The Return of the Native: A Cultural and Social-Psychological Critique of Durkheim'sSuicideBased on the Guarani-Kaiowá of Southwestern Brazil

Abstract

This article argues that Durkheim's theory of suicide is deficient because of its monocausal reasoning, its conception of suicide as an action without subjects, and its characterization of preliterate societies as harmonious, self-contained, and morphologically static. It shows that these deficiencies can be overcome by including cultural and social-psychological considerations in the analysis of suicide-specifically by including culture as a causal force in its own right and drawing links between social circumstances, cultural beliefs and values, and individual dispositions. The authors make their case by analyzing ethnographic and quantitative data on the preliterate Guarani-Kaiowa´of southwestern Brazil, one of the most suicide-prone groups in the world.More than a 100 years after its publication, Durkheim's Suicide continues to inspire debate over its theoretical, methodological, and empirical claims. Yet few authors have ventured a critique that shows the impact of each of those claims on one another. The importance of such a critique lies in the fact that it is not possible to resolve some of the contradictions in Durkheim's work unless one examines both the underlying meta-theoretical assumptions and the data that account for its explanatory limitations.An especially interesting case for illustrating the explanatory limitations of Durkheim's theory of suicide is the Guarani-Kaiowa´people of Brazil. The Guarani are an ethnic group characterized by a unique religious system and language (Guarani).

Spatial-temporal trends and risk of suicide in Central Brazil: an ecological study contrasting indigenous and non-indigenous populations

“…Costa Pereira 33 suggests the possible role of young people as spokespeople of a collective malaise, where suicide would be one form to denounce the historical and contemporary difficulties experienced by their people. Halin & Brym, 12 comparably to what has been proposed by Souza & Orellana,17 highlight the possible correlation between the abandonment of traditional rites of passage and youth suicide. Pimentel 29 presents the Rev Bras Psiquiatr.…”

“…5,17,25 We therefore propose that research be undertaken to understand the influence of different factors on the high suicide mortality rate among indigenous girls in Mato Grosso do Sul. According to Hamlin & Brym, 12 ethnographic studies of Guarani women suggest that the alarming rates of suicide, especially among youths, could also be related to repercussions of the rearrangements of the Guarani family structure in the last few decades, expressed as work overload, exposure to new forms of sexual exploitation, and frustration with the requirement of traditional marriage at early ages.…”

“…10 The indigenous population is approximately 64% Guarani-Kaiowá and Guarani-Ñ andeva and 32% Terena, with the remaining 4% representing a less expressive population set, consisting of six other ethnic groups. 11,12 The 46 Indigenous Territories (IT) in the state occupy 2.3% of its total area and are distributed into 27 municipalities. The Guarani areas are concentrated in the central and southern areas of the state, and approximately 97% of the Guarani population lives in the healthcare micro-regions of Ponta Porã, Dourados, and Naviraí in the south.…”

Sociology’s Suicide: A Forensic Autopsy?

“…While the mixed, and, at times, contradictory evidence presented here is largely limited to tests of the implications of Durkheim's theory for gender differences in suicide rates, there is reason to suspect that similar problems extend to tests of other aspects of the theory (e.g., Pope and Danigelis 1981, Bankston et al 1983, Pescosolido and Georgianna 1989, and Pescosolido 1990andHamlin andBrym 2006, andBerk 2006 cited below). 3 In our analysis, we found generally non-significant differences in male-to-female suicide ratios across societies spanning a wide range of levels of development and with very different degrees of female participation in their economies and polities.…”

La Naturaleza Del Suicidio

“…considera, al respecto, que el pensador holandés sería precursor de ciertas explicaciones sociogénicas desarrolladas en la posteridad por Durkheim (2004); autor que desde la sociología pondera el suicidio como resultado de la presión que ejerce el medio sobre un determinado individuo (García, 1976). Si bien esta tesis es validada por innumerables pensadores contemporáneos, también es puesta en cuestión por su carácter monocultural (Hamlin and Brym, 2006;Baudelot y Establet, 2008). Montesquieu (1994) señala que a diferencia de la ley humana la natural fue establecida por Dios en la Providencia y niega que el suicidio perturbe dicho orden.…”