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Keywords Cybernetics, Older people
Abstract Addresses how the life sciences have concentrated on the pathology of aging while ignoring the biocultural aspects of health in the process of growing older Argues that growing older is a dynamic cognitive, biological and cultural coauthoring of health rather than a hopeless unfolding of progressive pathology. Proposes that this fragmented concept of aging precludes operationalizing and understanding the cultural markers that affect longevity. These cultural milestones, or biocultural portals include middle age markers, retirement markers, perceived wisdom, sexuality, status in the community, transcendental beliefs, sense of empowerment vs helplessness and any other biocultural phase in human development. Suggests that the biocultural portals define and trigger the phase transitions of life as well as influence how they are accommodated For example, the markers for middle age established by a culture, strongly influence the cognitive and biological expectations for the second half of fife.
Biocognitive theory
Research in psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) has demonstrated how the immune, endocrine and nervous pathways maintain a constant and bidirectional communication that interacts with cognition to affect health, illness and aging (Ader, 2000; Solomon, 2000). Although, we can strongly suggest from the research that thoughts affect biology and biology affects thought, PNI has failed to incorporate the influence that culture has on the mind-body communication. The evidence for the cultural components that interact with health, healing and aging remains isolated in the field of medical anthropology (Romanucci-Ross et aL, 1997; Sargent and Johnson, 1996).
In our theory of biocognition we outline a cognitive, biological and cultural model to suggest how aging is influenced by the established medical, ethical and transcendental beliefs that are assimilated from the cultural history. While science identifies disease and pathological aging, culture defines illness and influences the process of how we grow older. In other words, disease is the physical evidence of pathology identified by the life sciences of the culture, and illness is the anthropological interpretations the culture makes of the pathology.
We propose that cognition, biology and historical culture simultaneously coauthor a bioinformational field that modulates health, illness and aging. Biocognitive theory integrates the research in PNI and medical anthropology within a model of contextual coemergence to provide an alternative to the upward and downward causalities of the life...