Existential meaning of the past, and human longevity

Abstract

Nowadays there are more than 300 hypotheses to explain ageing characteristics, function and mechanisms, possibly due to the large and increasing number of old people in the world. Though having a social function attributed to elders, transformations - under way currently in society - have imposed a discard culture, including old people. This is an authentic exclusion that is frequently associated with sadness, depression and death in its group, contradicting the alleged idea that older people increase life-time (as has been observed in recent years). This manuscript has the aim of determining environmental aspects involved with longevity; it thus uses "grounded theory", a technique of qualitative research method, operating on data provided by elderly former railroad workers. It was observed that former railroad worker's social representations convey to a central category: desolation from perceiving life and environmental annihilation due to continuous State and Society negligence to promote and preserve good things - that existed in the past. We can also observe that, in a parallel way, by hyper valorizing past things, they recognize their existence as part of an epic process that promoted the São Paulo state countryside economic and social development, with an existential meaning to the past, which suggests to be a strong defense mechanism that contributes to longevity. This finding can be included in the hypothesis that the function of longevity would be to preserve a social contingent with knowledge about a way of life that was successful because it was socially advantageous.