The Cultural Meaning of Suicide

OMEGA, Vol. 64(1) 83-94, 2011-2012

THE CULTURAL MEANING OF SUICIDE:

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

DAVID LESTER

The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey

ABSTRACT

Scholars sometimes stress that it is important to know the individual meaning

of suicide and the cultural meaning of suicide, but the meaning of these terms

remains unclear. The present article discusses this problem and suggests that

the individual meaning of suicide is best based on the motives for suicide,

while the cultural meaning of suicide is best rooted in the lay theories of

suicide in which the members of cultures and subcultures believe.

Colucci (2006) drew attention to the fact that theory and research into suicidal

behavior has neglected the role of culture. Suicide is typically considered to be the

same phenomenon throughout the world, and theories proposed in one region

(such as the West) are assumed to apply to other regions. In addition, Colucci

pointed out that the cultural meaning of suicide has been neglected except for

rare scholars who draw attention to this issue, such as Douglas (1967) and Boldt

(1988). However, there appears to be a great deal of confusion over what exactly

the “meaning” of suicide refers to and, more especially, the “cultural meaning” of

suicide. The purpose of the present article is to examine what these terms mean.

Colucci cited the work of Good and Good (1982) who suggested that the

meaning of an illness involves “the metaphors associated with a disease, the

ethnomedical theories, the basic values and conceptual forms, and the care

patterns that shape the experience of the illness and the social reactions to the

sufferer” (p. 148). This encompasses many separate concepts.

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? 2011, Baywood Publishing Co., Inc.

doi: 10.2190/OM.64.1.f

http://baywood.com

THE PHENOMENON OF SUICIDAL BEHAVIOR

Cultures differ in the frequency of suicidal behavior, the methods chosen for

suicide, the distribution by age, sex, and other sociodemographic variables. Many

articles have appeared documenting the different suicide rates in a sample of

nations and differences in the suicide rates by age and sex from nation to nation

(e.g., Levi, La Vecchia, Lucchini, Negri, Saxena, Maulik, et al., 2003). Lester

(1994) found that the suicide rates of Chinese populations in China, Taiwan, Hong

Kong, and Singapore and the methods used for suicide differed greatly, while

sex ratio of the suicide rates and the variation over age was similar in all four

nations. Lester (2006) documented great variations in suicidal behavior in the

various Muslim nations of the world.

These “facts” about suicide probably have little direct relevance to the meaning

of suicide, either at the individual or the cultural level. However, a very high

rate of suicide in a nation may make the act seem less psychopathological to the

residents of the country and may become a topic of discussion in that nation.

For example, Hungary had one of the highest suicide rates in the world between

the two world wars and for many years afterwards, and it is interesting to note

in this regard that the most famous “suicide song,” Gloomy Sunday, was written

by a Hungarian (although he was living in France at the time (Stack, Krysinska,

& Lester, 2007-2008).

In addition, occasionally the most popular method for suicide may become

a synonym for the act, as in “taking the pipe” in England in the 20th Century when

suicide using domestic gas was the most popular method for suicide.

THE DEFINITION OF SUICIDE

Kleinman (1977) defined the “category fallacy” as the mistake of imposing

Western categories on the behavior in other cultures. Lester (2008) provided

several examples of cultures that define suicide differently from scholars in the

Western world. For example, according to the Mohave, a Native American tribe in

the southwest of the United States, a fetus which presents itself in the transverse

position for birth, leading to its own death and that of its mother, is viewed as

having intended to commit suicide and to murder its mother so that they can be

together in the spirit world (Devereux, 1961). Medical examiners and coroners in

the rest of the United States would not view such a still-born infant as a suicide.

Counts (1980), who has studied the suicidal behavior of women in the Kaliai

district of Papua New Guinea, noted that, in the past, elderly widows sometimes

immolated themselves on their husband’s funeral pyre. The German and

Australian colonial governors considered this behavior to be a form of ritual

murder rather than suicide, and they outlawed it. Counts, however, saw neither

term (suicide or murder) as appropriate for this custom since it differed so much

from what North Americans and Europeans regard as either suicide or murder.

84 / LESTER

Neither term describes the behavior, the interpersonal relationships involved,

or the attitudes toward the widow and those assisting in her death. Nor do they

predict how the community will respond to her death.

Recently, some scholars, especially in Europe, have expressed doubts that

people engaging in nonfatal suicidal behavior have self-destruction as their aim,

and they have begun calling the behavior “self-poisoning” or “self-injury” (e.g.,

Liisanantti, Ala-Kokko, Dunder, & Ebeling, 2010; Novacek, Jotkowitz, Delgado,

Shleyfer, Barski, & Porath, 2005; Ramon, 1980). The semantic implication is

that nonfatal suicidal behavior is not “suicide.” Since in most cultures women

engage in more nonfatal suicidal actions than do men, this renaming of

nonfatal suicidal behavior as self-injury makes “suicidal behavior” less common

in women than it was hitherto.

Other suicidologists, on the other hand, include a wider range of behaviors

under the rubric of “suicidal behavior.” For example, Menninger (1938) classified

behaviors such as alcoholism, drug abuse, and anorexia as chronic suicide since

the individuals were shortening their lives by their behaviors. Menninger also

classified such behaviors such as polysurgery, self-castration, and self-mutilation

as focal suicide, a behavior in which the self-destructive impulse is focused on

one part of the body. These behaviors are often gender-linked. For example,

anorexia is more common in women whereas illicit drug abuse is more common in

men. Canetto (1991) has speculated that adolescents may respond differentially

when under stress, with girls choosing nonfatal suicidal behavior more while boys

choose drug abuse more. The use of Menninger’s categories would change greatly

the relative incidence of nonfatal suicidal behavior in women and men.

Clearly, the definition of suicide in a culture has implications for the meaning

of suicide. In a recent study, Lester and Frank (2008) found that only 59% of

a sample of American undergraduate students viewed a protest suicide (such

as a self-immolation carried out to protest a government decision) as suicide, and

only 70% viewed a suicide bomber as suicidal. Indeed, suicide bombers are

viewed as martyrs rather than as suicides by many people in Muslim nations

(Abdel-Khalek, 2004).