Meanings of Suicide and Conceptions of Death among the Yukpa and other Amerindian Groups in Lowland...

ISSN 0344-8622 31(2008)1

Zeitschrift für Medizinethnologie • Journal of Medical Anthropology

hrsg. von/edited by: Arbeitsgemeinschaft Ethnomedizin e.V. – AGEM

Curare

31(2008)1

VWB – Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung ISBN 978-3-86135-754-4

30 Jahre Curare

Good Deaths/Bad Deaths: Dilemmas of Death in Comparative Perspective

Guter Tod/Schlimmer Tod: Dilemmas des Sterbens aus vergleichender Perspektive

VWB – Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung

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Herausgegeben im Auftrag der / Edited on behalf of:Arbeitsgemeinschaft Ethnomedizin e.V. – AGEMvon Ekkehard Schröder, auch verantwortlich im Sinne des Presse-rechtes V.i.S.d.P. / Editor-in-chiefGeschäftsadresse / office AGEM: AGEM-Curarec/o E. Schröder, Spindelstr. 3, 14482 Potsdam, Germanye-mail: [email protected], Fax: +49-[0]331-704 46 82www.agem-ethnomedizin.deHerausgeberteam /Editorial Board Vol. 28(2005) - 30(2007):Hans-Jörg Assion (Bochum) [email protected] // Michael Heinrich (London) [email protected] // Ruth Kutalek (Wien) [email protected] // Bettina E. Schmidt (Oxford) [email protected] // Kristina Tiedje (Lyon) [email protected] // Anita Zahlten-Hingurange (Heidel-berg) [email protected] /Advisory Board: John R. Baker (Moorpark, CA, USA) // Mihály Hoppál (Budapest) // Annette Leibing (Montreal, CAN) // Armin Prinz (Wien) // Hannes Stubbe (Köln)Begründet von / Founding Editors: Beatrix Pfleiderer (Ham-burg) – Gerhard Rudnitzki (Heidelberg) – Wulf Schiefenhövel (Andechs) – Ekkehard Schröder (Potsdam)Ehrenbeirat / Honorary Editors: Hans-Jochen Diesfeld (Starn-berg) – Horst H. Figge (Freiburg) – Dieter H. Frießem (Stuttgart) – Wolfgang G. Jilek (Vancouver) – Guy Mazars (Strasbourg)

IMPRESSUM 31(2008)1

Verlag und Vertrieb / Publishing House:VWB – Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung, Amand AglasterPostfach 11 03 68 • 10833 Berlin, GermanyTel. +49-[0]30-251 04 15 • Fax: +49-[0]30-251 11 36e-mail: [email protected]://www.vwb-verlag.comBezug / Supply:Der Bezug der Curare ist im Mitgliedsbeitrag der Arbeitsgemein-schaft Ethnomedizin (AGEM) enthalten. Einzelne Hefte können beim VWB-Verlag bezogen werden // Curare is included in a regular membership of AGEM. Single copies can be ordered at VWB-Verlag.Abonnementspreis / Subscription Rate:Die jeweils gültigen Abonnementspreise finden Sie im Internet unter // Valid subscription rates you can find at the internet under: www.vwb-verlag.com/reihen/Periodika/curare.htmlCopyright:© VWB – Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung, Berlin 2008ISSN 0344-8622 ISBN 978-3-86135-754-4

Die Artikel dieser Zeitschrift wurden einem Gutachterverfahren unterzogen // This journal is peer reviewed.

To the title: “Good Deaths/Bad Deaths: Dilemmas of Death in Comparative Perspective”. Crosses were built up in many parts of Central Europe during the pest epidemics, when the challenge passed away, here Mount Witthoh by Emmingen near the Lake of Constance, today a point to start excursions into the nature. // Zum Titelbild: „Guter Tod/Schlimmer Tod: Dilemmas des Sterbens aus vergleichender Perspektive“. Pestkreuze wurden früher in weiten Teilen Mitteleuropas aufgestellt, wenn die Bedrohungen durch die Pestepidemie überstanden wurden, hier auf dem Berg Witthoh bei Emmin-gen in der Nähe des Bodensees, heute Ausgangspunkt für Wanderungen in die Natur. // Foto © E. SchrödEr, 1990

Zeitschrift für MedizinethnologieJournal of Medical Anthropology

Arbeitsgemeinschaft Ethnomedizin – AGEM, Herausgeber derCurare, Zeitschrift für Ethnomedizin und transkulturelle Psychiatrie, gegründet 1978ab 2008 neuer Untertitel: Curare, Zeitschrift für Medizinethnologie • Curare, Journal of Medical Anthropology

Die Arbeitsgemeinschaft Ethnomedizin (AGEM) hat als rechtsfähiger Verein ihren Sitz in Hamburg und ist eine Verei-nigung von Wissenschaftlern und die Wissenschaft fördernden Personen und Einrichtungen, die ausschließlich und un-mittelbar gemeinnützige Zwecke verfolgt. Sie bezweckt die Förderung der interdisziplinären Zusammenarbeit zwischen der Medizin einschließlich der Medizinhistorie, der Humanbiologie, Pharmakologie und Botanik und angrenzender Na-turwissenschaften einerseits und den Kultur- und Gesellschaftswissenschaften andererseits, insbesondere der Ethnologie, Kulturanthropologie, Soziologie, Psychologie und Volkskunde mit dem Ziel, das Studium der Volksmedizin, aber auch der Humanökologie und Medizin-Soziologie zu intensivieren. Insbesondere soll sie als Herausgeber einer ethnomedizini-schen Zeitschrift dieses Ziel fördern, sowie durch regelmäßige Fachtagungen und durch die Sammlung themenbezogenen Schrifttums die wissenschaftliche Diskussionsebene verbreitern. (Auszug der Satzung von 1970)

nächstes Heft // next issue: Curare 31 (2008) 2: Die fremden Sprachen, die fremden Kranken: Dolmetschen im medizinischen Kontext // Foreign Languages, Foreign Patients: Interpreting in a Medical ContextAlExAndEr BiSchoff, Basel & BErnd MEyEr, Hamburg (Gasteditoren // Guest editors)letzte Ausgabe // past issue: Curare: 30 (2007) 2+3: Medizinethnologie “on the Move”: Lebenswelten unter neuen medizinanthropologischen Pers-pektiven // German Medical Anthropology “on the Move”—New Perspectives on LifeworldsKriStinA tiEdjE, Lyon & EKKEhArd SchrödEr, Potsdam (Editoren)

1Inhalt

curare 31(2008)1

Zeitschrift für MedizinethnologieJournal of Medical Anthropology

hrsg. von/ed. by Arbeitsgemeinschaft Ethnomedizin (AGEM)

Inhalt / ContentsVol. 31 (2008) 1

Einzelheft / Single Issue

Good Deaths/Bad Deaths:Dilemmas of Death in Comparative Perspective

Guter Tod/Schlimmer Tod:Dilemmas des Sterbens aus vergleichender Perspektive

Guest-editors / Gasteditoren:Gabriele alex & Suzette Heald

Suzette Heald: Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

The authors of this special theme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

anne Hambro alnæS: Organ Donation Deaths: Good or Bad? Some “Good” in “Bad” Deaths . . . 8

ikumi okamoto: Dying a Good Death at a Palliative Care Unit in Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

maureen bloom: Dementia, Disability and Dignity: The Case for Autonomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Fred klaitS: Care for the Dying, Care by the Dying: “Giving up” in a Church of the Spirit in Botswana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

SantiaGo alvarez: Burying Patriarchs, Heroes, Suicides and Traitors: Solidarity and Ostracism in the Funeral Rites of a Peasant Community of the Colombian Andes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Gabriele alex: “When you are feeling of no use anymore.” Explaining Suicide in Rural Tamil Nadu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

ernSt Halbmayer: Meanings of Suicide and Conceptions of Death among the Yukpa and other Amerindians of Lowland South America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

iain edGar: Overtures of Paradise: Night Dreams and Islamic Jihadist Militancy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

