Forever Young

Overview

No one in their right mind wants to be old -- even less, dead. Everyone dreams of staying young forever, for one of our most powerful and enduring fantasies is surely the prolongation of life and youth, with immortality the ultimate state. In Forever Young Lucian Boia explores the -- often strange, even weird -- cultural history of longevity as both fact and fantasy, from the ancient world of the Near East right down to the geneticists, faddists, Raelians and others of today and the near tomorrow. Using a variety of sources -- religion, folk tradition, science, literature and art -- Lucian Boia exposes the persistent human desire for longevity, which he shows to have been an extremely stable archetype throughout history. He also examines the scientific innovations in longevity made within each period or culture, and the differing ideologies and attitudes towards aging that have existed. Blood transfusions and Bulgarian yoghurt, science fiction and deep freezing, engineered body parts and testicular transplants all have their place in this wide-ranging, highly readable account, in which the significance of geography, climate, diet and sex is also explored and explained. Nowadays, the prolongation of life and youth is a major goal of society due to a combination of factors: the spectacular increase in life expectancy, scientific advances (especially in genetics), and the decline of religious belief in life after death. There is only one remaining certainty now: corporeal life. How long we soon might live is anyone's guess.

Details

Publisher

Reaktion Books

Published

2004

Pages

224

Language

EN

Categories

Education / Multicultural Education, Health & Fitness / General, Health & Fitness / Aging & Longevity, History / World, Science / Life Sciences / Developmental Biology, Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural & Social, Social Science / Gerontology

ISBN-13

9781861891549