ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the relationship between illness, survival, and the management of passive-receptive character traits in a sample composed mainly of traditional Navajo men. The orality of unhealthy Navajo may be only another physical symptom, the expression of somatic illness rather than the expression of some independent psychological "cause" of somatic illness. In order to further check the hypothesis that oral interests, become more prominent in later life, the Navajo and Druze data collected by the author were coded for the orality variable. The Syntonic Orality Score varies with age across two disparate cultures as predicted by theory; furthermore, it varies as predicted with passive fantasy content and with the degree of drinking behavior in Navajo subjects. If there is a relationship between passive-dependency and disease that works through agents other than alcohol, it can only be revealed through studies undertaken in societies which maintain strong cultural sanctions against drinking.