***

2 Inhalt


MAGEM 30/2008 (Mitteilungen der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Ethnomedizin) . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Kultur, Medizin und Psychologie im Trialog – Bilanzen im interdisziplinären Arbeitsfeld Ethnologie & Medizin. REMSCHEID 05. - 07. Dezember 2008. 21ste Fachtagung Ethnomedizin der AGEM in der Akademie Remscheid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Dokumentationen

„Ethnomedizin“ und “Medical Anthropology”. Ein Überblick zu Entwicklungen in den deutschsprachigen Ländern im Jahr 1978 (Reprint als Übersetzung aus: ScHröder ekkeHard. 1978. Ethnomedicine and Medical Anthropology. A Survey of Developments in Germany. Reviews in Anthropology 5,4(Fall)1978: 478-485. . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Charta der „Rechte des Kindes“ vor, während und nach der Geburt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

30 Jahre Curare: Dokumentation Ausgewählte Titelseiten II (Afrika) [Der „Fetischzauberer“ Ali Mamane aus Niamey, Curare 3(1980)1 // Der Azande-Heilpraktiker (binza) Bagu hier mit Federhut (kangu) während einer Heilséance (avule), Curare 6(1983)1 // Albert Atcho – Heiler in Bregbo, Elfenbeinküste, Curare 6(1983)3 // Dr. Okopedi zeigt eine Kräutermischung in seinem Büro (Calabar Province, Nigeria), Curare 8(1985)1] . . . . . . . . . . 113

Résumés des articles de Curare 31(2008)1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Zum Titelbild . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . U2

Impressum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . U2

Hinweise für Autoren / Instructions for Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . U3

Collage zu 30 Jahre Curare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . U4

Endredaktion: ekkeHard ScHröderRedaktionsschluss: 15. Mai 2008

Die Artikel in diesem Heft wurden einem Reviewprozess unterzogen / The articles of this issue are peer-reviewed

ernSt Halbmayer72

curare 31(2008)1: 72-86 VWB – Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung

Meanings of Suicide and Conceptions of Death among the Yukpa and other Amerindians of Lowland South America

ernSt Halbmayer

Abstract This paper focuses on what Metraux once called the “suicidal mania” of certain South American Amer-indian groups. It discusses the suicide practices of the Yukpa in comparison with other Amerindian groups, such as the Guarani, the Tikuna, the Aguaruna, the Mataco, and the Suruahá. Specific social conflicts and associated emo-tional reactions are identified as core elements in any explanation of suicide. In addition to this purely sociological analysis, suicide is examined in the context of local concepts of death and dying and is understood as being part of a mortuary economy that extends beyond the realm of the living and which follows various logics, despite seem-ingly similar suicidal behaviour patterns. Suicide may be seen as a form of self-transformation where one becomes a potentially dangerous “other” able to take revenge on the living, or it may be viewed as the result of witchcraft and hence interpreted as homicide. It might also be related to seductive processes initiated by the dead themselves. In some cases, suicide even enables access to the highest level of the sky in the afterworld. Whereas the Yukpa view suicide as a bad death, ethnographic data show that some other groups understand it as a good death, which is reproducing the local cosmo-logics.

Die Bedeutung des Selbstmords und Konzeptionen des Todes bei den Yupka und anderen Indigenen des südamerikanischen Tieflandes

Zusammenfassung Dieser Beitrag beschäftigt sich mit der „Selbstmordmanie“ – wie es Metraux nannte – ge-wisser südamerikanischer indianischer Gruppen. Dabei werden Selbstmordpraktiken der Yukpa mit jenen anderer Gruppen, z.B. der Guarani, der Tikuna, der Aguaruna, den Mataco oder der Suruahá verglichen. Soziale Konflikte und die damit in Zusammenhang stehenden emotionalen Reaktionen werden als zentrale Erklärungen für Selbst-mord identifiziert. Über eine rein soziologische Analyse hinausgehend wird Selbstmord jedoch auch im Licht loka-ler Todesvorstellungen verstanden und somit Teil einer über die Lebenden hinausgehenden Ökonomie des Todes. Diese folgt, jenseits der vergleichbaren Selbstmordpraktiken unterschiedlichen Logiken. So kann Selbstmord als eine Form der Selbsttransformation verstanden werden, im Zuge derer Selbstmörder zu potentiell gefährlichen An-deren werden, die sich an den Lebenden rächen können. Selbstmord kann aber auch auf Hexerei zurückgeführt und somit zu Mord werden oder aber als das Resultat einer Verführung, welche von den Toten selbst ausgeht, verstan-den werden. In anderen Fällen ist Selbstmord sogar jene Form des Todes, die den Zugang zu den höchsten Ebenen des Jenseits ermöglicht. Dementsprechend unterschiedlich ist auch die Bewertung von Selbstmord. Während die Yukpa Selbstmord als einen schlechten Tod betrachten, zeigen die ethnographischen Daten, dass andere Gruppen Selbstmord als einen guten Tod konzipieren, der die lokale Kosmo-Logik reproduziert.

Keywords (Schlagwörter) suicide (Selbstmord) - Amerindian Yukpa (Yupka) – social conflict (soziale Konflikte) – cosmology (Kosmologie)

For Ninoska,daughter of my Yukpa friend Raquel,

who voluntarily departed to the world of the dead in August, 2006

Introduction

Data on, and interpretations of, suicide among South American Indians are still rare, especially when

compared to North America. Reliable information on Amerindian suicide in Lowland South America does exist for a limited—but growing—number of indigenous groups. These include the Mataco of the Gran Chaco (metraux 1943; 1967), the Peruvian Aguaruna (brown 1984, 1986; SivertS 1987; bant 1994), the Guarani (morGado 1991; levcovitz 1998; Hamlin & brym 2006; coloma et al. 2006), the Suruahá (kroemer 1994; Poz 2000; Garve 2002: 50ff), the Tikuna (carvalHo ertHal 1998, 2001),

73Meaning of Suicide and Conceptions of Death among the Yukpa

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the Kashinawa (keiFenHeim 2002), and the Yukpa (acuña 1998; Halbmayer 1998, 2000, 2007)1.

South American national suicide rates are gen-erally low in comparison with Europe or the suc-cessor states of the Soviet Union.2 Yet the suicide rates of the groups mentioned above are among the highest in the world. An approximate, and pos-sibly underestimated, suicide rate for the Yukpa is 109 per 100,000 (Halbmayer 2001); for the Aguar-una, 180 per 100,000 (brown 1986: 312); and for the Guarani3, 215.7 per 100,000 (levcovic 1998). These rates are at least twenty times higher than the respective local national suicide rates, but they still appear moderate when compared to the Suruahá. The Suruahá’s extreme rate of 1,992 per 100,000 (1980-1995) (Poz 2000: 98) is ten times higher than the already high rates of suicide of the Aguaruna or the Guarani. Obviously, suicide is a topic of consid-erable relevance within these Amerindian groups.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on what Metraux once called the “suicidal mania” (1943: 207) of certain South American Amerindian groups on three different levels: Based on my own field research, I will first discuss and analyse Yukpa suicide practices with the aim of rethinking and complementing existing descriptions and analyses (reicHeldolmatoFF 1945; bolinder 1958; acuña 1998: 187ff; Halbmayer 2001). Secondly, I will sit-uate the case of the Yukpa in relation to other Amer-indian groups, based on available information. And thirdly, I will compare the meanings given to suicide by the Yukpa, Guarani, Tikuna and Suruahá, where different logics of suicidal behaviour underlying seemingly similar actions will become visible.

Such an analysis should, however, be based on an understanding of local social dynamics of con-flict and violence and be situated within the frame-work of: local socio-cosmologies (levcovitz 1998; almeida 1996; Halbmayer 2001); local concepts of the person (keiFenHeim 2002); and indigenous no-tions of death and dying.

