Suicide Among Aboriginal People in Canada - Institut universitaire ...

Chapter 4society (Levy and Kunitz, 1971). Navajo culture has a long history of change, incorporating knowledge andpractices from other groups with whom they came into contact (Webb and Willard, 1975). The crucial issuemay be the trajectory of the process of acculturation, which in turn depends both on traditional patterns ofcultural change and on the pattern of negotiation with the dominant society.As noted above, Bachman (1992) found that more traditional communities actually had higher suiciderates. In attempting to explain this finding, Bachman cites Berlin’s cautions about the dilemmas of traditionversus modernity:Traditional communities, however, may impose old values on adolescents and youngadults that may also lead to suicides or suicide attempts. For instance, an importantAmerican Indian value is that people should not strive to be better than others and thuscause others to lose face. In school and even in athletic events, being singled out as asuperior student or athlete may bring ostracism or even physical chastisement from thepeer group. Thus, at times, traditional tribes’ values may be used to the detriment of theiryoung people (Berlin, 1987: 226).However, many other explanations are possible. Bachman’s (1992) measure of “traditionalism” wasimprecise and may have also reflected segregation, political disempowerment, and the small size andsocial isolation of communities. Without further controls and a more direct measure of traditionalismand acculturation stress, the relationship is still inadequately tested. To a large extent, the problem is thatacculturation does not involve only one aspect or dimension of life, but the process of change may go onto different degrees in different domains, with varying consequences for mental health and suicide risk.A study of a community sample of 3,000 Native Hawaiians found that rates of attempted suicide werehigher among those with a stronger cultural affiliation (Yuen et al., 2000). Ethnicity per se was notrelated to suicidality. This effect of cultural affiliation must be understood in terms of the demographyof Hawaii and the significance of cultural identity and practices in the context of a larger society thatdevalues and discriminates against Indigenous people. Similarly, a study of behavioural problems amongSami youth in Norway, which found higher rates of problems among those with stronger ethnic identity,illustrates how the impact of the style of acculturation can only be understood in terms of the position ofIndigenous people vis-à-vis the dominant society (Kvernmo and Heyerdahl, 2003). Although managingbicultural identities and allegiances is complex and demanding, exclusive identification to traditionalculture and identity may be problematic for youth living in local and global social contexts where othersdo not understand or value their heritage.Acculturation stress is a result of a change in the relationships, knowledge, languages, social institutions,beliefs, values, and ethical rules that bind people and give them a collective sense of who they are andwhere they belong. For Aboriginal people, such stresses have included: loss of land, traditional subsistenceactivities, and control over living conditions; suppression of belief systems and spirituality; weakeningof social and political institutions; and racial discrimination (Novins et al., 1999). In an analysis of datafrom 18 Native American tribes, the correlation between suicide rates and an index of acculturation stresswas 0.46 (p