Bachelor's Diploma Thesis

Home , Harry Whitney, Inglefield Gulf

Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University

Department of English and American Studies

BACHELOR’S DIPLOMA THESIS

Tomáš Lintner

Pibloktoq: A Result of Western Ethnocentrism

Brno, 2017

Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University

Department of English and American Studies

BACHELOR’S DIPLOMA THESIS

Tomáš Lintner

Pibloktoq: A Result of Western Ethnocentrism

Supervisor: Jeffrey Alan Vanderziel, B.A.

Brno, 2017

I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

……………………………………………………..

Tomáš Lintner

I would like to thank Jeffrey Vanderziel for his time, patience, and valuable advice.

I would like to thank my family for taking care of me while dealing with hardships

of writing the thesis and allowing me to fully focus on the needed work.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 Introduction: “Learn a Language, Learn an Illness” 6

2 Pibloktoq 10

2.1 How Pibloktoq Was Constructed ...... 10

2.2 How Pibloktoq Was Maintained ...... 24

3 Culture-bound People Assessing Culture-bound Syndromes 26

4 Conclusion 31

Appendix I - List of Pibloktoq Reports 33

Works Cited 47

Résumé 53

Summary 54

1. Introduction: “Learn a Language, Learn an Illness”

The period of first contacts between Western explorers and Inuit, and the period of gradual influence of Western culture on Inuit culture was marked by clashes of the two cultures. While most Western explorers of the eighteenth to early twentieth centuries considered traditional Inuit culture savage, for Inuit, it was a complex of beliefs and practices adapted to extreme polar conditions. Pibloktoq – by many scholars considered culture-bound syndrome – a mental condition unique to Inuit culture – is the result of these clashes – or more specifically – the result of assessing Inuit behavior through

Western lenses.

In my thesis, I aim to investigate pibloktoq in the context of cultural differences and Western ethnocentrism. I aim to investigate the ways pibloktoq was made culture- bound, and I aim to investigate the reasons which preceded it. I argue that even some contemporary analyses of pibloktoq are permeated by racism rooted in ideas of previous centuries, and that the condition was constructed on the basis of few minority cases – mostly reported by explorers and other nonprofessionals written in diaries – later published as books. These explorers lacked medical, anthropological, or psychological education, and often saw pibloktoq as an entertaining peculiarity of the exotic Inuit. I do not aim to assess whether pibloktoq is mental disease or not. I focus on assessing the relevance and result of Western point of view in constructing the illness.

Culture is a phenomenon universally occurring among all human beings – it is a

“pervasive influence on all aspects of human behavior” (Alexis and Fraser 422). Whether it is a businessman living in metropolitan apartment, a farmer working fields in rural area, or a member of hunter-gatherer native tribe, to some degree, culture influences behavior of all of them. Of course, depending on a specific person, culture, or society they live in, their behavior will be influenced to various extents and the effect of culture will be manifested in different ways. For some, it may be barely a reminder of country’s history, on the other hand, culture may well manifest itself as an illness impairing behavior of individuals. As C. Hughes notes: “learn a language, learn an illness” (6) – a simplified account of theory behind a concept of culturally triggered illnesses.

The way culture can participate on illnesses as well as the degree to which it can influence one has been a subject of interest of many scholars in a broad range of academic disciplines for hundred years – extending - but not limited to - psychiatry, anthropology, history, and culture studies (Simons and C. Hughes xiii-xiv, Waldram 190). First, it was the missionaries and explorers in the Age of Exploration who became interested in effect of culture on one’s behavior. They were the people in direct contact with cultures which had never been encountered by Westerners before, the cultures which might have seemed very strange to colonizers, the cultures very often called primitive and childish as a result of prevalent beliefs of European cultural superiority (Waldram 105). Later on, the travelers who had encountered exotic illnesses seen then for the very first time and seen only among peoples’ untouched by Western civilization brought colorful reports of men changing into cannibal monsters and women running naked in snow at freezing temperatures (Waldram 192-195). The reports were then analyzed by European scholars of the early twentieth century, classified, and incorporated into newly emerging scientific disciplines (see Brill 1911 and Kloss 1923).

With a dawn of cross-cultural psychiatry, the research on culturally influenced illnesses got a new direction. In decades after the Second World War, researchers became aware that when dealing with patients - members of cultures different from the Western one – the one in which psychiatry evolved – it is of vital importance to take into consideration one’s cultural background with all the norms and concepts present as they influence every aspect of illness – from what illness really is to the way it manifests itself

(see J. Hughes 1960, Parker 1962, and Vallee 1966). In 1967, psychiatrist Pow Meng Yap coined term “culture-bound reactive syndromes”. After “reactive” was omitted, the most used term for describing these illnesses to the end of twentieth century evolved –

“culture-bound syndromes” (Waldram 191). This term was then generally accepted and used for classification of psychiatric illnesses worldwide in the fourth Edition of DSM published by American Psychiatric Association and in ICD 10 published by WHO.

However, in the recent years, an increasing number of voices are calling for revision of these ideas and the American Psychiatric Association is one of them when it abandoned the “culture-bound syndrome” classification and replaced it with a three-staged “cultural concept, cultural idiom, and cultural explanation” model in its newest – fifth edition of the

DSM (758). Furthermore, some authors see culture-based categorization redundant, as these illnesses can already be encompassed into other – “standard” – DSM illnesses

(Blease 334, 336).

In “Pibloktoq” chapter, I study the evolution of pibloktoq in Western literature. The chapter is further divided into “How Pibloktoq Was Constructed” where I explore all the first-hand reports from the eighteenth century until present which were later quoted in scientific literature - together with all the major analyses of latter scholars which led into incorporating the condition into the major psychiatric classification manuals – and “How

Pibloktoq Was Maintained” where I explore the condition’s presence in the APA’s and

WHO’s manuals. In “Culture-bound People Assessing Culture-bound Syndromes” chapter,

I analyze the sources in the context of Western ethnocentrism, racism, and generalizations about Inuit, and explore the validity of pibloktoq. Furthermore, I also included a list of first-hand reports together with their place, date, and person affected in “Appendix I”.

As a basis for primary sources, I decided to include every single report of pibloktoq which was later cited in the scholarly works, and all the major scholarly works which were later cited in the manuals or major publications dealing with pibloktoq. This ensures the complex scope of my pibloktoq analysis and takes into consideration every major theory behind the condition.

2. Pibloktoq

“In a state of perfect nudity she walked the deck of the ship; then, seeking still greater

freedom, jumped the rail, on to the frozen snow and ice. It was some time before we

missed her, and when she was finally discovered, it was at a distance of half-a-mile,

where she was still pawing, and shouting to the best of her abilities.” (Peary Nearest

the Pole 384-385)

Pibloktoq has long been cited as a perfect example of culture-bound syndrome (Waldram

195). The unique state of mental distress found only among Inuit was described by the

Europeans as soon as in the eighteenth century. A person suffering from pibloktoq (also spelled piblokto, piblockto, piblerortoq, problokto) is in a state of trance, is unaware of the surroundings, tears off their clothes, exhibits glossolalia, often runs naked kilometers in the snow in arctic temperatures, and has no memories of the amok afterwards (Simons and C. Hughes 278 – Ch. by Gussow). However the illness has a common manifestation, e.g.: it is “composed of a series of reactive patterns, any number of which may combine with other symptoms in each seizure performance” (Simons and C. Hughes 271 – Ch. by

Gussow), rather than being one uniform illness every time. In other words, there is a pool

10 of pibloktoq symptoms, but person having the amok may exhibit only some symptoms which change from case to case.

2.1 How Pibloktoq Was Constructed

The illness as culture-bound syndrome in Western medicine was constructed as a combination of first-hand reports written in diaries and published in world literature, later analyzed by Western scholars, and taken as an example of a unique demonstration of mental distress in exotic cultures. Before the Peary’s expeditions of 1886-1909, the name - pibloktoq - was unknown to scholars, nevertheless, even before Peary, the Inuit were portrayed as ferocious people with childish-like mind, often prone to hysterical behavior. After the early twentieth century expeditions brought accounts of, again, mostly primitive and amusing Inuit, the analyses of the early twentieth century were consistent

– the scholars thought of Inuit as uncivilized tribes whose mental illnesses demonstrates the undeveloped culture and minds so contrasted with the Western one. Even though seeing Inuit and Inuit culture in modern practice as inferior is nowadays undoubtedly out of question and professionals studying the illness have since no longer seen Inuit and Inuit culture as savage, most of them took over the basic concepts and ideas of their predecessors ultimately rooted in seeing Inuit behavior through Western lenses, rather than seeing it through the Inuit ones.

Early Contacts

In the early eighteenth century, a group of Moravian Church missionaries launched a series of religious missions on Greenland’s west coast. Soon, these missions turned into permanent settlements where the missionaries would live side by side with Inuit

(Lüdecke 123). David Cranz was one of the early missionaries who wrote a book on the

11 mission’s history, the mission’s hardships, and most importantly – the missionaries’ interaction with the Natives. The History of Greenland has a form of a diary, following roughly 30 years of Cranz’s mission in an area of today’s Nuuk. In an entry from July 1st,

1762, Cranz writes about the hysterical nature of unconverted Natives: “…they (Inuit) that were not rightly converted, hung quite naked in the air, and gnashed their teeth with cold in such a manner, that many of them had bit their tongues to pieces.” (363-364)

A hundred years later, William Dall – American biologist on an expedition to Alaska and Nunavut – noted similar hysterical patterns among Inuit. During polar night of 1866, he witnessed as several Inuit fell into "…a sort of convulsion, struggling violently, appearing unconscious, tearing the clothing, and breaking everything within reach. There were no symptoms of any disease, and the fits were epidemic, seizing one after another at short intervals.” (171-172). The hysteria spread to many members of the tribe, but not to the members of the expedition. He compares it to a “semi-religious mania in Europe in modern times” and after physically pacifying the Natives, their convulsion turned into anger suggesting that it may be “…probable that in the course of time these fits, at first wilful, became in a measure involuntary.” (172), or in other words – the amok began as one’s voluntary expression of anger, but the tribe began mimicking the syndrome to the extent of mass hysteria.