Perspectives on suicide

From a sociological perspective in suicide re-search, Stack (1982) ideal-typically distinguished between four explanations of suicide. These fo-cus on: (1) social integration4, in the tradition of durkHeim´s classical study of suicide (1887); (2)

cultural, or (3) economic variables; and (4) sui-cide as a reaction to modernisation5. In contrast to these four perspectives distinguished by Stack, psychological explanations generally consider sui-cide and suicide attempts to stem from individual mental health problems. The existing literature on South American Indian suicide seems to—at least implicitly—agree that suicide among South Ameri-can Indians is not the result of psychic depression, mental dysfunction or long-term existential suffer-ing. These studies and accounts often remark on the apparent ease with which suicide is committed.6 For example, Noupaka, a Yukpa man of Yurmutu, told me that he once tried to commit suicide when his mother Nippe refused to give him the bananas he was asking for. Ellen Basso mentions a comparable attitude among the Kalapalo: “As a child grows, it is particularly important that it be fed whenever it asks for something to eat, not only to keep it strong but to prevent it from becoming dissatisfied with its parents. The Kalapalo believe a child is capable of suicidal revenge after it has been denied food. Chil-dren who are rejected in this way are said to wander off into the forest, thereby attracting jaguars who devour them” (baSSo 1973: 82).

Suicide is often described as a spontaneous reac-tion to social conflict that may provoke additional suicides—the phenomenon often takes on a con-tagious character and epidemic appearance7 (e.g. metraux 1943; morGado 1991; Poz 2000: 105F; cHaPuiS 1998: 49, 505). Beyond the implicit agree-ment that suicides are reactions to actual conflicts, we may find traces of the four perspectives men-tioned above—though hardly ever as mono-causal or mutually exclusive explanations. The least com-mon are pure cost-benefit calculations that focus on economic or material deprivation. These are gener-ally overshadowed by positions focussing on the harmful (anomic) impact of modernisation8, such as the loss of political autonomy and the gradual dis-solution of indigenous groups via the influence of national culture, global economics, missionary ac-tivities9, the mass media, and/or the state (e.g. morGado 1991). Changing values, conflicts over land ownership, etc., lead—so runs the argument—to an identity crisis responsible for suicidal behaviour10 (Hamlin & brym 2006: 54f).

However, there are several other positions and arguments against such explanations. Acuña, whilst dealing with the transformation of the Yukpa, claims

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that suicide is a “custom”, “rooted in the Yu’pa tra-dition; it is nothing new that would, as some anthro-pologists indicate, occur due to permanent contact with western civilization.” (Acuña 1998: 187ff. own translation). According to Brown, female sui-cide among the Aguaruna most likely existed before intense contact with non-Indians, whereas male suicide is a more recent phenomenon (brown 1986: 313). He refers to Harner (1972: 181), who argued that in former times male suicide was committed as “…intentional death in battle. When a man ‚no lon-ger wants to live‘, he repeatedly leads risky assassi-nation raids. By taking the most chances and always being the first to confront the enemy, Harner says, the man ensures that he will eventually be killed” (Brown 1986: 325).

Durkheim’s classical explanation of suicide em-ploys the concepts of social integration and social regulation. In his theory, each of these two dimen-sions is associated with a different type of suicide: Very high social integration leads to altruistic sui-cide and a lack of social integration leads to egoistic suicide. A lack of regulation produces anomic sui-cide and overregulation leads to fatalistic suicide. In a critical reinterpretation, Barclay D. Johnson argued that integration and regulation are not inde-pendent variables and—as altruistic and fatalistic suicides are rare and negligible—there is only one real cause of suicide: “The more integrated (regulat-ed) a society, group, or social condition is, the lower its suicide” (JoHnSon 1965: 886). From this point of view, disintegration would become the central ex-planatory key to suicide.

Recently, Hamlin & brym (2006), based on an analysis of Guarani suicide, argued against Dur-kheim’s notion of so-called “primitive societies” marked by mechanical solidarity based on both high social integration and high regulation. They refer to the works of levcovitz (1998) and Viveiros de Castro in order to contrast Durkheim’s understand-ing with a notion of minimalist societies character-ized by high social integration and low regulation. Hence, they keep these two dimensions separate—in contrast to Johnson—and call for the recognition of “hybrid suicide types with multiple causes” (2006: 56). Whilst the notion of low regulation in Lowland Amazonia has often been cited in the discussion of “powerless chiefs” and their lack of coercive authority (léviStrauSS 1944; lowie 1948; claStreS 1976; SantoSGranero 1986; deScola 1988;

Halbmayer 2003), exactly what it is that Hamlin and brym (2006) mean by “high social integration” remains largely unclear.

According to levcovitz (1998) and viveiroS de caStro (1992), groups such as the Guarani view society and the social as part of a wider socio-cos-mology; “cosmology dominates the entire social scenario” (levcovitz 1998: 223). In Amazonia, the cultural and the social are not easily distinguish-able and society is often considered to be subject to overarching socio-cosmological principles (for a discussion, see Halbmayer 2007). Hence, when viewed from an anthropological perspective, Hamlin & brym’s (2006) call for a culturalist position that adds “belief systems as causal forces” to the Durkheimian social dimensions (ibid. 56) seems to be a specific appeal to sociological analysts who, in the tradition of Durkheim, tend to ignore world-views and belief systems.

Before I discuss the question of worldview, I would like to examine some current explanations of Lowland Amerindian suicide that focus primar-ily on social dynamics, especially those of conflict. Hamlin & brym (2006) unfortunately avoided ex-ploring the potential link between conflict, violence and suicide in Amerindian societies.

Conflict and suicide

At first sight, suicide and suicide attempts in vari-ous, very different, groups seem to be motivated by the same sorts of conflicts. The available lit-erature, and my own data collected among the Carib-speaking Yukpa, indicate a common cluster, namely: matrimonial problems and/or problematic sexual relations; real or suspected adultery; unlucky or unrequited love; fights with close family mem-bers or spouses; and/or rejection by the community (Yabarana [wilbert 1963: 143]; Tikuna [ertHal 2001: 300]; Mataco [metraux 1943: 201]; Wayana [cHaPuiS 1998: 505ff.]; Aguaruna [brown 1986: 317]; Kashinawa [keiFenHeim 2002: 106]). Conflict in weakly regulated societies seriously threatens integration, and suicide becomes a strategic means of expressing and producing disintegration. Addi-tionally—but along the same lines of reasoning—suicide may also be a reaction to social disintegra-tion caused by the death of a close relative or spouse (Yukpa [reicHeldolmatoFF 1945: 49f.]; Aguaruna


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[brown 1986: 315]; Suruahá [Poz: 2000]). Explana-tions of South American Amerindian suicide should therefore take into account the relationship between conflict, disintegration and suicidal behaviour.

Although obvious, it is important to note that sui-cide is not the only possible reaction to conflict or social disintegration and that some specific groups of persons are more likely to commit suicide than others. Available information indicates significant differences with regard to gender and age: Whereas suicide among the Aguaruna is a primarily female phenomenon, among the Yukpa11, Tikuna and Gua-rani it is primarily male12; and whereas among the Aguaruna, Tikuna, Guarani, Suruahá, it is generally young and adolescent persons who tend to commit suicide, it is an option for people of all ages among the Yukpa.

The importance of conflicts in this context is a manifestation of the fact that indigenous groups are not to be conceived as homogenous units with identical interests, marked by strong social integra-tion, as Durkheim argued, but rather, are character-ized by social factionalism at different levels. As we will see, there are not only differences in the social organisation of indigenous groups, but also in the cultural forms with which they endow suicidal acts with meaning and attribute their causes.

By focusing on gender-specific differences, Brown developed the thesis that suicide occurs when people lack the power to engage social alliances and support in reaction to conflict. Among the Aguaruna especially, women and adolescents are powerless in this sense, and hence especially vulnerable to suicide (brown 1986).13 But how to explain higher male suicide rates among the Yukpa, which do not accompany generalized male powerlessness?

