Witch-Fear Among the Aivilik Eskimos

Carpenter, Edmund

doi:10.1176/ajp.110.3.194

Cited by 15 publications

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“…According to Murphy and Raman (1971), the symptomatology of the patients in their Mauritius sample corresponded to what is regarded as schizophrenic symptomatology elsewhere. Describing psychoses among the Aivilik Eskimos, Carpenter (1953) wrote that the cases of schizophrenia he observed 'parallel standard Western forms of catatonic schizophrenia'. Pfeiffer (1967), drawing from his long-term observations in Indonesia, concluded that 'the disease pictures are essentially the same as in Central Europe' but nevertheless described in detail at least five characteristic differences: (1) the frequent occurrence of excited-confusional initial states; (2) an admixture of manic features; (3) the rare occurrence of typical catatonic states; (4) the low proportion of paranoid schizophrenic syndromes; and (5) the rarity, of systematized delusions.…”

Section: Symptomatologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Culture and schizophrenia

Jablensky¹,

Sartorius²

1975

Psychol. Med.

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•This editorial is a shortened version of a contribution to a symposium on the biological and behavioural aspects of schizophrenia that was organized by the Interdisciplinary Society of Biological Psychiatry, and held in Amsterdam, 13 September 1974. A full account of the proceedings will be published by De Erven Bohn Publishers, Amsterdam. We are grateful to them and to the editor, Professor Herman M. van Praag, for permission to publish this paper.

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Section: Symptomatologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Culture and schizophrenia

Jablensky¹,

Sartorius²

1975

Psychol. Med.

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“…There was little in the way of aboriginal witchcraft according to Carpenter (1953), and this is supported by my Alaskan observations. The belief in talion punishment for one's own actions, I believe, may have permitted immanent justice to be attributed to the universe and obviated the need for paranoid projections attached to other persons.…”

Section: Witch Fear Among the Eskimosmentioning

confidence: 52%

“…Explanations for witchcraft have ranged from culturological through functionalist and social structural arguments to psychoanalytic and other psychological levels of analysis. General consideration is given to these explanations here but the specific aim of this paper is to analyse continuities and changes in witchcraft behaviour noted by Carpenter (1953) Southampton Island they total about 120 individuals, or roughly half the native population. The remainder belong to the Okomiut, Akianimiut, and Kidlinikmiut groups.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The analysis is not meant, I hasten to add, as a detailed exhaustive attempt, but rather to indicate a direction for research. Carpenter (1953) in reporting on witch fear among the Aivilik Eskimos, related it to insecurities in adult life such as the loss of caribou herds or the uncertainty of the fox fur trade, and notes also the effect of religious change. While these reality concerns may indeed act to precipitate pathic behaviours, this level of interpretation is insufficient to explain the form of the witchcraft, or why witchcraft should have been the response at all.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Some Observations on Witchcraft: The Case of the Aivilik Eskimos

Hippler¹

1973

ARCTIC

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ABSTRACT. Cultural and psychological theories of witchcraft are related in order to develop a more comprehensive theory.The proposed integrative schema is applied to witchcraft among the Aivilik Eskimos. Using a theoretical approach, continuities in pre-with post-contact witchcraft are related to Eskimo "cultural personality." Changes are shown to be more illusory than real, and when real, to be related to new social and cultural circumstances in which the continuing personality pattern must operate.RÉSUMÉ. Quelques observations sur la sorcellerie : le cas des Esquimaux Aivilik.L'auteur met en relation les théories culturelles et psychologiques sur la sorcellerie, dans le but de développer une théorie plus complète. I1 applique le schème flinté-gration qu'il propose à la sorcellerie chez les Esquimaux Aivilik. Par une approche théorique, il relie les continuités de la sorcellerie avant et après le contact à la "personnalité culturelle" esquimaude. I1 montre que les changements sont plus illusoires que réels ; lorsqu'ils sont réels, ils dépendent de nouvelles circonstances sociales et culturelles dans lesquelles le modèle continu de personnalité doit fonctionner.

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“…The angakut of the Inuit have been called sorcerers, magicians, conjurers, devil-doctors, witch-doctors, jugglers, charlatans, frauds, humbugs, and other unpleasant names. Kroeber 3 Carpenter (Carpenter 1953) and Hippler (Hippler 1973) have studied the persistence of the fear of witchcraft among the Aivilik band of Iglulik Inuit, despite the extinction of the practice of witchcraft in post-contact times. 4 By contrast, Hans Mol (Mol 1982, 126) has recently asserted that "the essence of Eskimo religion from the social-scientific point of view is its dramatization of existence and the everpresent lurking breakdown of wholeness, regardless whether that wholeness pertains to nature, society, and the individual or, more often, to all three at once".…”

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confidence: 99%

Contrary to nature : Inuit conception of witchcraft

Merkur¹

1987

Scripta

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The present contribution to the phenomenology of witchcraft will depend for its data on the traditional conceptions, rites, and folklore of witchcraft among the Inuit (Eskimo) of Čanada and Greenland. A phenomenological definition of witchcraft may be obtained through recognition of its position within Inuit religion. Like many native North Americans, the Inuit epitomized their religion in the concept of balance. The Polar Inuit understood religion to have the function "to keep a right balance between mankind and the rest of the world". Without exception, the rites of Inuit witchcraft were rites of Inuit religion that were made unnatural, through the alteration of one or more features. Because counterclockwise ritual motions were specific to witchcraft, the expression "contrary to nature" may be understood to epitomize the Inuit's own appreciation of witchcraft. Whether witchcraft depended on deliberate violations of traditional observances, on malicious uses of magic formulae and songs, and/or on ritual motions, witchcraft proceeded "contrary to nature". Thus, witchcraft can be defined as special practices, which together with the beliefs and folklore surrounding them, are believed to be innately disruptive of the balance between mankind and the numina. Because it is contrary to nature, witchcraft is innately anti-social. The disruption of the balance of mankind with the numina is not the private act of the witch against a victim, but a danger for the entire community.

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Witch-Fear Among the Aivilik Eskimos

Cited by 15 publications

References 0 publications

Culture and schizophrenia

Culture and schizophrenia

Some Observations on Witchcraft: The Case of the Aivilik Eskimos

Contrary to nature : Inuit conception of witchcraft

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