North Pole Expeditions

To this day, the North Pole expeditions from the turn of the twentieth century form the main sources of first-hand pibloktoq reports. The vast majority of them are parts of diary entries and adventure books written during the travels in the Arctic. During years 1886 to 1909, Robert Peary led a series of expeditions aiming to cross Greenland and reach the geographical North Pole. Together with his wife and their companions – Hugh J. Lee, Dr.

Thomas S. Dedrick, Dr. Louis J. Wolf, Robert A. Bartlett, Donald B. MacMillan, Dr. John W.

Goodsell, George Borup, and Dr. Frederick A. Cook - they spent years with the Inuit, during which they noted down almost thirty cases of pibloktoq. The attacks are almost exclusively reported among the Inuit guides and their family members travelling with the

Peary’s band. Subsequently, Dr. Cook led his own North Pole expedition on which he describes the panic among Inuit and the ways to prevent it. Also, Harry Whitney – an

American expeditionary – travelled with Peary to Greenland but did not participate in

North Pole expedition – rather he went hunting with Inuit providing notes pibloktoq attacks of his companions. Later, in 1913, Donald MacMillan led Crocker Land Expedition

– an expedition aiming to investigate validity of Peary’s sighted island on his way to the

North Pole - during which MacMillan witnessed one case of hysterical behavior.

Ms. Diebitsch-Peary is probably the first one to provide hysteria the name – pibloktoq. On a sledge journey into Inglefield Gulf along Herbert Island, her band encountered a seasonal Inuit settlement of 4 snow houses. One of the Native women was

“…making an awful noise and trying to come out of her habitation, while a man was holding her back and talking to her, but she screamed and struggled so long as we remained where she could see us. I asked Mane what was the nature of the trouble, and she told me that the woman was pi-bloc-to (mad).” (Diebitsch-Peary 125). She does not discuss this event any further and in My Arctic Journal covering a year-long expedition across Greenland, it seems to be her only encounter of pibloktoq.

Two years later, in an unpublished manuscript called Crazy Arctic Highlanders,

Hugh Lee describes pibloktoq fits of Atunginah – an older woman living in Qaanaaq. He says that she has the amoks regularly “from time to time”, and he is present at one of the occurrences. She displays the common symptoms – screaming, attempts of running, and

13 demolishing the surroundings – however, the reaction of the fellow Natives was in sharp contrast to what was expected by the Europeans. There was no panic, no anger, and no accusations. When the amok was over, “no one said a word about it”. (Hugh J. Lee Papers qtd. in Dick)

The same phenomenon was noted by Peary in his book Nearest the Pole. He says:

“When it occurs under cover of a hut, no apparent concern is felt by other inmates, nor is any attention paid to the antics of the mad one. It is only when an attempt is made to run abroad, that the cords of restraint are felt.” (385) Furthermore, he observes that women are more often subjects to the fits than men (384). Although he wrote about several more pibloktoq attacks during his travels in the diaries – one mass hysteria in 1900 and a few individual cases (Robert E. Peary Papers), his first-hand description of Inalu’s fits is the only one he had provided in Nearest the Pole or in The North Pole books, still, the general scope and spread of pibloktoq attacks among Inuit was later taken as a matter of fact by later researchers.

On many occasions, alcohol was often contradictory cited as both triggering the fits and as being used to cure the fits (Peary Diary Entry for 12 April 1900 qtd. in Dick).

Sometimes, it is even used as a cure for fits the very same moment identified as caused by it: “Felt a trifle peculiar myself. Recognized the effects of alcohol... with every hole in igloo sealed by new snow. Kicked door out and sent two Eskimos outside. Others gave drink of brandy, and finally quieted them down...” (Peary Diary Entry for 24 April 1900 qtd. in

Dick).

Dr. Dedrick - Peary’s physician - writes on several cases of the illness in years 1899-

1900. He notes several important symptoms and contexts in which the attacks happen – most of them had not been noted before. He says the attacks can be anticipated

14 recognizing the atypical behavior taking place before the attacks: “Oh-tah shook & hardly talked as we ate breakfast. I [Dedrick] knew what was coming & tried to engage him into pleasant conversation” (Dedrick Diary, 28 June-23 August 1900 qtd. in Dick).

Furthermore, Dedrick notes an example of anticipating the attack by the Inuit themselves:

“He announced to me before attack came on that 'he was going to like yesterday,' in a deploring tone.” (Dedrick Diary, 28 June-23 August 1900 qtd. in Dick). Dedrick also mentions another phenomenon – a person having pibloktoq wishing to meet fellow Inuit:

“He [Oh-tah] cried: 'The Eskimos, the Eskimos/' I said 'where?' 'Over there,' pointing toward river in front of B[lack] Rock Vale. I said 'Let's go up here (grassy knoll near tent) where I think we can see them.'” (Dedrick Diary, 28 June-23 August 1900 qtd. in Dick)

After Oh-tah did not find the fellows, he was “singing & chanting about friends at Whale

Sound” (Dedrick Diary, 28 June-23 August 1900 qtd. in Dick). Moreover, this case of pibloktoq ended when Dedrick ordered Odaq to stop: “[Dedrick] went to entrance & said

'lie down & sleep. Your attack is ended.' He [Odaq] ceased & laid down.” (Dedrick Diary,

28 June-23 August 1900 qtd. in Dick) – suggesting the deliberate nature of the attacks.

The attacks often occur in exceptionally stressful situations. For example, after all

“dog meat & meat for Esk[imos] are gone. One of the women had a crying spell this morning on account of being brought here [brought to Fort Conger – a settlement established as a polar base in extreme north of Ellesmere Island] and being so frequently on short rations.” (T. S. Dedrick, Entry for 25 October 1900 qtd. in Dick) Apart from lacking food crucial for survival of the dogs and herself, she was taken to places not originally inhabited by her tribe. Furthermore, Peary comments the attacks often happen out of fear of the future (The North Pole 157).

Dr. Wolf was the company’s surgeon on 1905 expedition (Mills 514). He witnessed several cases of pibloktoq on Ellesmere Island – all of them women – calling it a “purely hysterical condition” (Papers of Robert E. Peary). “By administering heroic doses of mustard” he claims to terminate the attacks immediately (Dr. Louis Wolf, Journal, 14 July

1905-23 qtd. in Dick). Apart from using mustard as an ultimate cure, he shares the thoughts of Dr. Dedrick on the matter of deliberate nature of pibloktoq when he notes that a woman “attempted to have an attack of piblockto” (Dr. Louis Wolf, Journal, 14 July 1905-

23 December 1906 qtd. in Dick) when she was near him.

Robert A. Bartlett was a commander of the Roosevelt – a ship present at 1906 international record for Farthest North expedition and 1909 North Pole expedition (“The

Roosevelt”). He noted down one case of attack in 1905 – calling it a “pure cussedness”.

The woman “wants her way and cannot get it. The crying and yelling they make would cause you to think that they were going to do violence to themselves.” The doctor

(possibly Dr. Wolf who was present on the Roosevelt in that time) cured her by injecting mustard water into the arm (Robert A. Bartlett Papers 14 qtd. in Dick).

In Tenderfoot with Peary, George Borup talks about two women who had pibloktoq onboard Roosevelt. The women had attacks multiple times. The symptoms described were same as were the accounts of the other expedition members, however, Borup notes down a way of dealing with the fits never noted before – the men were regularly “…rolling her [one of the women having pibloktoq] up in a blanket, strapping her to a board, and hanging her up on the boom of the foremast. There she hung, swinging in the breeze, with only enough leeway to move her head, swear, ululate, and spit.” (281) The attacks are, again, described as voluntary and as a cause of “becoming jealous at receiving no attention” (281).

Another member of Peary’s North Pole expedition was Donald MacMillan. In correspondence to a principal of the Worcester Academy, he says that several women accompanying the expedition aboard the Roosevelt got attacks while sailing to Cape

Sheridan – in extreme North – only around 900 kilometers from the North Pole. One of them markedly wanted to kill someone, one of them was given apomorphine (Donald B.

MacMillan Collection qtd in Dick). Since the arrival to Cape Sheridan, the party was experiencing pibloktoq attacks almost every day (North Pole Diary). When MacMillan later traveled north leading the Crocker Land Expedition, he encountered a woman imitating wild animals, ripping off her clothes, and pounding her head with sticks

(MacMillan Diary, 12 February 1914-26 qtd. in Dick).

In Hunting with Eskimos, Whitney wrote on two Inuit companions – Tukshu and

Tongwe - and their pibloktoq attacks on his hunting expedition in Greenland and Smith

Sound. He calls it a “temporary insanity” (67) and, in comparison to Dedrick and Wolf, he claims it is a sudden and unexpected condition as he illustrates on three cases of “going problokto [alternate spelling] without warning” (67, 87, 187). The attacks are portrayed as a cheerful phenomenon unless it happens under conditions when stricken person is without support and control of fellows (67).

When Frederick Cook went on his 1908 North Pole expedition, he had already had experience with the Inuit anxiety attacks. In My Attainment of the Pole, he claims to have prevented many of such fits by keeping his companions in dark about their whereabouts.

The attacks “seize every Arctic savage when he finds himself upon the circumpolar sea out of sight of land.” – which he learned from previous journey with Peary (11). Cook notes down at least four cases when he used a combination of weather and deceptions to make sure his Inuit companions do not start to panic.

Thule Expeditions

Thule expeditions were a series of journeys in 1902-1924 led by a Danish explorer and ethnographer - Knud Rasmussen. The expeditions were not focused on attaining the

North Pole, rather, they were aimed to study Inuit tribes in the Arctic scientifically, which later resulted in establishing of a permanent extreme-north Thule base in Greenland

(“Knud Rasmussen”). Apart from Rasmussen who provided accounts on pibloktoq, it was his son – Niels Rasmussen, and a Danish enthnographer - Hans Peder Steensby – who joined Rasmussen sailing northwards (Bravo and Sö rlin 259) and provided some accounts.

Knud Rasmussen’s accounts of pibloktoq are mostly marked with spiritual experiences of the Inuit. In 1902, his companion’s attack started with a vision:

“The spirits of the dead have talked with me; my words are wisdom, like the

speech of our forefathers. I have seen hidden things!" he shouted, and began

to tremble all over. He had closed his eyes and his fists were convulsively

clenched. To a wild and confused measure, he struck up a spirit song, which

broke off in hysterical fits of sobbing. I held him by the shoulders to quiet

him; he rushed at me with a roar, and for a long time we struggled together,

stumbling in the dark over the stones. He pressed his face against my neck,

as if he were trying to bite me, and ground his teeth with rage. (K.

