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

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 defic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sociological theory 2006-03, Vol.24 (1), p.42-57
Main Authors: Hamlin, Cynthia Lins, Brym, Robert J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Altruism
Anomie
Average age
Brazil
Criticism
Cultural factors
Cultural Values
Culture
Data analysis
Durkheim, Emile
Durkheim, Emile (1858-1917)
Durkheims theory
Ethnographic research
Gender roles
Guarani
History and organization of sociology
History, theory and methodology
Indigenous Populations
Native peoples
Organization of profession, research and teaching. Deontology. Sociology of sociology. Epistemology
Psychological factors
Quantitative analysis
Reasoning
Social conditions
Social control
Social life
Social psychology
Sociological theory
Sociology
Suicide
Suicide rates
Suicides & suicide attempts
Theoretical Problems
Theory
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Summary: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-Kaiowá of southwestern Brazil, one of the most suicide-prone groups in the world.
ISSN:0735-2751
1467-9558
DOI:10.1111/j.0735-2751.2006.00263.x