Survival strategies of the elderly in Gwembe Valley, Zambia: Gender, residence and kin networks

Fundamental social and material reproductive activities take place in the domestic setting, especially in subsistence societies. For the elderly in these societies, residential arrangements significantly influence their well being because of the redistribution of resources that occurs within the domestic unit. This article examines the critical issue of how the elderly of Zambia's Gwembe Valley organize their residential arrangements. The article also raises the issue of how gender influences elderly men's and women's relationships and support networks with their children and other kin. In the Gwembe Valley men and women employ different strategies in harnessing basic necessities, including their residence, which constitutes the primary setting where people negotiate their needs. Recognition of the variety and subtlety of relationships in the aging process, and the variety of individuals engaged in those relationships, allows for better understanding of the range of support systems and subsistence strategies in non-industrial settings. The analysis presented in this article emerges from the longitudinal Gwembe Tonga Research Project (GTRP) and ethnographic fieldwork carried out in three rural communities during the mid 1990s. © 2002 Kluwer Academic Publishers.