Rasmussen 93)

On the other hand, another encounter of the attack triggered a spiritual experience. After an onset of the hysteria, an Inuit woman “rushed off to the mountains. There she met the spirit of the newly deceased 'Little Auk's Son,' who wanted to take her by force. She pushed him off and highly exasperated, came to my [Rasmussen’s] tent. I was alone. All blood had left her cheeks, she was singing spirit songs so that she was about to run out of breath, and she amused herself by stacking in my tent all kinds of junk from an old tent site next to me.” (Knud Rasmussen 1915:102-115 qtd. in Dick)

Niels Rasmussen experienced several attacks of pibloktoq during his dog-sledge journey. He says, “it is not disgrace that these things [piblktoq] happen” (Steed 1947-48:

205-206 qtd. in Gussow). Also, he witnesses several cases of “humanly impossible” abilities among Inuit having the fits as he saw a man climbing a vertical steep cliff and a girl wading into a freezing sea and collecting seaweed (Steed 1947-48: 207-208 qtd. in

Gussow). Another member of Thule expeditions – Steensby - provides an account of a 25- minute long pibloktoq attack of Inuit woman in Thule district: “Her two small children sat and played about her, whilst the members of the tribe scarcely looked at her during the attack; they seemed to be very well acquainted with such things.” (Steensby, 1910, pp.

377-378 qtd. in Dick) The woman later continued with regular chores and fed her child

(Steensby, 1910, pp. 377-378 qtd. in Dick). Joining the accounts of the previous explorers,

Inuit having pibloktoq do not seem to be socially stigmatized.

Twentieth Century Analyses

Soon after Robert Peary published his book Nearest the Pole in 1907, in 1913, a New York based psychiatrist – Abraham A. Brill – published the first scholarly article on pibloktoq -

"Piblokto or Hysteria among Peary's Eskimos". As a psychoanalyst, he believes the illness is an example of hysteria as etiologically defined by the Hippocrates and known to the

Western world – as a result of sex and emotional dissatisfaction of female Inuit (518).

Furthermore, he argues that, “under the skin”, Inuit and Western woman are same, the difference is in manifestation of the distress (520). In his words, Inuit are much more

“primitive” (515) and the illness is the example of the most childish of the possible manifestations (520).

In 1923, C. Boden Kloss compares pibloktoq to latah among Malays – another illness considered unique to one specific culture - since the symptoms are similar and both are “Mongoloid peoples” (254) quoting Peary’s The North Pole from 1910, however, he does not seem to agree on the same nature of the illnesses. While latah is the result of shock, pibloktoq is the result of amok (254). He does not specify this any further. Another scholar - Birket-Smith – a Danish anthropologist who – according to Parker - lived some time with Inuit (78) – published a book dealing with Inuit culture and history – The

Eskimos – in 1935. He mentions fits lasting short time which are prevalent among Natives during long winter nights. These fits are, according to him, mostly women’s issue and are rarely harmful (55).

In 1948-1949, Ehrström pursued a field research in northern Greenland focused on study of psychosomatic neuroses among Inuit and its frequency. He recorded 20 cases of hysteria among 1073 persons examined – or 1.86% (257), nevertheless, he does not mention pibloktoq or arctic hysteria as specific type of hysterias. Furthermore, he notices

“a shift from primitive reactions among the more primitive part of the population, towards psycho-somatic neuroses among those influenced by western civilization” (260) joining Brill’s perception of Inuit traditional culture and people living in it being prone to the childish-like manifestations of distress, and perceives that “the Greenlander’s life seems to be fertile soil for the development of neuroses” (260). Additionally, Ehrström

20 argues that the Inuit who are educated in Western schools and in contact with the

Europeans are more frequently victims of psychoneurological illnesses than the isolated ones, and showing “a strong sense of inferiority, marked by discomfort”, which “probably originated in connection with their social group-contact with Europeans in Greenland.”

(263)

Jane Hughes was another scholar who did field research. She was researching among Alaskan Inuit in 1960 during which she observed several cases of hysterical behavior resembling pibloktoq (Foulks “The Transformation of Arctic Hysteria” 308). As quoted in Foulks’ “The Transformation of Arctic Hysteria”, she mentions one of such attacks:

I've heard something ... hollering behind me, it was X. I seen her a little bit,

she was making faces like that with wrinkled eye, she was winking her one

eye so tight and seems to me that part of her face was shrinking. I didn't

look, I hates to keep looking at her like this, scared me so much. I think she

was out of mind .... But few minutes afterwards, she is become Okay. (308)

The same year, Zachary Gussow further extends the ideas of Brill. After collecting more first-hand reports and data, he concludes that the original diagnosis of hysteria is appropriate while schizophrenia or weather-influenced illness is ruled out (282, 285). He holds to the idea of Inuit primitive manifestation of distress when he says that “in pibloktoq the traumatized ego reacts in a psychologically primitive and infantile, but characteristically Eskimo, manner. In other words, though the psychological mode is

21 ontogenetically primitive, much of the behavior is congruent with adult Eskimo ethnic personality.” (284)

Parker wrote an article “Eskimo Psychopathology in the Context of Eskimo

Personality and Culture” following his previous study of another often-called-culture- bound syndrome - Wiitiko psychosis among the Ojibwa Indians. Quoting Dall’s, Whitney’s, and Peary’s reports published in the expeditions’ literature, and Brill’s, Ehrström’s, and

Birket-Smith’s scholarly articles, he analyzes the unique Inuit manifestation of distress on the grounds of Inuit personality – especially in a chapter called “General Observations on

Inuit Personality” (91). Citing previous researchers, he says: “hysterical symptoms tend to prevail in a society where there is a relatively high satisfaction of dependency needs”

(85) and “all phases of the Eskimo life cycle the individual experiences a relatively high degree of dependency satisfaction and learns to need and expect a relatively high degree of nurturance and aid from others.” (85) Also, Parker gives an example of a traditional hysterical behavior prevalent among Inuit: “during the cold winter nights Eskimos frequently crowd together in one of the snow huts to watch the hysterical-like behavior of the shaman who is believed to be possessed by a foreign spirit with whom he is doing battle. (89)

In 1963 – as an incidental result of Inuit social grouping investigation – Valee pursued a field research studying Inuit mental illnesses (56-57). He is well aware of the fact that it is vital to take into consideration the Inuit cultural and social norms in assessing mental illness (57) and empathizes “the tentative and exploratory nature of the study” (59) lacking qualification and data needed for diagnostical capstone study. He had first-hand reports form the area of “Povungnituk and Port Harrison, and the camps between them” while “the remainder is second-or third-hand and is about people in other

22 communities on the eastern side of Hudson Bay: Belcher Islands, Great Whale River,

Ivuyivik, and Sugluk.” Also, he has information “on people whose place of origin is the eastern side of Hudson Bay, but who have been relocated to Grise Fjord and Resolute Bay in the High Arctic.” (57) Valee is also aware of the vast number of literature written on pibloktoq (67) and choosing to inquire the Natives about this condition, he questions them asking if they had any encounter with the illness. There is only one Native who had heard the word, though, from a nurse:

It is worth noting that of all the Eskimos informants on the east side of

Hudson Bay who were asked about the occurrence of pibloktoq, presented

in the literature as the prevalent form of mental illness among some

Eskimos, only one had heard of the word, and he had heard of it through a

White nurse. Mr. Elijah Erkloo of Baffin Island, who assists Mr. Raymond

Gagne, Eskimo language expert for the Department of Northern Affairs,

informs me in a private communication that the term, which he renders as

pillukartuk, means "two things that were supposed to fit together and do

not fit together, such as a broken bone where the two ends are side by side."

He had never heard the term applied to mental disorder on Baffin Island,

although he suggested that it would be an appropriate one to describe a

certain schizophrenic state, popularly known as 'split personality'. (58)

In the 1970s, Sampath interviewed almost the whole population of Inuit living in

Southern Baffin Island settlement and as classification of mental illnesses, he used Health

Opinion Survey and DSM II (363). He found 37% of the interviewed suffering from some

23 form of mental illness (365). Furthermore, among the females, he found 70% of interviewed to have a “hysterical type of personality disorder, particularly with histories of dissociative reactions.” (365-366) He comments that this numbers show the spread of pibloktoq in the area (366).

In Foulks’ “The Transformation of Arctic Hysteria”, the author reviews pibloktoq during his 1969-1970 stay in Alaska as a consulting psychiatrist responsible for administering most of the Inuit living in the area (311-312). Even though he or his informants do not mention pibloktoq, after analyzing several cases of mental distresses, he concludes that arctic hysteria is a “stylized Eskimo expressions of overwhelming affect usually generated by interpersonal conflicts”. Also, he sees pibloktoq as “ritualized patterns” of Inuit behavior which may be seen in many cultural contexts such as shamanic trances, and it “confirms a system of [Inuit] beliefs” (307).

Apart from the cultural and psychological explanations of the illness’s cause, David

Landy wrote an article suggesting potential vitamin A overdose as the cause. He argues that hypervitaminosis A had already been well-described among Westerners with symptoms resembling those of pibloktoq (175-176). Since Inuit nutrition is prone to high vitamin A doses such as animal livers (175-179), it is a possible trigger for the condition.

Summary

Before the illness was incorporated into the official DSM-IV and ICD-10 manuals, and widely accepted by professionals, it was being gradually constructed for hundred years.

It started as scattered reports of Inuit behaving in a manner seen as hysterical and ill by the Europeans, and brought back in the forms of published diaries. The explorers of the early twentieth century brought back the name for this peculiarity – pibloktoq – soon, the psychiatrists and anthropologists analyzed it in the contexts of Inuit culture and society.

The sickness was brought into scholars’ attention by Abraham Brill who was one the first to publish scholarly article on the topic. By incorporating psychoanalysis and the period’s view on hysteria, he created a stereotype of Inuit with childish-like mind and childish-like reactions under stress, which was later repeatedly used by the others. The language changed, but the idea of Inuit’s reactions being primitive and thus adjusted to their personality prevailed. The analyses were based on assessing Inuit personality which is a generalized term for a common shared personality traits shared by members of Inuit peoples – spreading from Greenland to Alaska.