Yukpa suicide

The Carib-speaking Yukpa live in the Sierra Perijá, a border region between Venezuela and Colombia and adjacent cities like Valledupar, Machiques or Maracaibo. Neighbouring indigenous groups are: the Chibcha-speaking Kogi, Aruakaos and Wiwas in northwestern Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, and the Barí in the South. In the north live the Arawak-speaking Wayúu. Information on indigenous sui-cide in the region dates far back and was, to my

knowledge, gathered especially from the Aruakos, of which de la Rosa says:

“These Indians commit the honourable deed of hanging themselves and to do it they need no other motive than becoming ill and losing their hope of recovering. And the Aurohuacos have a particu-lar way of putting an end to their lives, as they do not hang themselves up, but rather put a thin cord around their necks, hold it in front of their chests, seat themselves on a stone, tie each end of the cord to one foot and, exerting equal force, tighten the noose and kill themselves with their feet” (own translation after reicHeldolmatoFF 1951: 110)

The Yukpa are internally divided into different subgroups (ruddle 1971; carriaGe 1979) and sui-cide does not seem to be common in all. Informants who had also lived among the Macoita-Yukpa ex-plicitly stated that they do not practise suicide, and wilbert (1960: 128) noted the same of the Pariri. Yet suicide is—as far as we know—especially com-mon in the southern groups on both sides of the Si-erra, especially the Irapa and the Maraca (reicHeldolmatoFF 1945: 61; bolinder 1958: 166, 223ff.; acuña 1998; Halbmayer 1998, 2001). To commit suicide, the Yukpa generally retreat to the forest in an unobserved moment and strangle themselves in a sitting position, leaning their backs against a tree where their bow-cord is attached, and using the force of their own bodies. Another, harakiri-like, and now rare, method of suicide is to stab oneself in the stomach with one’s own arrow. A third, also seldom used and mostly female, method of suicide is to drink poisonous liquids14.

Suicide is most often a reaction to matrimonial conflicts, to adultery, and/or to the elopement of a man’s wife with another man, or to a man’s wish to marry a second wife. Normally, matrimonial prob-lems lead to major conflicts within the villages in-volved. As such an event becomes publicly known, the marriage is considered to be dissolved. Conflict resolution must now either re-establish the former situation or formally accept a new one. Such a situ-ation opposes the husband to the seducer, and it de-pends on the relationship between the husband and his parents-in-law and whether the latter support a reinstatement of the former marriage or, alterna-tively, their daughter‘s wish to marry another man. Traditionally, such situations commonly led to duels and even killings (wilbert 1960: 124), but today the formally appointed caciques attempt to settle

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such conflicts peacefully through a re-arrangement of marriage relations and the establishment of a new balance within the settlement. These processes may include short-term arrest of the unfaithful persons and/or compensation payments.

Departing from Brown’s thesis, I asked myself how one might explain the higher male suicide rates found among the Yukpa (Halbmayer 2001), as these cannot be understood as an effect of generalized male powerlessness. I contrasted suicide to other forms of violence—such as warfare, ritualized du-els and blood revenge—and concluded that suicide is primarily a reaction to conflicts within a specific social context, namely conflict between close rela-tives, called yapushno (see Halbmayer 1998, 2001, 2003). Male yapushno are war allies who support each other in conflict, but at the same time they compete over the same women. If the cuckold’s ri-val is his parallel cousin, brother, father, or father’s brother, i.e. belongs to the close kin group of war allies, the resulting conflict is not between oppos-ing parties, but rather a conflict within the smallest social unit of support and identity. Such a situation impedes collective reactions to conflicts as well as support from the yipushno group during conflict resolution. As cariaGe (1980) has pointed out, an attack against an individual member of this group affects the entire group. However, in the case of adultery within this group, normal support and pro-tection mechanisms are paralysed, as any expressed support for one group member would simultane-ously represent an attack against another. In these situations there exist hardly any socially accepted options for violent reactions. To fight in a situation where the enemy is part of one’s yipushno group means to fight oneself, and suicide is the logical expression and outcome of such a configuration. In this context it seems significant that the Yukpa have also committed suicide after having accidentally killed close relatives (reicHeldolmatoFF 1945: 61; bolinder 1958: 172).

Emotions of disintegration

The relationship between close relatives and suicide is also expressed in language. The semantic field of üpüne15 covers both mourning and committing sui-cide. It has the connotation of experiencing strong affection for a beloved person, and expresses a close

emotional relationship and a related feeling of loss. Mourning and suicide as forms of grief over the breakdown of these close relations go hand in hand in this concept. Among the Yukpa, breakdowns of close relationships caused by rejection, conflict or death are associated with social exclusion, isolation, introduction of difference, and production of other-ness within formally close social ties, and may lead to suicide.

The literature mentions several emotions that lead to suicide, such as: affection (Suruahá [Poz 2000: 105]) sadness (for the Suruahá see [Poz 2000: 113f]; Wayana [cHaPuiS 1998: 391]), as well as sadness-anger (Kalapalo [baSSo 1973: 13f.]), anger (Aguaruna [brown 1986: 322]; Wayana [cHaPuiS ibid.]; Suruahá [Poz 2000: 105]), grief (Aguaruna [brown 1986: 322]; Wayana [cHaPuiS ibid.]), shame (Aguaruna [brown 1986: 322]; Wayana [cHaPuiS 1998: 387, 505]; Suruahá [Poz 2000: 105]), a feel-ing of being defeated (Kashinawa [keiFenHeim 2002: 106]), frustrated (Wayana [cHaPuiS 1998: 387, 505]), or homesick (Suruahá [Poz 2000: 105]).

In his attempt to explain Yukpa suicide, acuña (1998: 187ff.) also refers to the emotional aspect. In his view, however, suicide is basically traditional behaviour that repeats the behaviour of the ances-tors in an “impulsive attitude, guided more by feel-ings than by reason” (ibid. 189) and leads them “into suicide as a firsthand option for overcoming frustra-tion” (ibid.). This impulsive attitude is associated with four aspects: According to Acuña, the Yukpa are “fully integrated into nature … (their) lifestyle and construction of reality finds itself impregnated by natural stimuli, and therefore the meaning of ex-istence is subject to continuing uncertainty, as life is not assured in the long term” (ibid.). This subjection to natural uncertainties goes hand in hand with an “oversized” sense of liberty that does not “accept the censorship of their own social group” (ibid.). It is also associated with a “sense of time focusing on the immediate present”, and a “minor fear of death” (ibid.). In this biased understanding, the Yukpa are driven by natural stimuli, unable to reflect on the long-term consequences of their actions, and un-willing to accept social control.

Obviously, my understanding of Yukpa suicide differs from that of Acuña’s in central points. Yet I agree with him that suicide is not a recent phe-nomenon among the Yukpa. As we shall see, suicide plays an important role in central Yukpa myths and


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is considered to be part of the Yukpa tradition. How-ever, my understanding beyond that point diverges from that of Acuña. I do not doubt that events lead-ing to suicide go hand in hand with strong emotions, but this simple fact does not justify the conclusion that specific feelings are the reason for suicide. We should rather examine the socio-cosmological ba-sis of these emotions and aim for a more culturally sensitive perspective in order to understand what kinds of feelings are associated with suicidal be-haviour. The same is true for the statement that the Yukpa have a “minor fear of death”, which leads us to consider local of notions of death, dying and world-view.

But first, let me introduce an example to illus-trate a typical situation among the Yukpa where sui-cide becomes an issue and option.

Social disintegration and conceptions of death

In 1991, Alejandro (roughly 22 years old) had a dis-pute with his wife, who was complaining that she wanted new clothes and things such as soap and washing powder, which have to be bought at a mis-sionary station that is an eight-hour walk away, or in the next non-indigenous village, which is an ad-ditional 60km drive away from the missionary sta-tion. She blamed him for being unable to provide these items. The situation escalated when Alejandro shouted that he could no longer stand her constant complaining and stated loudly that he was going to leave. Without taking anything with him, he im-mediately left the village. After a few minutes of internal confusion, people asked what had happened and some information was exchanged with houses outside the village but within shouting distance. Then two equally young Yukpa, who were offi-cially called policemen, and therefore expected to stop internal fights and violence, even with physical force, started to pursue Alejandro, who was already out of sight. About an hour later Alejandro was brought back to the village and imprisoned in one of the houses, where he passed the night. The next day there was a conflict resolution session with all of the involved parties, and the couple was “remar-ried”, as the Yukpa say, and went on living together. Interestingly, Alejandro’s forced return and impris-onment were legitimized by statements that were never doubted, and obviously interchangeable: If he

had not been stopped, he would have left the village permanently or he would have committed suicide.

