Nosological classification of bokhoror

The results of neurological, pathomorphological and clinic-genealogical studies of vilyuisk encephalitis (VE), a chronic progressive disease of CNS, are presented. The disease is spread in Yakutija in Vilyui river basin (mainly in Vilyuisk and Kobyaisk regions) exclusively among native population and is known there since the middle of the last century. The results obtained suggest that VE (despite the existing opinion on its natural-focal virus etiology) is an ethnic hereditary disease with autosomal recessive type of transmission, is spread in a limited Yakut population by an ancestor effect and gradually gets out of the limits of this population at the expense of migration. According to its clinical symptoms and pathomorphological substrate of this main neurological syndrome (peculiar lower spastic paraparesis as a result of systemic ascending degeneration of lateral corticospinal tract of spinal cord), VE belongs to hereditary heterogenous group of diseases which are referred to Strümpell's spastic paraplegia. VE is different from the diseases of this group by the occurrence of cases with very rapid progressing and characteristic brain damages. To prevent further VE accumulation, it is necessary to concentrate efforts on biochemical and neurological studies in search of reliable tests for early detection of heterozygotes. Taking into account the hereditary nature of VE, its ethnic limitations and nosological self-dependence, it is expedient to designate the disease by its local name "bokhoroor".     

Mesquakie Witchcraft Lore

Abstract

The culture of the Mesquakie, or Red Earth People, a central Algonquian Indian tribe better known as the Fox, who reside near Tama, Iowa, contains a number of patterns that may be spoken of as non-aggressive in character but which are covertly aggressive, Witchcraft lore is stated as being one of these forms. While this theory has been previously developed by others the author presents additional data to support this thesis from the field of witchcraft lore. Covert aggressiveness is exemplied in the training of the shaman who is credited with knowledge of all medicine both good and evi1. Since the shaman may choose to perform evil medicine, he is never ful1y trusted. Disease as well as disaster are attributed to these sorcerers. Witchery feuds between families and secret societies, and distrust between individuals results, Operations and procedures of witches, as well as means of protection against them, are discussed.

The lack of aggressiveness in face-to-face social intercourse among the Mesquakie is attributed to fear of inciting witchery. The social effects of this covert aggressiveness is lack of individual cooperation and a back-log of unresolved grievances. The author agrees with others that this is an adjustive way of releasing the tensions specific to the Mesquakie social structure.     

Witchcraft Beliefs and Witch Hunts

This paper proposes an interdisciplinary explanation of the cross-cultural similarities and evolutionary patterns of witchcraft beliefs. It argues that human social dilemmas have led to the evolution of a fear system that is sensitive to signs of deceit and envy. This was adapted in the evolutionary environment of small foraging bands but became overstimulated by the consequences of the Agricultural Revolution, leading to witch paranoia. State formation, civilization, and economic development abated the fear of witches and replaced it in part with more collectivist forms of social paranoia. However, demographic-economic crises could rekindle fear of witches—resulting, for example, in the witch craze of early modern Europe. The Industrial Revolution broke the Malthusian shackles, but modern economic growth requires agricultural development as a starting point. In sub-Saharan Africa, witch paranoia has resurged because the conditions for agricultural development are lacking, leading to fighting for opportunities and an erosion of intergenerational reciprocity.     

Witchcraft, Violence, and Democracy in South Africa

Witchcraft, Violence, and Democracy in South Africa . Adam Ashforth. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005. 396 pp.     

From Healing to Witchcraft: On Ritual Speech and Roboticization in the Hospital

Healthcare Information Technology (HIT), touted as a panacea by U.S. political actors ranging from Newt Gingrich to Barack Obama, is central to emerging forms of healthcare governance which Holmes et al.—in their critique of the institutionalization of magical thinking brought about by Orwellian techno-Newspeak—have provocatively labeled fascistic. Drawing from data collected over 3 years of working with and teaching continuing education (CE) courses for thousands of registered nurses as lead political educator for the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC), I argue that HIT is an integral component of a broader technological restructuring of healthcare and thus society, both of which are part of a social discourse that is tied to a transformative system of ritual speech, with profound implications for healthcare work, patient health, and democracy.     

Group differences in the structure of illness

The paper reports an attempt to study in a naturalistic and quantitative fashion the features of illness episodes. Such episodes, as perceived and reported by lay persons, constitute a basic datum in ethnomedicine. Yet, they have rarely been the object of systematic research for theoretical and methodological reasons. The paper discusses ways in which illness episodes have significance in ethnomedicine and in health services research generally, and describes a method which can be used in field situations to study them. The content, internal structure and organization which illness episodes have are given attention by analysing and measuring the components of illness in a panel of adult females who reside in the highland state of Chiapas in Southeastern Mexico. Comparisons are undertaken in the two most dissimilar subgroupings of the region. Some commonalities and group differences in the duration of symptoms and in the way symptoms interrelate are described. An interpretation of these differences is offered, with principal emphasis given to the social circumstances and to the (cultural) meanings of illness in the two groups. The procedure employed, which is consistent with the way in which vital signs are recorded in the hospital, lends itself to field studies of the way symptoms and signs of disease unfold in the individual across time. The idea of a language of illness, which is introduced and developed in the paper, is used to draw emphasis to the communicative and symbolic features of illness.