Halls of the Dark Muse

I read this Empire of the Ants by Bernard Werber and thought it offered a rather interesting persepctive.

In Africa people are sadder about the death of an old man than that of a newborn baby. The old man represented a wealth of experience which might have benefited the tribe, whereas the newborn baby had not lived and could not be aware of dying.

In Europe, people are sad about the newborn baby because they think it might have done wonderful things if he lived. On the other hand they pay little attention to the old man, who had lived his life anyway.