Sorcery, sin and the superego: a cross-cultural study of some mechanisms of social control

Cross-Cultural Approaches: Readings in Comparative Research • HRAF Press • New Haven • Published In • Pages: 147-168 •
By Whiting, John W.M.

Abstract

This chapter examines how sorcery, sin, and the superego function in societies to uphold taboos and other forms of social control. The author also explores the child-rearing conditions that are necessary to produce and maintain these cultural mechanisms. Several hypotheses are tested and all are supported.

Samples

Sample Used Coded Data Comment
OtherResearchers Own

Hypotheses (6)

HypothesisSupported
"Those societies with a long post-partum sex taboo . . . should be those who have the strongest belief in sorcery" (150)Supported
"[There is a] joint effect of duration of the post-partum sex taboo and the severity of socialization of aggression on the belief that sorcerers can cause sickness" (152)Supported
"Those societies which are relatively neglectful of infants should be more afraid of ghosts at funerals than those societies in which children are treated indulgently during their infancy" (156)Supported
"Societies where parents, relatively speaking, neglect their children during infancy and punish them severely for aggression during childhood, should be the socieites that fear the ghosts of the dead at funerals" (157)Supported
"We would predict . . . [that] . . . the greatest identification and guilt should be found in societies with nuclear households, next with monogamous extended households, next with polygynous households, and least of all with mother-child households" (162, 164)Supported
"[There is] interaction between family structure and age of weaning [on the] . . . extent to which a person who gets sick blames himself (i.e., patient responsibility--an indirect measure of guilt assumption)" (164, 165)Supported
Documents and Hypotheses Filed By: mas  Megan Farrer