Tom Widger. Bibliography of Suicide and Culture Research

Page 0 of 12

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF

SUICIDE AND CULTURE

RESEARCH

Tom Widger

suicideandculture@gmail.com / www.suicideandculture.wordpress.com

Version 13.04.2015

Bibliography of Suicide and Culture Research

(ver. 13.04.2015)

www.suicideandculture.wordpress.com Page 1 of 12

Contents

Anthropology ............................................................................................................................. 2

Cross-cultural Psychiatry ........................................................................................................... 8

Cross-cultural Suicidology ........................................................................................................ 9

Ethnopsychiatry ......................................................................................................................... 9

Grey literature ............................................................................................................................ 9

Public Health, Global health, Epidemiology ........................................................................... 10

Religious Studies ..................................................................................................................... 12

Bibliography of Suicide and Culture Research

(ver. 13.04.2015)

www.suicideandculture.wordpress.com Page 2 of 12

Anthropology

Andriolo, K. 2006. The Twice‐Killed: Imagining Protest Suicide. American Anthropologist

108(1):100-113.

Badami, S. (2014). Suicide as a Counter-Narrative in Wayanad, Southern India. The Invisible

Death. South Asia Research, 34(2), 91-112.

Billaud, J. (2012). Suicidal performances: voicing discontent in a girls’ dormitory in Kabul.

Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry, 36(2), 264-285.

Bohannan, P., 1960, ‘Theories of Homicide and Suicide,’ in P. Bohannan (ed.), African

Homicide and Suicide, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, pp. 3-29.

Brown, M.F., 1986, ‘Power, Gender, and the Social Meaning of Aguaruna Suicide,’ Man,

(n.s.), 21(2), 311-328.

Chua, J.L., 2011, ‘Making Time for the Children: Self‐Temporalization and the Cultivation of

the Antisuicidal Subject in South India,’ Cultural Anthropology, 26(1), 112-137.

Chua, J.L., 2012, ‘Tales of Decline: Reading Social Pathology into Individual Suicide in South

India,’ Culture, Medicine, & Psychiatry, 36(2), 204-224.

Chua, J.L., 2014, In Pursuit of the Good Life: Aspiration and Suicide in Globalizing South India,

Oakland, CA: University of California Press.

Counts, D.A., 1980, ‘Fighting Back Is Not the Way: Suicide and the Women of Kaliai,’

American Ethnologist, 7(2), 332-351.

Counts, D.A. 1984. Revenge Suicide by Lusi Women: An Expression of Power. Pp. 71-93. In

Rethinking Women's Roles: Perspectives from the Pacific. Denise O'Brien and Sharon

Tiffany, eds. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Bibliography of Suicide and Culture Research

(ver. 13.04.2015)

www.suicideandculture.wordpress.com Page 3 of 12

Counts, D.A. 1987. Female Suicide and Wife Abuse. Cross Cultural Perspective. Suicide and

Life Threatening Behavior 17(3):194-204.

Counts, D.A. 1988. Ambiguity in the interpretation of suicide -- female death in Papua New

Guinea. Pp. 87-110. In Why Women Kill Themselves. David Lester, ed. Springfield IL:

Charles Thomas.

Counts, D.A. 1990. Beaten Wife, Suicidal Woman: Domestic Violence in Kaliai, West New

Britain. Special Issue: Domestic Violencein Oceania. Dorothy Ayers Counts, ed. Pacific

Studies 13: 151-169.

Counts, D.A. 1990. Abused Women and Revenge Suicide: Anthropological Contributions for

Understanding Suicide. Pp. 95-106. In Current Concepts of Suicide. Philadelphia: The

Charles Press, David Lester, ed.

Counts, D.A. 1991. Suicide in Different Ages From a Cross-cultural Perspective. Pp. 215-230.

In Life Perspectives of Suicide: Time-Lines in the Suicide Process, Antoon Leenaars, ed.

New York: Plenum Press.

