Jerrold E. Levy

Orayvi revisited : social stratification in an "egalitarian" society

Challenging the widely held view of the Hopi Indians of Arizona as a sober, peaceful, and cooperative people with an egalitarian social organization, Levy examines the 1906 split in the Third Mesa village of Orayvi.

Cultural expectations versus reality in navajo seizure patterns and sick roles

Anthropologists have discerned three seizure syndromes among the Navajo Indians. Ichaa with generalized seizures is thought to be caused by incest and carries with it a stigmatized social role. Frenzy witchcraft is characterized by fugue states and since it is thought to be caused by witchcraft carries a neutral role. Hand-trembling is considered to be a sign of shamanistic proclivity and is a potentially rewarding role.We identified all residents of two Navajo reservation service units admitted to Public Health Service hospitals between 1962 and 1964 with the diagnosis of epilepsy or hysterical seizures. Despite the concern with seizure syndromes among the Navajo, we were unable to demonstrate an excess prevalence of epilepsy or hysteria among them. The hysterics were more likely to display psychomotor or hand-trembling seizures (neutral or rewarded seizure patterns) than the epileptics; this association, however, was statistical and the symptom patterns of the patients did not fit the ‘classical’ anthropological descriptions. Epileptics did have a higher rate of death, drunkenness and crime than the hysterical patients, perhaps as a result of their stigmatized role, but they also had a chronic condition while the hysterics after eleven years of follow-up were free of their original symptoms. Hand-trembling patients who became shaman-like diagnosticians did not benefit from this socialization of their symptom and left the profession.In short, epilepsy and hysteria manifest themselves on the Navajo reservation with a frequency and pattern not strikingly different for the Western observer. Though the force of cultural factors can be discerned, their effect is to produce variations on a general human theme — not a dramatically new composition.

Drinking, Conduct Disorder, and Social Change

1. Conduct Disorder, Drinking, and the Problem of Prevention 2. Historical Background: Tuba City and Shiprock 3. Patterns of Alcohol Use 4. Alcohol Dependence: Definitoin, Prevalence, and Risk Factors 5. Types of Alcololics 6. Conduct Disorder: Risk Factors and Changing Prevalence Stephen J. Kunitz, K. Ruben Gabriel, and Jerrold E. Levy 7. Antecedents of Violence in Adulthood 8. Treatment and Remission 9. Risk and Protective Factors Affecting Navajo Womens Drinking Patterns 10. Conclusions