While together – the whole series of first-hand reported encounters consist of 47 cases of which only around a half was published by the time of twentieth century analyses

– the scholars kept repeating its widespread nature, even though researchers pursuing field-research in the second half of the twentieth century did not manage to find a single victim of pibloktoq, though there were reports on hysterical behavior.

2.2 How Pibloktoq Was Maintained

After the extensive research done on pibloktoq in the twentieth century, it got its way into the two most widely used publications classifying and designating psychiatric illnesses – the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems published by the WHO – 10th revision – and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of

Mental Disorders published by the APA – 4th edition. Hence, pibloktoq was incorporated into cultural annexes of the manuals and became a part of diagnoses.

ICD-10 was first published in 1992 and includes “Culture-specific disorders” annex which comprises of 12 conditions. The conditions are “not easily accommodated by the categories in established and internationally used psychiatric classifications” and “were first described in, and subsequently closely or exclusively associated with, a particular

25 population or cultural area” (213). WHO published the annex mainly to “stimulate and facilitate” research on the problematics of culture-bound syndromes (213) and it is mainly aimed to be tentative (214). Pibloktoq is defined as “prodromal fatigue, depression, or confusion, followed by a "seizure" of disruptive behaviour, including stripping or tearing off clothes, frenzied running, rolling in snow, glossolalia or echolalia, echopraxia, property destruction, and coprophagia” (220). The classification draws from

Parker’s work on the illness.

DSM-IV was published in 1994 and includes an “Outline for Cultural Formulation” and a “Glossary of Culture-Bound Syndromes”. It encourages clinicians to consider individuals’ ethnic and cultural context in diagnosis by assessing cultural identity, cultural explanation of illness, psychosocial environment, and culture’s influence on patient- clinician relationship (843-844). Culture-bound syndromes are defined as “generally limited to specific societies or culture areas and are localized, folk, diagnostic categories that frame coherent meanings for certain repetitive, patterned, and troubling sets of experiences and observations.” (844) The list of culture-bound syndromes includes illnesses which “may be encountered in clinical practice in North America” (845).

Pibloktoq is included and defined in the same manner as in ICD-10 – it is a condition during which the individual “may tear off his or her clothing, break furniture, shout obscenities, eat feces, flee from protective shelters, or perform other irrational or dangerous acts.” (847)

In the most recent edition – DSM-5 – published in 2013 - culture-bound syndromes are no longer included. Rather, there is a distinct classification called “Outline for Cultural

Formulation” (749) Furthermore, pibloktoq is not included in “Glossary of Cultural

Concepts of Distress” chapter. The ICD-10 remains the latest version of the WHO classification to this day (2017).

3. Culture-bound People Assessing Culture- bound Syndromes

Pibloktoq – as it was presented by the scholars of the twentieth century – is the result of ethnocentric thinking of the people who created it. From saying that the condition is widespread while reporting only less than 50 cases, saying that the illness is a serious condition incapacitating Inuit life while reporting it can be stopped by saying so, to saying that it is a natural occurrence in Inuit culture while not reporting a single case in natural environment – without any presence of Westerners’ influence. Pibloktoq is the result of misunderstanding and misinterpreting Inuit culture and society and the result of assumptions of universal Inuit personality – the concept created by the scholars – generalizing Inuit’s living conditions, development, and reactions under stress.

First, there is the striking lack of first-hand observations, the lack of the Natives talking about the condition, and the lack of interviews between the suffering Inuit and the researchers. It is the few notes on hysterical behavior among Inuit – Cranz’s remarks of savages before conversion to Christianity and Dall’s remarks on the Native’s falling into

27 convulsions one after another as an expression of anger. It is the fits observed solely through Western lenses as Peary’s, Cook’s, and Rasmussen’s expeditions’ members see and comment it more like exotic amusing occasions, rather than attempting to get under the surface of screaming and running Inuit by interviewing the sufferers. And finally, in the eyes of the psychiatrists and other professionals, it is the condition marked with Inuit childish-like immature mind. In the second half of the twentieth century, there were very few attempts to thoroughly and systematically survey the occurrence of the condition, to prove or confute its existence, and to understand its cause by going to Inuit communities and talking to members of the communities. Those attempts that were made, however, did not indicate the existence of pibloktoq. Ehrström finds 1.86% people whom he labels as suffering from hysteria, nevertheless, he fails to find a single case of pibloktoq. Hughes also finds a portion of Inuit manifesting signs of hysterical behavior, but too – she does not mention a single case of pibloktoq. Valee also fails to find a single case of pibloktoq and the word is found to be unknown among the interviewed Inuit with one exemption – a case of Inuk who heard the name from the White nurse. Sampath reports the prevalence of hysterical personality among Inuit, but does not report a single case of the condition.

Foulks does not report a single case of pibloktoq, but reads it as ritualized behavior.

Pibloktoq was analyzed as if it had been common condition except nobody had seen it or heard of it. As Dick says: “As with the voluminous psychoanalytic literature deriving from

Freud's famous case report on Dora, the small number of reported "pibloktoq" episodes enabled the construction of an entire discourse on arctic hysteria on the basis of a few fragmentary textual narratives” (1).

The reason why the research done and its impact is so extensive while not being backed by any verifying field research is generalizations. The scholars generalized and demoted Inuit to the never-grown-up adults based on a few first-hand observations. The

28 fact that the so widely analyzed illness had not been seen for a century and most of the reports come from the North Pole explorers is undermining the validity of pibloktoq. The fact that the disorder might not actually occur is “the most straightforward way” the culture-bound syndrome fails to fulfill its relevance (Cooper 326). As Cooper further argues, “…those who would observe cases must travel far and wide, and will frequently have to depend on interpreters. Even then, observing cases first-hand may prove to be impossible and as a consequence those who describe culture-bound syndromes may resort to relying on reports that are second or even third hand.” (Cooper 326) The reliance on second and third hand reports are – in the case of pibloktoq – apparent. Since the major expeditions of the early twentieth century, authors were mostly building on previous materials – recycling and retrieving what was once said and reported.

On the other hand, there are some attempts to interview the Natives about health and health practice without making generalizations about Inuit society or culture such as

Kirmayer et al.’s Inuit Concepts of Mental Health and Illnes: An Ethnographic Study,

Therrien and Laugrand’s Interviewing Inuit Elders - Perspectives on Traditional Health, and

National Aboriginal Health Organization’s (NAHO) Inuit Men Talking About Health.

Kirmayer et al. interviewed 80 Inuit in Nunavik. Regarding symptoms resembling pibloktoq, the informants did not give same, nor similar accounts of such conditions. Some say that schizophrenic patients tend to run wild, some say it is sniffing, most say they had never seen it. The accounts differ and do not suggest any widespread ideas of running wild behavior (49-50). Therrien and Laugrand interviewed Baffin Island Inuit elders.

Some were inquired about dealing with seizures – again, the opinions differ, as they differ in many other aspects of Inuit health (59-61). Furthermore, NAHO’s survey shows that among 19 men interviewed, permeating topics include cultural identity and Inuit’s place in modern world, still, the ideas of health, wellbeing, and health traditions differ from

29 person to person (20-24, 29-30). In conclusion, Inuit should not be generalized to provide explanations for possible illnesses. Regarding health, health practice, attitudes to health, and experiences with illnesses, Inuit are not a homogenous group which can be analyzed from scattered non-systematical reports based on byproducts of explorations.

The ideas behind the construct of pibloktoq are – among others – based on White racial superiority. For a long time, Inuit were called savage, primitive, and uncivilized, and the scientific explanations of pibloktoq are based on these assumptions. For Brill, Inuit are primitive and childish-like (515), for Ehrström, Inuit have primitive reactions (260), and for Gussow, Inuit have primitive manifestations of distress (284). Inuit culture and customs are compared to the Western ones. While the Western customs are seen as a standard – as the right and civilized customs – Inuit customs are seen as inferior. As Higgs says, in pibloktoq history, there is “racism permeating many of the original conjectures…

Even today, many of the 'scientific' explanations contain vestiges of racism suggesting genetic and cultural inferiority.” (Higgs 3)

Furthermore, the people bringing back the reports of pibloktoq were not just immaterial observers – they were directly influencing lives of the Natives - thus, the argument that pibloktoq is a common natural occurrence in Inuit culture is wrong.

Westerners lived with Inuit, Westerners travelled with Inuit, Westerners interacted with

Inuit. Peary’s company cured Inuit having attacks by alcohol, narcotics, mustard water, and hanging them up on the boom of the foremast of Roosevelt ship (Borup 281). Peary’s company sexually exploited Inuhuit women and disrupted preexisting Inuit relationships

(Dick 19). Westerners influenced Inuit living conditions. In Dedrick’s Diary Entry for 25

October 1900, a woman had the hysterical attack after all food for Inuit and dogs were gone and she was taken to extreme North where no food was available. Peary’s expedition

30 members would often take Inuit to isolation from their families and familiar environments (Dick 19). Still, the scholars analyzing the condition later did not consider - nor mention – the extreme and unnatural contexts of the reports. Even if the later observers did not expose the Natives to such hostile conditions, they were still present in their communities, and, to some degree, influencing their behavior. Any authentic first- hand reports from the Natives about the Natives are missing.

The people assessing pibloktoq as culture-bound syndrome were often missing an important approach – Westerners are not culture-free. Westerners are as influenced by culture as are Inuit and the question of assessing pibloktoq based on Western teachings is irrelevant. Westerners’ thoughts and analyzes are influenced by culture and when we put the ideas of White racial superiority (and culture) aside, it is apparent that issue in one culture cannot be satisfyingly assessed by another. Pibloktoq is the result of using the

Western lenses when examining the condition, the lack of understanding, and the differences in communication because those, who “want to have a thorough knowledge of the disease must first understand the gap between Western medicine and Arctic cultures.”

(Higgs 4)

An insight into this gap may be the interviews with Inuit compared to Western health tradition. Summarizing their discussions, Therrien and Laugrand say:

“Elders stress that only a strong mind allows for a healthy body. The body

is hence to be put in close relation with all human experiences including

quality of interpersonal relationships, quality of the relations to the

environment and game, and quality of relations to the deceased and the

spirits… In fact, health is conceived less as a personal matter, as in Western

societies, than as a harmonious order in which the person is integrated in

an encompassing social, temporal, spiritual and non-empirical

environment.” (1)

Or Isaac’s insights comparing non-Western medicine to the Western one: “…Western concept of the medical model is orientated towards a notion that something wrong or imperfect needs putting right.” (357) It apparent that Inuit health system is not a distinct subject – it is a part of wider philosophy based on maintaining harmonious relationship of mind, body, and environment. Native’s models are not based on mending one wrong thing – it is a complex system of preserving the relationship. Curing disease is often linked with spiritual experiences and vice versa.

