Submitted to the Facu1ty of Arts in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the department of Anthropology and Development Studies at the University of Zululand, 1982. / Old age is a neglected area of anthropological research despite the widespread interest in the human life cycle that has characterized much work within the discipline.- With the notable exception of the early pioneering work of Simmons, the anthropological literature on old age in preliterate cultures is sparse, with little attention having been devoted either to the collection of ethnographic data or to the formulation of gerontological theory. As Clerk observes: 'If one is to judge from typical anthropological accounts, the span of years between the achievement of adult status and one's funerary rites is either an ethnographic vacuum or a vast monotonous plateau of invariable behavior. Maxwell & Silverman hold the same opinion: 'Anthropologists have not, on the whole, shown much interest in ageing. With few exceptions, ethnographic reports seem to mention the. aged only in passing, if at all, and then only in the context of quite general statements. One of the reasons to which they attribute this neglect is the distaste with which old age is viewed in our culture. The aged tend to suffer from physical or mental disabilities which are unpleasant to contemplate; death is imminent; and the role of the aged in culture is ostensibly less distinctive than that of younger men and women.