Culture Bound Syndrome

Windigo

Culture Bound Syndrome (CBS) is defined by the DSM-IV as recurrent, locally specific patterns of deviant behavior and troubling experience that may or may not be linked to a particular DSM-IV diagnostic category. Such patterns of behavior are indigenously considered to be an "illness" or at least an affliction, and most have names specific to the region or culture in which they originate. Many CBSs are not literally syndromes; they are more like ways of explaining any of a wide array of misfortunes. In the following pages I will attempt to explain the CBS known as windigo. Over the course of the following pages I will attempt to describe the various types of windigo stemming from the folklore of the cannibalistic spirit.

In accordance with knowledge that has been collected relating to windigo, it seems that there are three different classifications of windigo. The first classification is that of an evil spirit that haunts the sub artic forests of eastern and central Canada and the northeastern United States. The second classification of the windigo is that of windigo psychosis, where the afflicted person is overcome with cannibalistic tendencies and severe antisocial disorders. The third type of windigo is a legend in which windigo is a towering creature of the wilderness resembling the Sasquatch.

Legends of the Native American cultures of the northeastern United States and central and eastern Canada state that there is an evil spirit that haunts the forests of the area called windigo. During the winter when food is scarce and famine is threatening the windigo, it will seek out a human, seize him, and then soar off into the night with him, flying over the forests with the bone chilling screams of the victim and the inhuman howling of the windigo echoing behind. The windigo will then posses the body of the human in order to feed on the flesh of other humans. Thus once possessed, legend states that the skeleton and heart of the human turns to ice and he is incapable of human feelings. The human becomes overcome with uncontrollable cannibalistic cravings, which results in homicide and ultimately cannibalism. The physiological signs that a person has become possessed with the windigo spirit begin with a morbid state of anxiety due to the physical symptoms of nausea, vomiting, and poor appetite. The anxiety can escalate to the point that the afflicted person commits suicide in order to prevent himself from committing any more acts of homicide or cannibalism.

In today's society these cases are believed to have never existed or that if they once did, they no longer do. Most modern cases are attributed to paranoia, where the person who as committed such acts of violence or cannibalism is trying to escape persecution. The most recent outbreak of "windigo psychosis" as referred to by psychologists, was in the 1970's. During the outbreak patients showed signs of cannibalistic tendencies, they were violent, and were afflicted with severe antisocial behavior.

Canada has had many accounts of windigo trials. One such trial occurred in the settler days of the late 18th century, when explorer David Thompson documented what he witnessed in the Lake of the Woods region. Thompson stated "A young Indian hunter announced to everyone's surprise that he had a strong inclination to eat his sister, and that he would do anything he must to have human flesh. Alarmed, the band council came to the decision that the man must die, executed by his father. When informed of the resolution that was chosen, the Indian hunter was willing to die. He was later strangled by rope. A few hours later he was burnt to ashes in a large bond fire, not the least bone remaining,