Imprisonment, at least in the remote communi-ties of the upper Tukuko valley16, is not in the first place a punitive action. Rather, it is used to provide time for extreme emotions to settle, in order to pre-vent people from leaving the community and harm-ing themselves, or to prevent further violent con-frontations from occurring. Imprisonment—when it happens at all—has always occurred before conflict resolution begins, but has never been imposed on individuals as the outcome of such processes17. In this sense, the logic of prisons among the Yukpa seems to be related much more to traditional Amer-indian forms of seclusion than to the institution of modern western prisons (Foucault 1977).

“He/she is gone, he/she has left me”, is the ex-pression used when a person dies. Dying and leav-ing are not seen as being fundamentally different: leaving is a sort of social death and death a form of leaving. Among the Kalapalo, not only do children commit suicide by going into the forest and attract-ing jaguars, but “to desert the Upper Xingu Basin to live with Brazilians is [really] a kind of suicide from the society‘s point of view, for those who leave and do not return are effectively treated by the Kalapalo as if they have died” (baSSo 1973: 13f). And the Bakairi, another Carib-speaking group, obviously applied an inverse logic when they exiled persons “who persisted in disturbing the peace and harmony of the village… Exile was considered a severe pun-ishment, for the Bacairi say that individuals who were exiled often committed suicide” (oberG 1948: 313).

Hence, social death is not physical death and physical death is not spiritual death. Among Carib-speakers, bodies are generally considered to be en-dowed with vital force during conception and are seen as temporary shelters for spiritual forces that continue to exist in one way or another. These spiri-tual forces do not leave the body because it is dying or dead; rather, the body dies because of the perma-nent—voluntary or involuntary—separation of the spiritual and vital forces from it. Death is therefore closely related to, and not fundamentally different from, other states of separation of the inner shadow doubles from material forms, such as dreaming, illness, unconsciousness, or drug-induced visions. Lamentations typically begin when bystanders be-come convinced that these spirits will not return

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to the body, in many cases when the person is still alive (reicHeldolmatoFF 1945: 46).

Among the Yukpa, a common structural dimen-sion underlying suicide and flight from the commu-nity is obviously the introduction of difference and non-reciprocity into a previously harmonic relation-ship among close relatives based on sharing and mutual support. At least among the Yukpa, the rea-sons for suicide seem to lie at the very heart of close social relations and the impossibility of enacting so-cial conflicts within them without destroying these bonds and turning close relatives into enemies. War, vendetta and duels must be directed against various outsiders, and spiritual violence, such as witchcraft or spiritual warfare, are fairly uncommon among the Yukpa.

I argue that, besides sociological factors and the breakdown of morally binding conviviality (overinG & PaSSeS 2000) through conflict, the local socio-cosmological conceptions of death, dying and the afterlife may provide a key to understanding Amer-indian suicide. Interestingly, these connections be-tween notions of death and suicide have remained largely unexplored and marginal in Lowland South American ethnography. By incorporating these aspects, a significant step from a sociological to a more culturally informed interpretation of Amer-indian suicide may be achieved whilst taking the people’s own cultural categories into account. And through comparisons, central specificities of and differences between various indigenous groups may be identified. Such contributions take a significant step towards overcoming explanations that focus exclusively on human social relations and power whilst ignoring local socio-cosmologies.

Death, dying and burial among the Yukpa

Suicide among the Yukpa is not always the result of social, or specifically matrimonial, conflict. reicHeldolmatoFF (1945: 49f) and bolinder (1958: 166, 223) both mentioned suicide as a re-action to the death of close relatives. According to Reichel-Dolmatoff, suicide and suicide attempts of widows and close relatives are an important element of Yukpa funeral rites. He writes:

“Suicide must be committed with one of the ar-rows of the deceased and in the case of a child, with the father’s arrow. The weapon must be inserted in

the region of the navel, whose importance as the seat of life has already been stated. The woman usu-ally dies; she survives only in rare cases. The rest of the family must oppose the suicide, and prevent the women from actually carrying out this rite. Hence we are dealing, as in the observed case, with a sym-bolic action. But the problem is still more profound: the warrior who makes a mistake, or the man who misses an important shot or kills a member of his family during a drinking binge, is obliged to com-mit suicide18, by stabbing an arrow deeply into his stomach till he dies” (reicHeldolmatoFF 1945: 60f, own translation).

The Yukpa express a profound longing for main-taining contact with their dead relatives. Suicide is seen as a possibility of following them into the land of the dead and, as such, was also introduced into the myth about travelling to this land (wilbert 1974: 80ff; armato 1988: 17f; lHermillier a. & lHermillier n. 1999).19 There is no taboo applied to mentioning the names of the dead, and they are generally not conceptualized as socio-cosmological enemies (claStre 1968) or as others (carneiro da cunHa 1978). Hence, the Yukpa differ from other Lowland indigenous groups who lack ancestor cults, have few and apparently simple, funeral rituals, and a scarcity of tombs or marked places permanently associated with the dead. (taylor 1993).

Jean-Pierre cHaumeil (1997, 2007) analysed fu-neral practices in the lowlands and argues that there are two contrasting ways to cope with death: Some groups try to erase the memory of their dead, where-as others strive to remain in contact with them. He therefore relativises the common wisdom that the archetypal form of mourning in the Lowlands in-volves an abrupt break with the spirits of the dead. There is, at least regarding certain Carib-speaking groups, indeed ethnographic evidence of complex funeral rituals. This is the case with the Kwarup rit-ual (aGoStHinHo 1974; carneiro 1993) in the upper Xingu, and the death rituals of the Panare (Henley 1982, 2001; matteimuller 1992), as well as those of the ancient Karina (civrieux 1995) and the Yukpa (reicHeldolmatoFF 1945; wavrin 1953).

Among the Yukpa, there is neither an immedi-ate radical discontinuity between the living and the dead, nor an unbroken continuity. Rather, we find a gradual transformation of the dead that goes hand in hand with the decomposition of his/her body. The Yukpa distinguish between the okatu (shadow-


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double), and the breath, yoramshi. The disappear-ance of the yoramshi is the indication of death and the transformation of the body (yupo) into ikane, the corpse. It is only the okatu aspect that contin-ues to exist, and it changes its qualities all along its passage to the land of the dead. First of all, the Yukpa emphasise the preservation and integrity of the deceased’s body: no flesh is to be lost, or eaten by animals. Traditionally after the death of a kins-man, a so-called toromo for mummification of the body was erected. The body was dried and smoked for several days with fires surrounding the toromo. Finally mummified, the corpse was buried in or be-side the deceased’s house. Although buried directly today, food is still offered to the dead—as are weap-ons and tobacco—all visible signs that the deceased is still considered to be part of the community.

From then on this place is generally avoided, and only very close relatives approach. To those who had ambiguous or hostile relations with the dead, the burial place is considered to be danger-ous because of the deceased’s tokiji quality, which remains as long as the flesh has not disappeared. Tokiji normally means “spine”, but refers here to the stinging and dangerous aspect of the okatu, the spirit of the deceased. One may be attacked by the okatu during the time it takes for the flesh to de-compose, and the materialisation of this aspect is thought to take the form of snakes, scorpions and wasps, but it is also associated with accidents and specific stinging plants, which are also avoided dur-ing this time (shapara, masüria). Tokiji is also espe-cially associated with arrows, which are themselves snake symbols and display snake-skin patterns ap-plied with threads. The tokiji revenge aspect of the soul is obviously derived from the common belief in magic darts. However, as previously mentioned, among the Yukpa, such a belief is not accompanied by social practices such as shamanistic séances, shamanic warfare, and goes hardly ever hand in hand with the attribution of illness to sorcery. The spiritual continuity between the dead and the living is also manifested in dreams, where regular visits of the deceased are reported. In cases where there were good relations with the deceased, even the transmis-sion of knowledge of specific songs or medicinal plants may occur.

