Elders gain prestige because age signals accumulated cultural knowledge and wisdom.

Evidence

The evolutionary reason is that older age is often a cue that someone is likely to possess knowledge or wisdom, and for this, we humans grant prestige status. It’s also why most other animals don’t respect their elderly. … The aged are accorded prestige and deference when more decades of experience and learning can provide a proxy measure for accumulated knowledge and wisdom. — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 442

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Rapid social change deflates age as a prestige cue for knowledge and wisdom. — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 444; Long postreproductive human lifespans evolved to transmit accumulated cultural knowledge. — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 446; Learners shift from copying prestige to trusting their own skill judgments. — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 1211 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Elders derive epistemic authority from lived experience and oral transmission in absence of writing #corroborates (0.90)
• Today’s elderly age more successfully but society keeps their skills untapped #qualifies (0.72)
• Collapse of state institutions strengthened lineage elders and clan identity #corroborates (0.72) — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 666