Cultural views of suicide

Various human cultures may have views on suicide not directly or solely linked to religious views of suicide.suicide Germaine Greer stated suicide is an act of hostility. [http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/video.htm?pres=20080814&story=1]

East Asian views

China

Chinese culture has historically taken an ambivalent view on suicide. It has been commonly mentioned throughout Chinese history and frequently tolerated, if not explicitly sanctioned. It is frequently used as a means of escaping tragedy and shame, an especially strong pressure given the collective aspects of traditional Chinese culture. Ritual suicide has historically been relatively common, particularly as a form of political protest.

Nonetheless, many moral systems dominant in traditional China prohibited or looked disfavorably upon suicide, including Buddhism and Confucianism. However, even in these cases, exceptions were often made.

Suicide has been closely tied with gender in Chinese culture, both historically and today. There are countless examples of females committing suicide in pre-modern Chinese history, usually as a result of oppression or misfortune, such as family members (particularly husbands and mothers-in-law) looking upon them in condemnation, or when women fell into shame. In the latter cases, it was viewed as an honorable way to escape shame – especially because the repercussions of shame typically fell not merely on the individual, but to an immense degree upon the individual's extended family.

Suicide was also glamorised by popular stories among the people, in which lovers unable to be together in life because of various reasons, were joined together in death. An example is that of the Butterfly Lovers, and also Pan Yu-Ann and Su Qi in "A Dream of Red Mansions", one of the four great works of Chinese literature. In these stories, death by suicide was the only way that they could be together.

During the Cultural Revolution in China (1966-1976), numerous publicly-known figures, especially intellectuals and writers, are reported to have committed suicide, typically to escape persecution, typically at the hands of the Red Guards. Some, or perhaps many, of these reported suicides are suspected by many observers to have, in fact, not been voluntary but instead the result of mistreatment. Some reported suicides include famed writer Lao She, among the best-known 20th century Chinese writers, and journalist Fan Changjiang.

Today, suicide among females in China is at an extraordinarily high rate, reckoned to be the highest in the world. This typically occurs among poorly educated rural women. Because of the difficulties in transportation in the rural environment, women who attempt suicide are frequently successful in ending their lives because they cannot be brought to medical care early enough to be treated successfully. Some researchers, such as Canadian physician Michael Phillips have called to light this tragic phenomenon, and authorities in China are gradually awakening to the problem.

India

Like the contemporary Asian cultures of China and Japan, Indian culture has historically taken an ambivalent view on suicide. It has been commonly mentioned throughout Indian history and frequently tolerated.

Heroic suicide, for the greater good of others, is often celebrated. For instance, Gandhi went on a hunger strike to prevent fighting between Hindus and Muslims; if they had not stopped when they did, he may have indeed killed himself. For this, he earned the respect of many.

Japan

Similarly to China and India, Japanese culture takes a view that, in comparison to European and American cultures, is relatively tolerant of suicide. However, recent events in Japan and some of the highest rates of suicide in the world among younger people have forced the Japanese government to take a more critical view of suicide as a "problem". As in China, suicide is traditionally viewed as a means of maintaining one's honor, perhaps more so - a ritual self-disembowelling known as Seppuku was in common use in Feudal Japan, and while this tradition largely faded out with the demise of the Samurai and the introduction of a western-style society, many young Japanese people of today still perceive suicide as an acceptable means to avoid bringing shame or dishonor upon their family. By 2008, an average of 30,000 Japanese had killed themselves every year for 10 years, according to the Yomiuri Shinbun; in 2007 274 Japanese school children took their own lives.

It is a common misconception that the act of kamikaze also belongs to Japanese culture. However, it was a tactic devised during the Second World War by the Japanese air force and was used neither prior to nor after the war. The term "Kamikaze" has no such connotation in Japanese, instead meaning "divine wind", which originated after not one, but two storms protected Japan from invasion by destroying the invading fleets of Kublai Khan from Mongolia in the 13th Century.

European views

The Netherlands

The decline of religion and the rise of individualisation in the Netherlands over the course of the latter half of the twentieth century contributed to a relatively open-minded culture around the turn of the millennium regarding the subject of suicide changed society's view of suicide to the extent that old views (based on Christian religious views), which strongly condemned it, started to fade. Although usually experienced as a tragedy by those who are left behind, the consensus towards the deceased tends to be vastly similar to that in case of a natural death. Feeling everybody has a right to live, as well as a right to die, the Dutch will usually respect the decision made by the deceased even if they don't understand the reasons behind it (or don't even have knowledge of them).

France

During the Napoleonic era, suicide was seen as an acceptable way to release oneself from a dishonorable circumstance (such as bankruptcy).

Views of other cultures

Ancient Egypt

"In ancient Egypt people considered suicide a humane way to escape intolerable conditions"Date: 2007. Author: Microsoft Corporation. Web page: “ [Section] VII: Attitudes Toward Suicide.” Web site: “Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia.” Institution: Microsoft Corporation. Date of access: March 25, 2008. Web address: .] .

References