This transformation came to an end with the Yukpa’s most important ritual: the secondary burial that took place at a time six to twenty-four months

after death. The elaborate ikane yoppe20 ritual, which included dancing with the deceased’s ex-humed bones, was the last time the dead was present in all of his/her aspects: his/her bones; flesh (which is substituted for with wooden dancing sticks made of manüratsha wood—the first Yukpa were made out of an manüratsha tree); and the soul (okatu), which is summoned by the ayiwu flute, originally made out of human bones. The ritual completed the final transformation of the deceased’s okatu into a depersonalized collective eternal existence in the world of the dead. Although the full ritual cycle in all its aspects is not practiced any longer, in the up-per Tukuko valley the details of the ritual are known and elder people have first hand experience in par-ticipating. Collective drinking beside the grave and the exhumation of bones may still take place.

Whilst this ritual establishes a final break with the soul‘s earthly existence, it is also the most in-timate and repeated contact with the world of the dead and marked by communal dancing, drinking and feasting. It is a temporary ritual synchronisation of different timescapes (Halbmayer 2004)—those of the living and the dead—which facilitates the fi-nal passage of the deceased into the land of the dead. The okatu finally arrives at the land of the dead by means of elaborate collective feasting, which has a perspectivist quality, as it is simultaneously a wel-come party to the land of the dead as well as a fare-well ritual of the living. After the ritual, the bones of the dead may still be preserved in the house or be moved to the houses of close family members (reicHeldolmatoFF 1945: 50). Following the final ritual, the deceased’s presence in this world resides in impersonalised forces such as wind, fog and rain—not unlike it does with the neighbouring Gua-jiros (Perrin 1987). In nature, the sky-existence of the dead is located at the top of the mountains, and within the house, it is situated at the location of the bones under the roof. Finally, the bones were depos-ited in one of the collective burial caves (shormu).

One myth21 tells the story of a living woman who travels with her dead lover, called Bonochka (a blood sucking bat), into the land of the dead. The deceased appears as she weeps at his toromo, where the corpse is being smoked and mummified, and food offered to the dead in the first days after dy-ing. He is referred to as okatu (dead spirit) and ad-vises the woman to look only at his feet. His body is covered with dry leaves (villamañan 1982: 22) and

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he appears in the form of wind.22 The okatu travels ahead and the woman follows, led on by the sound of breaking wood with which he indicates the right direction. The journey is long and arduous and sev-eral problems must be faced. It is not only potential-ly dangerous for the living woman, but even more so for the deceased himself who, during this phase, is threatened by various animals, must fight and be fearless, and has to present his cultural knowledge. The major obstacles along this journey are:

A toad (kopirchu) asks him to demonstrate his ability to weave. Those who cannot weave are sent off in the wrong direction and will not arrive at the land of the dead.

He has to muster all his courage and fight masa-ya, a species of black wasp known for its painful bites.

He must pass taijaija, which is described either as a narrow gorge that may close and crush the trav-eller, or as two large rotating stones, similar to mill-stones, through which one has to pass, which only spirits may do. Often, taijaija is considered to be the gate to the land of the dead.

After that, a huge body of water, called arirpa, has to be crossed with a dog. The deceased must catch the dog by its ear, and it will then bring him to the other side, provided he treated dogs well dur-ing lifetime. When he finally arrives at the land of the dead, he climbs up into the mountains and upon entering a village is greeted by the dead, who cel-ebrate his arrival with a maize beer feast. There the women and the dead live together until she eventu-ally returns to the world of the living. Back home, despite her promise not to speak of her experiences, she relates whilst under the influence of maize beer what has happened and what she has seen. As she believes her dead lover will now reject her, she kills herself.

Suicide, power and revenge

Based on the case of the Yukpa, two first local un-derstandings of suicide may be identified: Suicide may be a means of following deceased relatives into the land of the dead and it may be a conscious way to produce separation from close relatives through tgis form of leaving.

Yet attempts at suicide may also serve several functions among the living: they may be used to

attract public attention to one’s case (metraux 1943: 205), be used as threats (metraux 1943: 207; brown 1986: 321) or to enhance one’s own posi-tion in conflicts (bant 1994; metraux 1943: 206). Powerless people may use suicide “to become sub-jects in a world that relegates them to the status of objects” (brown 1986: 324). And the ever-present possibility of suicide may also serve as a silent gen-eralized threat during conflict resolution procedures (Halbmayer 1998).

Michael Brown concluded that suicide is an ex-pression of lack of power, especially the lack of the ability to organize collective reactions to social con-flict. Contrary to suicide viewed as an expression of lack of power and a demonstration of females’ “social impotence” (brown 1986: 326), in the in-terpretation of Astrid bant (1994) suicide becomes a means of exercising power. She puts forward the thesis that “the husband is conditioned by the ever-present threat of his wife to commit suicide and its consequences. There are indications that suicidal threats are a female means of exerting pressure on the marital unit and relations with close male relatives, with the aim of achieving adequate ad-justments to the woman’s personal situation, these generally being the male co-resident’s assent to be married, to be divorced, or the suppression of a husband’s intention to marry a second wife. Such interests may indeed be so important to a wife that she may decide to risk her life in order to force a decision in favor of her personal interests” (bant 1994: 93, own translation).

So it seems it is only a small step from suicide as a threat, and as the last recourse of the otherwise powerless, to accomplished suicide as a demonstra-tion of “social impotence” (brown 1986: 326). But if accomplished suicide is a demonstration of “so-cial impotence”, how may it simultaneously have “a strong aggressive tendency” (metraux 1943: 207), which obviously goes beyond auto-aggression and self-harm? In the words of Metraux, suicide may be used as a weapon; through suicide, one may punish an offender and avenge oneself. Brown also men-tions this punitive element (1986: 318).

It was JeFFreyS (1952) who described suicides of revenge or, as he called them, Samsonic suicides. Samson‘s suicide was one of vengeance where, by killing himself, he also killed his enemies. Accord-ing to Jeffreys, this form of revenge may take a spir-itual or a social form, depending on whether one be-


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lieves that the ghost of the deceased will torment his enemies, or that the survivors will inflict penalties upon the deceased’s enemies. Conflict and violence may therefore move far beyond physical violence between specific humans and may include spiritual agents. Physical death must not necessarily be spir-itual death. The Aguarauna obviously do not sub-scribe to “the notion that the soul of a suicide victim can come back to torment those who made her suf-fer in life” (brown 1986: 321). Among the Yukpa, however, both aspects seem to be present in specific forms. Suicide is a form of punishment, as one may be sure that by committing it, one produces suffer-ing and conflict among the survivors. Moreover, it is precisely the spiritual okatu aspect of the dead that, until the second burial, may inflict spiritual revenge by causing accidents to happen to offenders, and whose permanent appearance is feared. Peter Kloos describes a similar situation with the Maroni River Caribs: “A peculiar agency is the ekato nimbo, the ghost of a deceased person. It may cause illness and death among its descendants” (klooS 1971: 216).

Suicide is therefore not merely an escape from a situation of powerlessness, and not just a last means of exercising power by using one’s life as a bargain-ing tool, but may also be considered as a specific form of violent revenge. It is a rather conscious method of becoming “an other”, by leaving and committing suicide and thereby acting against the offender, whom, as a living person, one cannot act against as he/she belongs to the same core group of close relatives. This transformation of becoming an other seems necessary for taking revenge and acting upon the perpetrator in a situation where violence within the core group of close relatives is not per-mitted. Suicide is a way to create the difference nec-essary to enact violence, it is an auto-transformation into an other.

Yet is this the only form of spiritual violence involved in Lowland Amerindian suicide? Ethno-graphic accounts also describe various other logics.

Suicide, murder or seduction?

Durkheim’s classical definition of suicide as “any death resulting directly or indirectly from a posi-tive or negative act of the victim himself, which he knows must produce this result” becomes prob-lematic as soon as we are confronted with local

interpretations that tend to understand suicide not as an auto-aggressive act, but rather as having been induced by a third party. Consequently, according to a people’s own cultural categories, suicide is not necessarily a form of self-harm, but may be spiritu-ally inflicted by others. In this sense, suicide may turn out to be a form of spiritual murder.

