Aig pedo LLL: ZY oy Z ee Se, La LE Zj ti tify CA es Gy - ig Pa! ial a ; y t ie a i ly “i 7 y ’ ; = "ecg Pd iB r, i 7 n : ers ‘i. : a "y SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 175 MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE: THE PSYCHIATRIC KNOWLEDGE AND THE PSYCHIC DISTURBANCES OF AN INDIAN TRIBE By GEORGE DEVEREUX UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON : 1961 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Washington 25, D.C. - Price $3.25 enn I y] SMITHSON Tet. 1% ‘ INSTITUIUN LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL SmiTHsONIAN INsTITUTION, Bureau or AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY, Washington, D.C., December 30, 1958. Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith a manuscript entitled “Mohave Ethnopsychiatry and Suicide: The Psychiatric Knowledge and the Psychic Disturbances of an Indian Tribe,” by George Deve- reux, and to recommend that it be published as a bulletin of the Bureau of American Ethnology. Very respectfully yours, Frank H. H. Roserts, Jr., Director. Dr. Leonarp CARMICHAEL, Secretary, Smithsonian Institution. II i tHSON, Ao Nia ' ie | >y 1 “A QO/SR Arh 7 CONTENTS PAGE BICMOS a em eeepc s eeeaaee ee 1 PIEENOWIeUPIMONS cnet ee ee ee ee eee Cees 4 Emronmanic anc, INbeMprevers..- ~ S20 -2 42 Against the outgroup: ahwe: ma:n, scalper’s psychosis_- -__ 43 Against antisocial members of the ingroup: witch killer’s POS Ve HOSS tes cies ot See ee oe a en oe geet ae 45 Pathological sequelae of hyperactivity-______.._______________ 46 An illness of ordinarily active persons. _-_.__.-~-_________- 49 dhe god Wastambo’s psychusis..2.--.-- <=. ee 50 ‘mite psychopathology Ol SIMgers-- =~ oo 2020 ee ee 54 .Lhe corruption of shamanistic powers___._-_--.2_-________ 56 Pathological sequelae of inhibited aggressivity or power__.______ 56 Eis Way tuck (HEARLDTORK) 225 nos pas ote se ee er ee 57 Psychoses resulting from the inhibition of magical powers_-___ 57 PASOLGerS Of Ne SCXUA! IMP UISCso + 22 once ee ee ee ie aA PRECOGTE NAM VCM mn e en eee ee ee ae eo Se ee ee 72 Contematory case maceriale so 22 Oe eee ee 75 3 TUS 21 0 12a ap ei ele ype ts bay ie bela hi he cp bares ania tea ee 76 NCEE ROPE AE VS) en pet ge a ed et ei sy ln Sn iD ee neh PRL 77 J GPIPEITS LOE gs Mea ap (tampa ler Seta ok le ln ens et nob tatee a tae RerSdinane re nbeas 81 Insanity resulting from magical courtship____________________ 83 Tnsaniiy- Cased Dy AMCeshe ae eee cee ee ns ee ee 87 Sexual insanity resulting frém witchcraft__._____.__________.__ 87 PCD DEBGIN« GHC, DELVEESIOUS! = Soe ee en ae 89 Pee as OOD (ORDO RBANCUS sare oe oe A ee ee oe ae ae 90 ROE MEAEG HHCULOSER] = yne = ie eee oe eine Sot ee ee ce 90 eiwatock (ai> wa ibee ite nim) 91 Gkiserinienial se On eee eee en ee 96 informal therapy Of Bis wa itck- <> oo 97 IMieERuretanone n= kee mene ee yh eM ere ees. kL 101 ELL We AME Tyee Oo noma OIE agen emer atet 2 Cee 106 En wayisaciike (NearbOtyes fee eee 114 LS .TRSSTS NOTE AT i a aaah i nee a au aie ar al enn A ee 115 IV CONTENTS PAGE Part 4. DisorpERS CAUSED BY EXTERNAL BEINGS --_------------------- 116 exogenous Gisorderd= 9-22 ee 116 Insanity due to dreaming of an insane deity____--------------- 116 Hikwicr hahnok..i< 25s 2s2e3225=¢ee5- = 22 22 2S se eee eee 117 "hewibwes\ PsViChOses 22oe 4 355.626 ee en oe 128 Ahwe: hahnok=- 2. 222.4. -2-2k222-2 26 eee 135 Khwe: nyevedhi: 2. 22-2. 220 2222-2 ee 138 Incidence. 2225204 =a a Se ee 141 WAGIADY eae oon eee an Soba Rae Sao eee 141 General comment _- - - - - ras as aed a SE ree 142 Casermatertal. 225.22 ~ 2a ee eee ee 142 Abwe: habnok @as¢$.2 2 joo oe eee 142 Ahwe: nyevedbi: cases... 22522-2222 5225224- 2 eee 144 Theshiwey dake CTOMp see a eee 150 of Ll Ysa 0 bf: Wo aa ae ASS Say a LA Oe eS Poe Se | 154 Miscellaneous supplementary data_-_--_-_----.-----------.- 168 Case misterial® 2° 22. seeeeeeeses= eae oe cee 170 Dreams_c 222 22 ose. ae See 170 Actual hiwey lak cases - ----- Se 2 ee a eee 174 Erroneous self-diagnosis of hiwey lak___--__--__---_------ 175 Nyevedhi: taha:na (ghost. genuine) _— <2 2 ee ee 175 Mousa: Vv hahnok. 22. 222-23 2e- see e eee ees oe eee 184 Psychopathology related to funeral observances - - ------------- 186 Derangements of taboo violating funeral ritualists—_______- 191 Neurosis of taboo-violating mourners_._------------------ 192 PVA SDWAbs oe eee ee 193 Meany CAUsea DY WitChCratt. Ss. "> ase Soe ee eee 195 Psychoses of the owners of magical substances and narcotics---- 202 WIR PIC RHINSUANGCES! sah ne a8 a ee ee 202 Nar COLIGS= == see = eee 2s ee Ss ees a ee Seg ee 208 Tnterpretavion. 5-22 3k Soe) ae eo ee 209 7X10) a 0) ea Al mg i a MENA SW Oa ES Ey 8 212 Parr 5. OccrpenTAL Disease CatTmGorims---_-_..---.___.-....---.-- 213 Neurosis, psychosis, and neurological defects _ _--..---------------- 213 Anxiety and anxiety: staves... 22s =. 2 eee 213 Inteliigiblevanxietye- = = ee ee ee 214 INenrOuCG SNRIChVe=-".. =. - 222) a ea Sere ae 216 PEG: NY RGCrIAS orse ee ee 3 Sel ah a ae ia 216 PHobIGg. Sintes se sec enna ae Se See a ee eee ee 218 The problem of obsessive-compulsive states____.__------------- 219 Bbq oo ieleccy ae Lr T TA CRE SS RE ee Se ees 221 The group of schizophrenias____-_- El ee 222 Manic-depressive Psy Cuosis.. ==. So st 8 a ee ee 243 Artificially induced states of dissociation: alcoholism, drug addiction: and trance. 22. senses o— = Se ee ee soe ee 244 Psy CCRC yc eS en Ee a eee eee 245 They cannot appease their sexual desires. Their excessive masturbation causes them to have ‘fits.’ (Informant: Tecate.) Symptomatology.—Since such people are unable to discharge their sexual tensions, they create quite a problem for society. “Ifa woman or a girl is out by herself (i. e., alone), they take her without giving it any thought, and cohabit with her. They are crazy, even though they know what they are doing. I heard of such a person. I was afraid (of him). I do not remember his name. He was ya tcahaetk.” (Informant: Tcate. However, she later on supplied a series of case histories pertaining to this illness.) CASE 13 (Informants: Teate, HB. S., and Hivsu: Tupo: ma): Nyolte ‘“Hukthar” (hukthar meaning primarily “coyote” ; secondarily ‘“‘crazy’’), i. e. “crazy” Nyolte, whose English name was not recalled, was the daughter of Ahwe: Ha:m (enemy traveling). At the time I (Tcatc) knew her, she was living near Ehrenberg, at a place called Hao:r (fine gravel), i. e., at Blythe, Calif. However, I did not know her very well and did not witness her “death” (meaning probably her cremation). At the time of her death, which occurred around 1918, she was about 25 or 30 years of age. According to Hivsu: Tupo:ma:, Nyoltec Hukthar was, in her childhood, in- volved in a Sexual experience with an oldish man. Once he masturbated her and she ended up by urinating on his hand, from sheer mischievousness. (This inci- dent was not known to Tecate.) (See Case 79.) . Tcatc: I heard that this woman, though sane in every way, was extremely nervous and unable to keep still already in her childhood. When one spoke to her, she could not keep her head still, but kept on looking around.” 'These symptoms of nervousness (hukthar hit’i:k) persisted throughout her life, and were among the reasons which caused people to nickname her “hukthar” (“coyote,” i. e., “erazy”’). The other reason was that she had been married many times, “chasing around with one husband after another.” (Since her case history was given in response to a question concerning nymphomania, it may be assumed that her numerous marriages were attributed to her nymphomania. ) She died of illness at a young age. It happened during an epidemic caused by a shaman who was a relative of hers, and whose name I do not recall. Thus, her death was due partly to witchcraft and partly to suma: te itcem, meaning “dream, or power, does not have” (lack of power obtained in dream). (Further data on this woman will be found in Case 79.) 5> The case histories show that they do marry, but are soon divorced. ‘6 The Mohave attribute nervousness to premature sexual experiences (Devereux, 1950 a). 57 A desirable and eligible young woman always gives her undivided attention to anyone speaking to her, Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 79 Comment Tentative diagnosis: Nymphomania and neurotic tensions in a hysterical character. CASE 14 (Informant: Teatc) : Nyorte Hatlyukwe: te (or Hatlyukwa) of the Nyolte gens, lived at Parker, Ariz., and died around the turn of the century, at the approximate age of fifty. She had been married successively to a large number of men, and must have had at least one child, since her name was changed to Nyorte, in accordance with the custom which requires that a female member of the Nyolte gens should be so designated after the death of her child. I was told that Nyorte must have had bad luck, because all of her husbands died after living with her for a short time only. I knew her only in her old age, when she was single. I was told that even in her old age Nyortc still “copulated around,” and that she was ya tcahaetk, i. e., a nymphomaniac. She died of some disease, the nature of which is not known to me. I suspect, however, that it must have been hiku: pk (syphilis). Even her nickname indicates her sexual proclivities, since Hatlyukwe: te means “looked for” or “sought after.” Yet, at the same time, she was basically a very good woman. She was kind and she was very good to everyone .. . much like the woman you told us about.” That is why no one called her a kamalo: y, who is both dissolute and mean (ala: yk) (Devereux, 1948 f). Yet, she went with anyone for the asking. Of course, she did not actually solicit men; that wasn’t necessary, since everyone knew she could be had, and there- fore men came to her spontaneously. Such a woman is called ya teahae: tk. [How did she get that way?] There is no real explanation for that. It may be something like this: You may not be known for doing something, such as getting angry, and yet, one day, without knowing it, you might become very angry. It was that way with Nyorte. She just did these things without knowing it; although sometimes she did know it. There wasn’t any particular thing which made her do these things. A Comment Tentative diagnosis: Nymphomania. Teate’s interpretative remarks suggest an attempt to explain Nyorte’s be- havior in terms of unconscious mechanisms, and, more specifically, in terms of an overwhelming of the ego by ego-dystonic or ego-alien id-forces. Indeed, it is quite obvious that the expression “without knowing it” cannot refer, in this case, either to a fuguelike state, or to an amnesia. There are also other indications that the Mohave sometimes relate abnormal behavior to “knowledge exceeding the heart” (i. e., exceeding the capacity to handle that knowledge) (Case 4). In such a statement the word “knowledge” must obviously refer to some internal urge, wish or fantasy, rather than to intellectual information. CASE 15 (Informants: Tecate and E. §8.): “Nyorte Huhual, of the Nyolte gens, is (1938) a very old woman—she is even older than I am. (I. e, probably over 80 years old.) She had many sex partners and gave birth to four sons, one of whom, Huau Husek’ (fly whip), gens Hualy, is still alive. He is married to a Kamia woman and lives near San Tris Storm, heroine of Michael Arlen’s novel ‘The Green Hat.” 80 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 Diego. (This may be a misstatement. Cf. Devereux, 1948 f.) Nyorte Huhual is related to M. L.’s wife. This M. L. is the one who was present at Apen Ismalyk’s lunacy hearing (Case 4). She is also related to Uta:c, whose wife died insane (Case 38). Uta:c’s father was her mother’s brother, and his mother was her father’s sister, two men having married each other’s sister. Nyorte Huhual had been married to many men, all of whom died shortly after marrying her. In addition, she is said to have had affairs with the witch Kwathany Hi: wa, with Itha:v Kamuhan (alias Porkupork; cf. Devereux, 1950 a), and with a number of other people. I first knew her when she was 12 years old. At that time she lived near M. S8.’s dwelling, at a place called Ah’a kapitan (Captain’s cottonwood). She is like other men and women who have the ya teahaetk illness: She is a good housewife and is good to everyone, but is known to copulate for the asking. Recently (1938), while going home from a party, she was waylaid by two allegedly drunken men, who pulled a sack over her head and robbed her. One of them even raped her.” (Cf. Case 128.) “Although no one really knows who these men were, rumor has it that the one who raped her was one of her own nephews.” At this point, someone present exclaimed in the typically Mohave bantering manner: “Lucky girl—at her age!” Teate replied quite seriously: “If she had not been copulating so much all her life, she would have died (of this rape?) long ago” (Devereux, 1939 a). At this point I reminded Tecate that, according to Hivsu: Tupo:ma and others, this selfsame alleged rapist is said to have cohabited also with his own sister, Mah (Devereux, 1939 a). Tecate replied that she, too, had heard of that incident. Then the interpreter HE. S. said: “This N. family are devils—and close relatives of mine, as well as of Hama: Utce: (Testicles charcoal).” Tecate then closed the discussion with the remark: “They act just like white people do” (i. e., in an objectionable manner) .” Comment Tentative diagnosis: Nymphomania. CASE 16 (Informants: Teate and BH. S.): Hwet Isa: lye (Red hand), of the Nyolte gens, died around 1900 at the age of 60 or 65. He was married quite a number of times. Although he was a good man, who provided well for all of his successive wives, none of them lived with him for long. They just went away and left him, because he wanted to copulate all the time. Eventually he died from hiku: pk (venereal disease). That is all Iknow of him. I did not see him often. Comment Tentative diagnosis: Compulsive promiscuousness and sexual hyperactivity. Venereal disease. This case closely resembles the following one. In both instances the man is said to have been a good provider, but sexually so demanding that every one of his wives deserted him. The assertion, also made in other contexts (Devereux, 1950 a), that wives may desert sexually hyperactive husbands is somewhat 5° This is the only Mohave robbery and not partly traditional rape known to me (Devereux, 1939 a). For a discussion of this family, ef. part 5, pages 245-247. % The Mohave stated that, for some unknown reason, the word “red” is in the Yuma, and not in the Mohave, language. In Mohave “red” is called “ahwat.” Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE esl! perplexing, since the Mohave themselves say that women are sexually more provocative (Nettle, MS., n.d.) and also more promiscuous than men (Devereux, 1950 a). There are, however, indications that the Mohave woman values her marriage less than does the man and therefore breaks it up more easily (Devereux, 1951 f). Also, precisely because Mohave women are more promiscu- ous than men, it is likely that they tire of sexual relations with one partner more rapidly than do the men. Yet, even so, one is forced to suspect that the men in question were simply hyperactive, but not satisfactory, sex partners, whose “soodness” in other respects may have been an unconscious attempt to make up for their inadequacy as sex partners. CASE 17 (Informants: Teate and E. §S.): Sukuete (Hamsukuetc?) (English name not recalled), of the Nyolte gens, died around 1925, at the age of 40 or 45.% Except in one respect, he was like any other man. He was a very good man, but his successive wives would not live with him because he cohabited with them too often. After he had been married 16 or 15 times, he contracted severe gonorrhea (actually also syphilis). At that time the late M. A. I. Nettle, M. D., was our (reservation) physician, and she treated him. I recall hearing that his penis was just rotten and that one of his testicles had fallen off. His one remaining testicle, which was just about to fall off anyway, had to be removed surgically.“ This is how this man died. Comment Tentative diagnosis: Compulsive promiscuousness, and sexual hyperactivity. Venereal disease. For additional comments, see below. KAMALO: Y TAMINYK Preliminary considerations—According to Ahma Huma:re, the term kamalo:y denotes a promiscuous and psychopathic woman (Devereux, 1948 f), while the term taminyk means “too much” 01 “excess.” A woman suffering from kamalo: y taminyk is, however, not necessarily also an obnoxious and aggressive person. Informants knew of women, who, though extremely promiscuous, were, at the same time, amiable, kindly, and industrious, and, therefore, very differ- ent from the ethically obnoxious kamalo: y. Tecate readily stated that my description of such women as “a bad lot, but a good sort,” could 62 He was the uncle of C. M., who was living around Parker at that time, and who is the stepfather of the juvenile delinquent discussed in Case 77. 68 This case may have led to the belief (Devereux, 1948 g) that castration is fatal to the human male. 64 At this point I realized that Tecate had been working with me for several hours in a row, without any break in the form of the kind of banter which this lively octogenarian seemed to enjoy a great deal, I therefore said: “Don’t I always ask nice and clean ques- tions?” Teate’s eyes began to sparkle and she replied with a smile: ‘‘Maybe others would not tell you such things. Maybe I am crazy to tell you.’”’ I replied quite seriously: ‘No, you are not crazy. You are simply my friend and that is why you tell me these things . to help me with my work.”’ The purpose of these remarks was to humor Tecate, who liked to pretend that she was reluctant to discuss sexual matters. The incident is cited as an example of field methods adapted to the specific temperament of a tribe, and to a typical member of the tribe. 82 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 very well be applied to one of her acquaintances, whose neurosis she diagnosed as kamalo:y taminyk. Ahma Huma:re and Hivsu: Tupo: ma also mentioned this type of woman quite spontaneously. Etiology.—The shaman Ahma Huma: re volunteered the informa- tion that this disease was similar to ya tcahaetk which, as stated above, is caused by an excessive sexual urge, which no amount of masturba- tion and coitus can satiate. Symptomatology.—According to Ahma Huma: re, “People who do not think of their homes, and do not care for anything except running around and sex, are said to be yamomk (insane). The kamalo:y taminyk illness is very similar to ya teahaetk. Regardless of whether a person suffering from kamalo: y taminyk gets married or stays single, he will be ya tcahaetk.” According to Hivsu: Tupo:ma, “Such a woman is constantly in a state of sexual excitement bordering on orgasm. This condition, which is complicated by the retention of urine,® is due to coital dreams. Such patients have dream-orgasms without dream-pollutions.” °° Tate also described this illness in sim- ilar, though less specific terms: “People try to keep away from such a person. I personally know of no one who has kamalo: y taminyk, but I have heard of such people. Nowadays one no longer meets such persons. Nowadays groups of people of both sexes go on drinking bouts and cohabit promiscuously, hardly knowing what they are doing. Thus, we no longer see extremes of sexual desire. When I was young, people behaved better. They had respect for each other, but now drinking has come in and things have changed. Nowadays I myself joke with men about this and that,” but when I was young I was afraid of sexual relations and also afraid to marry.” Summary.—The Mohave rate kamalo: y taminyk as a psychosis. According to Ahma Huma: re, such people are yamomk (insane). “It is a true insanity, like hi: wa itck” (pt. 3, pp. 91-106). Tcatc also stated that such extremes of sexual desire were a form of yamomk. Therapy.—According to Hivsu: Tupo: ma, shamans are sometimes asked to treat persons suffering from kamalo: y taminyk, and their cures are said to be effective. Tentative diagnosis—Nymphomania; compulsive promiscuous- ness due to orgastic frigidity. The informants clearly specified that such a woman is unable to discharge her sexual tensions either through coitus or through mastur- 6 Mohave women sometimes vold their urine either during orgasm, or immediately after- ward (Devereux, 1950 a). This also occurs in Micronesia, ete. (Devereux, 1958 a). 66 According to Ferenczi (1926), it is possible to have dream-orgasm without pollution, and vice versa. % This is an indirect reference to her bantering conversations with me cited aboye (footnote 64). Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 83 bation. This indicates orgastic frigidity, which is almost always an outstanding and typical characteristic of nymphomaniacs, who can ex- perience extremely intense excitement without being able to achieve an orgasm. Hence, they are driven to cohabit with many men, being constantly on the lookout for a male who can give them an orgasm, but never finding because their failure to reach a climax is psycho- logically determined. Tcate’s spontaneous remark, that she was afraid of intercourse in her youth, and that the women of the older generation were better behaved, suggests an appreciable traditional (cultural) inhibition of the young Mohave woman’s orgastic potentialities. Her comment, that this disease does not occur in the drinking and sexually dissolute younger generation has two—not necessarily mutually exclusive— implications: it suggests, first of all, that there occurred a breakdown of traditional internal inhibitions, not only to the point where orgasm can be readily achieved, but to the point where it can be achieved with anyone, including even the most casual partners. It may also imply that, as a result of drinking to excess, inhibitions which would operate in a state of sobriety are temporarily suspended, permitting orgasm to take place. This inference agrees with the well-known psychiatric epigram: “The superego is soluble in alcohol.” (See Appendix, pp. 505-548.) Kamalo: y taminyk, also reported from the Dieguefio by Toffelmier and Luomala (1936), appears to be a variety of ya tcahaetk, but, unlike that disease, seems to occur only in women. INSANITY RESULTING FROM MAGICAL COURTSHIP Preliminary comment.—The shaman Hivsu: Tupo: ma called this condition nepu:k, an expression that my linguistic informant, Pulyi:k, failed to recognize. This may possibly indicate that ‘“nepu: k” is simply a typical Mohave compression of several words forming a technical term, the way hiwey lak is sometimes abbreviated to weylak.8 Pulyi:k agreed, however, that love magic exists, but specified that it did not include helticathom (see further below, for a contrary statement). Similar compressions or abbreviations are used also in designating some individual who has a complicated name, made up of several words. In such cases he is commonly referred to either by one of the words only, or else by a two- or three-syllable word, made up of the last syllable(s) of one word and the first syllable(s) of the next word. Thus, the name of the mythical personage Hukthar Havi: yo was recorded by Kroeber (1948) as “Tharaviyo.” ‘Another type of compression occurs in songs, which often consist not of complete sentences, but only of ‘‘key words.” In addition, in order to fit the text to the rhythm of the melody, already mutilated words may be further split up, by attaching their first syllable(s) to the preceding word and their last syllable(s) to the next word, to such an extent that no one may be able to unscramble the carefully recorded song of a singer. This was shown when a linguistic informant failed to unscramble the alyha: (trans- vestite=coward) initiation song dictated to the writer by Nyahwe:ra with the help of Hivsu: Tupo:ma (Devereux, i937 b). 84 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 Hivsu: Tupo :ma’s statement—Shamans, especially those who specialize in the cure of so-called venereal diseases (hiku: pk and hiwey lak) are able to fasci- nate the objects of their sexual desires, regardless of whether these persons are heterosexual or homosexual (Devereux, 1937 b) love objects.” The shaman uses this power solely for the purpose of winning someone’s affection and never for the purpose of keeping his wife, even when he knows that some other shaman, who seeks to seduce his wife, uses this form of love magic. If another shaman pursues his wife, he just keeps his peace, the way other men do. In fact, the shaman does not even use his status or power to become a domestic tyrant. The older shaman, especially, is sometimes inclined to use his powers, which he received from Avikwame, to win the love of a girl or of a woman. He can send out his power to steal a woman’s love. Hven though she might be a good woman, who has had no affairs, he ean spoil her disposition and make her dislike everyone except himself. She might do for him things which she might never have done otherwise. Through his power he seems transformed in her eyes; he seems more handsome to her than he really is. Whenever she sees him, she is unable to turn her eyes from him, and wishes to be with him. No matter where she is, or who sees her actions, she turns her head toward him, and watches him almost against her will. Eventually he visits her and tells her that he heard of her strange behavior. She will then make all sorts of excuses and will never admit that he affects her in any way. Nonetheless, she will dream of him, and have fainting spells in the morning (Case 49). The shaman will continue to visit her in person until, in the end, she runs away with him. Then he will take his power back again and she will once more be the good woman she used to be. It is, however, not always safe to try this magic, because some shamans, who do not have full control over their power, might, later on, be unable to break the spell by taking back their power. If this happens, the woman goes insane, because his power just remains in her heart. [At this point interpreter Hama: Utce: inter- rupted Hivsu: Tupo: ma’s account and related Case 18. Hivsu: Tupo: ma then resumed his story.] The relatives of the woman will, of course, seek to cure her, especially if she hasn’t, as yet, gone to live with the shaman who bewitched her. They will ask a qualified shaman to cure her, by extracting the spellbinder’s power and throwing it away. They might ask, e. g., (Hispan Himith) Tcilyetcilye (a shaman living in Needles, Calif., who claims to be able to cure this ailment) to treat her. The spellbinder will not seek to oppose the cure by magical means; i. e., the woman will not become a kind of battleground between the witch and the therapist. Furthermore, should the woman recover, the witch will not seek to fascinate her a second time. Also, regardless of whether the treatment is successful or not, once treatment is begun the woman can no longe hope to become the wife of the witch, because he would refuse to marry her. If the shamanistie treatment is unsuccessful, the woman’s relatives may call upon the spellbinder, and urge him to release the woman from his spell. The witch may, or may not, comply with this request. If he refuses to release her from the spell, or to cure here, her family will have her treated by still another shaman. A shaman usually practices love magic only on his own behalf, although he may use his powers also on behalf of a friend, either free of charge, or else for an honorarium, which usually consists of either a horse or a certain quantity of beads. *® Shamans do not have special sexual privileges. Apart from curing diseases related to sex, their only special duty in connection with sexual life is the distribution of sexually eligible prisoners to marriageable members of the tribe. Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 85 On the whole, the fascination resulting from such witchcraft is ap- parently halfway between the transitory fascination exerted by young shamans who wish to show off their newly acquired powers (Devereux, 1937 c), and the form of witchcraft that leads to neurotic sexual ex- cesses. (See pt. 2, pp. 87-89.) At the same time, this condition also appears to be related to court- ship through an intermediary. According to information obtained by Hama: Utce: from Pulyi:k, and communicated to me in a recent letter (June 27, 1957) — The word you ask about has two meanings: 1. Where one of two pals or chums will see someone he thinks would be a good mate for the other and will talk for that someone and do everything in his power to get the two tegether, this is called hel- teathom, meaning: Trying to bring the two together. 