“Bien vieillir” et “faire bonne vieillesse”. Perspective anthropologique et paroles de centenaires

This article questions the concept of “ageing well” by putting dominant scientific representations of successful ageing with representations of old age and ageing expressed by French nonagenarians and centenarians into perspective. An intercultural anthropological approach allows us to challenge the scientific model transmitted by post-industrial societies for which “ageing well” would amount to not ageing. Conversely, when ageing is not thought via the prism of the senescence, ageing signifies a change that may be positive for the individual provided that his/her culture allows it. Very old people establish a distinction between ageing and old age; consequently, strategies for “ageing well” and “growing old gracefully” are different. It is initially a question of struggling and then of adapting in overcoming one’s losses