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The Cure and Feeding of Windigos: A Critique
Author(s) -
BROWN JENNIFER
Publication year - 1971
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.1971.73.1.02a00020
Subject(s) - vomiting , ingestion , history , point (geometry) , psychology , medicine , intensive care medicine , psychotherapist , surgery , geometry , mathematics
This paper suggests that, contrary to a view recently expressed, the usual treatment of windigo psychosis is not nutritional in nature. When ingestion is involved (which is rare), its sequel (vomiting to expell the windigo heart of ice) is given more curative importance, challenging the view that the northern Algonquians somehow “grasped” the idea of a nutritive cure for windigos. Nor is evidence, at this point, clear on nutritional causes of windigo.