2. Hi: wa heltcathom: Where a medicine man uses his power to turn one’s heart to him and makes him or her fall in love with him. It really isn’t love, but they are in their [sic!] power and are crazy enough about them to do anything from (sic!) them, even to dying for them. (Cf. pt. 7, pp. 383-886.) In the first instance, two are brought together by an intermedi- ary. In the second case the heart (hi: wa) is apparently the inter- mediary, i. e., the shaman’s power, as it impinges upon the woman’s heart. The person under the shaman’s love spell is, literally, in the state known as “sexual thralldom,” and the witchcraft element is em- phasized by the thrall’s willingness to die—presumably by witch- craft—so as to belong forever to the witch.” CASE 18 (Informant Hama: Utce:): My cousin married a man who was, at that time, officially a Christian. This man was generally believed to be a shaman, though he himseif never adimiited it. Eventually my cousin became ill and was brought to the reservation hospital. However, the doctor was unable to cure her. She was just plain goofy. Mayve she had reached menopause.” Then we took her to a shaman, who managed to help her. My cousin had such a temper, that her husband often remarked that he would never again marry a member of the Kunyii: th gens, which has the reputation of being very quick tempered. When I heard him talk that way, I said, “I, for one, will never marry you,” ™ but people who heard me, promptly “Tt may be significant that Hama: Utce:, whose English is excellent, and whe usually distinguishes carefully between singular and plural, began item 2, above, by speaking of a medicine man and then consistently used the third person plural pronoun (they, them) when referring to the medicine man (singular). This may conceivably indicate that she views the shaman’s person and the shaman’s power as plural, especially in a context where this power is a courtship intermediary. This suggestion is, of course, definitely speculative. 7 Most old-fashioned Mohave deny the occurrence of menopausal emotional disturbances (Devereux, 1950 g). This informant was, however, quite acculturated. “2 Interpreter made this remark because the Mohave believe that divorced and widowed persons tend to marry repeatedly into the same family or gens. At the same time her remark also voiced her claim to membership in the Kunyii: th gens, which is not a valid one, since, on her father’s side, she is (partly ?) of white ancestry. 86 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 warned me not to talk that way: “He is a shaman. He might bewitch you, so that you will fall in love with him.” Comment Tentative diagnosis —M. A. I. Nettle, M. D., stated that this woman was either a hypochondriac, or else had a toxic psychosis caused by some kind of gall-bladder condition. She was never properly diagnosed, because she left the hospital before all diagnostic tests were completed. It is not easy to decide why the interpreter felt impelled to interrupt the in- formant at a certain point of his narrative. The most plausible explanation is that she told this story in order to show that she, herself, had once incurred the risk of being subjected to love magic. This explanation is, of course, based upon the assumption that the conscious climax of the story is the threat that she, too, may be betwitched by a shaman. It is, however, also possible to suggest that the real, though unconscious, climax of the story is the cousin’s illness. If that is so, then Hama: Utce:’s story, especially when viewed against the background of that portion of Hivsu: Tupo: ma’s statement which immediately preceded her interruption, seems to hint at the existence of a latent belief that a woman’s constant association with her shamanistic husband may affect her adversely, exactly the way close association with aliens may cause a Mohave to contract the ahwe: hahnok or ahwe: nyevedhi: ailments (pt. 4, pp. 128-150). This, partly speculative, inference is indirectly supported by two facts: On the one hand, the man in question, though reputed to be a shaman, never admitted publicly that he possessed Shamanistic powers and did not use these alleged powers openly, although, according to Mohave belief, such self- restraint would predispose him to attacks of insanity and to complex psy- chosomatic illnesses (pt. 2, pp. 57-71). On the other hand, the Mohave believe that witches are especially prone to start their career of evildoing by first bewitching members of their own families, since, except for a fee (Devereux, 1948 h), shamans usually bewitch only those whom they both love and hate (Devereux, 1937 c). The illness just described was, as we Saw, thought to be a result of magical courtship, which seems to create a state of mind sometimes designated by the technical term ‘sexual thralldom,” or, more colloquially, by the expression “being madly and helplessly in love.’”’ The fact that the ease history suggests an altogether different kind of diagnosis even in terms of Mohave thought— i. e., the possibility that a shaman’s wife may be adversely affected by his power—simply shows the difficulties and confusions that may arise in the study of unsystematic “primitive science.” Be that as it may, the fact that the Mohave consider excessive emotional involvements a form of madness, fully accords with their reaction to the stories of Tristan and Isolde and of Romeo and Juliet. The audience seemed disgusted by these extreme manifesta- tions of love, and Hama: Utce: remarked: “If a Mohave were running around in the bushes acting that way, someone might knock him on the head.” Indeed, the Mohave are more inclined to be genuinely and lastingly fond of many people, than to “go overboard” for a single person, be he lover, husband, relative, or friend. This relatively homogeneous diffusion of the libido over a number of persons appears to be a general characteristic of many primitive groups (Devereux, 1939 a, 1942 d). The warning issued to Hama: Utce: that, as a result of her challenging remarks, she could become the object of an irresistible magical courtship, may Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 87 be partly related to the Mohave belief, that if a girl wantonly speaks ill of aman, “she is as good as his.” (Devereux, 1950 a). It is noteworthy that female shamans do not seem to resort to love magic, unless they also happen to be lesbians, who do not find it easy to secure sex partners (Devereux, 1937 b). (Cf., however, Case 49.) This illness appears to be related also to sexual insanity due to witchcraft (see below) and to general insanity due to witchcraft (pt. 4, pp. 195-202). INSANITY CAUSED BY INCEST Although the Mohave did not mention a specific disease entity caused by incest, which automatically means also “incest with a witch” (Devereux, 1939 a), they reported a case of insanity caused by incest, whose symptoms resembled those found in various ghost diseases. CASE 19 (Informant: Hivsu: Tupo: ma): The shaman Uto:h (whom others call Teamadhuly Vaha:) of the Nyoltic gens, his wife O: otc, their two married daughters (both named Nyoltc), and their two sons-in-law lived in the same house. One night, for no known reason, Uto:h cohabited with his younger daughter. Maybe he was crazy. What the rest of the family, including the daughter’s children, were doing at that time is not known. The girl was half asleep and—like some other primitive Women (see section on Sudhu:rk, pt. 2 p. 77)—thought the man approaching her was her husband. She therefore did not wake up completely, but let the man perform intercourse. When she finally realized that the man was her father, she sat up in bed and cried until dawn. This happened about 40 years ago (1892?). At that time Uto:h was about 40 years old and his daughter about 20. He was not punished, but was ostracized and held to be worse than a dog. This experience did not affect Uto:h’s mind, but his daughter became practically psychotic. She thought that someone had bewitched her. She sat and spat about her, with an odd expression in her eyes. She died 2 years later. Her mother and older sister also began to behave queerly. In the end, they too be- came mentally deranged and died within a few years. At present only a son of the older daughter is still alive. His name is Nakue Mahay and he lives in Yuma. The rest of the family is extinct, as so often happens when there is incest in the family. I think this must have been a weak-minded family. Comment Mohave diagnosis: The symptoms cited are also found in various ghost diseases: stupor, spitting (indicative of the infantile delusion of having swallowed an evil and impregnating substance), ete. The self-diagnosis “witchcraft” may have been determined by the belief that only witches are incestuous. The insanity and death of the other female members of the family would also support this diagnosis, since witches preferably bewitch their own kin. Tentative diagnosis: Psychogenic depression caused by trauma. SEXUAL INSANITY RESULTING FROM WITCHCRAFT Preliminary comment.—The madness which results from witch- craft differs from that induced by love magic. The latter is caused 88 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 by a shaman’s attempt to attract the love of a woman by magical means; the former is the result of a seemingly wanton magical ag- gression. Love magic seeks to divert a woman’s love from her cur- rent sweetheart or husband to her shamanistic suitor, without caus- ing her to misbehave sexually, except for a routine changing of her bed partner—a trifling matter in Mohave society. By contrast, a certain type of witchcraft can induce completely chaotic sexual mis- behavior, which may even include sexual acts with animals (Devereux, 1948 ¢), but does not seem to produce any sexual advantage for the witch himself. One is reminded here of a similar act of wanton mis- chief, mentioned in Graeco-Roman myths. Hippolytus, the bastard son of Theseus and Antiope, was indifferent to love and exclusively devoted to the cult of chaste Artemis. This so offended Aphrodite that she caused Theseus’ wife—the previously virtuous Phaedra—to fall incestuously in love with her stepson Hippolytus. When the horrified youth rejected her advances, she tore her clothes, screamed that she was being raped, and hanged herself. Misled by Phaedra’s calumnies, Theseus then cursed his innocent son, which caused Hip- polytus to die in a horrible, and supernaturally caused, accident.” Tcate’s statement: There is something else that shamans will do. People sometimes see in their dreams a shaman who is bewitching (matadha: uk) them. You know, the way you see your sweetheart in your dreams. Sometimes they even bring some kind of animal into the woman’s dreams. They also make the dreamer lie (though not necessarily cohabit) with a woman in his dream, or else they make him dream of using a dog or some other animal sexually.“ Then they wake up. Ever after the dreamer always talks and thinks about that. In the end people who have such dreams are so much affected by them that they want to copulate with anyone—even with animals. [I heard from a Yuma woman, that a Yuma girl cohabited with a jackass. Is the condition you just described identical with the bestiality of young shamans who cohabit with donkeys and even with hens?] No. The zoophilia of shamans is not a form of insanity. They do such things simply because they are shamans (kwathidhe:) or braves (kwanimi: hye). The man who was here a moment ago and brought us some ice—Madhi: ly of the Mah gens “—is a shaman. I was wondering whether, if he heard me talk about shamans, he would “land on my bottom” (i. e., hit me). He is also a brave. Should an epidemie come on the tribe, and should he find out who had caused it, he would just go and kill the witch. No actual case history was known to this informant, and a subse- quent informant, Pulyi: k, even said that he knew nothing of insanity caused by witchcraft. There is also no information on whether female shamans, too, practice this type of witchcraft. 7 Apollodorus: Epitome; Diodorus Siculus; Hyginus: Fabulae; Ovid: Heroides; Pau- sanias; Seneca: Hippolytus ; ete. % There are occasional instances of zoophilia (Devereux, 1948 g). %® This man belonged to a probably psychopathic family (pt. 5, pp. 245-247). Devereux ] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 89 This disorder is also related to the derangements described in part 2, pages 83-87, and part 4, pages 195-202. APPENDIX: THE PERVERSIONS The present monograph does not include accounts of various Mohave perversions, since they were already described by me in a series of previously published articles. Mohave perversions in- clude: masturbation (1950 c), mutual masturbation (1950 ¢), fella- tio but not cunnilingus (1947 a, 1950 a), anal intercourse (1950 a, 1951 e), limited exhibitionism (1950 a), limited voyeurism (1950 a), group cohabitation (1948 i, 1950 a), punitive mass rape (1948 f), incest (1939 a), male and female transvestitism and homosexuality (1987 b), bestiality (1948 @), and extreme obscenity of speech and gesture (1951 c). One may also cite under this heading a type of female promiscuousness that differs from the nymphomania of other- wise kindly women, and is practiced by the so-called kamalo: y— who are not only promiscuous but also otherwise objectionable and ageressive (1948 f). Several forms of perversion appear to be absent in Mohave society. They are: cunnilingus, sadism, masochism, fetichism, homosexual paedophilia, gerontophilia, true exhibitionism and voyeurism, frot- tage, the collection of sexual trophies (e. g., snipping hair, etc.), and certain other, more complicated, forms of perversion reported in psychiatric literature. PART 8. MOOD DISTURBANCES THE “HEART” NEUROSES Three types of partly psychosomatic neuroses known to the Mohave are designated by terms containing the word “heart” (hi: wa), pre- sumably because the Mohave think of the heart not only as an organ, but also as the seat of emotions. It may be suggested, in passing, that the widespread, though not universal, tendency to think of the heart as connected with the emotions may be due to the fact that certain persons react to emotional stress with precordial anxiety, tachycardia, and other disturbances of the cardiovascular system, just as other people react to emotional stress, e. g., with disturbances of the gastrointestinal tract.7° The occurrence of the latter reaction pattern of the autonomous nervous system to emotional stress among the Mohave is probably responsible for the fact that a series of psychosomatic illnesses are grouped together under the general heading of hiwey lak (anus pain) (pt. 4, pp. 150-175). A further attribute of the heart is conscience. Thus, the dictates of a man’s better self (ego-ideal, rather than super-ego) are denoted by the term hi: wante kinyai:m (heart does) or hi: wantc hidhu: m, or hi: wante haniym, all of which can be freely translated as “the heart does” or “the heart says” or “the dictates of the heart”—i. e., man’s better nature. Since, unlike the Chinese (Devereux, 1944 a) etc., the Mohave believe human nature to be good, rather than in- herently corrupt, if one but listens to one’s heart, one is impelled to do good deeds. Thus Case 101 shows that when a bewitched person became ill, the victim’s family immediately asked the witch to perform a cure, because they hoped that the witch would yield to his hi: wante kinyai:m, 1. e., that he would follow the dictates of his heart or conscience. There appear to be three main types of “heart neuroses”—i. e., three types of emotional stress to which people react, at least in principle, with their hearts. Of course, in reality the cases cited did 7% Tt may even be possible to classify various ethnic groups in terms of the particular autonomous nervous system function(s) by means of which they react to emotional stress. Thus, the Sedang Moi of Indochina (Devereux, MS., 1933-34) seem to react to stress chiefly with the gastrointestinal tract, which may explain why they believe the liver to be the seat of emotions. The Greek seem to have reacted to emotional stress in several ways; witness their theory of temperaments: Sanguine (cardiovascular), phlegmatiec (= mucus, respiratory tract, and mucous membrane reactions), melancholic (=black bile, gastro- intestinal tract), and choleriec (=yellow bile, gastrointestinal tract). 