2018 年 2018 巻 23 号 p. 23-37
This paper aims to explore the daily lives of the elderly living in the Aari community in southwestern Ethiopia by describing the social relationships that support their lives. Although the role of the elderly in household livelihood strategies has been mentioned, few studies have focused on their daily lives. The purpose of this study is to examine the daily interactions and mutual relationships between the elderly and other people who live in the same community, with a special focus on the livelihood activities and living arrangements of the elderly. The results reveal that the elders’ living arrangements, such as choices regarding where and with whom to live, are deeply related to social norms. However, there are also cases in which elders lived with or received support from those who were not the expected caretakers. Relationships between persons who required help and respondents were not always fixed in supporting a person’s livelihood activities or daily needs. People helped each other and met their daily needs in consideration of individual circumstances such as physical conditions, existence of relatives, and residence arrangement. The acts of shedin (seeing face to face) contributed greatly to the understanding of each other’s situations, and the elders were able to maintain their livelihood supported by responsive relationships.