4. Conclusion

In the thesis, I analyzed the theory and history behind the often-called culture-bound syndrome - pibloktoq. Early missionaries and explorers perceived Inuit culture as inferior to the Western tradition. In various contexts, they saw Inuit personality as hysterical, savage, and childish-like. The North pole expeditions at the turn of the twentieth century brought back a number of cases of Inuit having the condition peculiar to their minds. Soon after, psychoanalysts, psychiatrists, and scholars of other various disciplines started analyzing the condition on the grounds of the modern – Western – science. Many did it to promote cultural diversity and a need to include culture-specific disorders into the major

32 classification manuals. However, most of them ignored the circumstances under which the reports were taken, ignored the stunningly low number of the reports, and ignored the need to assess Inuit mental conditions on the ground of Inuit culture and society – through Inuit lenses.

Throughout the primary sources, there prevail the ideas of Inuit inferiority – whether it is the uncivilized Natives before conversion to Christianity, amusing hysterical women who need to be bound and hanged from ship’s mast, or Inuit who need attention so they start making mess. In subsequent analyses, there prevail the ideas of Inuit immature mind and culture. Inuit were generalized in attempts to clarify the condition.

They were generalized using those few cases into a group of childish-like people for whom pibloktoq is the acceptable way to communicate distress.

Pibloktoq was presented as a natural occurrence to Inuit, however, the people who brought the reports back were often putting the Natives into unnatural conditions. Not that they were influencing Inuit behavior by their presence, some were physically and sexually abusing the Natives. These circumstances were not taken into consideration in the subsequent forming analyses.

After analyzing the history behind pibloktoq, I say that if it had not been for

Western ethnocentrism, the condition would not have found its way into the bounding psychiatric manuals. The scholars were often forgetting about the influence of their own culture on their judgment. Furthermore, some used racist concepts for explaining Inuit behavior. Westerners are not culture-free – they are as influenced by culture as are Inuit

– and when assessing different culture and leaving the racist ideas behind, it is of vital importance to see Native conditions through Native lenses.

Appendix I - List of Pibloktoq Reports

The list is building on the works of Zachary Gussow and Lyle Dick who both attempted to put together as much primary sources as possible. As it was the case with previous authors’ lists, whenever possible, I include exact date of occurrence, name of the person affected, exact place, and original source. Also, whenever possible, I tried to quote the original source, however, in some cases, this was impossible since some diaries do not have electronic copy, and are physically present only in American archives. In this cases, I quote the exact form found in secondary sources.

Date: July 1st, 1762 Person/s affected: Unknown Inuit Place: Akunnat (Lichtenfels Community), Sermersooq municipality, Greenland Source: Cranz, 1767, pp. 363-364.

On the other hand, they that were not rightly converted, hung quite naked in the air, and gnashed their teeth with cold in such a manner, that many of them had bit their tongues to pieces.

Date: between November 28th and December 4th, 1866 Person/s affected: Several Natives Place: Nulato, Alaska Source: Dall, 1870, pp. 171-172. Several of the Indians at the fort bad been attacked by a kind of fit, and one of these occurred in my presence. The Russians consulted me as to some means of cure. The patient fell in a sort of convulsion, struggling violently, appearing unconscious, tearing the clothing, and breaking everything within reach. There were no symptoms of any disease, and the fits were epidemic, seizing one after another at short intervals. The cases resembled the descriptions of those people who were supposed in ancient times to be bewitched, and also some of those appearance: which have accompanied cases of semi-religious mania in Europe in modern times. Suspecting the cause of the symptoms, I recommended the application of a birch twig, well laid on: the result exceeded my anticipations. The patients arose in a rage, and the epidemic was effectually checked. The reason for such behavior was inexplicable, and is one of the mysteries peculiar to the Indian mind. It is probable that in the course of time these fits, at first wilful, became in a measure involuntary.

Date: April 18th, 1892 Person/s affected: Unknown woman Place: Northumberland Island, Qaasuitsup municipality, Greenland Source: Diebitsch-Peary, 1894, p. 125. The mistress of the remaining igloo was making an awful noise and trying to come out of her habitation, while a man was holding her back and talking to her, but she screamed and struggled so long as we remained where she could see us. I asked Mane what was the nature of the trouble, and she told me that the woman was pi- bloc-to (mad).

Date: November 8th, 1894 Person/s affected: Atunginah Place: Qaanaaq, Qaasuitsup municipality, Greenland Source: National Archives (U.S.), RG 401, Hugh J. Lee Papers, Reports on Greenland Eskimos, 1893-95, "Crazy Arctic Highlanders" (unpublished manuscript) There is a woman named Atunginah, wife of Muctah [Muktah] who has had fits from time to time. Let me describe one of her fits that I saw her in. While at Karnah Nov. 8th 1894 I was in Kardah's igloo, one of the largest igloos in the place. Atunginah happened to be there and some other women & children. The old woman Atunginah was busy cutting up a piece of seal meat ready to cook, suddenly she stopped her work and stood just as she was with a vacant stare in her eyes. The natives were acquainted with her of old and knew that the first thing to do was to relieve her of the knife before she could do any damage. Then they led her to the platform where she sat down, I was in the middle of the standing room, and when she made a break for the door I was requested to hold her back and I did so. The floor being very greasy and slippery I could hardly hold her and so I thought it best to seat myself by her side and hold her that way. All the time she was trying to get

away and calling wildly a lot of talk which I could not understand. When she found she could not get away she changed her programme and began throwing onto the floor everything she could lay her hands on. When I held her hands she tried to catch the things hanging on the rack, when I held her away from this she tried to bite me which of course I prevented as best I could. Then she began a great game of conversation with herself and began to talk about a woman who had recently died, and this is something that a native in his or her right mind will never do. At length she began to talk to me and it was little that I could understand but the people about us would tell me what answers to make, mostly yes or no. At length she asked me if I would come to bed with her - answer no. One of the people present was Tookiningwah, a pretty young lady and the old woman asked me if I prefered [sic] Tookiningwah. Some answered yes, others no, and I said the first. That set the old woman wild again and I had to hustle to hold her quiet. After a while she asked me again if I preferred Tookinewah (such matters as this are the subjects of free conversation among the natives, they have no modesty whatever, no more than a wild animal). The second time she asked of course I said no and she became quiet again. Then she began to laugh a strange wild laugh which verged into the (hi-yai) and then they gave her the symball [sic] arrangement and she sang herself calm after she began to eat the meat which was already cooked by this time and then went to bed as if nothing had happened and no one said a word about it. Last summer there was another crazy woman of the same sort who in one of her spells went off and it is supposed she fell into some lead. At any rate she never came back to the settlement. Ukinlinlah the wife of Telikatiu [?] they say is the same way though I have never seen her in the condition.

Date: Winter, 1898 Person/s affected: Inalu Place: Cape D'Urville, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut Source: Peary, 1907, pp. 384-385. There exists among these people a form of hysteria known as piblocto (the same name as given to the well-known madness among their dogs), with which women, more frequently than men, are afflicted. During these spells, the maniac removes all clothing and prances about like a broncho. In 1898 while the Windward was in winter quarters off Cape D'Urville, a married woman was taken with one of these fits in the middle of night. In a state of perfect nudity she walked the deck of the ship; then, seeking still greater freedom, jumped the rail, on to the frozen snow and ice. It was some time before we missed her, and when she was finally discovered, it was at a distance of half-a-mile, where she was still pawing, and shouting to the best of her abilities. She was captured and brought back to the ship; and then there commenced a wonderful performance of mimicry in which every conceivable cry of local bird and mammal was reproduced in the throat of Inaloo. This same woman at other times attempts to walk the ceiling of her igloo; needless to say she has never succeeded. A case of piblocto lasts from five minutes to half-an-hour or more. When it occurs under cover of a hut, no apparent concern is felt by other inmates, nor is any attention paid to the antics of the mad one. It is only when an attempt is made to run abroad, that the cords of restraint are felt.

Date: August 30th, 1899 Person/s affected: Inalu

Place: Etah, Qaasuitsup municipality, Greenland Source: USNA, RG401(l)A, Robert E. Peary Papers, T. S. Dedrick: Diaries, Notebooks, and Other Papers, VI, Folder 2, Dedrick Diaries for 1899, 1900 [1899, at Etah]. Inalu was walking around in the rain today, bare legged & koppetah torn, with mild attack [of] piblokto.

Date: April 12th, 1900 Person/s affected: Ahngoodloo Place: St. Patrick's Bay, Northern Ellesmere Island, Nunavut Source: USNA, RG401(l)A, Robert E. Peary Papers, Peary Diary Entry for 12 April 1900. Ahngoodloo kept me up all night. Chilly and frightened. Gave him quinine, brandy toddy and morphine and finally got him to sleep for a little while. When he woke, was as bad as ever & pulse 100.

Date: April 24th, 1900 Person/s affected: Pooblah, Sipsu, Odaq, Ahngmaloktok Place: Black Horn Cliffs, Northern Greenland Source: USNA, RG401(l)A, Robert E. Peary Papers, Peary Diary Entry for 24 April 1900. While drinking our tea Pooblah had a fit and remaining Eskimos began to follow suit. Felt a trifle peculiar myself. Recognized the effects of alcohol... with every hole in igloo sealed by new snow. Kicked door out and sent two Eskimos outside. Others gave drink of brandy, and finally quieted them down...

Date: July 5th, 1900 Person/s affected: Odaq Place: The Bellows Valley, Nunavut Source: USNA, RG 401(l)(A), Robert E. Peary Papers, T. S. Dedrick Diaries, Notebooks, and Other Papers, 1898- 1901, Dedrick Diary, 28 June-23 August 1900. After breakfast, Oh-tah had another attack. He came to me, wailing an Eskimo chant, which beat any dirge I ever heard. He was trembling & beating right hand against his breast.