90 Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 91 not always involve primarily cardiovascular reactions to emotional stress. The fact that they were nonetheless diagnosed as disorders of the hi: wa (heart) simply shows that, in Mohave psychiatry, the term “hi: wa” has lost its specific and literal cardiovascular conno- tation and acquired the broader meaning of one type of psychosomatic reaction to emotional stress. In the same way our own term “hys- teria” (from: hystera=uterus) has also lost its original anatomical connotation, so that this technical term is now simply a holdover from an obsolete theory of hysteria.” Strictly speaking, there are only three genuine hi: wa disorders: (A) Hi: wa itck, or else hi: wa itce ite hi:m=heartbreak. (Hi: wa suh itck=he has heartbreak.) (B) Hi: wa mava: rkh. (C) Hi: wa hisa: kh= (roughly) heart rot. At the same time, the emotional component of psychiatric illness is so routinely correlated with the “heart” that: (A) Laymen tend to apply the nontechnical term “Hi: walyk yamomk hi: m” to almost any mild emotional or neurotic disturbance. This term, first mentioned by Tecate, who—significantly—was not a shaman, was originally translated as “in-his-heart a-little-crazy,” and was retrans- lated by the linguistic informant Pulyi:k as “in-his-heart will-be- crazy (or is-crazy).” (B) Incidental references to the patient’s hi: wa (heart), or to “cardiac” Symptoms, occur even in shamanistic—i. e., supposedly ‘‘technical’— descriptions of a variety of psychiatric conditions, which definitely do not rate as disorders belonging to the “hi: wa” group. HI: WA ITCK (HI: WA ITCE ITC HIM) The type of subjective experiences about to be described is recog- nized as abnormal by the Mohave themselves, who apply to it the term “hi: wa itck.” This term may be freely translated as “heartbreak” and is applied to certain psychotic, or possibly neurotic, episodes, which occur chiefly when an elderly Mohave man is deserted by his young wife. It rarely follows the desertion of a Mohave husband by a wife belonging to his own age group. The social background.—Mohave marriages are extremely unstable, and, like all other interpersonal relations in that tribe, are character- ized by only moderate object-cathexis (Devereux 1939 a, 1942 d). Marriage implies little more than common residence and continued sexual relations, which, in theory, should be limited to married couples. Divorce means simply that one of the spouses moves out 7 It is interesting to recall in this context that when Freud first spoke of hysteria in men, a disingenuous critic ridiculed his views by resorting to the footless etymological argument that men could not have hysteria, since they had no uterus. Cf. also Usener’s (1896) theory, that the most ancient Gods are those whose names haye become true personal names and no longer have a known meaning. 492655—61 q 92 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 (Nettle, MS., n. d.). The actual process of moving out is sometimes accompanied by much hubbub (Kroeber, 1925 b). Custom demands, however, that, once the divorce is completed, both partners accept it casually. Asa rule, the Mohave comply with this cultural injunction. As stated elsewhere (Devereux, 1950 f), the socialization of the Mo- have child occurs early in life, so that, thereafter, his libido and aggressions are distributed relatively homogeneously over the tribe as a whole. Hence, no single individual is invested with an unusually large and distinctive amount of object cathexis. An example to the contrary is afforded by the alleged marital fidelity of twins. This was attributed elsewhere (Devereux, 1941) to the fact that the prefer- ential treatment meted out to twins, and a number of other character- istic events of their early lives, delay their socialization, and condition them to the formation of intense attachments. Another atypical example is that of persons who commit incest. I have tried to show (Devereux, 1939 a) that the Mohave interpret incest as a manifesta- tion of an individual’s unwillingness or inability to become detached from his proximate family, and to partake, through emotional social- ization, in the complex give-and-take pattern of tribal relations. A corollary of this attitude is the Mohave evaluation of “romantic love.” The tale of Tristan and Isolde, and of Romeo and Juliet, which I related to them, caused a great deal of consternation. As for Tcate, she once smilingly remarked: “You sigh every time you mention your sweetheart.” ‘The behavior of the lovelorn is considered undignified and unworthy of an adult, as soon as the breach is final. Before di- vorce occurs, the husband (or wife) may exhibit intense jealousy and even rage (Case 24). He may even compel his wife to submit to an examination of her private parts, for evidences of intercourse, and may even threaten to shoot her. In brief, he may go to great lengths in his attempts to preserve the status quo, without being unduly ham- pered by possible adverse reactions on the part of the group (Davis, 1936). However, once the bond is broken, the finality of the new situation must be, and mostly is, accepted with equanimity. It is very seldom indeed that, acting in cold blood, a man paints his face black, like a warrior on the warpath, and, arms in hand, attempts to take revenge on the man who abducted his wife. As a rule, this procedure is only resorted to half jocularly, and one man, married to a passive male homosexual who deserted him, actually attempted to do this just to give the tribe something to laugh about (Devereux, 1937 b). This does not mean, of course, that even a deserted husband, who is supposed to display more equanimity than a deserted wife, shows no grief reaction whatsoever. In fact, in at least one case the deserted husband killed his ex-wife’s new husband. These, however, are exceptions and are Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 93 viewed by the Mohave themselves not as psychotic behavior, but as deplorable breaches of decorum. The only serious clashes that may and do occur between divorced people pertain to claims of paternity, which are not easily validated, because certain Mohave theories postulate the possibility of changing the embryo’s affiliation through subsequent intercourse with the preg- nant woman (Devereux, 1937 d, 1949 c). Yet, because of the cultural stress laid on tribal continuity (Kroeber, 1925 a), paternity claims sometimes lead to severe clashes, involving, in one instance at least, actual murder (Case 131). Since this type of clash fits the general Mohave pattern, the participants, regardless of how wrought up they may be, are not held to be insane. In brief, the Mohave ridicule romantic love in its more extreme man- ifestations, and demand that the deserted lover or spouse accept the situation as soon as the breach seems final. At the same time, their disapproval is tempered by a genuine compassion for those who are severely traumatized by the loss of a love object. The resultant of these two basic attitudes is a complex and delicately balanced ambiva- lence, which finds a formal expression in a well-known Mohave tale belonging to the class of the so-called Orpheus myths. Since the Halyec Matcoo: ta legend was published elsewhere (Devereux, 1948 h), it will suffice to summarize here its most relevant features. “Halyec Matcoo: ta’”’.—When a certain village was almost wiped out by an epi- demic, the one surviving adult man found a baby girl clinging to her dead mother. He reared her and decided to marry her. Actuated by pride in his lovely bride, he prepared to give a great wedding feast. This party was attended also by a young married man, Halyec Matcoo: ta, who fell in love with the bride-to-be, and abducted her, whereupon the jeering guests broke the old man’s property and dispersed. The jilted man became depressed, and dispatched two evil sha- mans in pursuit of the fugitives, instructing them to bewitch the girl. They found her grinding corn for her husband, and killed her by magic. Her death “ended the old man’s hi: wa itck.” Distressed by the death of his young wife, the successful suitor now became afflicted with hi: wa itck. After many com- plicated adventures, involving his death by drowning while too fascinated by a vision of his dead wife to pay any attention to navigation hazards, and involving his resurrection as well, he bungled his chance to recover his dead wife, by being overly eager to seize her as yet half-formed reincarnated body. He then returned to his first wife, ill in body and sorely depressed. When his first wife and their son broke a taboo, whose observance would have led to his recovery, he turned into a bull-snake, amidst thunder in the hut. Pathogenesis: Hilyera Anyay’s statement.—A man and a woman who are married and seem to be getting along well with each other, may sometimes leave each other for other spouses. On hearing of this new marriage, the deserted spouse may become afflicted with hi: wa itck, because of his great love for the departed spouse. Eventually they get over such attacks by themselves and are all right once more. Had they not loved each other so much when they married, and even when they 94 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 separated, no hi: wa itck would have occurred. Hi: wa itck occurs in young peo- ple as well as in the old. [However, on being pressed, informant could recall no instance involving young couples.] When it occurs in a young person, it usually involves a young (?) person who is married to an older one. Hi: wa itck does not occur in good marriages, which last until one of the partners is dead. (But cf. below.) (Q) Hi: wa itck also occurs in women, but I have heard mainly of men who had it. [Interpreter commented: “When deserted, women fight, while men do crazy things.”] 78 Women fight when they are deserted, but men do all sorts of funny things. Some cut off their hair, because they say that they are going to die, while others even kill horses (i. e., as at funerals, incestuous marriages, or after losing an eye). Still others say that they are going to die. I faintly recall one case ... but not well enough to describe it, though I saw it happen. (Q) People do not kill themselves because of hi: wa itck. Ahma Huma: re’s statement.—I must laugh when I tell you about hi: wa itck. In days of old the parents of a girl often advised her to marry an older man, because he would think more of his home and of the things he could do for his wife, than he thought of himself (Devereux, 1951 f). Some such marriages were a success. In a few cases, however, the young bride did not find her old husband to her liking, and eventually deserted him for a man nearer her own age. On being informed of his former wife’s new marriage, the old man would then have hi: wa itck. It would seem as though he did not know what to do. He would move from place to place. He would not know where he was going, nor what he wanted to do. When women get hi: wa itck they walk around and do not stay home. Some of them fight their rivals. Such things happen only when one of the spouses loves deeply and the other does not. The loving spouse loves more than he (or she) can help it. Hivsu: Tupo:ma’s statement.—The Mohave were not supposed to get upset about such things as desertions. A man might fight with his wife while she was staying with him, but, once the wife left, the man was supposed to forget about her. Sometimes, however, a man would go out and take revenge, either person- ally, or else by bribing an evil shaman to bewitch the faithless wife or her new husband. Occasionally a man went to fight his rival, just as a lark. One man even did that when his transvestite male “wife” left him (Devereux, 1937 b). Women were not obliged to show a similar self-control and therefore did not de- velop hi: wa itck. A woman could go and fight with her lucky rival (and/or, according to Teate, also with the rival’s relatives). When a woman set out to fight her rival, many people went along, to enjoy the fun. A male transvestite also did that; he could do it because he could act like a woman. (A female transvestite also tried to threaten her (male) rival, Case 105.) (Devereux, 1937 b.) Teatc’s statement.—Some people alternate between excitement and depres- sion. This is caused by too much worrying. It goes to such an extreme that they are almost out of their minds. When people are very deeply in love, even though they be far apart, they see each other, because of their great love. You should know that, since you are so much in love. Among the Mohave there are cases of men loving their women so much that it causes their death ... their heart breaks. Such cases do not occur among the unmarried, but among the married only. People marry those whom they love very much, and if the woman then starts going with someone else, it breaks the man’s heart. They keep on living with her until she deserts them, because they cannot help loving her, even 78 Characteristically enough, the only women I know who falsely) claimed to have had an attack of hi : wa itck, was O: otc, whom public opinion defined as a kamalo :y, f.e., as a “phallic” and dissolute person (Devereux, 1948 f). Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 95 though she hurts them. Recently a few white men even went so far as to commit suicide.” Hi: wa itck is generally limited to cases in which an older man marries a younger girl. The bride’s father or mother may have advised her to marry an old man, because older people are more likely to be faithful to their wives. They also know more about planting (by which, be it understood, the bride’s parents would profit), and they had mature notions about marriage. They were less likely to desert their wives (Devereux, 1951 f). Such a marriage was not always successful, however. If it broke up, the old man got hi: wa itck. His relatives would then advise him to forget about his faithless wife, and to think of some other girl. They would tell him that thinking of the deserting wife would make him feel just that much worse. They did not doctor such cases. These reactions represent the views of four Mohave competent to evaluate the content of their culture. Although the data converge remarkably in almost every respect, they clearly reflect also the variety of viewpoints and emphases that a given cultural complex may be used to illustrate, depending on the personalities and subjec- tive experiences of the informants. Three of these four informants had had subjective experiences that, to the psychiatrist, are sympto- matic of mental disorder, although to the Mchave themselves these shamans were relatively normal persons, as far as shamans can be con- sidered normal. The fourth informant, Tcatc, had such a temper that she was often suspected of shamanistic proclivities, although she denied having had shamanistic or other unusual subjective experi- ences. Yet, all four informants clearly dissociated themselves from the psychological state of individuals experiencing hi: wa itck, and regarded it unanimously as a mental disorder (yamomk). Their at- titude, which is one of mingled contempt and pity, is symptomatic of the reactions of the tribe as a whole, including individuals, like the interpreter, who were normal in every sense, Mohave, Western, and clinical. In brief, we are confronted here with a condition that the Mohave, as well as ourselves, recognize as abnormal, and that involves a certain amount of social and personal strain. Hi: wa itch and suicide—The Mohave distinguish sharply between hi: wa itck, which they consider a mental disorder, and suicide, with or without murder, due to disappointment in love, which they do not con- sider a form of insanity. Love suicides are recruited from the ranks of men only, and appear to be limited to marriages in which both spouses belong to the same age-group. Furthermore, suicides do not seem to occur after the breach has become final, and the woman has settled down with another man. Rather do they occur when there is a danger of desertion, or actual acts of infidelity (pt. 7, passim). By contrast, mainly widows attempt to throw themselves on the funeral pyre of their deceased husbands (Devereux, 1942). This is often a mere gesture, so that, even though the widow is sometimes 7 Teate’s wording did not equate such suicides with hi: wa itck. 96 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY (Bull. 175 severely burned, no instance of actual death could be recorded. As regards men, one widower (Case 110) attempted funeral suicide, and one father (Case 111) tried to throw himself on the pyre of his son, whom his constant nagging had driven to suicide. CASE MATERIAL CASE 20 (Informants Tecate and E. S.): Kaly Yahway (or Ahwaly) (war club, colloquially called “tomahawk” in Eng- lish) of the Mo: the gens, was born “about 115 years ago (1823?) and died as an old man.” The events about to be described occurred when he was roughly 45 years of age. He was originally married to a young girl who left him eventually, whereupon he became angry and began to say that he was constantly thinking of killing. He talked about that until he became insane (yamomk) with hi: wa itck. During his psychotic episode he painted his face black (as did a lesbian (Deve- reux, 1937 b)), like a warrior going on the warpath, and actually seemed to be- lieve that he was going to war. People began to notice that he was acting “queer” and suspected that he had become a shaman. They were apparently mistaken in this, since he never cured anyone. I do not recall whether he ever made a recovery, but I am sure his insanity did not cause his death—he died of an ordinary illness.” CASE 21 (Informants: Teate and E. §.): Amo: Nomak (mountain-goat lost) was a member of the Nyolte gens, who died many years ago at an advanced age. He was already old when the episode about to be described took place. He had been married to a girl named Mo: the of that same gens, who was much younger than he was. One day she just “got up and left him, because she got tired of him.’ [At this point informant and inter- preter began to speculate on whether she left him because she wanted a man with a larger penis, or whether she merely wanter a “stronger” (i. e. more potent) husband. No decision was reached.] He showed no untoward reaction, until news reached him that the girl had settled down with another man. He there- upon became “insane” (yamomk) from hi: wa itck. He cut off his long braids of hair, the way mourners do, and painted his face black. [Here interpreter re- marked: “His cutting his hair off makes me laugh.”’] He went into the winter- house (ava: hatcor), sat down, laid out his bow and arrows, and declared that he would kill anyone who tried to come in. This frightened people so much that no one dared to enter the house, and that is why no attempt was made to doctor him. [Here interpreter and informant laughed out loud.] He stayed in his house for 2 days. Then he made a spontaneous recovery. He even picked up the braids he had previously cut off, and tied them back to his remaining locks. [Interpreter and informant laughed. Interpreter said, “It seems funny now,” but informant replied: “At that time it was not funny at all.’’] CASE 22 (Informants: Teate and E. 8.) : Katcidhomp, of the O: ote gens, died half a century ago (1888) at Needles, Calif., at the approximate age of 50. He was about 30 years old when the fol- lowing events took place at Parker, Ariz. He was married to a women his own age, Hualy, of the Hualy gens. They seem to have had two children, both of 5° Teate then remarked teasingly that I, too, had hi:wa itck, because (by Mohave stand- ards) I, too, was deeply in love at that time. (See below.) Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 97 whom had died. They had lived together for a long time. Then Hualy got tired of him and deserted him. Three days later she married another man named Hamthuly Kudhap (i.e., a kind of lizard, which lives on the mesa, split open). When he heard that she had married again, he became afflicted with hi: wa itck; he lost his appetite and neither ate nor slept for 3 days. During these 3 days he ran around constantly. Starting from his house, he ran to a lake known in English as Twelve Mile Slough, and in Mohave as Nyakro: muhuer (iron railed, or fenced). Thence he would proceed to the Colorado River, and eventually return to his own house. He ran this circuit for 3 days, stopping once in a while at the houses of his rela- tives, but even though they tried to press food on him, he would not eat." He was never doctored for this mental disorder, but made a spontaneous recovery. [Here I commented : ‘You women are the very devil!’ Informant replied: “Your own girl must be hukthar.” (This word means properly coyote, and, by exten- sion, “crazy,” but not insane.) ] CASE 23: Tii: ly Korau:lyva of the Tii: ly gens died at the age of 50, a long time ago. She was married to a man younger than herself, and had two boys and a girl by him. She nagged her husband so much that, in the end, he resented it and left her. She was about 40 years old at that time. She showed no unusual reactions until she learned that her former husband had married again. Then she picked up a stick and went to her former husband’s new residence, which sheltered not only this man but also his new wife, and some of his relatives, and “just beat up everybody in that damn place.” Finally they caught her, held her down, took away her stick, and brought her back to her own home. She then shut herself up in her own house and cried all night. Finally she made a spontaneous recovery and married someone else 2 years later. The events just described occurred at Kave:ly, a place south of Parker. None of the immediate relatives of this woman are now alive. (This is the only accepted case of hi: wa itck in a female that came to my attention. O: otc’s self-diagnosis was rejected by all (Dever- eux, 1948 f).) Dubious cases—TI first heard the term “hi: wa itck” in 1938, al- though in 1936 I recorded numerous cases of suicide, many of them due to amorous disappointments but none of them following a final break. These suicide cases also include suicide-and-murder cases. The term “hi: wa itck” was not applied to them in 1936, nor, on specific Inquiry, in 1938. This indicates that hi: wa itck is, to the Mohave mind, a clear-cut clinical entity, regardless of how it may appear to the modern clinical psychiatrist, who cannot fail to recognize deep affinities between hi: wa itck and cases of suicide caused by the loss of a love object. INFORMAL THERAPY OF HI: WA ITCK Although hi: wa itck represents a striking deviation from the norm, persons afflicted with this ailment were not treated by shamans, §1 The Mohave usually fasted during ritual running and travel (MeNichols, 1944). Cf. the use of ritual as symptom also in the haircutting episode (Case 21). 98 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 possibly because such attacks were of a relatively brief duration. On the other hand, relatives as well as friends sometimes attempted to talk things over with the depressed or agitated man, and provided what might be called “supportive therapy.” Such conversations fol- lowed no set pattern. “People just said whatever seemed appro- priate.” We may assume, therefore, that these interviews probably revealed many of the subtler and more private shadings of Mohave attitudes toward life and love. If this assumption is a correct one, a verbatim report of such a conversation would be very valuable to the student of ethnopsychiatry, since it would provide a direct glimpse of Mohave sentiment in action. Tt is quite obvious, however, that, even if the anthropologist knew of a case of hi: wa itck, he could not be present during such a conversa- tion without profoundly affecting its course and content. On the other hand, attempts to obtain accounts of such conversations proved fruitless, because my informants kept on insisting that “people just said whatever was appropriate.” These circumstances oblige me to lay aside the anonymity of the scientist and to report verbatim three conversations that took place between my old friend Tcatc and myself at a time when, by Mohave standards, I myself was suffering from hi:wa itck. The ex- ample of Freud (1953) justifies self-revelation in the interest of science, especially since, from the scientific point of view, Tcate’s remarks, rather than mine, are the important ones. Moreover, what- ever merit my study of the Mohave may possess is solely due to the fact that I did not view the Mohave as trait lists to be unscrambled, but as friends, who shared their lives with me, because I shared mine with them. The following conversation took place at a time when I was in love with a girl who did not reciprocate my feelings. The conversa- tion with Tcatc was taken down verbatim, in the course of the conver- sation itself, with my old friend Hama: Utce: acting as interpreter. Tecate: “You sigh every time you mention your sweetheart. If you go on like this, you might end up by killing yourself.” G. D.: (Misogynistic remark.) Tecate: “You are crazy to think that. Among the Mohave, the women blame the men for going crazy (with hi: wa itck) and feel that all men should be wiped off the face of the earth.’ You must feel better now that you have said it.” G. D.: (Derogatory remark about the girl’s behavior.) 82The assertion that Mohave women wish all men to be killed is utterly false. On the other hand, the fact that Tecate made this sweeping statement, in order to make her point, is typically Mohave. Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 99 Tecate: “Maybe I should not say this, but you are very much in love with her and she is not in love with you. Maybe that is why she turned you down in this manner.” G. D.: (Restatement of my preceding remark.) Tcate: “The best thing to do is to forget about her and think about another girl. All this makes you feel bad, and things don’t seem right at the present time. If a Mohave feels that way, we say that he has hi: wa itck. When a Mohave has that disease, his friends could only advise him to forget about his girl and to think of another girl. I think that this girl has been lying to you all along. The best thing, therefore, is just to stop thinking about her, right now. You'll only feel worse if you keep on thinking about her.” G. D.: “I know you are right—but it is just like telling a sick man to get well. It does not help.” Teate: “You should put all your mind and all your heart into the work you are doing with us.” G. D.: “I do just that when I am working with you. But what am I to do when I am not working with you—in the evenings?” Teatc: “Surely you have at least the courage to forget her !” G. D.: “I know I am fortunate to be with friends such as you dur- ing these sad weeks.” Tecate: (Nodding and smiling) “That is what friends are for—to know each other.” G. D.: “You are a very good and wise old woman, and I like you very much.” Tecate: “I have known you for a long time, and all the time I have known you, you have been very good and [I like to see you happy about such things. In my time I have advised many a young Mohave to choose a happy marriage rather than seek to be despised for be- ing in love with a worthless woman. If this girl is that way, then there is nothing you can do to change her. Look at me! I have not been married once only. When my husband left me for another woman, I still loved him, but I could not help it. Time will heal your heart too. You will be happy, and you will be my happy friend once more. If you keep on feeling this way, you might even get sick from too much work, though I hope you won't.” The next day—probably because of Tcate’s support—I felt consid- erably better about the whole matter, and teasingly told Teate that she must be a shaman, because she had cured me of my hi:wa itck. Teate replied, “This girl is to be pitied, rather than thought about. In my own grief, I never thought afterward about such things. They just happen—and that is all there is to it. It would have been useless for me to feel bad about it, because I never knew anyone who died of heartbreak.” (Note the distinction between hi: wa itck and suicide!) 