Voodoo Death and the Mechanism for Dispatch of the Dying in East Arnhem, Australia
- 1 March 1982
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Wiley in American Anthropologist
- Vol. 84 (1) , 5-18
- https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1982.84.1.02a00020
Abstract
A similar psychosocial sequence surrounds cases of voodoo death and cases where dying is expedited. Predeath obsequies and fatalism in the victim are common to both. The death mechanism in both is dehydration by confiscation of fluids. Intervention in two voodoo death sequences involved rehydrating the victim. As medical services extend to remote Aborigines, deaths with prominent psychosocial components that resemble voodoo death become diagnosable as orthodox medical conditions, [voodoo death, Australian Aboriginals, dehydration]This publication has 11 references indexed in Scilit:
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