Voluntary Confinement Among Lepers

Abstract

ON the northern side of the island of Molokai, in the state of Hawaii, there is located a geographically isolated peninsula inhabited by a community of lepers and the staff that serves them. Since before the 1870's the community has been a place of social isolation adequately designated by the term total institution (Goffman, 1961). Life in Kalaupapa is encompassing in that it is physically bounded by water on the north, east, and west sides, and by virtually unscalable cliffs on the south; these traditionally served to discourage social intercourse with the outside world. Indeed, the site was initially selected seemingly under the assumption that lepers ought to be physically banished from the general community as a protective measure against spread of the disease. At Kalaupapa, social banishment was inextricably bound with physical banishment, and the visible concerns of the members of the general community may continue to be at the basis of the significant behavior evidenced by the sufferers of Hansen's Disease, as well as by the officials whose task it is to detect, adjudicate, treat, and/or control the disease. If there is a sense in which Kalaupapa does not quite meet Goffman's (1961)