Islam
No religion has a more condemning attitude to suicide
than Islam. Mohammed declared that God had given each man his dignity, Kismet,
and that God alone determines the point in time of a person's death. One
of the main credos of Islam is that the divine will is expressed in various
ways, and man must always subject himself to this will. Suicide would be
akin to trying to escape the divine will. Thus suicide is a very serious
crime against Allah, worse than murder. Life is a gift from Allah, hence
we must also accept the obligations that go with it, essentially two: gratitude
for the life one has been given, and submission to Allah. Neither of these
obligations will be fulfilled through suicide.
Countries with an Islamic culture generally exhibit a far lower suicide rate than the Christian world. While the suicide rate in
Islamic countries is low, it rises when Moslems immigrate to Western countries,
such as is the case with Turks. A definitely higher suicide rate has
been found among Turks in Berlin compared to Turks in Turkey, nonetheless the
Turks in Berlin have a significantly lower suicide rate than Germans in Berlin,
even though the Turks have to tackle the problems arising from the clash
of cultures.
Hinduism
The Eastern religions, primarily Hinduism, have not
had the traditionally negative perception of suicide that we have in the Western
world. The Vedas , the holy scripts of Hinduism, permitted suicide
on religious grounds. The greatest sacrifice was one's
own life. On the other hand, strongly condemning attitudes against suicide
can be found in the Upanishads (the Holy Scriptures). In one of the Upanishads
it is said: "Whoever takes his own life shall come to the sunless
areas covered by impenetrable darkness after death".
Hinduism recognized, institutionalized and accepted
suttee (widow burning) until recently. Even if the oldest book of the Brahmins,
Rig-Veda, offers no rules for suttee, a common tradition in the Hindu religion
has been that the widow would seek death following her husband's death
to guarantee blessedness for them both. According to the Hindu religion
it is the "self", perhaps we in the West would say "the soul",
that survives. The body perishes. A verse of the Upanishads thus says, "It
is the body that dies when left by the self, the self does not die".
By mounting the pyre with her husband a widow would be able to do penance for his
sins, liberate him from punishment and open the way to a better life for him
and for herself as well. First the widow would have to go through a series
of rituals. After the death of her husband she would have twenty-four
hours to decide whether she would accept the suttee tradition. If she first
stated her intention to do so, she would not be able to withdraw honourably.
This act was highly esteemed by her fellow citizens. The tradition was banned
in India and declared a criminal act in 1892. Sporadic widow burning
is nevertheless alleged to have taken place even recently, particularly
in rural districts.
Suicide by starvation has also been
accepted by religious groups in Indian culture. Such
a suicide would be called sallekhana and would be performed
by ascetics. The hunger strike as a political weapon
was developed on this basis by Mahatma Gandhi in his
spiritual struggle against British rule in India. In
more recent times such fasts have ended in death in
several cases, partly in the battle for minority groups
or the struggle against what has been perceived as political
abuse. Even today threats of fatal hunger strikes are
allegedly not uncommon in India.
Buddhism
Buddhist religion also considered suicide, under certain
conditions, to be proper. A suicide could be in keeping with the tenets
on human life of this religion, where needs, ambitions and strong emotions
should be excluded. The best personal sacrifice may be to liberate oneself from
one's own existence. It may be better to give one's body than alms. Consequently
it could be more praiseworthy to burn one's own body than to light lamps
on a shrine.
China accorded particular recognition of special motives
for a suicide, such as a general who would commit suicide after losing a
battle, a deposed statesman protesting official policy by his suicide,
or a person committing suicide in memory of a deceased father or a forefather.
If face had been lost through a breach of the law or a loss, suicide
was an acceptable solution. If the criminal was of high rank, it would
not be uncommon for the Emperor to send him a yellow silk scarf to hang himself
with, thus allowing him to escape being called up for punishment, dishonour
or possibly a death penalty. Many Chinese generals received a yellow silk
scarf from the Emperor. Suicide as an act of revenge against a perpetrator
of an offence was also a well-known phenomenon in China. Responsibility
for the act would then be shifted to the other person, allowing the soul
to pursue the enemy more effectively than would be possible if the person
was alive.
