HollandThis study examined the role of socialization experiences in the development of psychological differentiation. In each of three countries (Holland, Italy, Mexico) two villages were selected as presenting a contrasting picture with regard to degree of emphasis on conformity to family, religious and political authority. It was hypothesized that within the pair of villages in each country children from the village which stressed social conformity would tend to be more field dependent and show other signs of less developed differentiation than children from the village in which social conformity was less emphasized. In each of the six villages approximately IOO children (boys and girls, aged 9-11 and 13-15) were A congruent study conducted in Norway, in which two villages were selected on the basis of political orientation rather than social conformity, will be described in a later report.Because of space limitations, only a brief summary description is given in this paper of the six villages studied and of the selection procedures followed to insure that the subject groups used would be representative of the total populations from which they were drawn. Extended accounts of the villages and of the subject selection procedures are given in a

There are numerous approaches to the study of shamanism.' Anthropologists, psychologists and religious historians have attributed to it a wide spectrum of cultural and psychological perspectives. In this paper, we concentrate upon the altered states of consciousness (ASC)' experienced by the shaman during ceremonial performances. In studying this phenomenon, certain experiential characteristics of the shaman's trance as they occur in 42 cultures (see Appendix) will be identified.' The experiential characteristics delineated are often referred to in the literature: magical flight, possession, and the control, memory and cultural orientation of trance.The anthropological and psychological study of shamanism is multifaceted. The anthropologists Metzger and Williams (1963) approached it by studying the "ethnosemantics," using indigenous cultural categories to determine the social role of Tenejapa shamans. Landy (1974) investigated the shaman's innovative social role as a "cultural broker" in situations of acculturation. Shweder (1972 [1958]) pointed up the unique cognitive capacities of Zinacanteco shamans as opposed to nonshamans, especially their abilities to "avoid bafflement and impose form on unstructured stimuli" (1972:412). Numerous other investigators have focused on the shaman's vision quest and its psychological meaning, often coming to antithetical conclusions. The initial crisis experience of the shaman has been likened to almost every psychopathology, including schizophrenia (Silverman 1967); and its final outcome, personality formation, has been called "a controlled hysterical dissociation" sup-A comprehensive delineation of the ecstatic states of shamans is developed along the lines of cross-cultural psychiatry. Psychiatric concepts, such as dissociation, role playing and hypnosis, are integrated with the ethnographic literature on spirit possession, soul journey and other forms of shamanic ecstasy in order to shed light upon some old anthropological controversies regarding the psychopathology and authenticity of the shaman's trance. Forty-two cultures, from four different cultural areas, are compared in order to determine a set of experiential and psychological factors that collectively identify what is meant by shamanic ecstasy. Shamanic ecstasy is identified as a specific class of ASC involving: la) voluntary control of entrance and duration of trance, (6) posttrance memory, and fcl transic communicative interplay with spectators. analyrlr of ahamrnlrm 3Q7 ported by the community which saves the individual from a "wildly disturbed schizophrenic state" (Wallace 1966:lSO). Devereux (1956:28-29; 1961 :63-64) says "the shaman is mentally deranged," and that shamanism is a neurotic defense which never attains sublimation so that, sooner or later, the shaman will decompensate into a permanent pathological state. Conversely, some writers emphasize the therapeutic aspects of the shaman's initiatory process. Ackerknecht (194346) states that "shamanism is not a disease but being healed from disease." Simil...

No abstract

Children of three subcultural groups in the United States-Anglos, Blacks, and Mexican-Americans-were tested with the Portable Rod and Frame Test. The results showed that Black and Mexican-American children, and females in all three groups, scored in a significantly more field-dependent direction than Anglo children. The results confirmed previous findings that members of groups which emphasize respect for family and religious authority and group identity and which are characterized by shared-function family and friendship groups tend to be field-dependent in cognitive style. Members of groups which encourage questioning of convention and an individual identity and are characterized by formally organized family and friendship groups, on the other hand, tend to be more field-independent.

No abstract