Date: July 7th, 1900 Person/s affected: Odaq Place: The Bellows Valley, Nunavut Source: USNA, RG 401(l)(A), Robert E. Peary Papers, T. S. Dedrick Diaries, Notebooks, and Other Papers, 1898- 1901, Dedrick Diary, 28 June-23 August 1900. Oh-tah shook & hardly talked as we ate breakfast. I knew what was coming & tried to engage him into pleasant conversation, but he said he wanted no breakfast & he had headache. I could see his hand shake as he lay in his blanket. Pretty soon, out he went & began his wild song, walking straight from tent in stocking feet. I overtook him & took his arm. He walked to the meat cache, took the calf head & came & buried it under his bed clothes, then went out & toward river at rapid gait. I overtook him & told him the stones would hurt his feet. He cried: "The Eskimos, the Eskimos/' I said "where?" "Over there," pointing toward river in front of B[lack] Rock Vale. I said "Let's go up here (grassy knoll near tent) where I think we can see them." He came back, grabbing on way a muskox boot, which he took into tent, then he remained there, on hands & knees, singing & chanting about friends at Whale Sound. Instead of whisky I gave him water. He crushed the milk tin (cup) before he

could control his nerves to drink. I went into tent later & struck him lightly but decidedly, on back & said authoritatively "Tinaa, Tinaa, Now go to sleep." He laid down, with the attack over. This was a hard attack. His cries & wailing are heart rending. The woman began to whimper & had a wild look in her eyes & kept very quiet for a long time. ...I had to give him extra sleep the next morning, on his request, as I feared to refuse as he had been having his crazy spells mornings.

Date: July 9th, 1900 Person/s affected: Odaq Place: The Bellows Valley, Nunavut Source: USNA, RG 401(l)(A), Robert E. Peary Papers, T. S. Dedrick Diaries, Notebooks, and Other Papers, 1898- 1901, Dedrick Diary, 28 June-23 August 1900. Oh-tah had his usual morning crazy spell. Took the calf-head into tent & later a musk ox hoof - same as other day. The woman rushed out, and I let him alone till he began to stand up [in] our tent which not more than 3 feet high, when I called to him not to tear the tent, then went to entrance & said "lie down & sleep. Your attack is ended." He ceased & laid down. It was a lighter attack than last one. He walked out, clasping my hand as in a vise & again crushed a milk tin trying to take a dose of medicine. He announced to me before attack came on that "he was going to like yesterday," in a deploring tone.

Date: August 23rd, 1900 Person/s affected: Saune Place: Fort Conger, Nunavut Source: USNA, RG 401(l)(A) Robert E. Peary Papers, Peary Diary Entry for 23 August 1900. Drs. girl [Saune] partially piblockto yesterday and today.

Date: August 26th, 1900 Person/s affected: Odaq Place: Wrangel Bay, Nunavut Source: USNA, RG 401(l)(A), Robert E. Peary Papers, T. S. Dedrick Diaries, Notebooks, and Other Papers, 1898- 1901, Dedrick Diary, 28 June-23 August 1900. Oh-tah had a severe piblockto attack tonight.

Date: September 23rd, 1900 Person/s affected: Unknown woman Place: Fort Conger, Nunavut Source: USNA, RG 401(l)(A) Robert E. Peary Papers, Peary Diary Entry for 23 September 1900. The woman angekok ordered Oh-tah's tea made in separate pan last night. She started in piblockto while in the sick woman house, but she ceased when I ordered to stop.

Date: October 15th, 1900 Person/s affected: Odaq Place: Fort Conger, Nunavut Source: USNA, RG 401(l)(A) Robert E. Peary Papers, Peary Diary, 16 September-22 October 1900, Entry for Monday, October 15. Ootah [had] a crazy fit [during the night].

Date: October 25th, 1900 Person/s affected: Unknown woman Place: Fort Conger, Nunavut Source: USNA, RG 401(l)(A) Robert E. Peary Papers, T. S. Dedrick: Diaries, Notebooks, and Other Papers, 1898-1901, Miscellaneous Papers and Field Notes of T. S. Dedrick, Entry for 25 October 1900. We have some meat which was designated for house use, but dog meat & meat for Esk[imos] are all gone. One of the women had a crying spell this morning on account of being brought here and being so frequently on short rations.

Date: March 11th, 1901 Person/s affected: Ahngoodloo Place: West of Fort Conger, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut Source: USNA, RG 401(l)(A) Robert E. Peary Papers, Peary Diary, March-April 1901, Entry for 11 March 1901. Ahngoodloo [had] another one of his spells last night, palpitation & belly ache. Sent him back to Conger with Pooblah this morning. He walked off all right. I am disgusted with him.

Date: January 27th, 1902 Person/s affected: A[h-ah-gi-ah-su] Place: Payer Harbour, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut Source: USNA, RG 401(l)(A) Robert E. Peary Papers, Peary Diary Entry for Monday, 27 January 1902. A[h-ah-gi-ah-su] [had] a crazy fit this evening, laughing, crying, and shouting hysterically. She has sore throat and badly swollen under lip. Pulse rapid and head hot.

Date: November 27th, 1902 Person/s affected: Qisunguaq Place: Igfigsoq Glacier, Greenland Source: Rasmussen, 1908, p. 93. “The spirits of the dead have talked with me; my words are wisdom, like the speech of our forefathers. I have seen hidden things!" he shouted, and began to tremble all over. He had closed his eyes and his fists were convulsively clenched. To a wild and confused measure, he struck up a spirit song, which broke off in hysterical fits of sobbing. I held him by the shoulders to quiet him; he rushed at me with a roar, and for a long time we struggled together, stumbling in the dark over the stones. He pressed his face against my neck, as if he were trying to bite me, and ground his teeth with rage.

Date: September 16th, 1905 Person/s affected: Ahtitah Place: Cape Sheridan, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut Source: USNA, RG401(l)(A) Papers of Robert E. Peary, Dr. Louis Wolf, Journal, 1905-06 (manuscript), 14 July 1905-23 December 1906. An Eskimo woman, Ahtitah, had an attack of hysteria.

Date: September 18th, 1905 Person/s affected: Unknown woman Place: Cape Sheridan, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut Source: USNA, RG401(l)(A) Papers of Robert E. Peary, Dr. Louis Wolf, Journal, 1905-06 (manuscript), 14 July 1905-23 December 1906. Another one of the Eskimo females had an attack of what the Eskimos call "piblockto," or hysteria.

Date: September 25th, 1905 Person/s affected: Several Natives Place: Cape Sheridan, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut Source: USNA, RG401(l)(A) Papers of Robert E. Peary, Dr. Louis Wolf, Journal, 1905-06 (manuscript), 14 July 1905-23 December 1906. Several cases of "piblockto" have occurred recently, and now am thoroughly satisfied that it is purely a hysterical condition and have found that, by administering heroic doses of mustard the attack is immediately brought to a termination.

Date: Early October, 1905 Person/s affected: Unknown woman Place: Cape Sheridan, northern Ellesmere Island, aboard the Roosevelt, Nunavut Source: Bowdoin College Library, Special Collections, Robert A. Bartlett Papers, Books, Articles, Etc. by Robert A. Bartlett- "From the Crow's Nest"- "The First Roosevelt Expedition," p. 14. One evening I was reading in my room when I heard a number of voices, making a good deal of noise. I walked out to the alleyway, when I met the Doctor going out on deck, I asked him what the trouble was, he said that one of the coonas [women] had Pibloktoo, the form of hysteria which is more prevalent among the fair sex than among their partners. I would diagnose it as pure cussedness. She wants her way and cannot get it. The crying and yelling they make would cause you to think that they were going to do violence to themselves. The Doctor sized up the situation and calmly said bring Madam to the surgery, the patient was brought to him and in the severest tones possible, but with great dignity, he lectured her, and injected a liberal portion of mustard water into her arm, and made her drink some of it. This had a desired effect, she immediately became sane again and was restored to her right mind. I must say that the Doctor lost a good deal of patronage for he did away with Pibloktoo.

Date: October 6th, 1905 Person/s affected: Unknown woman Place: Cape Sheridan, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut Source: USNA, RG401(l)(A) Papers of Robert E. Peary, Dr. Louis Wolf, Journal, 1905-06 (manuscript), 14 July 1905-23 December 1906. One of the coonas had an attack of piblockto - with her baby on her back, she jumped over the ship's rail and where they found her was up to the English cairn laying down on the snow and she was pretty cold. The Eskimos put her back on a sledge. I gave her a drink of whisky and she soon seemed to be herself again. Date: December 1st, 1905 Person/s affected: Unknown woman

Place: Cape Sheridan, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut Source: USNA, RG401(l)(A) Papers of Robert E. Peary, Dr. Louis Wolf, Journal, 1905-06 (manuscript), 14 July 1905-23 December 1906. One of the coonas attempted to have an attack of "piblockto" today, but the administration of mustard water nipped it in the bud.

Date: August, 1908 Person/s affected: Unknown woman Place: Etah, aboard the Roosevelt, Qaasuitsup municipality, Greenland Source: Special Collections, Bowdoin College Library, Brunswick, Maine, Donald B. MacMillan Collection, Correspondence, MacMillan [Etah, aboard the Roosevelt] to Clifton Augustus Towle, Principal, Worcester Academy, Massachusetts, 10 August 1908. One or two of the women have had fits. When they do they all pile on and hold them down. One of them went crazy a few days ago and wanted to kill someone. She stuck her hand through a hole in the partition and kept yelling sa-vik! (knife). The sailors did not know what she wanted, so put a hot potato in her hand!

Date: August 26th, 1908 Person/s affected: Alneah Place: Lincoln Bay, off the coast of Ellesmere Island, en route to Cape Sheridan Source: USNA, RG401(l)(A) Papers of Robert E. Peary, Dr. John Goodsell, Typescript Journal, July 1908-May 1909. "Alneah" had an attack of Piblockto which speedily dis- appeared with the nausea accompanying the hypodermic administration of one-tenth grain Apomorphine.

