The Problem of Yurok Anality

The problem of Yurok anality, which has considerable theoretical interest both for psychoanalysis and anthropology, lies in the opposing views held by different students of the Yurok (northwestern California)—and in the attempt to refute psychoanalytic theory on the basis of the Yurok evidence. This paper attempts to demonstrate that the several differences in interpretation arise, not so much from the putative defects in analytic theory, but from the paucity of relevant ethnographic data. We shall turn to this problem after a brief survey of Yurok culture and Yurok infancy.

Measured by the standards of the California Indians, the Yurok have an unusual abundance of food (primarily salmon and acorns, supplemented by deer, whales, and berries) and constitute the highest development of aboriginal culture in the State.* The basic foods are dried and stored; and the considerable surpluses are channeled into seasonal ritual, feast-giving, and workaday hospitality. Yet, despite the abundance of food, the Yurok have a morbid fear of starvation; and they are miserly and retentive with all things except food, although, as will presently be noted, they seem to frustrate their infants from the very moment of birth. At any rate, slow and modest eating is a lifelong ideal; and the slimness of the men is measured twice daily by their ability to squirm headfirst through the very small, ritual exit of the sweat house (the male dormitory). And from time to time they abstain from food and water, and from sexual