100 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 After a few more days the beneficial effects of the initial conversa- tion wore off and I felt rather unhappy once more. I asked Hama: Utce: to mention this to Tecate and to ask her whether she felt that a woman could be in love with two men at the same time, since the girl seemed to seesaw between another man and me. Tecate: “No, that is not possible, and yet, this is a strange situation: She could marry the other man and she might even think that she belongs to him, but part of her will always be with you.” G. D.: (Association with a shallow person will spoil her.) Tecate: “It won’t spoil her. I myself never forgot my first hus- band.” (On another occasion Tcate stated that she refused to be- lieve in a repetition of earthly life in the land of the dead (Devereux, 1937 a), because she did not wish to experience once more the pain of losing her first husband.) G. D.: “Should I stop seeing her?” Teate: “This girl is a kwathidh: (shaman) and so are you. That is why your souls are together. If you were to make up your mind not to see her again, and married someone else, you two would be- witch each other and the weaker one of the two would die, because you two would be thinking of each other all the time. It is a form of madness, called ahwe: nyevedhi: (pt. 4, pp. 128-150). I think she bewitched you and is still trying to get you, even though she is in love with the other man.” (Ahwe: nyevedhi: was mentioned presumably because, unlike the girl, I was foreign born.) G. D.: “Should I write her what you just told me?” Tecate: “Yes, why not?” When, at a later date, I again teased Tcatc, saying that she was obviously a shaman, she replied: “You may think so, because of the things I tell you. At any rate, I like to think that I cured your hi:wa itck.” Comment Hama: Utce: afterward assured me that Tecate would have given precisely the same advice to any one of her young relatives who found himself in a similar predicament. “She often tells me that you are just like a favorite grandson to her” (Devereux, 1951 b). When I replied that I felt the same way about Tcatc, Hama: Utce: nodded and said: “She knows it.” We may therefore assume that the con- versation given above accurately reflects the Mohave attitude to- ward hi:wa itck. Hence, it is rather striking to note that, except for references to witchcraft, a conversation of this type could have taken place also in a purely Euro-American cultural setting, between a young man and a worldly, wise, and kindly woman of 80. Only such extraneous and culturally determined details as references to witch- Sa er Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 101 craft, etc., tend to obscure the basic unity of human emotions revealed by this conversation. This finding has a direct bearing upon the validity of culture-and- personality studies in general, since it causes one to wonder to what extent an undue emphasis on culturally determined modes of expres- sion may distort our picture of human realities because of our tend- ency to stress—possibly superficial—differences, at the expense of basic similarities. This question cannot be answered in a decisive manner until many more conversations such as the one given above are recorded. In the last resort, and despite the real value of projective and other personality tests, the ultimate, most sensitive and most re- vealing, test of human nature is concrete interaction in the real situa- tions of daily life, which is only partially duplicated by the transference-countertransference relationship obtaining in the psycho- analytic situation. Be that as it may, I realize in retrospect that the above conversa- tions—and all they imply in regard to the possibility of a nearly culture-free man-to-man communication between human beings be- longing to different cultures—had a decisive influence on my subse- quent diagnostic and, especially, therapeutic work with neurotic Plains Indians (Devereux, 1951 a, 1951 i, 1953 b). INTERPRETATION Regardless of the close and obvious affinity, which, from the view- point of psychiatry, may exist between hi: wa itck and suicide, a useful explanation must be made in terms of sociologically meaningful variables, which are defined analytically. We must, first of all, distinguish between types of breaches in the marital or love relationship. (a) Marital vs. nonmarital love relationships—Hi: wa itck seems limited to married couples, while suicide, with or without murder, may occur also in premarital, extramarital, adulterous, and even incestuous love relationships. (6) Age discrepancies.—In hi: wa itck, but not in suicide, one gen- erally finds a great age difference between the spouses. This is rather significant, because the flightiness of young Mohave women often enables old Mohave women, and even inverts, to obtain desirable husbands from among the ranks of young men, who crave a stable home (Devereux, 1951 f). In such marriages the senior partner craves love, and gives security and comfort to the junior partner, often closing both eyes to the casual infidelities of the latter. It is, hence, very significant that it is almost invariably the senior spouse who becomes subject to attacks of hi: wa itck. The average Mohave 102 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 can always find some form of security by calling upon the hospitality of his relatives, which is never denied to him. Finding love is a more difficult undertaking. On the other hand we note that love suicide, with or without murder, generally occurs when both partners are of the same age, regardless of whether the relationship is marital, nonmarital, adulter- ous, or even incestuous. In these instances we find no barter gratify- ing one partner’s need for security and the other partner’s need for love. It is, furthermore, significant that in all cases of love suicide the person committing suicide is the male. It can be stated with a fair measure of confidence that this fact is connected with the proverbial flightiness of Mohave women, which is admitted even by the female members of the tribe. The situation can be further clarified by discussing the means of action available to the individual wishing to restore the status quo ante. (c) Infidelity sometimes leads to suicide or else to violence, but never to hi: wa itck. At this stage the husband may compel his wife to submit to an examination of her private parts, threaten her with violence, or induce a group of his friends to abduct and rape her, by way of “teaching her a lesson” (Devereux, 1948 f). Con- versely, the woman may fight with her husband and his paramour, nag him, and otherwise manifest her displeasure. In this specific situation the husband is given relatively more elbow room, although on a permissive basis only. Yet, Mohave public opinion condemns excessive jealousy in either spouse, especially if it is not elicited by valid reasons. (d) Simple desertion consists of leaving the family domicile, or else, in love affairs, in the denial of previously enjoyed sexual priv- ileges. In cases of simple desertion the woman is given a greater latitude in her attempts to regain the affection of the departed hus- band than deserted husbands enjoy. Attempts to restore the status quo are not hampered by public opinion, unless they involve extreme manifestations of emotionality in the man (Case 24). Simple deser- tion, sometimes followed by casual affairs, but not by a new marriage, leads to suicide (and, occasionally, also to suicide after murder) but, apparently, never to hi: wa itck. (e) Desertion and remarriage—Only suicide Case 125 falls into this group, which includes all instances of hi: wa itck. In these cases the breach was considered final, although there are instances in which a woman oscillates back and forth between two men, or a man lives alternatingly with two women. Such cases are, however, exceptional, and do not seem to involve great emotional investments. Desertion followed by remarriage was supposed to inhibit any attempt on the part of men to reestablish the status quo, although women (and in- Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 103 verts) were at least permitted to fight with their successful rivals. In brief, the man was expected to respect the new situation, and to accept it, while the woman was allowed the privilege of “taking it out” on her successful rival. This inhibition may explain why hi: wa itck occurs only, or chiefly, in men, and is limited to cases of complete desertion followed by the establishment of a new relationship. (f) Funeral suicide results from a situation which is irreversible (pt. 7, pp. 431-459). Once more the culture pattern demands that the male should accept it completely, while the female is permitted one last emotional outburst, in the form of attempted funeral suicide, which, if successful, enables her to go through subsequent metamor- phoses at the side of her husband, thus restoring the status quo even beyond the grave. It should be added that a wife who dies long after her husband’s demise cannot catch up with him, due to the lack of synchronization between their successive metamorphoses, which occur in a strict sequence (Devereux, 1937 a). Summing up, male suicide is an equivalent not of hi: wa itck, but of the more aggressive attempts of women to restore the status quo. Female funeral suicide, on the other hand, is, within limits, the equivalent of hi: wa itck in the male, who is usually the senior spouse, and is a response to a situation, which, in theory and very often in practice as well, is irreversible. It may be added that the general failure of attempted funeral suicides, often followed by the re- marriage of the widow, causes the Mohave to laugh and shrug their shoulders at these would-be suicides. Considering the flightiness of Mohave women, we may say that they reconcile themselves more easily to objective, man-made reality (desertion), than to the irrev- ocable dictates of fate (final breach or death). Culture supports them in this attitude, by permitting them a certain leeway of ag- gression.®$ (g) Absence of formal therapy for hi: wa itch.— Although the Mo- have had rites for the cure of most types of insanity, they lacked a formal therapy for hi: wa itck. This absence suggests that Mo- have culture was not prepared to deal with very strong “object cathexes,” of a highly individualized kind, and that such cathexes were felt to disturb the public order. A similar practical passivity existed also with regard to incest and suicide. At the same time, the fatal outcome of suicides somewhat mitigated the contemptuousness of public opinion, which was, however, manifested toward the would- be suicide who failed in his design. Ambivalence was also less pronounced in cases involving death by murder-and-suicide, perhaps because of the Mohave fear of ghosts, 8 A similar outlet is the frantic destruction of excess property not belonging to the de- ceased, which is thrown on the funeral pyre (Devereaux, 1942 a; cf. pt. 7, pp. 431-459). 104 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 and also because of the obvious similarity between these situations and the murder-suicide pattern of witchcraft (Devereux, 1937c). Hi: wa itck, on the other hand, lacked this tragic aspect and was therefore considered a mental disorder. Public reaction was ambivalent and, in retrospect at least, emphasized the comical aspects of the situation. (h) Hi: wa itch and social integration—It should once more be stressed that hi: wa itck apparently afilicts chiefly persons who realize that, because of their age, they cannot expect to obtain a substitute love object as attractive as the spouse who may eventually desert them; such persons are, therefore, likely to invest a great deal of affection in their marital relationship. The special pattern of behavior obtain- ing between an old husband and his young wife should also be stressed in this context. If the wife was immature, the husband acted in loco parentis. He sometimes carried her around on his back and even took over some of the more strenuous feminine household chores, which the Mohave male scorns quite explicitly under normal conditions.™ Last of all, the senior spouse was often exposed to jocular comments skirting the topic of incest (e. g., “Whom are you carrying around on your back? Is that your daughter?”) (Devereux, 1951 f). These factors tended to intensify and render more complex the marital relationship, and contributed to the isolation of the couple. Hence, if the junior spouse deserted, the senior spouse found himself isolated emotionally as well as socially, the act of desertion depriving him both of his love object and of concrete comforts. His abnormal behavior must therefore be interpreted also as a manifestation of the Mohave’s sense of aimlessness (Kroeber, 1951) and as sensitiveness to isolation, rather than simply as a reflection of the difficulties involved in managing a simple affective frustration. The lack of recent cases of hi: wa itck is balanced by an increase in love suicides. This trend reflects a profound social change; today, self-restraint in the male is no longer rewarded by an adequate in- crease in prestige; the difference between marriage and liaison has become insignificant; social relations in general are increasingly fluid and superficial. ‘These factors are responsible for an increase in the sense of one’s own uniqueness, as well as of that of the love object, and lead to a need for increasingly intense individualized object cathexes, which seem to serve as compensations for the increasing social and affective isolation of the average modern Mohave from his group. One further psychological nexus may also be traced. Old malevo- lent shamans, who, through years of dream intercourse with the 84Tt should be noted, however, that braves of established reputation willingly worked for sick families (Stewart, 1947 cc). Cf. in this context the nursing duties of the Knights of St. John of the Hospital (Devereaux and Weiner, 1950). | Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 105 ghosts of their victims, have formed a strong object cathexis toward these ghostly beings, and have, therefore, withdrawn from social life, are so desirous of joining their victims in the land of the dead, that they proceed to bait the surviving relatives of these ghosts, until the aggrieved relatives kill them (Kroeber, 1925 a). Only this vicarious form of suicide enables witches to join forever the souls of those whom they have bewitched and to retain their empire over them (Devereux, 1937 ¢; cf. also pt. 7, pp. 387-426). Summing up, hi: wa itck occurs only in individuals who, from the very beginning, are relatively handicapped in sexual competition and adventures, which constitute one of the chief safety valves of Mohave life. When their carefully built-up defense (1. e., their marriage to a young spouse) breaks down, they find themselves in a highly pre- carious position. Not only have they lost a, to them, exceptional and irreplaceable partner (Devereux, 1951 f), but they also find themselves without an emotional anchor, and without the security of social inte- gration and marital companionship in their old age. In view of the fact that the Mohave have little use for highly personalized affective bonds, which, according to them, are silly, the formation of such bonds and the need for such marriages is already atypical and perhaps even pathological. The occurrence of such marriages is, thus, already an expression of a preexisting trend toward social isolation in a given individual. This is given explicit recognition by the Mohave, in their comments on marriages between mother-in-law and son-in-law, which occur when young men tire of the flightiness of young women and seek a stable home life. The Mohave say, “Women sometimes marry their former sons-in-law, but men are not crazy enough to marry their for- mer daughters-in-law” (Devereux, 1951 f; but cf. Case 104, which has some aspects of sucha union). Marriage between mother-in-law and son-in-law is one of the minor patterns of Mohave culture, and appears to cater more to the infantile dependent needs of the young man than to the sexual and affective needs of the older woman. This may explain the discrepancy between the male-female ratio in hi: wa itck. The fact that social recognition is given to marriages between old women and young men may also be reflected in the (not conclusively established) Mohave habit of calling half siblings by kinship terms one generation apart.