The Buddhist attitude to suicide is
nevertheless generally negative. According to Buddhist
tenets, the life of man consists primarily of suffering
and stress, and it is part of the duty of man to suffer
this pain and suffering. A person who takes his own
life to escape such suffering will find it difficult
to be reincarnated.
Confucius' teachings
The tenets under Confucius belong in
the same region, and continue to be prevalent in Chinese
culture. According to the precepts of Confucius, one
may not destroy one's body, not even hair or skin, because
the body is a gift from one's parents. Based on the
rigid family obligations of this philosophy, self-destructive
conduct is not acceptable. Suicide is thus not permissible
according to Confucius, except in certain cases where
the aim is to show loyalty to the greater or smaller
society one belongs to, or to one's parents.
Japanese culture
In Japan suicide has been more a part of the national
tradition than elsewhere. The Japanese religion is based in part on
Shintoism and in part on Buddhism. A Japanese will often confess to both,
perhaps emphasizing one over the other depending on the stage of life he is
passing through. Shintoism is a life-embracing religion, and rites in
connection with birth and weddings often follow Shinto rules, while burial
rites are more in the Buddhist tradition.
Japan eventually developed traditional rituals for
suicide, seppuku and hara-kiri. These were practised by the highest social
classes, primarily nobility and warriors (the samurai).
Hara-kiri developed around 1 000 years ago, during
the initial stages of feudalism in Japan. It originated as an honourable way
of committing suicide to avoid being captured. First the person would stick
a short sword into the left part of his abdomen, cut to the right and withdraw
it. Then he would put it into his diaphragm and cut up vertically. Finally
the throat would be cut. This act was considered a form of bravery. It was
also possible to be sentenced to commit hara-kiri. Thus suicide could be
forced or voluntary. The forced suicide was applied to nobility, who might
repair their criminal acts or loss of face with a sword. Voluntary hara-kiri
would usually be carried out as an act of defiance against a master or
ruler, or also as an expression of grief at the death of the master. Both
forms of hara-kiri were prohibited by law in 1868, but are still practised.
Hara-kiri is carried out according to a rigid ceremony, using a particular type
of knife, preferably with an assistant present. I have seen patients hospitalized
in emergency units at the Nippon Medical School in Tokyo after having
unsuccessfully attempted hara-kiri.
Suicide carried out after the death of one's superior
is called junshi. Junshi was carried out when a person of high status
died, and the person committing junshi believed that he needed the spirit
of the superior in question in his life after death. A modern example of
junshi was when General Nogi and his wife committed suicide after the
death of Emperor Meijis in 1912. When the Emperor was dead, life was
not worth living for Nogi. It is well known that the Japanese culture has
looked favourably on suicide. During the last world war it was not at all
difficult for the Japanese to recruit suicide candidates for their single-pilot
aircraft, Kamikaze pilots, who would ram the hostile target with
themselves aboard their aircraft loaded with explosives. There were also
one-man submarines, Kaiten, with the same aim.
Traditionally Japan has scored very
high on the world suicide statistics. After the last
world war Japan has been subjected to a substantial
degree of Americanization and Western influence. An
increase in the suicide rate would then be expected,
as is common when two cultures clash. The opposite occurred
in Japan. Admittedly the frequency of suicides rose
slightly during the first five years after the end of
the Second World War, but then it fell so that the Japanese
suicide rate is now on a medium international level,
approximately the same level as Norway. However, there
is one peculiar feature, the relative ratio between
men and women in Japan is 1:1, while the rate in Western
countries is 3:1 or 2:1, with a clear preponderance
of male suicides. For younger Japanese women, suicide
is the most common cause of death. While most Western
countries have a clear overrepresentation of suicides
in big cities and densely populated areas, this is not
the case in Japan. The suicide frequency is highest
in the countryside. Suicide among elderly people is
significantly higher in Japan than in Norway. Dropping
out of working life, which the Japanese so closely identify
with, appears to be even harder to handle than in Norway.
