Mentally healthy or mentally unhealthy societies?

[redpaintednavi]

One can now and then hear that some societies are mentally and socially more healthy than others. For example so are some indigenous societies by anthropolgists considered to be healthier than our own western civilisation.

Among other things some of them is said to have a more healthy and relaxed view on sexuality and other human relations.

If they still have an enough part of their own culture left they are also said to have less social problems and ills, like criminality, drug abuse, alienation and prostitution.

One can in this context quote a Swedish anthropologist talking about indigenous communities in South America (especially in the Amazon and other so called marginal areas):

"Actually the villages and housings of the free indians are the only places in Latin America where you do not find social problems and ills."*

What do you think, are there societies that are more mentally and socially healthy than our own, and how shall we learn from these societies and try to incorporate such healthy elements from their cultures into our own?


* Persson, Lars "Will the South American Indians be destroyed?"