The Hierarchy of Resort in Curative Practices: The Admiralty Islands, Melanesia.

Treatment of illness in the Admiralty Islands was related to the assignment of illness to one of four main categories: (1) interpersonal, soul damage by extra-human agents, (2) interpersonal, cursing within group, (3) interpersonal, sorcery outside of group, and (4) impersonal, organic damage by an immanent impersonal agent. The first two causal assignments persist as explanations for illness with implications for traditional cures in every instance. Three and four vary inversely with one another in priority of resort to native or European curative practices. This paper offers an analysis of factors in the allocation of cases between European (acculturative) and native (counter-acculturative) curative agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]