Regina de Carvalho Erthal reports of the Tikuna that “suicides are also attributed to witchcraft, set in motion by the bad spirit that the pajé-shaman or-ders to torment its enemy”. Once introduced into the victim, one of the pajé’s three spirits, the tchatcha-cuna, causes “antisocial behaviour, [and] disobedi-ence and disregard towards parents. The behaviour of the individual under the interference of this spirit is associated with the behaviour of someone becom-ing ‘crazy’ and losing consciousness of his actions. ‘ Tchatchcuna’ witchcraft is not restricted to one person alone, and may be able to reach members of a familiar group. A series of suicides in the same nuclear family or affinal and consanguinal relatives is explained by the witchcraft of ‘tchatchacuna’” (ertHal 2001: 309, own translation). ertHal (2001: 300) argues that indigenous societies are not consti-tuted by homogenous interests, nor do they form a single political project. She thereby rejects—with-out directly referring to Durkheim—any notion of strong social integration. In Erthal’s interpretation, tchatchacuna witchcraft is an expression of the various levels of conflict in Tikuna society, which is marked by intense factionalism. Suicide, when understood as spiritual murder, expresses inter-group conflicts within Tikuna society and produces a coherent explanation that gives meaning to these events.

In his analysis of the Guarani, Levcovitz ex-plains suicide in the light of Tupi-Guarani cosmolo-gy. The basis of this socio-cosmological matrix may be found in the relationship with enemies, which go hand in hand with the longing to become an other (viveiroS de caStro 1992). In cannibalistic Tupi-Guarani logic it is necessary to be killed by an en-emy to become immortal. According to Levcovitz, suicide is placed in the structural framework of the old Tupi-Guarani cannibalistic warfare complex. Suicide is interpreted as being caused by a third par-ty and is therefore understood as homicide. Witch-craft plays a central role in this logic: “auto-aggres-sive phenomena are invariably related to what the Indians call tarujú, a word composed of the suffix

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ju (‘radiating or holy’) and taru (‘damage’)… The Paí-taviterã view tarujú as a magical threat that in-duces a person’s hanging.” And he goes on to men-tion “the existence of magical chants, known to all, that have the intention of producing tarujú and of leading a person to suicide.” (levcovitz 1998: 227, own translation)

In contrast to the self-transformation of the Yuk-pa, and the predatory logic of being attacked and finally killed by enemies that prevails among the Guarani and Tikuna, a third kind of logic may be identified among the Kashinawa (keiFenHeim 2002). Here, it is not predation but seduction that forms the centre of relationships with others and which causes suicide. These others are not living human enemies, but the dead spirits themselves. Olfactory and auditory contact with these spirits produces an intense longing to join them and leads to voluntary death. Such olfactory seduction is induced in the deep forest by a charming and intoxicating perfume called inin. If a man returns from the forest without meat and in a somehow absent-minded condition, it will cause immediate concern in the community, as these are visible signs that a person may be ima na-i—“taken by desire for the other world” (ibid. 92, own translation). What follows is best described in Keifenheim’s own words:

“It is believed that smells and sounds are accom-panied by an invisible pulverized substance which spreads to all fibres of the body. According to con-ventional wisdom, olfactory and auditory contact with the spirits of the dead inevitably leads to death if the initial symptoms are not detected and treated in time. Treatment consists, among other things, in washing the patient with an herbal decoction, flushing the eyes with herbal juice, and providing a remedy that will expel the substances that entered the body… If such treatment is not begun in time, the progress of evil is described as follows: First, the dead spirit’s victim becomes passive and falls into lethargy, experiences violent headaches, and then the whole body suffers terrible pain. With the first fever, the desire for the other world becomes in-creasingly strong. And although the victim may not have experienced more than a ‘pre-smell’ attraction, he cannot stop thinking endlessly about the beyond. The imana patient begins to listen and feel ‘supra-sensorially’ and will see the spirits of the dead. De-ceased family members will appear to him, touch, and invite him, with the help of fantastic images, to

follow them into the afterlife. The patient refuses human food and asks to eat worms and earth. His sensory perception no longer functions properly: the five senses are completely directed towards the afterlife. They lose their dual mission of sensing liv-ing and cultural beings, humans socialized within the Kashinawa community. The patient is in danger of dying because he can no longer refuse wanting to live according to the call of the dead. He forgets his family and social ties and no longer responds to the calls of relatives and friends. He will die, shortly.” (keiFenHeim 2002: 93, own translation)

Here as well, a person’s death is caused by a third party, in the form of aggressive seduction. Keifen-heim’s paper elegantly describes the perceptive processes and local concepts of persons and spirits. Nevertheless, it remains unclear whether it is the positive or negative act of the victim himself that leads to his death. Consequently, the question re-mains as to whether there is a distinction between a spiritually induced illness, a longing for the beyond, and spiritually induced self-harm, which could be called suicide.

Suicide and the afterworld

In general, suicide is therefore specifically related to the dead and the afterworld. It may form part of a specific mortuary economy (Poz 2000: 114). Among the Yukpa, a longing to follow a close rela-tive into the land of the dead may provoke a suicidal act. Among the Kashinawa, dead spirits seduce the living through olfactory and auditory contact and transform their victims’ perception. Another case is represented by the small and isolated Arawak-speaking group of Suruahá, who fled to a very re-mote area along the Rio Purús and established a highly epidemic form of suicide, which has been labelled—not quite correctly—“ritual mass sui-cide”23 (Garve 2002). In the eyes of the Suruahá, the “bravest” commit suicide by drinking the fish poison kunahã, and suicide is clearly the most com-mon cause of death in this group (Poz 2000). Only the people who commit suicide reach the creator Bai Dokuni, and the dwelling of the thunder in the sky world, where they meet their relatives. According to kroemer (1994: 150f.), the Suruahá distinguish between three distinct paths to heaven (see also Poz 2000: 107; Garve 2002: 57f):


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The mazaro agi (“the way of death”), which is the path of the sun. Those who die a natural death of old age follow this path. They will not reach Bai Dukuni, but rather Tiwiju, who lives on a dif-ferent cosmological level. Today, Suruahá believe that those who arrive there will die forever, as their souls wander around restlessly, and they will not meet their relatives again.

The kunahã agi (“way of the fish poison”), which is the path of the moon to the creator Bai Dokuni. Those who ingest fish poison and commit suicide follow this path. The soul (asoma) travels to a specific sky level, where it stays until the thunder, which is associated with a sky-serpent, carries it on to the creator. Here it meets its deceased relatives and together they form the fish poison people, the kunahã mady.

Koiri agiri (“way of the snake”), which is the path of the rainbow. Those who die from snakebites will arrive at the intermediary level of the rainbow. This is a painful way “where the hearts stray, without finding tranquillity and peace” (kroemer 1994: 78) which eventually leads to the house of Tiwiju. He “paradoxically” allows “their transformation into eternally young beings. The source of this youth, they say, is ‘fresh food’ that the souls receive upon arriving—the old aspect stays in the tomb, along with the skin of the body. Here, life is good, plants grow without the efforts of farming, and the bounty of hunting and fishing is abundant.” (Poz 2000: 107, own translation)

Nevertheless, actual rites, songs and prayers are all made directly to Bai Dukuni (kroemer 1994:78; Poz, ibid.). Hence, there exists a polarized eschato-logical destiny of souls: Those who commit suicide will arrive at the top level of heaven and reside with the thunder god Bai Dukuni and their relatives; and the souls who die natural deaths will join Tiwijo, to the east. Suicide among the Suruahá also goes hand in hand with the fact that forms of violence between the living are suppressed and may not be enacted within the small Suruahá community (Poz 2000: 116). Witchcraft—a former mediating factor in inter-village relations and a cause of death (ibid. 118f .)—hardly exists anymore.

In cases where the breakdown of intimate close relations and morally binding conviviality may not be transformed into violence between the living (as is the case of the Suruahá and close relatives in the Yukpa), the result may be an auto-transformation in

the form of suicide and a final spiritual existence in co-existent worlds. Nevertheless, there is still a dif-ference between the Yukpa and the Suruahá in their evaluations of suicide as being either a good or bad death.

