[Alex3917]

> I'm willing to bet that the welfare of the average schizophrenic is quite poor essentially everywhere in the world

Actually schizophrenics in the developing world do significantly better than those in the US. That said, McKenna's models of shamanism weren't actually valid across cultures -- shamans actually played completely different roles in different societies.

[mercer]

My experience in a developing nation is that schizophrenics, provided they were not actively dangerous to their surroundings, were well cared for by family and their general environment. The 'village idiot' (even in the big city where I lived) - their words - was free to roam the city and generally watched out for by everyone.

Of course, the flip-side was that those with mental illnesses (or other disabilities) who had no family would generally have a miserable existence.

Edit: the equivalent I've found here in the West has been Evangelical churches. I strongly suspect some of the 'prophet' or otherwise 'specially anointed' characters to be (mildly?) schizophrenic.