Robarchek, Clayton A. 1977. “Frustration, Aggression, and the Nonviolent Semai.” American Ethnologist 4: 762-779
The frustration-aggression hypothesis, supported by some psychologists, proposes a linear cause and effect relationship—that frustration causes anger, which causes aggression. It needs to be modified. The Semai have four different concepts relating to frustration that this article reviews in detail, but for them frustrations produce fear instead of anger. They cope with conditions that produce frustrations with spells, charms, exorcisms, and extreme care with interpersonal relations—but not with anger or aggression. For instance, they avoid the danger of pehunan—the frustration of ones desires being unfulfilled—with generosity. Robarchek proposes a different model linking frustration and aggression from the one proposed by earlier scholars; his model incorporates the alternative perspective that the Semai example suggests
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