Displacing older people as heads of households and depriving them of their autonomy in the name of affection are cultural norms even in countries where the family is the central institution and the sense of filial obligation is strong (11). Such infantilization and overprotection can leave the older person isolated, depressed and demoralized, and can be considered a form of abuse. In some traditional societies, older widows are abandoned and their property seized. Mourning rites of passage for widows in parts of Africa and India include practices that elsewhere would certainly be considered cruel, for example sexual violence, forced levirate marriages (where a man is obliged by custom to marry the childless widow of.
