8. NORTH AMERICA

R. L. BERGMAN reports on the Navajo use of the mescaline-containing cactus peyote. He claims that their reactions to the ritual intake of peyote are beneficial and sometimes therapeutic, due to the cultural values and collective expectations which give positive meaning to the use of peyote. According to J. LUBART, the Mackenzie Delta Eskimo have failed to adjust certain cultural patterns and personality traits to recent changes from a hunting-trapping economy to one principally based on government welfare. This alleged failure, in his view, has resulted in specific pathological phenomena such as prostitution, female infan-ticide, and suicide attempts. The validity of the author’s approach and interpreta-tions is seriously questioned by the reviewer. This section closes with a study by 1. LUBCHANSKY, G. EGRI, and J. STOKES of New York Puerto Rican faith healers ’ therapeutic practices and of the importance of spiritualism as a part of the cultural inheritance of Puerto Rican psychiatric patients. A considerable body of knowledge has been accumulated on the subject of peyote cults among Indian tribes of North America. Some of the most relevant contributors to this topic are: Mooney (1896)