Ageism is not a universal, cross-cultural phenomenon. There appears to be a great variation as to the treatment that older adults receive, ranging from extreme reverence and respect to abandonment and deprivation, McTavish (1971) reviewed the methodology and findings of a broad range of studies dealing with perceptions of old age. He states, "Most investigators report findings which support the view that attitudes toward the elderly are most favorable in primitive societies and decrease with increasing modernization to the point of generally negative view in industrialized Western nations" (p. 91). In other words, the more "civilized" the society is, the more likely they are to be ageist and maintain negative attitudes about the aged. Some examples may be helpful.

Men in the Middle East view old age as life's summit (Slater, 1964). Older men are viewed as having attained high status and prestige. In fact, according to Slater, the word "sheik" originally meant "old man". No mention is made however of women's status in old age in the Middle East.

Women's status and power does increase in many cultures following menopause. Okada (1962, cited in Gutmann, 1985) states that the old widow has great power in the Japanese family. Women in many small scale traditional societies also enjoy an increase in status (Brown, 1985). Post-menopausal women in these societies usually experience greater sexual freedom, the right to participate in ritual, the right to participate in the political realm of the society, and a decrease in the amount of work required in the home. With regard to work, the older woman is expected to be leisured.

The cross-cultural differences in attitudes towards the aged may in part be due to different societal perspectives. Three of the factors hypothesized to contribute to the development of ageism at the beginning of this paper may be of relevance here. First, death is not viewed in Western society as a natural part of the life cycle. Those societies which view life and death as a continuous process exhibit fewer ageist attitudes. For example, fewer ageist attitudes are exhibited in Japan and the Middle East (Okada, 1962; cited in Gutmann, 1985; Slater, 1964). Second, older individuals are viewed as productive in many small-scale traditional societies. In fact, they are often the power brokers within those societies. This can be compared with Western society where older adults are thought of as unproductive and therefore, negatively. Last, not all societies are youth oriented. Therefore, a higher value is placed on the later stages of adulthood.