Revision 40423777 of "Cultural views of suicide" on enwiki

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Various human cultures may have '''views on suicide''' not directly or solely linked to [[religious views of suicide]].
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== African Views ==

An Islamic woman in Nigeria once said to this Wikipedia reader that in her culture those who commit suicide are destined to roam the Earth for the rest of time as opposed to going to the proper afterlife of those who die of natural causes.

== Native American Views ==
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== East Asian Views ==
=== China ===
[[Chinese culture]] has historically taken an ambivalent view on suicide. It has been commonly mentioned throughout Chinese history and frequently tolerated, if not explicitly sanctioned. It is frequently used as a means of escaping tragedy and shame, an especially strong pressure given the collective aspects of traditional Chinese culture. [[Ritual suicide]] has historically been  relatively common, particularly as a form of political protest. 

Nonetheless, many moral systems dominant in traditional China prohibited or looked disfavorably upon suicide, including [[Buddhism]] and [[Confucianism]]. (''See also [[Chinese bioethics]]'') However, even in these cases, exceptions were often made.

Suicide has been closely tied with gender in Chinese culture, both historically and today. There are countless examples of females committing suicide in pre-modern Chinese history, usually as a result of oppression or misfortune, such as family members (particularly husbands and mothers-in-law) looking upon them in condemnation, or when women fell into shame. In the latter cases, it was viewed as an honorable way to escape shame &ndash; especially because the repercussions of shame typically fell not merely on the individual, but to an immense degree upon the individual's extended family.

Suicide was also glamorised by popular stories among the people, in which lovers unable to be together in life because of various reasons, were joined together in death. An example is that of the Butterfly Lovers, and also Pan Yu-Ann and Su Qi in "A Dream of Red Mansions", one of the four great works of Chinese literature. In these stories, death by suicide was the only way that they could be together.

During the [[Cultural Revolution]] in China ([[1966]]-[[1976]]), numerous publicly-known figures, especially intellectuals and writers, are reported to have commited suicide, typically to escape persecution, typically at the hands of the [[Red Guards]]. Some, or perhaps many, of these reported suicides are suspected by many observers to have, in fact, not been voluntary but instead the result of mistreatment. Some reported suicides include famed writer [[Lao She]], among the best-known 20th century Chinese writers, and journality [[Fan Changjiang]].

Today, suicide among females in China is at an extraordinarily high rate, reckoned to be the highest in the world. This typically occurs among poorly educated rural women. Because of the difficulties in transportation in the rural environment, women who attempt suicide are frequently successful in ending their lives because they cannot be brought to medical care early enough to be treated successfully. Some researchers, such as [[Canadian]] [[physician]] [[Michael Phillips (psychiatrist)|Michael Phillips]] have called to light this tragic phenomenon, and authorities in China are gradually awakening to the problem.

=== Japan ===
Similarly to China, Japanese culture takes a view that, in comparison to European and American cultures, is relatively tolerant of suicide. However, recent events in Japan and some of the highest rates of suicide in the world among younger people have forced the Japanese government to take a more critical view of suicide as a "problem". As in China, suicide is traditionally viewed as a means of maintaining one's honor, perhaps more so - a ritual self-disembowelling known as [[Seppuku]] was in common use in Feudal Japan, and while this tradition largely faded out with the demise of the Samurai and the introduction of a western-style society, many young Japanese people of today still perceive suicide as an acceptable means to avoid bringing shame or dishonor upon their family.

It is a common misconception that the act of [[kamikaze]] also belongs to Japanese culture. However, it was a tactic devised during the [[Second World War]] by the Japanese air force and was used neither prior to nor after the war. The term "Kamikaze" has no such connotation in Japanese, instead meaning "godly wind", which originated after not one, but two storms protected Japan from invasion by destroying the invading fleets of Genghis Khan from Mongolia in the 13th Century.
[[Category:Suicide]]