Running amok
- This article is about the amok behaviour and state of mind. For other potential meanings see Amok (disambiguation).
Running amok, sometimes referred to as simply amok (also spelled amuck or amuk), is derived from the Malay/Indonesian word amuk, meaning "mad with rage" (uncontrollable rage).
The word was in use in India during the British Empire, originally to describe an elephant gone mad, separated from its herd, running wild and causing devastation. The word was made popular by the colonial tales of Rudyard Kipling.
Although commonly used in a colloquial and less-violent sense, the phrase is particularly associated with a specific sociopathic culture-bound syndrome in Malaysian culture. In a typical case of running amok, a male who has shown no previous sign of anger or any inclination to violence will acquire a weapon and, in a sudden frenzy, will attempt to kill or seriously injure anyone he encounters. Amok episodes of this kind normally end with the attacker being killed by bystanders, or committing suicide.
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Causes
Many explanations for amok have been offered by observers, including suggestions that it is a physical consequence of alcoholism, drug addiction, heat or internal parasites. Nineteenth and early twentieth century investigators were unable, however, to find any real evidence to support these speculations. Psychological explanations include the suggestion that amok is a sudden explosion of internal tension created by life in a highly hierarchical society; both Malay and Javanese traditional societies are said to have been extremely hierarchical, with an emphasis on deference to rulers. It is doubtful, however, whether these societies are unusually hierarchical in a global context. Other observers have described amok as a form of spirit possession.
The explanation which is now most widely accepted is that amok is closely related to male honor (amok by women is virtually unknown). In many cases where the background of the amok-runner is known, there seems to have been some element of deep shame which prevented the man from living honorably, as he saw it, in his own society. Running amok was both a way of escaping the world (since perpetrators were normally killed) and re-establishing one's reputation as a man to be feared and respected. Some observers have related this explanation to Islam's ban on suicide, which, it is suggested, drove Malay men to create circumstances in which others would kill them. Evidence for this explanation is that the incidence of amok seems to be less where amok runners are captured and tried, rather than being beaten to death on the spot.
W. W. Skeat wrote in the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica:
- "A Malay will suddenly and apparently without reason rush into the street armed with a kris or other weapons, and slash and cut at everybody he meets till he is killed. These frenzies were formerly regarded as due to sudden insanity. It is now, however, certain that the typical amok is the result of circumstances, such as domestic jealousy or <a