Mon, Aug-12-19, 18:01
|
 |
Senior Member
Posts: 15,075
|
|
Plan: mostly milkfat
Stats: 190/152.4/154
BF:
Progress: 104%
Location: Ontario
|
|
Fun snippet from the New York times in the '70s;
Quote:
The Abkhasian view of the aging process is clear from their vocabulary. They do not have a phrase for “old people"; those over 100 are called “long living people.” Death, in the Abkhasian view, is not the logical end of life but something irrational. The aged seem to lose strength gradually, wither in size and finally die; when that happens, Abkhasians show their grief fully, even violently.
FOR the rest of the world, disbelief is the response not to Abkhasians’ deaths but to how long they have lived. There really should no longer be any question about their longevity. All of the Soviet medical investigators took great care to cross‐check the information they received in interviews. Some of the men studied had served in the army, and military records invariably supported their own accounts. Extensive documentation is lacking only because the Abkhasians had no functioning written language until after the Russian Revolution.
But why do they live so long?
|
I dunno. 'Long-living people' sounds suspiciously like a phrase for 'old people' to me.
The claim of what constitutes good data on aging here was pretty crummy. If you're going to fraudulently take on an older relation's identity, you're in a position to know something about them.
https://www.nytimes.com/1971/12/26/...aces-in-an.html
Looked this up because I remember decades ago reading about welfare fraud in this region, with people claiming to be older relatives.
I'm not sure I even fault people doing what they thought was necessary to get by in Soviet Russia...
Liked the beginning of the article;
Quote:
|
NOT long ago, in the village of Tarnish in the Soviet Republic of Abkhasia, I raised my glass of wine to toast a man who looked no more than 70. “May you live as long as Moses (120 years),” i said. He was not pleased. He was 119.
|
Sometimes there's a good reason why somebody looks 70...
When there's an article where the latest holder of the 'world's oldest person' title finally passes away--these people are generally better documented--I've notice that they never look no more than 70. In fact--they pretty much look how you'd expect them to look.
Maybe we should just learn to be highly suspect of any data set that makes the PCRM smugly nod their heads in agreement. Of course people surviving largely on corn meal mash would be long-lived.  |