Counts, D.A. 1992. The Fist, the Stick and the Bottle of Bleach: Wife Bashing and Female

Suicide in a Papua New Guinea Society. Pp. 249-259. In Contemporary Pacific

Societies: Studies in Development and Change. V. Lockwood, T. Harding, B. Wallace,

eds. N.Y.: Prentice Hall.

Dabbagh, N. (2012). Behind the statistics: the ethnography of suicide in Palestine. Culture,

Medicine, and Psychiatry, 36(2), 286-305.

De Alwis, M. (2012). ‘Girl still burning inside my head’: Reflections on suicide in Sri Lanka.

Contributions to Indian Sociology, 46(1-2), 29-51.

Bibliography of Suicide and Culture Research

(ver. 13.04.2015)

www.suicideandculture.wordpress.com Page 4 of 12

Gulbas, L. E., & Zayas, L. H. (2014). Examining the interplay among family, culture, and Latina

teen suicidal behavior. Qualitative Health Research, 1049732314553598.

Hezel, F.X., 1984, ‘Cultural Patterns in Trukese Suicide,’ Ethnology, 23(3), 193-206.

Imberton, G. (2012). Chol Understandings of Suicide and Human Agency. Culture, Medicine,

and Psychiatry, 36(2), 245-263.

Kearney, R.N., & Miller, B.D., 1985, ‘The Spiral of Suicide and Social Change in Sri Lanka,’

Journal of Asian Studies, 45(1), 81-101.

Kearney, R.N., & Miller, B.D., 1987, Internal Migration in Sri Lanka and its Social

Consequences, Boulder: Westview Press.

Kearney, R.N., & Miller, B.D., 1988, ‘Suicide and Internal Migration in Sri Lanka,’ Journal of

Asian and African Studies, 23(3/4), 287-304.

Kitanaka, J., 2011, Depression in Japan: Psychiatric Cures for a Society in Distress, Princeton:

Princeton University Press.

Kral, M.J. 1998. Suicide and the Internalization of Culture: Three Questions. Transcultural

Psychiatry. 35(2):221-233.

Kral, M. J. (2012). Postcolonial suicide among Inuit in arctic Canada. Culture, Medicine, and

Psychiatry, 36(2), 306-325.

Kral, M. J., Idlout, L., Minore, J. B., Dyck, R. J., & Kirmayer, L. J. (2014). Unikkaartuit:

Meanings and Experiences of Suicide Among Inuit in Nunavut, Canada. International

Journal of Indigenous Health, 10(1), 55-67.

La Fontaine, J. (2012). Explaining suicide: an afterword. Culture, Medicine, and

Psychiatry, 36(2), 409-418.

Bibliography of Suicide and Culture Research

(ver. 13.04.2015)

www.suicideandculture.wordpress.com Page 5 of 12

Marecek, J., 1998, ‘Culture, Gender, and Suicidal Behavior in Sri Lanka,’ Suicide and Life-

Threatening Behavior, 28(1), 69-81.

Marecek, J., 2006, ‘Young Women’s Suicide in Sri Lanka: Cultural, Ecological, and

Psychological Factors,’ Asian Journal of Counselling, 13(1), 63-92.

Marecek, J., & Senadheera, C., 2012, ‘“I drank it to put an end to me”: Narrating girls’

suicide and self-harm in Sri Lanka,’ Contributions to Indian Sociology, 46(1/2), 53-82.

Münster, D. (2012). Farmers’ suicides and the state in India: Conceptual and ethnographic

notes from Wayanad, Kerala. Contributions to Indian Sociology, 46(1-2), 181-208.

Münster, D. N. (2014). Farmers’ Suicides as Public Death: Politics, Agency and Statistics in a

Suicide-Prone District (South India). Modern Asian Studies, 1-26.

Niehaus, I. (2012). Gendered endings: Narratives of male and female suicides in the South

African Lowveld. Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry, 36(2), 327-347.

Niezen, R. (2014). The Durkheim-Tarde debate and the social study of aboriginal youth

suicide. Transcultural Psychiatry, 52(1): 96-114. doi:10.1177/1363461514557560.

