Culture bound syndromes
Many of us have heard of unusual psychiatric ailments that people in other cultures experience. Some people in Malaysia “run amok”; some people in Africa experience “koro” the fear or belief that their penis will shrink into their body. etc.
Take windigo, for example. The modern Western take is this: Windigo and the extreme anxiety associated with it are real. Humans are wired to experience anxiety, and human behavioral traits exist on a spectrum. Therefore, a few unfortunate outliers in every culture, in every time and place, will experience extreme anxiety. The cannibalism thing, though, is something that a particular culture layered on top. It’s very real to the sufferers, but it’s also true that a culture “made it up.” Other cultures tell the story about their anxiety in different ways. They express and experience their anxiety in other ways. The cannibalism thing represents one culture telling a story about anxiety. In other words: Anxiety is a human universal. Windigo is something they made up.
That’s not to say that people who experience windigo aren’t suffering with something real they are. Their experience is real. They’re not pretending. It feels natural and organic. In their context, it makes sense.
So /his/torians and sociologists here, what are some of the more interesting cultural bound syndromes that you lot have read about through current cultures or historically?
Take windigo, for example. The modern Western take is this: Windigo and the extreme anxiety associated with it are real. Humans are wired to experience anxiety, and human behavioral traits exist on a spectrum. Therefore, a few unfortunate outliers in every culture, in every time and place, will experience extreme anxiety. The cannibalism thing, though, is something that a particular culture layered on top. It’s very real to the sufferers, but it’s also true that a culture “made it up.” Other cultures tell the story about their anxiety in different ways. They express and experience their anxiety in other ways. The cannibalism thing represents one culture telling a story about anxiety. In other words: Anxiety is a human universal. Windigo is something they made up.
That’s not to say that people who experience windigo aren’t suffering with something real they are. Their experience is real. They’re not pretending. It feels natural and organic. In their context, it makes sense.
So /his/torians and sociologists here, what are some of the more interesting cultural bound syndromes that you lot have read about through current cultures or historically?
