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Fighting back is not the way: suicide and the women of Kaliai
Author(s) -
COUNTS DOROTHY AYERS
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1980.7.2.02a00070
Subject(s) - argument (complex analysis) , context (archaeology) , new guinea , power (physics) , girl , criminology , homicide , politics , sociology , suicide prevention , poison control , gender studies , political science , psychology , law , history , ethnology , medicine , medical emergency , developmental psychology , physics , archaeology , quantum mechanics
A case study of the suicide of a young Kaliai girl in northwest New Britain, Papua New Guinea introduces a discussion of suicide as an expression of power by otherwise powerless people, and a consideration of the validity of using the legal terms suicide and homicide in a cross‐cultural context. Data on different forms of self‐killing practiced by Kaliai women support the argument that these terms are inadequate and inappropriate when applied to people who do not share European legal and cultural traditions. [suicide, women, political behavior, comparative legal systems, Melanesia]