Suicide as good death and/or bad death

In Bloch and Parry’s interpretation, “good” death “promises a rebirth for the individual but also a re-newal of the world of the living” (blocH & Parry 1982: 16). A good death is therefore “the one which suggests some degree of mastery over the arbitrari-ness of the biological occurrence by replicating a prototype to which all such deaths conform, and which can therefore be seen as an instance of a gen-eral pattern necessary for the reproduction of life”, whereas bad deaths “do not result in regeneration” (ibid. 15). According to these authors, the “supreme example” of “bad death” is suicide “whose self-de-struction is regarded with such incomparable horror that the soul may forever be excluded from society of the dead and must wander the earth as a lonely and malignant ghost, while the corpse may not be accorded the normal rites of disposal” (ibid. 16).

In contrast to this opinion, some of the examples presented here show that suicide may sometimes be regarded as a good death24. This is the case with the Guarani. Dying by the hand of an enemy is a kalos thantanos, a good death (viveiroS de caStro 1992: 273ff). And suicide among the contemporary Gua-rani is interpreted as being caused by enemies using witchcraft. It is this spiritual killing that reproduces the central Tupi-Guarani logic of outward relations to the other. However, one might argue that suicide is only considered to be a good death in this case be-cause it is interpreted as an enemy attack and not as self-harm. Yet in the case of the Suruahá it becomes obvious that suicide is a good death, and the only one that leads to the highest sky level and secures continuing co-existence with relatives. In this sense, it is suicide that produces regeneration and “prom-ises a rebirth for the individual”. In contrast, the al-ternative painful way will lead to an eternal vagrant existence of the soul and is therefore considered to be a bad death.

But a bad death is not only one without regenera-tion. As lévybruHl (1922: 310) once stated, it also reveals the anger of invisible powers—the deceased

84 ernSt Halbmayer


person has been struck by them. Because of fear of sharing his fate, one has to differentiate oneself from him and sever all ties between him and the so-cial group. Yet the bad death of suicide among the Yukpa follows quite a different logic. Here, suicide does not reveal the anger of invisible powers, but the visible power of social conflict within a close group of relatives. By committing suicide, the self-murderer differentiates himself from the group, and transforms himself into an invisible power, which may take revenge. Among the Yukpa, people who kill themselves are thought to be unable to join oth-ers in the land of the dead. They are considered to live separately in places of their own, together with those who have been killed. Whereas it is always daytime and there is eternal brightness in the normal land of the dead, in the place where suicide victims reside it is always night.

Suicide among the Yukpa25 is not a bad death in the sense of avoiding regeneration. Physical death is not followed by spiritual death. This would be the case if the soul were to get lost on its way to the land of the dead. Suicide among the Yukpa is a bad death because it transforms a relative into an enemy and also reproduces the difference between enemies and relatives in the land of the dead. Hence, sui-cide among the Yukpa turns out to be “bad death”, but not in terms of being a crime against the gift of life, or a disturbance of cosmological regeneration. Rather, it is a bad death for two other reasons: such a suicide will cause intense social conflict and there is hardly any possibility for the group to avoid ongo-ing and potentially dangerous interference from the deceased’s spirit. And the deceased himself, even though he may attain eternal existence, will not be on the bright side of life in the afterworld.

Notes

1 These groups belong to different language families such as Ar-awak [Suruahá], Carib [Yukpa], Tupi [Guarani], Pano [Kashi-nawa], Matakoan [Matako], Jivaroan [Aguaruna], and Tikuna.

2 Brazil: 4.3/100,000 (2002), Colombia: 5.3/100,000 (1999), Peru: 0.9/100,000 (2000), Venezuela 5.1/100,000 (2002). The highest national suicide rates are reported for the newly in-dependent states of the former Soviet Union (e.g. Lithuania: 40.2/100,000 [2004], Belarus: 35.1/100,00 [2003], Russian Federation: 34.3/100,000 [2004], and Hungary: 27.7/100,000 [2003]). Source: WHO (2007).

3 There are three Guarani groups living in Brazil and Paraguay (Kaiowá, Nandeva, Mbya). These high suicide rates refer to the Kaiowá of Mato Grosso do Sul and Paraguay, and to a lesser degree to the Nandeva, whereas suicide is unknown

among the Mbya. Among the Kaiowá, suicide rates in 1995 were 305/100,000 (Hamlin & brym 2006: 42f).

4 For classical critiques of Durkheim’s study see e.g. HalbwacHS (1930), JoHnSon (1965), and douGlaS (1967).

5 Cultural explanations focus on the impact of norms, values, role expectations, etc., and on variances between nations, genders and ethnic socialisation. Economic explanations anal-yse suicide using the logic of economic costs/benefits. If the perceived costs of continuing life are higher than the benefits of living, it is argued—especially for the unemployed and poor—that the likeliness of suicide increases. The relationship between modernisation and suicide was a topic from the very beginning of suicide research, e.g. focussing on the effects of the division of labour, the expansion of education, or urbanisa-tion.

6 rotH already stated: “It is only too common for certain nations to strangle themselves for nothing” (1924: 560).

7 ertHal (2001) reports a stable suicide rate among the Tikuna between 1993 and 1997. She rejects the thesis of a suicide epi-demic among the Tikuna.

8 metraux (1943: 208) argues e.g. that: “It is possible that interest in life itself decreases as the Indian is progressively prevented from carrying on any of his former activities. In ad-dition, he is faced with increasingly difficult economic prob-lems. The struggle for life is harsher and the conditions more humiliating. The Indians are well aware that they are the un-derdogs.”

9 In contrast, acuña (1998: 189) argues not very convincingly that missionary activities among the Yukpa produced a reduc-tion of suicides.

10 ertHal, in contrast, could not empirically support the idea that suicide among adolescent Tikuna results from familiar con-flicts such as disobedience towards the traditional standard of marriage. (2001: 307)

11 GuSinde (1955: 425) noted over 50 years ago that male suicide is more frequent than female. Of the 50 cases I have been able to document, the male to female suicide ratio was 3:2.

12 Among the Suruahá, more males than females were affected before 1980, but between 1980 and 1995 gender specific dif-ferences were minimal. (see Poz 2000: 99ff)

13 Hence it seems to be no accident that a high number of or-phans, obviously lacking close relatives and social support, is mentioned in the cases of suicide and suicide attempts de-scribed by metraux (1943: 201ff).

14 Most likely, different poisonous plants are used at different oc-casions. One of them seems to be wusa (Tephrosia singapou) a root used as fish poison.

15 Suicide may also be expressed as killing oneself (tuapnečoka; tuape—“himself”, nečoka—“erase”, “kill”), or by the tech-nique of kürü, which means to tie or to hang and refers to the practice of strangulation with a cord, often the string of one’s own bow.

16 There are indications that in the highly acculturated mission station of El Tukuko, prison sentences of a few days are more frequently used as a punitive measure.

17 As the outcome of conflict resolutions, most frequently pay-ments in the form of coffee or work service for the community or victim are imposed.

18 See also bolinder 1958: 17219 A significant number of Carib-speakers (e.g. the Yukpa, Waya-

na, Kalapalo) mention suicide in their myths and the Yabarana even regard themselves as descendants of the survivors of a mythical collective suicide (Perera 1992; Scaramelli & tarble 2000)

20 ikane—“the corpse”, yoppe—“in pure bones”, according to veGamian (1978: 251)

21 This is the most elaborated myth I have been able to collect among the Yukpa. A version nuPe told to me in 2001 lasts over


curare 31(2008)1

one hour. 22 Wind and fog are among the Yukpa’s visible signs of dead spir-

its (Halbmayer 2004), especially small whirlwinds are consid-ered to be visible expressions of okatu, of which one sees only the feet, meaning its steps on the ground. Its body is covered in leaves.

23 Such an understanding of Suruahá suicides was first presented by kroemer (1994: 79), and later criticised by Poz (2000: 121f.)

24 Also, the altruistic forms of suicide in durkHeim’s sense are generally regarded as honourable and therefore good.

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article received: November 2007article accepted: February 2008

Ernst Halbmayer is a senior lecturer at the University of Vienna. His current research topics are cosmo-logy, communication and the social; landscape and nature; conflict and violence; and research methods. He carried out extensive field research among the Yukpa and Japreria as well as among other Carib-speaking groups in Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana.

Department for Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of ViennaUniversitätsstrasse 7/IV, A - 1010 Vienna, Austriae-mail: [email protected]

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