Ithaca College

Joel Savishinsky, from the anthropology department and the Gerontology Institute, has published an article entiteld "The Volunteer and the Sannyasin: Archetypes of Retirement in America and India," in the International Journal of Aging and Human Development.

This article grew out of comparative work that Savishinsky and his students have done on the nature of retirement in the United States and other societies. In addition to fieldwork with his students in upstate New York, Savishinsky has spent time in India, with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, studying the role of spirituality in later life in that country. The article compares the American ethic of volunteering and service following retirement with the traditional Indian emphasis on spiritual development during that life stage.