The present ageing of the population in western countries, and
the related
problems this development poses for contemporary social policy, provide
especially compelling reasons for historians to think about old age in
the
past. A fundamental question is whether solitariness, or residential
isolation, in this phase of the life-cycle is an inherent product of
industrialization and urbanization or whether past societies confronted
similar problems.
Despite the growth in studies of the history of the family over recent
years – studies which have considered family structure, family demography,
household strategies, kinship networks, and the like – a great gap
in
the literature remains regarding the role and status of family members
in
different phases of the life-cycle in Spain, particularly with respect
to age
and sex. Therefore, it is not surprising that there is an absence of
information on old age and our elders' life-styles in the past, or
on the
extent to which the aged led lives of poverty and marginalization.
This article attempts to tackle some of the issues relating to the elderly
in a particular place, Bilbao, and in a historical period, the nineteenth
and
early twentieth centuries.