A Further Note on Iroquois Suicide

An earlier study of Iroquois suicide (Fenton I94I), which is unique in the Iroquoian literature and cited in comparative studies of the subject, lacked cases for the period (1790-1838) when Iroquois society suffered from rapid change. The present note fills this gap. It also bears on a theoretical issue of social disorganization related to deprivation and a radical change in the economy. The present cases conform to the two types of suicides discovered in the previous study. In an earlier study of Iroquois suicide (Fenton 1941), there was a gap in cases that occurred during the treaty period at the end of the eighteenth century and marking the onset of reservation life at the opening of the nineteenth century. These were times of deprivation-loss of lands, scarcity of game, a shift from hunting to plow agriculture, and changing role behavior for warriors. Just then Handsome Lake arose to preach a code of reformation, and Seneca culture adopted a new paradigm. Of theoretical interest is whether social disorganiza- tion accounts for the rise of the prophet and his code (Wallace 1970), or whether the demands of a radically new economy better explain the content of his message (Tooker 1968; Rothenberg 1974). The following cases of suicide document the shame of leaders and conflicts between traditional and Christian value systems. They conform to the two types discovered in the previous study -poisoning by ingesting Cicuta maculata L., or violent acts of hanging or stabbing

Criminology · Genealogy · Archaeology and Natural History · History · Indigenous Studies and Ecology · Latin American history and culture · Psychology

• Anthropology, Theory, and Research in Iroquois Studies, 1980–1990

  Gail Landsman•Histories of anthropology annual•2006

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• The medicinal flora of native North America

  Open Access•D E Moerman•Journal of Ethnopharmacology•1991

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• A Bibliography on Suicide and Suicide Attempts among American Indians and Alaska Natives

  Open Access•P A May•OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying•1990

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• Aggressive suicide

  Open Access•Jason Fox Manning•International journal of law,…•2015

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• Handsome Lake's teachings

  Open Access•Marilyn Holly•Agriculture and Human Values•1990

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• The death and rebirth of the Seneca

  Anthony F C Wallace•The death and rebirth of the Seneca•1972

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• The Journal of Samuel Kirkland

  James H Smylie, Walter Pilkington•The William and Mary Quarterly•1981

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