Latah in South-East Asia: The History and Ethnography of a Culture-bound Syndrome

by Robert L. Winzeler

• ISBN13: 9780521472197
• ISBN10: 0521472199
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1995-02-24
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Latah, the Malayan hyperstartle pattern, has fascinated Western observers since the late nineteenth century and is widely regarded as a "culture-bound syndrome." Robert Winzeler critically reviews the literature on the subject, and presents new ethnographic information based on his own fieldwork in Malaya and Borneo. He considers the biological and psychological hypotheses that have been proposed to account for latah, and explains the ways in which local people understand it. Arguing that latah has specific social functions, he concludes that it is not appropriate to regard it as an "illness" or a "syndrome."

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part I. The Problem of Latah: 1. The study of latah

2. Latah, history and gender

3. 'Latah' elsewhere

Part II. Latah, Society and Culture: 4. Latah in Kelantan: an overview

5. Latah and Malay culture

6. Symbolic meanings and social uses

Part III. Borneo Comparisons and Perspective: 7. Latah in Borneo

8. Latah and the Iban

Part IV. Conclusions: 9. Explaining latah: paradigm and paradox, syndrome and ritual, nature and culture.