Owens, C., & Lambert, H. (2012). Mad, bad or heroic? Gender, identity and accountability in

lay portrayals of suicide in late twentieth-century England. Culture, Medicine, and

Psychiatry, 36(2), 348-371.

Parry, J. (2012). Suicide in a central Indian steel town. Contributions to Indian sociology,

46(1-2), 145-180.

Picone, M. (2012). Suicide and the afterlife: popular religion and the standardisation of

‘culture’ in Japan. Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry, 36(2), 391-408.

Bibliography of Suicide and Culture Research

(ver. 13.04.2015)

www.suicideandculture.wordpress.com Page 6 of 12

Pipyrou, S. (2014). Narrating death: affective reworking of suicide in rural Greece. Social

Anthropology, 22(2), 189-199. DOI: 10.1111/1469-8676.12069

Said, M., 2014, ‘Suicide and Shame in Southern Sri Lanka: Networks of Dependency,’ South

Asia Research, 34(1), 19-30.

Sariola, S., & Simpson, B., 2013, ‘Precarious ethics: Toxicology research among self-

poisoning hospital admissions in Sri Lanka,’ BioSocieties, 8(1), 41-57.

Silva, K.T., 2000, ‘Suicide as a form of protest and its implications for public health: The case

of Sri Lanka,’ Violence and Health. Proceedings of a WHO global symposium, World

Health Organization: Kobe, Japan, pp. 62-78, viewed 5 April 2014, from

http://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/66480?mode=full

Silva, K.T., 2006, ‘Body as ultimate weapon: Cultural roots of suicidal violence in Sri Lanka,’

African Safety Promotion, 4(4): 48-58.

Sloan, K. A. (2015). Death and the City Female Public Suicide and Meaningful Space in

Modern Mexico City. Journal of Urban History, 0096144214566973.

Spencer, J., 1990a, ‘Collective Violence and Everyday Practice in Sri Lanka,’ Modern Asian

Studies, 24(3), 603-623.

Staples, J. (2012). The suicide niche: Accounting for self-harm in a South Indian leprosy

colony. Contributions to Indian Sociology, 46(1-2), 117-144.

Staples, J., & Widger, T., 2012, ‘Situating Suicide as an Anthropological Problem:

Ethnographic Approaches to Understanding Self-harm and Self-inflicted Death,’

Culture, Medicine & Psychiatry, 36(2), 183-203.

Bibliography of Suicide and Culture Research

(ver. 13.04.2015)

www.suicideandculture.wordpress.com Page 7 of 12

Staples, J., & Widger, T. 2012. Ethnographies of Suicide: Anthropological Approaches to

Understanding Self-Harm and Self-Inflected Death. Special issue of Culture, Medicine

and Psychiatry 36(2).

Steinmetz, S.R., 1894, ‘Suicide among Primitive Peoples,’ American Anthropologist, 7(1): 53-

60.

Straus, J.H. & Straus, M.A., 1953, ‘Suicide, homicide, and social structure in Ceylon,’ The

American Journal of Sociology, 58(5), 461-469.

Toulson, R. E. (2012). Ritual Vicissitudes: The Uncertainties of Singaporean Suicide Rites.

Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry, 36(2), 372-390.

Widger, T. 2009. Self-harm and self-inflicted death in Sri Lanka: an ethnographic study. PhD

thesis: London School of Economics & Political Science.

Widger, T. 2012a. Suicide and the morality of kinship in Sri Lanka. Contributions to Indian

Sociology 46(1&2):83-116.

Widger, T. 2012b. Suffering, frustration, and anger: class, gender, and history in Sri Lankan

suicide stories. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 36(2):225-244.

Widger, T. 2014. Reading Sri Lanka's Suicide Rate. Modern Asian Studies. 48(3):791-825.

Widger, T. 2015. Suicide in Sri Lanka: The anthropology of an epidemic. London: Routledge.

Widger, T. 2015. Suicide and the ‘poison complex’: toxic relationalities, child development,

and the Sri Lankan self-harm epidemic. Medical Anthropology vol/iss tbc.

