The role of sorcery in social control: A study of the Harney Valley Paiute

188 Pages·07.13 MB·English

by  Whiting, Beatrice Blyth

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The role of sorcery in social control: A study of the Harney
Valley Paiute
Whiting, Beatrice Blyth, Ph.D.
Yale University, 1942
U MI
300 N. Zeeb Rd.
Ann Arbor, MI 48106
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
THE ROLE OF SORCERY IN SOCIAL CONTROL
A STUDY OF THE HARNEY VALLEY PAIUTE
by
Beatrice Blyth Whiting
A D issertation Presented to the Faculty
of the Graduate School of Yale University
in Candidacy for the Degree
of Doctor of Philosophy
1942
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ABSTRACT
The m aterial presented in this dissertation was
gathered during three summer field trip s to Burns, Oregon*
The firs t nine chapters are devoted to a description of
sorcery in Paiute society and an analysis of its function
in social control. Sorcery is defined as the belief that
certain individuals, by virtue of power bestowed upon them
by sp irit helpers, can cause others to sicken and die. It
is one of several different types of supernatural power
which individuals may possess, and is one of the major ex­
planations for sickness recognized by the community and
diagnosed by the doctors.
The firs t five chapters present a description of the
setting, the concept of supernatural power, sickness, and
therapy. Chapter VI presents an analysis of the events
preceding those illnesses which are attributed to sorcery.
Chapter VII presents an analysis of the life histories of
individuals accused of sorcery and of the conditions under
which they are accused, and shows that people who behave
anti-socially or in such a way as to antagonize the majority
of the community become known as sorcerers. Chapters VIII
and IX present a description and analysis of social con­
trol and show that sorcery is the only offense which is
punished by death or ostracism administered by the conmunity
as a whole; a ll other offenses are punished by retaliation
by the wronged person’s family group. Hence, if an indi­
vidual antagonizes others, he fears that he w ill be pun­
ished either by direct physical violence, or by being
sorcerized, or by being accused of being a sorcerer. These
three fears are the major mechanisms of social control in
Paiute society.
In the concluding chapter, the results of a cross-
cultural study of a correlation between sorcery and social
control are presented. The m aterial for this study was
taken from the file s of the Cross-Cultural Survey at the
In stitu te of Human Relations. It was found that societies
in which sorcery is an important explanation for sickness
tend to have retaliatio n as the major mechanism of social
control*
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MAP OP THE DISTRIBUTION OP PAIUTE BANDS
IN EASTERN OREGON
f /T A Q .O
I \
E aters
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
MAP
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ....................................................................... 1
I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................... 2
II. ENVIRONMENT AND HISTORY............................................. 17
III. THE CONCEPT OF SUPERNATURAL POWER....................... 39
IV. THE THEORY OF DISEASE.................................................. 52
V. THERAPY................................................................................. 63
VI. THE PROBLEM OF DIAGNOSIS......................................... 73
VII. THE SORCERER.................................................................... 99
VIII. THE CONTROL OF AGGRESSION WITHIN THE FAMILY . 126
IX. SOCIAL CONTROL WITHIN THE BAND................................144
X. A CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY OF SORCERY AND
SOCIAL CONTROL......................................................... . 160
BIBLIOGRAPHY.................................................................................179
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I wish to acknowledge my Indebtedness to Professor
George P. Murdock for directing this dissertation, and. to
the Cross-Cultural Survey for allowing me to use their
file s. . I also wish to thank the Department of Anthropology
and the Institute of Human Relations of Yale University not
only for helping to finance my field, trip s to Burns, Ore­
gon, but also for my training in anthropology and psychology.
Finally, I wish to express my gratitude to Geoffrey Gorer
for editing this manuscript, and to Edna Yates Ford for
drawing the map.
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This thesis has been w ritten with three purposes
in mind: firs t, to present a descriptive analysis of the
way in which social control operates among the Harney Val­
ley Paiutes; second, on the basis of this intensive analy­
sis, to formulate hypotheses concerning correlations be­
tween certain conditions and types of social control; and
third, to test these hypotheses cross-culturally.
The concept of social control, as used in this paper,
includes a ll mechanisms which regulate the interpersonal
relationships of individuals within the Paiute fam ilies and
bands. Most anthropologists assume that behavior between
individuals is defined by custom; that each society dic­
tates the behavior which is acceptable and that which is
unacceptable; that customs are transm itted from generation
to generation and are relatively stable. Anthropologists,
however, have given less consideration to the problems of
why people obey custom, how they learn the customs, and
what happens to those individuals who fa il to comply with
the social regulations, than they have to the description
of the customs themselves. It is these problems of obedience,
learning, and punishment which in this paper are grouped
under the concept of social control.
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