"Primitive"
cultures - cultural clashes
It has been claimed that there are no suicides in "primitive"
cultures. This is not true. As far as we know, no culture is without
suicide. In some cultures suicide is a way of expressing anger or revenge
based on personal motives. The form of expression may be accurately described
through stipulations in law or customs. In "primitive"
cultures, the motives have often been to preserve honour and dignity, or to prove
courage. Malinowski (1908) mentions one example from such a culture. A man
was accused of violating one of his tribal taboos. He then climbed
to the top of a palm tree, expressed his injury at such accusations, named
those who had accused him, and then dived head first into the ground killing
himself. Suicide was also accepted in consequence of great pain or helplessness
due to age or illness. In a number of cultures suicide has also been
deemed a reasonable act for a woman if her virtue was threatened or if she
had been raped, or for a man if he wanted to avoid the personal humiliation
of falling into the hands of an enemy. Suicide could also be an expression
of unwillingness to shoulder the burden of being separated from a loved
one due to death or reasons beyond one's control. Disgrace and revenge are
frequent motives for suicide in "primitive" cultures. Revenge,
resulting from "killing oneself over the head of another", was often imagined as
perpetrated by the spirit of the dead person. In many societies, primarily nomadic
or very poor ones, it is not uncommon that old members of the tribe will
commit suicide to avoid continuing life as weak and pitiable creatures
that are a burden on their community. Among the Eskimos, such motives appear
to be quite frequent, and a person might be placed in a kayak on
the ocean to sail toward the sunrise, or be left behind in the wilderness.
There are cultures where suicide has quite high status
to the point that there are special divine beings for suicide. This was
the case in the Aztec culture, where the Indians had a special goddess for
suicide, Ixtab. She is depicted with a rope around her neck. It also appears
that the suicide rate among Indians is high, but this differs from tribe to
tribe.
The frequency of suicide usually rises when the "primitive"
culture encounters Western culture. Such culture clashes often
erode the old social norms, and lead to the abuse of alcohol and drugs, family
break-ups and promiscuity. A case in point from modern times is Greenland,
which now appears to have one of the highest suicide rates in
the world at 127 per 100,000 persons annually. The pattern of suicides there
also is completely different with respect to gender and age, as the peak
is reached already during their twenties for boys, then falls steeply,
with far less clear values for girls, even if they also reach a peak during
their twenties. Sociological studies show that the young Greenlander
male has very little identification with the original old hunting society.
However, he does not identify with the new urban society with housing in
apartment blocks and work in industry either. The same development has been
found among similar tribes on the American continent. Inuits in Canada have
just as high suicide rate as the Greenland Inuits. In Canada a small number
of Inuits have sustained themselves by hunting and fishing on a vast
area of land. Society has consisted of a number of small communities around
extended families.Today schooling is required, and children are sent off
far away to boarding schools. The older generations speak Inuit exclusively,
receiving few or no impulses from outside. Now the young generations are
learning English, and radio and TV provide ample impulses.
On Indian reservations in the USA the
suicide rate is also extremely high. Living on a reservation
means that the entire lifestyle must be changed.Many
old traditions appear meaningless. At the same time
inhabitants do not have the stimulus of belonging to
the surrounding society and assuming its norms. The
aborigines in Australia also have a high suicide rate,
which is ascribed the same causes. The high suicide
rate of the "indigenous populations" was a
recurring topic at the congress of the International
Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) arranged in
Montreal, Canada, in the summer of 1992. Indigenous
populations were also a topic at the IASP congress in
Adelaide, Australia, in 1998.
Conclusion
We might safely conclude that suicide has occurred
at all times, in all geographical regions of the world and in all cultures.
The pattern of suicide to some extent appears to be culturally conditioned.
What then will the future hold? Our Western culture with good welfare
societies in financially well off countries has high suicide rates.
The cousin of financial wealth may be emotional poverty, where the
sense of belonging in a community and to a network has been eroded. There are
many indications that developing countries may be entering a phase with increasing
suicide rates, while family network ties in small communities are eroded
along with other norms to make way for efficiency and technology. There
will, unfortunately, be more than enough work for everyone working with suicide-prevention
measures.
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