Aging, health and women in West New Britain.

Modernization has not significantly improved the lives of elderly women in an isolated Melanesian community. While demographic changes may deprive the elderly of the care of co-resident children, modern medical technology has not greatly bettered their health. People who suffer from the degenerative diseases of old age do not travel to the hospital because they believe that Western medicine cannot cure them and because they fear dying far from home, kin and friends. Modernization has, however, eroded the healing role and prestige of elderly female healers, and their skills and medical knowledge are being lost.