New lines of inquiry on the illness of susto.

The folk-illness of susto has long captured the interest of anthropologists. A review of the literature reveals a multitude of competing ideas as to its biological basis, its epidemiological patterning, and why it persists as it does. The present essay offers not only a summation of much of the research done on fright-sickness to date, but also suggests a number of new lines of inquiry that, when completed, will advance our understanding of this widely spread, yet still to be fully understood, ethnomedical disease category.