*®® In brief, when seen against the background of Mohave culture as a whole, it is relatively easy to understand why Mohave psychiatric thought should consider hi: wa itck a distinct clinical entity. This social background also explains the attitude of normal persons toward ® This information was provided by the late Ruth Benedict in a private conversation, but could not be confirmed in the course of subsequent fieldwork. 106 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 this form of mental disorder. The most telling argument, however, in support of the thesis that the concept of hi: wa itck is almost wholly social in origin, is the fact that only people who satisfy a number of criteria are so diagnosed. When O: otc’s husband was imprisoned for the slaying of the witch Anyay Ha:m (Case 104), O: ote professed to have hi: wa itck, presumably in order to rationalize her subsequent dissolute conduct (Devereux, 1948 f), but her claim was unanimously rejected by the tribe, since dissolute behavior is not held to be sympto- matic of hi: waitck. Thus, even though O: ote kept on saying that she had hi: wa itck, the tribe simply called her a kamalo:y (dissolute woman), and, instead of pitying her, severely condemned her conduct. HI: WA MAVA: REH This illness was first mentioned in connection with the case history of a woman who had some psychiatric symptoms while hospitalized after an incomplete miscarriage followed by sepsis. No formal de- scription of the syndrome itself was obtainable. When asked to describe this clinical entity the informants simply said that its symp- toms are those mentioned in Case 24. They did not imply, however, that hi: wa mava:rkh is a necessary sequel of miscarriage ® or that this illness cannot occur unless the patient first has an abortion or a miscarriage. One feels that Case 24 was diagnosed as “hi: wa mava:rkh” chiefly because of symptoms of depression. This sug- gests that, like other diagnostic labels in which the word “hi: wa” (heart) occurs, the term hi: wa mava: rkh is applied to certain illnesses characterized by disturbances of the mood, i. e., to an extreme affec- tive reaction type. It must be clearly stated, however, that most of the preceding comments are simply inferences. CASE 24 (Informant: O: ote, sister of the alleged kamalo: y) : Introduction.—In 1938 I was informed by the reservation physician that O: ote, of that gens, a fullblood Mohave woman in her middle twenties, had had a confusional episode following an incomplete accidental (?) abortion com- plicated by sepsis. My Mohave friends said I could interview her without an interpreter and that I would probably be well received, since one of O: ote’s numerous sisters was at that time married to Kamtoska’ Huanyeily (gens Vi: mak) and another sister to his brother N. 8., both of whom were grand- nephews of my old friend and informant Tecate. I found O: ote in her home, surrounded by her three children, and entertaining her amiable and intelligent brother-in-law Kamtoska Huanyeily. O:ote im- pressed me as a very intelligent, well-mannered, kindly, cooperative, and friendly person. She was somewhat thin and did not appear to be in good health. However, she seemed active enough and her movements were free and graceful. 80 Miscarriages (huk’auvik), as well as abortions (amayk kavo:rim=on-top step) frequently cause severe feelings of guilt and an appreciable depression (Devereux, 1948 d, 1955 a). Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 107 Though I had been told beforehand that one of her hands had been amputated, she concealed her crippled arm so unobtrusively that not until she herself mentioned her amputation did I notice it. Originally I had hoped to obtain only a brief account of her psychiatric illness. O: ote spoke so freely, however, that it was easy to rearrange her statements into an autobiography. All state- ments preceded by (Q), or by a question in brackets, were made in reply to a direct question, none of which was resented. Remarks in parentheses are either explanatory comments or else data obtained later on from informants Pulyi:k and Hama: Utce:. Autobiography of O: ote: My name is O: ote and I belong to the O: ote gens. I am about 27 years old and my present age-grade is thinyeak, which means “woman who has borne children.” Iam a fullblood Mohave Indian. I was born on the Colorado River Indian Reservation, near Parker, Ariz. My mother died 12 months after I was born. I was not nursed, but fed on “tea.” (This statement may refer to the period after her mother’s death.) After my mother’s death I went to live with a childless couple at Needles, Calif., both of whom were related to me. Except for the time I spent in boarding schools, I lived with them until I was about 12 or 13 years old. Both of my foster parents have died since then. I did not grow up with my father C. M., and my relations with him are indifferent. I don’t bother him and he does not bother me. We meet only once in a while. (Pulyi:k stated that O: ote did not live with her father because they had “fights”’—i. e., did not agree.) IT have quite a few siblings and half-siblings on my father’s side, the oldest of whom is my half sister A. She lives at Needles and is married to F. W. I am very fond of her and she does everything she can for me. Then there are two older full siblings: my older brother P. and my older sister F., who is the one I see most frequently. She is married to Kamtoskéa Huanyeily (who was present during this conversation). Then there are my two half sisters by my father’s third wife: Es. and El. I get along all right with my sister El. She is married to N. S., who, like Kamtoska Huanyeily, is a grandnephew of your old friend Teate. Before marrying N. S. she bore a girl child to someone else— to some fellow at Los Angeles, a Cherokee Indian. Now she is married to N. 8. and her daughter stays with her. [Knowing that her half sister Es. is reputed to be a kamalo:y, and is alleged to have helped her husband to kill a witch (Devereux, 1948 f, and Case 104), I made a point of inquiring how she got along with Es. The reply was somewhat curt.] I get along all right with Es. too. Last of all, there are the three children of my father’s present wife: my half sisters R. and F. and my half brother C. All my siblings are alive. (Q) When I was a child I never played with my siblings or half-siblings. They were raised by different people. The people who raised me had no children of their own and I was pretty much brought up among adults, all the time. How- ever, I did play, now and then, with the children of various neighbors. (Q) The first thing I remember about myself is that I went with my foster parents to look for mesquite nuts. (Q) My second earliest memory is about a carnival at Needles. Or maybe it was a circus. The noise frightened me, so I began to cry and got spanked for crying. I was still pretty small at that time. I went to the Fort Mohave boarding school. The only time I was really ill was when my hand was caught in a mangle and had to be amputated. I was only a small girl at that time. After I hurt my arm, my father wanted me to come to Parker. I came and stayed with him for 3 or 4 years and went 492655—61——_8 108 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 to school at Parker. Then I went back once more to the Fort Mohave boarding school and lived there as I had done previously. [Q, asked in connection with her remark that she was in the habit of spanking her children.] They spanked me when I was at school. [Why?] [Before in- formant could reply, Kamtoski Huanyeily remarked jokingly, “Maybe they spanked her for flirting.’ “O:ote would do no such thing,’ I replied with a grin.] I got spanked for speaking Mohave.” I also got spanked once for running away one night from school, with a Chemehuevi Indian girl, be- cause I did not like school. (Q) I do not recall how old I was at that time. (Q) I must have been about 12 or 13 years old, but do not recall whether I was already a masahay (pubescent) or still a maratciny (—humar hatciny=pre- pubescent), because I never went through the puberty ceremony.” We man- aged to get away from school and walked all the way to Needles. (Q) I was not seared while walking at night through the desert. I went to the house of my foster parents, but remained with them only for about an hour, because the school authorities discovered our escape and followed our tracks to my foster parents’ house. They found me there and took me back to school. That is when I got spanked. Around 1925 I was sent to Phoenix, Ariz., for further schooling. I remained in Phoenix for 5 years. (Q) I was quite happy there. I did not mind being away from Parker—I was used to being away. I left school in 1929, when my time was up. I made out pretty well at school, except in arithmetic. I went to the ninth grade. [Here, Kamtoski Huanyeily remarked, “O:ote has got me beat! I only went to the seventh grade, and I only got P’s (poor) in most subjects,” and then left us temporarily to chop wood for O: ote.] When I left school, I came to Parker for one or two months and stayed with my father. Then I went to Needles, where one of my relatives lay dying. I went there with my aunt, and stayed with her, rather than with the people who had raised me. I forgot to tell you that I was a church member once—a Presbyterian. My father was a religious, church-going man, and that is how I came to be baptized at the age of 12 or 13. I stopped going to church about two years ago. (I. e., roughly at the time of her divorce.) (Q) I actually used to believe what they told us in church. I obeyed the church laws and the religious laws. (Q) No, I did not get married in church. (Q) My first husband, who belongs to the Mu: th gens, used to go around with my brother P. and they were coming to the house all the time. My first husband had been married before and had just been divorced from his last wife. (Q) He did not help around the house, the way suitors do. I was sup- posed to go back to Phoenix for some additional schooling, but I did not feel like going back. (The Mohave frequently get married for such trifling reasons.) He kept on coming to the house and after a while I realized that he came be- eause of me. His sister used to go around with me and the two of us would go swimming with him (Devereux, 1950 e). 'Then, one day, he asked me to move to his place and marry him. He was about my own age or maybe a couple of years older and he got me while I was still quite young. He was pretty good to me for a while and I liked him. In 1934 we moved to Parker because he was ill and M. A. I. Nettle, M. D., wanted him to be near the Agency hospital. He 8?This was formerly standard practice in boarding schools that tried to detribalize Indian children, 8 This remark illustrates the psychological importance of the puberty rite (Devereux, 1950 g). Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 109 had heart trouble and high blood pressure and had to stay at the hospital for quite a while. When he came out of the hospital he went to work. He had a job up at the Agency school and we never had to live off our relatives. I lived with him for about 814 years, and never left him during all that time. I have three children by my first husband, a boy Morl. who is nine years old, a boy Mort. who is six, and a daughter J. who is four. My first child was born a year after we were married. I was glad when he was born, and took good eare of him. I like girls better though—they are more obedient. (On the whole, the Mohave say that girls are more trouble than boys.) (Q) I nursed my children for one year only. (Q) I nurse them until they start eating. Then I stop. [That is not the old Mohave way. Don’t you like to nurse them?] I don’t really care one way or the other. [At this point her little daughter J., who had listened to our conversation, said, “J am going to play cowboy with Morl.” J. also used the word “killing,” but I was unable to make her tell me whom she wanted to kill. She had been carrying her toy revolver all day long, playing at being a cowboy. ‘Then she told me that she was going to “stick me up.” I immediately raised my hands to the ceiling, whereupon she hid behind her mother’s skirt and grinned at me. Previously she had been playing alone, listening to us and talking to herself. She sounded as though she were talking to someone, and kept on calling out the names of little boys and girls. Her mother explained to me that her daughter saw the boys play cowboy with their toy guns and had also seen Westerns in the Parker cinema. ] (Q) I spank my children quite often, though, except at school, they did not spank me when I was small. (Q) They did spank me that time, at the circus. [Hivsu: Tupo: ma once said that the older Mohave think that only crazy people spank their children. He said that the old people are angry when they see the younger people spank their children. I think the old Mohave are right about that.] I know the old people don’t like it. It makes them angry. [Kam- toski Huanyeily remarked that he agreed with the old Mohave on this point, and shared my opinion about the iniquity of child beating.] [I saw Hiteu: y Kutask(w)elva strike his stepfather when he was about 8 years old.] My children never strike back at me. (Q) I ask them to do something and if they don’t doit, I spank them. My oldest boy is not very good at school. My second son is already doing pretty well at school, although it is only his first year there. My little daughter is still too young to go to school.” (Q) I speak both English and Mohave with my children. (Q) I do not teach them Mohave customs and tell them no Coyote (hukthar) stories, (Q) be- cause I have only heard them vaguely myself, and do not remember them well enough to tell them to my children. (Kroeber, 1948; Devereux, 1948 h). (Q) I like all my children equally well. There is no difference in my love for them. All of my children are alive. (This may be false. See below.) (Q) I have no children by my second husband. I did get pregnant by him, but had a miscarriage. I left my first husband because he was drinking too much. (Hama: Utce: con- firmed that the husband was kindly, but drank too much.) Whenever he got drunk he was mean to me and hit me, and was also mean to our oldest boy and hit him too. I could not stand it. One day my husband was drinking again. I had gone to an old woman’s funeral and, by the time I came home, he had gone out to drink some more. When he finally came home, he talked 8 The direct transition from spanking to schooling is significant. 