[About Dick...or the lack of family structure in Polynesia].
Using the case of Dick, an inmate treated in the Psychiatric Ward of the Penitentiary of Nuutania in Tahiti, the author describes the difficulty and even impossibility of formation of traditional family units in Polynesia. The characteristic features are lack of communication, the role of the unspoken and isolation. Old taboos no longer provide controls in crisis situations. Basic landmarks allowing symbolization of the law have disappeared and people now turn to an outside source, metropolitan law which nevertheless remains "alien". This ultimate consensus is the last vestige of Polynesian culture. The different parties appear to be satisfied by this arrangement, the last bastion before the appearance of a totally unstructured society in which the underlying violence is no longer held in check by sacred beliefs.
Vergeron
D
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Service de Psychiatrie, HIA Laveran, Marseille-Armées, France.
D000300:Adoption / Q000208:ethnology; D000328:Adult; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D005190:Family / Q000208:ethnology*; D005555:Forensic Psychiatry; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000208:ethnology*; D011114:Polynesia; D012927:Social Control, Informal