The cultural construction old age as a biological phenomenon: Science and anti-ageing technologies

This paper links ageism to the anti-ageing culture embedded in biological science. It presents two simple ideal types of the relationship of culture and science and uses these to examine evidence of how antipathy to ageing is manifested within bio-gerontology and other scientific and quasi-scientific endeavours. Drawing on a tradition of linguistic anthropology the history and language of two concepts used within the biology of ageing – senescence and apoptosis – are traced. The paper concludes that anti-ageing concepts are embedded in bio-gerontology and need to be combated but that the progressive nature of biological knowledge also provides an opportunity to change received ageist constructions.