2010 GSA Symposium: Aging in Developing Countries World populations are undergoing unprecedented changes in age structure due to lower birth rates and death rates associated with the “Demographic Transition.” The United States and other developed nations have had over a century to deal with issues that accompany aging populations. In contrast, many developing countries are projected to have much less time to address health and social needs of growing numbers of aged. Countries still in early stages of this transition have a window of opportunity to lay the groundwork now to ensure that limited resources are used effectively and efficiently to support their older members. What are the roles and responsibilities of gerontologists from developed countries in helping to address the unprecedented demands and opportunities that accompany aging populations in less developed lands? What can we learn from developing countries that might inform our own system of services? This symposium examines aging issues in developing countries and offers strategies and guidelines for partnering with local practitioners and scholars to address those issues without imposing culturally inappropriate models of care. A demographic analysis of population aging in developing societies is followed by an anthropological analysis of the “Nutrition Transition” and aging in Kenya and India. Social gerontologists addressing health and social issues through interdisciplinary service-learning-based programs in Nicaragua, Mexico, Guatemala, and Ethiopia describe and evaluate their individual models of partnership with local educators, researchers, and practitioners, sharing strengths of each program, issues of sustainability, and lessons learned. An expert in global aging offers a summation and concluding remarks. After attending this session participants will be able to describe and assess the projected impact of the “Demographic Transition” and the “Nutrition Transition” on older adults in developing countries; describe a variety of service-learning- based programs that focus on health and social issues of older adults in developing countries; and describe and evaluate different models of partnership between U.S. gerontologists and educators, researchers, and practitioners in developing countries. SCHRAUF, Robert W. and IRIS, Madelyn Iris Three Methods of Measuring Cross-Cultural Variation in Minority Groups’ Beliefs about Dementia In cross-cultural gerontology and in multiethnic studies of aging, researchers make comparisons on some variable of interest (e.g. beliefs about aging, symptom sets for particular illnesses, dietary practices, and so on) with the aim of characterizing how much is shared between-groups and how much is unique to each Anthropology & Aging Quarterly 2010: 31 (3-4) 60 Features group. For example, groups may wholly overlap or share some core set of beliefs while differing significantly on others. Documenting and measuring this variation is a first step in rigorous cross-cultural research. This poster presents compares three methods of measuring between-group and within-group agreement (Weller & Baer, 2002). These are: free-marginal kappa, average within- and between-group agreement, and Spearman’s method. These measures are applied to beliefs about Alzheimer’s disease among three minority groups in the U.S.: African Americans, Mexican Americans, and refugees/immigrants from the former Soviet Union (FSU). (1) Kappa coefficients function like correlation coefficients. In these data, the pairwise agreement on statements about Alzheimer’s disease was: African-Americans & Mexican Americans (.521), African Americans & FSU (.581), Mexican-Americans and FSU (.685). (2) A more complex calculation involves finding the average proportion of within-group agreement across all three groups (.484) and the average between-group (shared) shared agreement (.478). (3) Finally, Spearman’s method estimates the shared knowledge across groups at .48 as well. Each method accents different values. Kappa correlations emphasize shared beliefs across pairs of groups, while the ‘Average’ and Spearman’s methods emphasize the overlap across groups. The presentation demonstrates the comparison of critical shared and unique beliefs about the etiology of AD. WARRY, Wayne and JERVIS, Lori. Culture, Health and Aging in Native North American Communities Despite the often-stated value of Elders as cultural resources and spiritual leaders, little is known about the actual contemporary social and health statuses of Native North American Elders. The anthropological and health science literature on older Native people is sparse; by some accounts less than two percent of such studies focus on the Elder population. This is true despite the fact that in the United States and Canada the percentage of older Native peoples is projected to double in the next decade. This session brings together anthropologists from Canada and the United States who are engaged in research with Native/Aboriginal Elders in order to examine how anthropological approaches may further our understanding of this small but growing component of the Native population-one which has traditionally been influential beyond their numbers with respect to their roles as culture bearers and socializers of future generations. This session explores and problematizes issues of theory, policy and practice in culture, health and aging in Native cultures. Our intent is to examine the boundaries between various forms of knowledge-- indigenous and western, medical and cultural-so as to examine the cross currents between behaviour and perception in health and aging. We are interested in research that might lead to better health promotion, improvements in access to health services, and to better systems of community care. We seek to understand the flow of ideas between anthropology and other disciplines (social work, psychology, gerontology and the health sciences) that might lead to improved health outcomes for older Native North Americans. Our research concerns local cultural understandings of healthy aging, how older Native people envision the transition to later life, and the challenges that Elders face within their communities. As we move to broadening our understanding of these dynamics, our starting point is how Elders conceive of and experience various facets of the experience of aging. ZIMMER, Zachary A. Demographic Analysis of Population Aging in Developing Societies This presentation is intended to provide a demographic background for the symposium. Population aging will be amongst the most important demographic phenomenon of the current century. It will impact upon every region of the world and almost all countries. However, the pace of aging will vary, as will its causes and consequences, which suggest that related challenges faced are bound to diverge across the developing world. This presentation will discuss current and expected future trends in population aging in the developing world with attention paid to similarities and differences across regions and countries, and specific focus on those highlighted in other papers that are part of the current symposium. The presentation will also make reference to variations in challenges that different countries and regions are likely to face and the types of data and research that will be necessary to confront these challenges.