voodoo death
a culture-bound syndrome observed in Haiti, Africa, Australia, and islands of the Pacific and the Caribbean. An individual who has disobeyed a ritual or taboo is hexed or cursed by a medicine man or sorcerer (often by pointing a bone at the culprit) and dies within a few days. Walter B. Cannon, one of the first researchers of voodoo death, suggested that the individual’s strong belief in the curse caused physiological reactions in the body resulting in death. Also called bone pointing; thanatomania. See also psychic suicide.