Widger, T. 2015. “‘Suicidology as a Social Practice': A Reply.” Social Epistemology Review and

Reply Collective 4(3): 1-4. http://social-epistemology.com/2015/02/01/suicidology-

as-a-social-practice-a-reply-tom-widger/

Bibliography of Suicide and Culture Research

(ver. 13.04.2015)

www.suicideandculture.wordpress.com Page 8 of 12

Wolf, M., 1975, ‘Women and Suicide in China,’ in M. Wolf & R. Witke (eds.), Women in

Chinese Society, Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, pp. 111-141.

Wood, A.L., 1961, ‘Crime and Aggression in Changing Ceylon: A Sociological Analysis of

Homicide, Suicide, and Economic Crime,’ Transactions of the American Philosophical

Society, (n.s.), 51(8)

Cross-cultural Psychiatry

Abeyasinghe, R., & Gunnell, D., 2008, ‘Psychological autopsy study of suicide in three rural

and semi-rural districts of Sri Lanka,’ Social Psychiatry & Psychiatric Epidemiology,

43(4), 280-285.

De Silva, D., 2003, ‘Suicide prevention strategies in Sri Lanka: the role of socio-cultural

factors and health services,’ Ceylon Medical Journal, 48(3), 68-70.

Mak, K. K., Ho, C. S., Chua, V., & Ho, R. C. (2014). Ethnic differences in suicide behavior in

Singapore. Transcultural Psychiatry, 52(1): 3-17. doi: 10.1177/136346151454354

Samaraweera, S., Siribaddana, S.H., Sumathipala, A., & Bhugra, D., 2010, ‘RCT of Cognitive

Behaviour Therapy in Active Suicidal Ideation – A Feasibility Study in Sri Lanka,’

European Journal of Psychiatry, 21(3), 175-178.

Samaraweera, S., Sumathipala, A., Siribaddana, S., Sivayogan, S., & Bhugra, D., 2008,

‘Completed suicide among Sinhalese in Sri Lanka: a psychological autopsy study,’

Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 38(2), 221-228.

Bibliography of Suicide and Culture Research

(ver. 13.04.2015)

www.suicideandculture.wordpress.com Page 9 of 12

Cross-cultural Suicidology

Boldt, M., 1988, ‘The Meaning of Suicide: Implications for Research,’ Crisis: The Journal of

Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention, 9(2): 93-108.

Colucci, E., & Lester, D., (eds.), 2012, Suicide and Culture: Understanding the Context,

Cambridge, MA: Hogrefe Publishing.

Ethnopsychiatry

De Silva, P., 1989, ‘The Logic of Attempted Suicide and its Linkage with Human Emotions,’

Suicide in Sri Lanka, Kandy: Institute of Fundamental Studies.

Grey literature

Centre for Policy Alternatives & The PressWise Trust, 2003, Suicide Sensitive Journalism

Handbook, viewed 1 June 2009, from

http://www.cpalanka.org/research_papers/suicide_report.pdf

IRIN News, 2009, ‘SRI LANKA: Suicide rate drops, but more people using poison,’ viewed 5

April 2014, from http://www.irinnews.org/report/83435/sri-lanka-suicide-rate-

drops-but-more-people-using-poison

Bibliography of Suicide and Culture Research

(ver. 13.04.2015)

www.suicideandculture.wordpress.com Page 10 of 12

Public Health, Global health, Epidemiology

Beautrais, A.L., 2006, ‘Suicide in Asia,’ Crisis, 27(2), 55-57

De Silva, V.A., Senanayake, S.M., Dias, P., & Hanwella, R., 2012, ‘From pesticides to

medicinal drugs: time series analyses of methods of self-harm in Sri Lanka,’ Bulletin

of the World Health Organization, 90(1), 40-46.

Dissanayake, S.A.W., & De Silva, W.P., 1974, ‘Suicide and attempted suicide in Sri Lanka,’

The Ceylon Journal of Medical Science, 23(1/2): 10-27.

Eddleston, M., Ariaratnam, C.A., Meyer, W.P., Perera, G., Kularatne, A.M., Attapattu, S., &

Warrell, D.A., 1999, ‘Epidemic of self‐poisoning with seeds of the yellow oleander

tree (Thevetia peruviana) in northern Sri Lanka,’ Tropical Medicine & International

Health, 4(4), 266-273.

