HALLOWELL-SOCIAL FUNCTION OF ANXIETY
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In this article, ‘The social function of anxiety in a primitive society,’ Hallowell stresses the concept that anxiety is a priceless reaction to a hazard (Hallowell, 1941). Further, he proceeds to suggest that since anxiety has an essential biological role, it might have grown differently in various organisms. For that reason, it must be perceived as a role of the specific risk circumstances that the living thing faces. Notably, anxiety varies from one organism to another. Therefore, persons may exhibit anxiety feedbacks that are necessary for a specific civilization though not in another culture. Additionally, the author of this article concentrates on establishing the link between neurosis and anxiety in the society, and the positive function of fear.Regarding the relation between anxiety and neurosis, Hallowell stresses the importance of differentiating between real anxiety and neurotic anxiety.
Moreover, Hallowell illustrates how anxiety is mitigated and encouraged in an American Indian community via the activities of cultural aspects that describe specific circumstances as a risk. He uses an example of people in the Saulteaux society who are too informed concerning anxiety as a mental feeling to a hazard signal (Hallowell, 1941).In this case, the precipitating basis for fear is a disease perceived as a punishment. The danger causes anxiety to an individuals’ well being. Moreover, Hallowell illustrates that people in such a primitive society fear a lot against committing a dissocial action to safeguard their social code. The article has also clarified on how anxiety is incorporated in disease circumstances among the Saulteaux society and why it is that the feeling propagated has qualitative traits which recommend neurotic anxiety(Hallowell, 1941). Finally, this article underlines the concept that both ends of the fear-anxiety continuum, the prominent role of the effect, have an orientation to the person alone. Besides, confession in the Saulteaux society is a way through which information of transgressions is aligned into the societal transmission.
References
Hallowell, A. (1941). The Social Function of Anxiety in a Primitive Society. American Sociological Review, 6(6), 869-881. Retrieved May 8, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/2085768