Co-sponsored by The Brookline Aging Collaborative (The Brookline Council on Aging, Goddard House in Brookline, Center Communities of Brookline-Hebrew Senior Life, and Rogerson Brookline Adult Day Health Program)

In traditional Indian culture, old age is revered, and the elderly are honored by family and community. Their advice and participation are actively sought, considered valuable, and given priority. An elderly father continues to be the head of the extended family until his death; the elderly mother is the ranking female. Such attitudes and values stand in striking contrast to those in the U.S., where youth is glorified and the elderly are often sidelined by society and live apart from family. On this evening, Elinor Gadon will probe the questions and social values that make the roles of elders in Indian and American cultures vastly different.

Elinor Gadon's research interests and publications are focused on the analysis of myth and image in their cultural context as they affect issues of gender. Her academic training, teaching, and publication are interdisciplinary-in art history, history of religions, and cultural anthropology-as well as multicultural. Her specialty is the art and culture of the Indian subcontinent. Elinor's major publication, The Once and Future Goddess: A Symbol for Our Time, is a visual chronicle of the history of the sacred female and her re-emergence in the cultural mythology of our time.

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