Date: September 16th, 1908 Person/s affected: Tukshu Place: Etah, Qaasuitsup municipality, Greenland Source: Whitney, 1910, p. 67. It was upon our return to Etah on the evening of the sixteenth that I observed for the first time a case of problokto among the natives. Proglokto is a form of temporary insanity to which the Highland Eskimos are subject, and which comes upon them very suddenly and unexpectedly. They are liable to have these attacks more particularly at the beginning or during the period of darkness. Tukshu began suddenly to rave upon leaving the boat. He tore off every stitch of clothing he had on, and would have thrown himself into the water of the Sound, but for the restraint of the Eskimos. He seemed possessed of supernatural strength, and it was all four men could do to hold him. With the knowledge that his madness was temporary and he would shortly be himself again, with no serious consequences to follow, I cheerfully watched his astonishing contortions. It would have been a very serious matter however had Tukshu been attacked while in the boat; and it is very serious indeed when problokto attacks one, as it sometimes does, when on the trail, or at a time when there are insufficient men to care for the afflicted one.

Date: October 6th, 1908 Person/s affected: Unknown woman Place: Cape Sheridan, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut Source: Special Collections, Bowdoin College Library, Brunswick, Maine, Donald B. MacMillan Collection, Mac- Millan, North Pole Diary, North Polar Expedition, 1908-09.

We have a piblockto victim about every day. One woman ran out on the ice tonight with not a thing on. The women caught her, laid her on a musk ox robe and held her down for half an hour.

Date: October, 1908 Person/s affected: Tongwe Place: Etah, Qaasuitsup municipality, Greenland Source: Whitney, 1910, pp. 83-84. At half-past one that night I was awakened from a sound sleep by a woman shouting at the top of her voice - shrill and startling, like one gone mad. I knew at once what it meant - someone had gone problokto. I tumbled into my clothes and rushed out. Far away on the driving ice of the Sound a lone figure was running and raving. The boatswain and Billy joined me, and as fast as we could struggle through three feet of snow, with drifts often to the waist, we gave pursuit. At length I reached her, and to my astonishment discovered it was Tongwe, Kulutinguah's kooner... She struggled desperately, and it required the combined strength of the three of us to get her back to the shack, where she was found to be in bad shape - one hand was frozen slightly and part of one breast. After half an hour of quiet she became rational again, but the attack left her very weak.

Date: October, 1908 Person/s affected: Tongwe Place: Etah, Qaasuitsup municipality, Greenland Source: Whitney, 1910, p. 87. On the evening after the hunters returned, and while I was dressing Kudlar's hip, Tongwe - Kulutinguah's kooner - was again attacked by problokto. She rushed out of the igloo, tore her clothing off and threw herself into a snow-drift. I ran to Kulutinguah's assistance, but the woman was strong as a lion, and we had all we could do to hold her. A strong north wind was blowing, with a temperature eight degrees below zero, and I thought she would surely be severely frozen before we could get her into the igloo again, but in some miraculous manner, she escaped even the strongest frost-bite. After getting her in the igloo, she grew weak as a kitten, and it was several hours before she became quite herself. In connection with this woman's case, it is curious and interesting to note that, previous to the attack which she had suffered the day before the return of the hunting party, she had never shown any symptoms of problokto.

Date: October, 1908 Person/s affected: Tukshu Place: Smith Sound, between Canada and Greenland Source: Whitney, 1910, pp. 180-181. Tukshu, on a block of ice, was scarcely half-way across the open lead, when with a roar like the discharge of artillery, the floe he had just left broke into three parts. An upheaval of water followed, the pan upon which Tukshu was broke apart, plunging him into the sea... Tukshu seemed lost, but in some manner he succeeded in reaching the main ice and was hauled upon it. The other Eskimos began at once to beat the water, quickly forming into ice, out of his bearskin trousers, while he pulled off his wet kuletar and donned a kopartar. Then I gave him a small drink of whisky from my flask, and he began running up and down to warm himself. I do

not know whether it was the whisky, or the excitement attendant upon his narrow escape, but suddenly Tukshu went problokto, and nearly two hours lapsed before he was sufficiently recovered for us to be- gin our retreat.

Date: January, 1909 Person/s affected: Tukshu Place: Smith Sound, between Canada and Greenland Source: Whitney, 1910, p. 187. While we were thus engaged, the Eskimos laughing as they talked and ate and enjoying themselves to the utmost, Tukshu, without warning or hint, went problokto. He fought the others like a demon, and I thought he would surely break through the side of the igloo but finally, though the Eskimos did their utmost to keep him in, he passed out through the entrance. In the tussle nearly all his clothing was torn off; and in the bitter and intense cold it seemed to me he must certainly freeze. For an hour he wandered around in the snow, while the others watched him through holes they had cut in the igloo's side. Then he was captured and taken into one of the stone habitations.

Date: Early July, 1909 Person/s affected: "Buster Blanket" (Alnayah) Place: Cape Sheridan, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut Source: Borup, 1911, pp. 278-80 There was a huskie lady, a widow, dubbed "Buster Blanket" by our facetious cook, and she distinctly contrived to dispel dull care in a way widdies are capable of. One night after supper we heard a commotion for'ard and word was passed that "Buster's got piblokto." The "Scientific Staff" promptly proceeded to take such observations as the weather and place of the forthcoming performance permitted. As Mr. Adams puts it, when she "announced a meetin' in the public hall the seatin' o' the same was found inadequate to 'commodate the gang." There was the lady in a pool of ice-water, breast- high, right under the bow, looking like an inebriated fish treading water, singing like a siren, and banging her hands together: Yah! Yah! A yah yah! Yah!" If she'd had more pleasant surroundings she'd have made the Lorelei look like the hat father wore on St. Patrick's Day, and, for repetition of her words, a church choir stunned in an anthem. The entire population of Cape Sheridan soon joined the gallery, and many were the opinions as to the best way of getting the lady to ice or dry land. None of us was stuck on pretending she was a bird's egg and wading after her, so some fellows got up in the bow and tried to lasso the heifer, but, as we were not cowboys, she was perfectly safe. Others got a rope, but everytime she saw the rope start to grow taut she'd duck and it would merely scrape her back. Finally, we got a long sledge, and while our 250- pound Chief Wardwell stood on one end to act as a counterpoise, another fellow climbed to the front. The widow dodged his embrace but we rang in another sledge, and finally the old girl was saved, though not until she'd given a good imitation of a cat arguing with fly paper. On another occasion her high spirits broke out again and she mermaided it in a stream of ice-water a hundred yards wide, side wheeling it towards the mouth of -the river 400 yards away, and we all trooped out to see what her farthest would be. After going most all the way she condescended to come ashore, and we slung her to the ship, yelling and cheering as a crowd does when they carry off their winning team.

Date: July, 1909 Person/s affected: Buster and Inaloo Place: Cape Sheridan, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut Source: Borup, 1911, pp. 280-81 A few days after that, Buster and Inaloo, a lady whose tonnage was over two hundred, and who at our functions was given parking space, started a duet in the piblokto line. Now, Inaloo had a husband and three sons aboard, so before she got going on an exploring tour her family, not being keen for a cross-country run, collectively, lovingly embraced her, laid her down gently, and proceeded to sit on different parts of her deck, singing, "Don't get married any more, Ma," and when it looked as though she might adopt too many suffragette methods and put her family on the bum, there were enough of us ready to lend a helping hand to show that here, at all events, the male sex ruled. But mother hasn't spoken to father since. Seeing she couldn't do anything real bad, she proceeded to give as fine an imitation of all the inhabitants of the polar regions as you'd want from the growls and snarlings of a dog team having an argument, and the cry of a burgomeister gull, to the snort of a fighting musk-ox, the hoarse grunt of an infuriated walrus, the blow of a narwhal. Buster, in the meanwhile, having no family, was let severely alone till, becoming jealous at receiving no attention, she began to raise such a Ballinger of a time that, as there weren't enough of us unoccupied to unnightmare her, we solved the problem by rolling her up in a blanket, strapping her to a board, and hanging her up on the boom of the foremast. There she hung, swinging in the breeze, with only enough leeway to move her head, swear, ululate, and spit.

Date: July 17th, 1909 Person/s affected: Tu-ah-loo & "Buster" (Alnayah) Place: Cape Sheridan, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut Source: Special Collections, Bowdoin College Library, Brunswick, Maine, Donald B. MacMillan Collection, MacMillan North Pole Diary, North Polar Expedition, 1908-09. The Eskimos are all aboard the hills where they have been hunting for quartz and eggs. Ina-loo and Buster Blanket being the last to come in. They promptly proceeded to get drunk on a tablespoon [MacMillan's emphasis] full of whiskey. For two hours they made things lively enough for all of us, Tu-ah-loo trying to walk with her feet in the air and Buster banging her head on the deck. Tu-ah-loo bit pieces out of the fur clothing of Tu-ah-loo swallowing these with evident pleasure, bit her lips, tore her seal-skin shirt, kicked everything and everybody within reach until finally it was necessary for six or seven of the men to sit on her and hold her down. She then began to imitate all the animals in the arctic and some which have never been here. Buster's favourite stunts were kicking up behind with both heels, singing, spitting, and trying to fall down the hold. As she is a gross widow and not over- attractive, she did not have many sympathizers as Tu-ah-loo, so she was bound hand and foot, rolled in a blanket lashed to a board and suspended from the foreboom and there she swung back and forth in the breeze doing to perfection her only remaining stunt under the conditions - spitting right into the air. A cup of strong coffee helped them to their senses and by midnight all was quiet again.

Date: July, 1909 Person/s affected: Inadtliak

Place: Thule district, Qaasuitsup municipality, Greenland Source: Steensby, 1910, pp. 377-378. It lasted 25 minutes. She sat on the ground with the legs outstretched, swaying her body to and fro, sometimes rapidly sometimes more slowly, from side to side and tortuously, whilst she kept her hands comparatively still and only now and then moved her elbows in to her sides. She stared out in front of her quite regardless of the surroundings, and sang or screamed, occasionally changing the tone, iah, iah, aiha-ha... ; now and then she interjected a sentence, e.g. that now the Danish had come to them, and again the great happiness this gave her now in the glad summer- time, and so on. Her two small children sat and played about her, whilst the members of the tribe scarcely looked at her during the attack; they seemed to be very well acquainted with such things. She recovered quite suddenly and only some hectic, red spots on her cheeks indicated anything unusual. Without so much as looking about her or betraying a sign of anything unusual she began, literally in the same moment, to give her youngest child milk and then went quietly on to chew a skin. According to Knud Rasmussen's experience this attack was comparatively mild; in other cases the sick person may have a lust for destruction, and men frequently become very dangerous to their surroundings.

