article
Blood drunkenness and the bloodthirsty Semai: unmaking another anthropological myth
American anthropologist • 89 (2) • Published In 1987 • Pages: 356-365
By: Robarchek, Clayton Allen.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
In this source the authors deal with the assertion, found often in the literature on human aggression, that the Semai, despite their peaceful outward appearance, are innately violent. The authors are especially concerned with this problem because the assertion has been based on their own work on the Semai. The authors argue that this assertion is contrary to their observations and is a misrepresentation of their work and of the Semai themselves. The authors discuss the Semai concept of buul bhib (“blood drunkenness”) and point out that this concept has been misunderstood, in part because they had not carefully described it in their previous work.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Drives and emotions
- Warfare
- Ethnoanatomy
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Semai
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2012
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Asia
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Southeast Asia
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- article
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Gerald Reid; 1989
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1973-1974
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1950-1980
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Perak and Pahang, Malaysia
- NotesAdditional notes
- Clayton A. Robarchek
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 363-364)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 17015424
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Senoi (Southeast Asian people)