Eddleston, M., Gunnell, D., Karunaratne, A., De Silva, D., Sheriff, M. R., & Buckley, N.A.,

2005, ‘Epidemiology of intentional self-poisoning in rural Sri Lanka,’ The British

Journal of Psychiatry, 187(6), 583-584.

Eddleston, M., Sheriff, M.R., & Hawton, K., 1998, ‘Deliberate self harm in Sri Lanka: an

overlooked tragedy in the developing world,’ BMJ: British Medical Journal,

317(7151), 133-135.

Eddleston, M., & D.N. Bateman. 2011. Major reductions in global suicide numbers can be

made rapidly through pesticide regulation without the need for psychosocial

interventions. Social Science & Medicine 72(1): 1-2.

Florentine, J.B., & C. Crane. 2010. Suicide prevention by limiting access to methods: a review

of theory and practice. Social Science & Medicine. 70(10):1626-1632.

Bibliography of Suicide and Culture Research

(ver. 13.04.2015)

www.suicideandculture.wordpress.com Page 11 of 12

Gunnell, D., Fernando, R., Hewagama, M., Priyangika, W.D.D., Konradsen, F., & Eddleston,

M., 2007, ‘The impact of pesticide regulations on suicide in Sri Lanka,’ International

Journal of Epidemiology, 36(6), 1235-1242.

Jayasinghe, N.R., & Foster, J.H., 2011, ‘Deliberate self-harm/poisoning, suicide trends: The

link to increased alcohol consumption in Sri Lanka,’ Archives of Suicide Research,

15(3), 223-237.

Knipe, D.W., C. Metcalfe, R. Fernando, M. Pearson, F. Konradsen, M. Eddleston, and D.

Gunnell. 2014. Suicide in Sri Lanka 1975-2012: Age, Period and Cohort Analysis of

Police and Hospital Data. BMC Public Health, 14(1):839-.

Konradsen, F., Hoek, W.V.D., & Peiris, P., 2006, ‘Reaching for the bottle of pesticide—a cry

for help: Self-inflicted poisonings in Sri Lanka,’ Social Science & Medicine, 62(7),

1710-1719.

Mishra, S. (2014). Farmers’ Suicides in India, 1995-2012: Measurement and interpretation.

Asia Research Centre Working Paper 62 (London: London School of Economics &

Political Science).

Ranasinghe, H., & Jayawardene, C.H.S., 1966, ‘Suicide in the Southern Province,’ Ceylon

Journal of Medical Science, 15(1), 31-40.

Thalagala, N., 2009, ‘Suicide Trends in Sri Lanka 1880-2006: Social, Demographic and

Geographical Variations,’ Journal of the College of Community Physicians of Sri

Lanka, 14(1), 24-32.

Bibliography of Suicide and Culture Research

(ver. 13.04.2015)

www.suicideandculture.wordpress.com Page 12 of 12

Vijayakumar, L., J. Pirkis, & H. Whiteford. 2005. Suicide in Developing Countries (3):

Prevention Efforts. Crisis: The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention.

26(3):112

Yip, P.S.F., (ed.), 2008, Suicide in Asia: Causes and Prevention, Hong Kong: Hong Kong

University Press.

Yip, P.S., E. Caine, S. Yousuf, S.S. Chang, K.C.C. Wu, and Y.Y. Chen. 2012. Means restriction

for suicide prevention. The Lancet. 379(9834):2393-2399

Religious Studies

Becker, C.B., 1990, ‘Buddhist Views of Suicide and Euthanasia,’ Philosophy East and West,

40(4): 543-556.

Keown, D., 1996, ‘Buddhism and Suicide: The Case of Channa,’ Journal of Buddhist Ethics, 3,

8-31.

Wiltshire, M.G., 1983, ‘The “Suicide” Problem in the Pāli Canon,’ Journal of the International

Association of Buddhist Studies, 6(2), 124-140.