Date: June 15th, 1914 Person/s affected: Inalu Place: Etah, Qaasuitsup municipality, Greenland Source: Bowdoin College, Special Collections, Brunswick, Maine, Donald B. MacMillan Collection, Diaries, No. 19/5, "Crocker Land" Expedition, MacMillan Diary, 12 February 1914-26 March 1915. She tried to rip her clothes off, lay on her back on the ice, and kicked with both legs, pounded her head with sticks, imitated a polar bear, mimicked the cry of various animals and birds, ran out across the harbour, and did other stunts. It lasted about an hour, at the end of which she went to sleep, lying with her back on the ice.

Date: October, Pre-World War I era Person/s affected: Qitlugtoq Place: North Star Bay, North Greenland Source: Knud Rasmussen 1915:102-115. Translated from the original Danish, courtesy of: Canada, Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, Multilingual Translation Directorate, Hull, Quebec. I continue leafing through my diary. It contains moving preludes to the Polar night. Under an attack of hysteria, Arnajaq, poor good- natured Arnajaq, rushed off to the mountains. There she met the spirit of the newly deceased "Little Auk's Son," who wanted to take her by force. She pushed him off and highly exasperated, came to my tent. I was alone. All blood had left her cheeks, she was singing spirit songs so that she was about to run out of breath, and she amused herself by stacking in my tent all kinds of junk from an old tent site next to me. When all the rubbish was finished, she took a stone so big that she could hardly lift it, and rolled it into my tent. All this took place with a comic seriousness and a studied solicitude, which made it look as if she were bringing me something that I had long wanted and now finally received. And she nodded her head at me, seriously and conscientiously, as if to say: "Yes, we two are sure to overcome life's problems together." After standing still for a moment and inspecting with the greatest satisfaction all the junk

she had deposited all around my tent, she suddenly rushed out, and with delicate steps, took a small coquettish preliminary run before starting to turn somersaults with an amazing speed all the way to the end of the valley before me, with an - unspeakable comic, astonished expression in her face, and all my dogs dashing after her - in genuine bewilderment. Then she straightened up, beat her head with small stones, and before I could prevent her, tore to pieces her new fox skin which she had just got and was so proud of - and then wanted to throw herself into the sea. With great difficulty, I managed to carry her into the tent, where she finally came to her senses again. Slowly, colour returned to her cheeks, and she observed with the greatest astonishment all the peculiar things she had presented me. Even though such attacks seldom last longer than half an hour, they are followed by a great physical exhaustion.

Date: October, Pre-World War I era Person/s affected: Inaluk Place: North Star Bay, North Greenland Source: Rasmussen 1915:102-115. Inaluk, the considerate, pleasant, always clean "Gut," does remarkable things one day during such an attack. Her man wrestles with her long but gives up, when he is unable to control her. She has an obsessive idea that she absolutely must have a piece of seaweed, and she wades out into the sea to about her throat and is hardly able to return to the shore. She is victorious as if she had set a world record; then she slips the seaweed back into the sea, doing everything with a great earnestness, as if to show that the whole thing was just a demonstration, after which she runs to the mountains with her wet garments flapping about her. While this is going on, her man, completely unruffled, goes out in his kayak, as if the whole thing did not concern him at all, and catches a big walrus just outside the settlement. Completely exhausted and red all over her body, Inaluk ends up in my tent, where we have to wrestle with her, as she wants to smear our faces with soot and blubber. Finally, she comes to and gets into my sleeping bag. A hot cup of tea! .... Troubled thoughts settle in our minds, swarming in and then fleeing like migrating birds about to depart. Faint with powerlessness, even the strongest of us shiver a bit, now that life is to be led in the dark, as the glowing sun sets in the sea and the day closes its eyes. Thus we slip into the darkness, with some anxiety and shudder.

Date: March 24th, 1928 Person/s affected: Sakeeungwa Place: Bache Peninsula R.C.M.P. Detachment, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut Source: National Archives of Canada, RG 18, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Records, Vol. 3015, Daily Diary, Bache Peninsula Detachment, Entry for 24 March 1928. Native Sakeeungwa entered the det[achment] this afternoon & appeared to be suffering from light headiness, he was not accountable for his actions for an hour or so, but with a slug & a little medicine he appeared to be O.K. again.

Date: April 6th, 1928 Person/s affected: Coolitanga's wife Place: Bache Peninsula R.C.M.P. Detachment, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut Source: National Archives of Canada, RG 18, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Records, Vol. 3015, Daily Diary, Bache Peninsula Detachment, Entry for 6 April 1928.

Native Coolitanga's wife went crazy this evening. She went some way out on the ice and tore off all her upper garments and created a great deal of noise. She had previously complained of dizziness for which I gave her medicine. She appears to be suffering with some lung complaint, which if contagious, is a menace to the natives living with her.

Date: April 19th, 1928 Person/s affected: Ahkeeo's wife Place: Bache Peninsula R.C.M.P. Detachment, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut Source: National Archives of Canada, RG 18, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Records, Vol. 3015, Daily Diary, Bache Peninsula Detachment, Entry for 19 April 1928. Native Ahkeeo's wife suffering with unconsciousness, treated as per directions. Date: Pre-World War II era Person/s affected: Niels Rasmussen’s fellow Place: Greenland Source: Steed 1947-48: 205-206 In one case NR [Niels Rasmussen] was a passenger on a sled driven by a very simple, friendly not too bright young man; always friendly, untalkative, but reliable fellow. They had had some trouble on the land before they got to the ice cap, very tough going, no snow and very tough work. Finally reached the ice cap which meant safety and then they had some smooth going of course, and they would be home in a day or two. NR thought that everything was all right with him. Had his back towards him; he was standing in front of the sled and disentangling the dogs. He heard him talk very strangely; didn't understand a word of it.4 Suddenly he began to kick the dogs, one or two of them. Then systematically he started to kick them all, talking louder and louder until he was screaming unintelligibly. He warmed up for about a minute or so that way and after about a minute or so he was in full swing screaming all the time. He tore all the stuff off the sleds, skins, boxes, stoves, and hurled them at the dogs. It lasted about ten minutes .... It didn't do much harm to the dogs, in fact nothing at all, couldn't hit them actually. All of a sudden it was over. He sat down on the sled completely exhausted. A short attack. Later, days later when they got back to the village, he had a lot of fun about it. The other companions on the trip kidded the fellow about his behavior and the young boy himself always asked NR whether he had been scared; it is not disgrace that these things happen. It can happen to anybody. It's a natural incident. Usually turns it into a funny story...

Date: Pre-World War II era Person/s affected: Niels Rasmussen’s fellow Place: Greenland Source: Steed 1947-48: 207 NR has seen another 'bird' [man] rolling in the snow without any clothes on, completely naked, for about a half hour. That is what usually happens: KR [Knud Rasmussen] described it that way too, they tear off all their clothes. NR saw only one instance of this; but it's supposed to be a common characteristic.

Date: Pre-World War II era Person/s affected: Niels Rasmussen’s fellow Place: Greenland

Source: Steed 1947-48: 208 Knud Rasmussen tells an incident, reported by NR, of a man who had had more than one [inebriationj. He suddenly climbed up a steep cliff; bluffs outside the village; completely vertical. Climbed up to top of those although obviously humanly impossible to do it; but he did it somehow. There is no doubt... that he could not have possibly done it under normal circumstances. The he grabbed the knife and went into a tent where three little children were sleeping; they were alone there but the father of the children followed the man, quietly took the knife out of the hand and at that moment the man collapsed.

Date: before 1960 Person/s affected: Anonymous woman Place: St. Lawrence Island, Alaska Source: Hughes, 1960, p. 68. Once and awhile X does acting, slapping faces, screwed around .... I thought at first she was partly shaman out of mind a little bit I think ... I've heard something ... hollering behind me, it was X. I seen her a little bit, she was making faces like that with wrinkled eye, she was winking her one eye so tight and seems to me that part of her face was shrinking. I didn't look, I hates to keep looking at her like this, scared me so much. I think she was out of mind .... But few minutes afterwards, she is become Okay.

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Resumé

Tato práce si klade za cíl kriticky přezkoumat fenomén zvaný pibloktoq – ve vědecké literatuře často označován za kulturně vázaný syndrom vyskytující se jenom u příslušníku jedné kulturní skupiny – v tomto případe u Inuitů. Tento fenomén se začal prvně objevovat v dobrodružní literatuře na přelomu devatenáctého a dvacátého století. Krátce poté byl syndrom přebrán psychology, výzkumníky a akademiky, a zařazen do mezinárodních klasifikací chorob DSM-IV a ICD-10 čímž se stal platnou diagnózou.

Nicméně způsob, jakým byl syndrom popsán a způsob, jakým ho vědci analyzovali vzbuzuje otázky o jeho pádnosti. Dohromady se analýzy opírají o necelých padesát případů popsaných očitými svědky, z kterých většina postrádala jakékoli odborné vzdělání. Většina analýz proto zevšeobecňuje mnohé aspekty Inuitského života. Navíc, svědectví i analýzy jsou často přetkané myšlenkami rasismu či myšlenkami podřadné kultury Inuitů.

V práci zkoumám způsoby, jakými byl pibloktoq zkonstruován, způsoby, jakými střet dvou rozdílných kultur ovlivnil úsudek vědců, a způsoby, jakými v odborných teoriích objasňujících tento syndrom pronikají a opakují se rasistické představy degradující Inuitskou kulturu, společnost a myšlení.

Summary

This thesis aims to critically explore a phenomenon called pibloktoq – in scientific literature often labelled as culture-bound syndrome occurring only among members of one cultural group – Inuit in this case. This phenomenon first started to appear in adventure literature at the turn on twentieth century. Shortly after, the syndrome was taken by psychologists, researchers, and academics, and incorporated into international classifications of diseases – DSM-IV and ICD-10 – becoming a valid diagnosis. However, the means by which the syndrome was described and the means by which it was analyzed raises questions about its relevance. Together, the analyses are based on less than 50 first- hand testimonies, mostly provided by persons lacking any relevant education. Therefore, most analyses generalize a number of aspects of Inuit life. Also, the testimonies and

56 analyses are often permeated by various racist thoughts, and thoughts of inferior Inuit culture.

This thesis aims to explore how pibloktoq was constructed, how the clash of the two cultures influenced ideas of the researchers, and how racist ideas degrading Inuit culture, society, and mind repeatedly permeate pibloktoq theories.