Wild Man Syndrome: A Behavioral Disorder, A Mental Illness, or Self Expression? (Blog 3) 9/23/11

Source: http://www.jstor.org/stable/669077 (Wild Man Behavior in New Guinea Highlands Community)

Relation to the text: Robbins pgs. 49-50

Many Cultures exhibit unique explanations for abnormalities in day to day behavior. What ours might say is the root of a psychological problem, another may explain with witchcraft, or genetic disorders. Believing what is true, and which science is most accurate, is really a matter of which culture and consensus you ascribe your beliefs to. Also, what we may consider abnormal or disruptive behavior, another culture could see as a form of self-expression. Susto, the South American belief that depression is linked to a soul beaing torn from the body (Robbins pg.48), is an example of differing interpretations of behavioral disorders. To elaborate the ambiguous nature of uncontrolled illnesses, self-perpetuated disorders, and self-expression, I will highlight the case of the Gururumba Wild Man Syndrome.

The Gururumba tribe of New Guinea have a strange problem, one that associates itself mostly to young men. Every so often a person will rob various households of objects that hold little value, take them into the forest for several days, and then return amnesiac of it all. They call this "ahaDe idzi Be" meaning "to be a wild pig". Essentially there is no cure, other than for the wild phase to end, generally after the "wild man" leaves the forest and returns to civilization.  The cause is unknown, though a psychologist or neurologist from the States might say something about a neurotransmitter deficiency due to a noticeable decrease in mental activity and cognition.  But is the root of this problem related to a person's mental well-being, or is it a question of self-expression? The concept of a "wild" man is a man who's broken away from his societal roots. So perhaps "Wild Man" syndrome is something more along the lines of self-expression, about a growing discontentment with a society as a whole. New Guinea is still a struggling country, policed by foreign peace officers. Perhaps there is enough negativity there to spark outbursts of wild activity.We have the same thing in America, but we have many names for our Wild Men. Transients, anarchists, drug-abusers. Anyone who seeks to break away from their box is, by our definition, wild. College students, are, in many ways wild men and women in their own respect. They spend their weekdays in contemporary society, studying, testing, and socializing, but when the weekend comes they break out of their societal chains and partake in less-than-contemporary activities. My point is: Illnesses can be interpreted differently from many different standpoints, as the definition and constitution of what an illness is, is entirely subjective.

The Movie Mannequins

Political Anatomy is the idea that in certain situations, the contortions of our bodies are controlled to better focus us on a task at hand. It's easy how this applies in the classroom, with desks, bending the body up and foward, and the positiong of said desks in neat rows, but where does it apply outside of learning institutions? Oddly enough i found my answer at the mall.

Ever gone the the movie theatres? First, they make you stand in line, and shuffle one by one up to this little booth where a worker is standing, practically forced to keep eyes front and hands on the counters. After we get our tickets, we have to stand in another line so that they can check our tickets and make sure we dont move ourselves into the wrong viewing room. After we finally get to purchase our snacks and drinks thatwill almost certainly fit into our cup-holders, we sit down in angled chairs, designed to sit us up straight, eyes toward the screen. The armrests are almost never adjustable, encouraging you to now lay across multiple seats, and the seats are easily gotten to by theater workers, busily checking tickets at rater R flicks. Its amazing how that even when we are aiming to entertain ourselves, we still happen to be restricted physically, one way or another. Whether it be rollercoasters, kayaks, or museums, we almost always have a set of rules that both limits and concentrates or efforts to entertain ourselves. I believe the purpose of political anatomy may be interlaced with the idea of equality. We queue in lines, sit in specified seats, and are unable to touch certain things because to do so would be to take away from the experience of another individual. Perhaps political anatomy serves other purposes as well, but it certainly exists for the sake of sharing.