110 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull 175 loudly and was cantankerous. Since I had told my sister previously that I might leave my husband and come to live with her, that same night, or else next morning, I just left the house with my children and went to live with my sister. My husband came after me, however, and stayed with me at my sister’s house for about 1 or 2 weeks. Then we both went back to our own old place and lived there for a while. However, since he kept on drinking, I left him once more and returned to the house of my sister. He did not come after me again, and that is how we were divorced. That was in 1937. After a while I went to Needles with my children and stayed with my aunt M. H. At that time I would take a drink or two; in fact, after leaving my hus- band, I drank quite a lot. I drank only with women, however, and did not run around with men. (Hama: Utce: said that she did run around with men and lost the twins she bore to Huymanye:, a Yuma Indian.) Eventually I left the house of my aunt, and, taking my children with me, went to live in the house of my brother P. One evening I was in town with some of my male relatives. They wanted to sing Indian songs and we went to a place where we knew that there would be some singing. My future (second) husband was also at that party and the people asked him to sing for them. He consented and sang for a while. That is how I met him. We liked each other right away and went around together for the rest of the evening. After that he used to come around to visit me at my brother’s house. He would chop wood and help with the chores (as a single girl’s suitors do). My brother liked him pretty well. The only thing he did not like about him was the fact that he could not seem to find work, and my relatives began to think that he was lazy. He kept on coming to the house for quite a while. Last January my first husband also happened to be at Needles. Someone was giving a birthday party and a bunch of us, both men and women, were drinking and doing an old Mohave dance in honor of our host’s birthday. My former husband did not like what I was doing and beat me up. (This is atypical behavior for a deserted husband (pt. 3, pp. 91-106).) Luckily for me, some people interfered and stopped him. After that I never even spoke to him again. The next morning my present husband came to the house to get me, and I moved over to his place and married him. (Q) My present husband belongs to the [hesitates] Nyolte gens, I think. He is about 33 years old. He was married several times before, and has children of his own. He had two children by his first wife, Nyorte. He also had two children, one of whom died a long time ago, by his second wife, Mah. (Q) Yes, Mah belong to that “famous” N. family. [See pt. 5, pp. 245-247]. (Q) I don’t remember who my present husband’s third wife was. He was married several times.” I am happy with my present husband. We will have been married a year next January. As you see, my children are with me and they get along very well with my present husband. Heisa good man. When I fell ill after my miscarriage, we moved to Parker and he came along, to be with me. At first he had a job with Mr. W., up at the Agency, ©” According to Hama: Utce:, O: ote’s second husband was first married to E. N., a Yuma Indian woman, then to Mah (of the “psychopathic” family), then to Po: ta (who had been involved in two suicides, Cases 119 and 120), and then to Nyorte by whom he had two children. The fact that these two lists are not entirely in accord—and that it 1s possible that neither list is complete and/or correctly arranged—simply shows the casual- ness of marriage and divorce in contemporary Mohave society. Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE EEE at a time when they were building a shed for the trucks. Then he was laid off for a long time. After a while he got another job, driving a truck, in eonnection with some road work and stayed on that job until last month. Then my brother-in-law Kamtoski Huanyeily, spoke to Mr. S., who thereupon came down here and asked my husband to work on the Parker Dam, which is just being built. He works at the head gate of the dam. We are getting along all right on what my husband earns. My sister F., Kamtoska Hua- nyeily’s wife, used to live in this house, and it is a nice place to live in. (Q) I myself am not related to your old friend Tecate, but my brother-in-law Kamtoskai Huanyeily is her grandnephew. I am also a little bit related to that troublesome N. family, of the Mah gens. They are a strange family. I know that Mah is a shaman, because she treated a woman who was staying here. That woman’s name was Vi: mak; she is a relative of Kamtoska Huanyeily. Mah could not cure her, however, and she died (Case 93). (Q) Kwathany Hi: wa, the shaman, is just a litle bit related to me. He is definitely not a close relative of mine. (Q) I would not be afraid to interpret for you (even though he is a witch), if you should want to work with him, but he is ill and is “drying up.” He is going to die. (Pulyi: k said: “He is suffering from huyate avi: rk (breath finished), because he spent all his power bewitching people.”) (Q) It is possible that some- one may have bewitched him at last. I too had heard that Kwathany Hi: wa had bewitched a number of people. (Q) My favorite amusement is going to the movies. I also like to dance (Mohave dances) and I like to listen to songs, especially to the bird songs. I myself can’t sing Mohave Indian songs. I also like to do housework. (Q) I really do. (She also went horseback riding once, cf. below.) (Q) Yes, Ido dream. (Q) I don’t recall what I dreamed last night. Most of my dreams are about someone dying.“ (Q) My recurrent dreams are about death. I see my dead relatives in a coffin.” After such dreams I wake up erying. These are bad dreams—suma: te itcem. I dream that I am with them and am talking to them. (Q) I do not dream of being given food by them, or of eating with them (i. e., she does not have a nyevedhi: type of illness.) (Q) I do not dream about my dead foster parents: only about my other dead relatives. (Q) I am very fond of my relatives. (Q) I have falling dreams. (Q) I also dream of falling into water or of swimming. (Q) I cannot recall whether I ever dreamed about climbing. (Q) I never dreamed of running on all fours. Once I dreamed that I was flying, but I do not recall the details of that dream. (Q) I never had a real suffocation nightmare. I did dream however, of being late; I was running and not getting anywhere. I also dream of people chasing me. They are gypsies. (Q) I saw real gypsies at the carnival at Needles. (Q) Not at the carnival which I saw as a child, when I was spanked for being scared and for crying. I saw the gypsies only last winter, at Needles. I must have heard about gypsies at school, or else I may have read about them in storybooks. (Q) I guess the closest Mohave equivalents of the bogeyman would be wolves and coyotes; also ghosts (nyevedhi:). Not so long ago I dreamed of hikwi:r snakes. There were quite a lot of them. I looked down on them and was afraid to get off the wagon. They looked like snakes. There was more to that dream, but this is all I can recall. (See pt. 4, pp. 117-128, regarding the forgetting of snake dreams.) “This indicates unconscious death wishes, which elicit guilt feelings and depression. Even nowadays the Mohave do not use coffins. They practice cremation. 112 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 (Q) I also dream of ordinary snakes. I dreamed that I was walking some- where and saw some snakes on the road, or on the path. [Very long pause.] I did not get ill after dreaming of real snakes, or of the hikwi:r snake (i. e., she does not feel she has the hikwi: r illness). I had a miscarriage last June—I don’t know why. I never before had a miscarriage. I was working at that time in Needles, cooking for a bunch of cowboys. (Q) I never had venereal diseases and had never been ill in my life, except the time I lost my hand. I had gone horseback riding just before I had my miscarriage (huk’auvak). It was the first time I ever rode horseback in all my life.” I liked it, though the next day I was rather stiff. [I thought that Mohave women do not ride horses.] They used to ride in the past, though they don’t nowadays. I went riding because I wanted to try it. I wore a pair of pants belonging to my husband. He too came riding with me. (Q) I don’t know whether I would rather bea man or a woman. Shortly afterwards I had a miscarriage and felt very ill. I was living on the Arizona side of the Colorado River, just opposite Needles, and I must have been ill for about two weeks when I began to get worse and started to have headaches. One day, when some Mohave, who came from some place, were passing by my camp, I asked them to take me to Needles, to see the doctor. The next day my brother P. went to town, to see the doctor about me, and asked him whether he could do anything for me. The Parker Reservation social worker—a Plains Indian girl who is married to a white man—happened to be in Needles at that time, and when she saw my brother at the doctor’s office, she asked him what was the matter. When my brother told her that I was ill, the social worker had a talk with the doctor, and then drove to my camp and asked me to come to the Parker Indian Agency Hospital with her. When I agreed, the social worker put me in her car and drove me straight to the reservation hospital at Parker. The hospital doctor then told me that I had had a mis- carriage. (Q) Yes, I was quite upset while I was at the hospital. (Q) They treated me with pills. (Q) The pills did not make me sleepy. The first day in the hospital I did not feel very ill. However, the next morning I got up and went to the bathroom, and when I came out again I guess I must have fainted. The nurse gave me some kind of medicine to smell, and that brought me around. Then they put me in a private room. I do not recall very much about the rest of my stay at the hospital. I was asleep most of the time. I had no pains, and nothing was worrying me, but my head kept on bothering me all the time. [Did you have headaches, or were you drowsy?] I had headaches, I think. (Q) I did not cry or shout. I was in the hospital for about a month. That was in the month of June of this year. (Q) I had had fainting spells also in the past. JI used to have them in school, all the time. (Q) The first time I fainted was after I had been in school, at Phoenix, for about two years. I must have been about 17 or 18 years old at that time. (Q) I don’t think it had anything to do with my menses. (Q) I can’t say that anything worried me, so as to make me faint. It just happened for no reason that I know of. (Q) I never had laughing or crying fits. (Q) No Mohave shaman ever doctored me, that I know of. I never was ill enough for that. (Q) They may have doctored me when I was a very small child. If they did, I do not remember anything about it. (Q) I don’t know what the Mohave name of my ailment is. (Q) I do not think that any of the Mohave diseases % This coincidence suggests an unconscious wish to abort. Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 113 which you just mentioned describe my condition. (Q) I recognize your descrip- tion of hot waves in the head, and the sensation that I am going to lose my balance when I get up abruptly. I used to have these feelings before fainting. (The description pertained to dizziness associated with postural cerebral anemia caused by low blood pressure. ) (Q) The miscarried child was fathered by my husband. (Q) At present my health is not very good. There is nothing special, really, but I just don’t feel well sometimes. Perhaps it is some aftermath of my illness. (Q) I had no further fainting spells since I left the hospital. (Q) I don’t think that I was even temporarily out of my mind, or yamomk (insane), while at the hospital. (Q) I know Apen Ismalyk (Case 4). He is insane (yamomk). (Q) I don’t know anyone else whom I would consider insane. An interview with the reservation physician, James L. Troupin, M. D., disclosed that O: ote, 27 years of age, was admitted to the hospital on June 2, 1938, with the diagnosis of incomplete abortion and postabortal sepsis. On the day of her admission the patient stated that she had missed a period, which was due a month ago. If she was pregnant, her embryo would have been about eight to ten weeks old. About ten days before admission she began to have a flow, accompanied by clots. She denied all instrumentation or other inter- ference. At the time of her admission this flow was continuing, though in some- what lesser amount. There were no symptoms other than a slight nausea. Except for the amputation of the right forearm, and for a few moist rales in both lungs (upper respiratory infection), no physical abnormalities could be found. During the first 244 weeks of her hospitalization, she had temperatures up to 100 and 101. About the third day, her nausea became worse and all food by mouth was stopped. On the eighth day she was able to take some food, and from then on she improved steadily. Throughout her illness, she was treated with hot douches, surgical interference being thought inadvisable. She passed small clots from time to time, and stopped flowing after about 2 weeks in the hospital. The only symptoms suggestive of psychiatric complications were the refusal to eat during the first week, and considerable moaning and groaning during the first 2 days. There was no pain severe enough to cause the upset she displayed. She was discharged as recovered on June 26, 1988, and since her discharge from the hospital had been perfectly well. Comment Tentative diagnosis: (a) Physical: Incomplete abortion with sepsis. Upper respiratory infection. (b) Psychiatric: Headaches, fainting, nausea, over-reacting to minor pain, anorexia. The entire picture suggests a transitory, mild, reactive depression. Two aspects of this case deserve to be discussed in some detail: (1) The “miscarriage” may actually be an abortion procured “accidentally on purpose.” It is hard to understand otherwise why O: ote felt impelled to go riding horseback for the first time in her life at that precise moment, especially since Mohave women do not ride nowadays. This type of behavior is in a class with that of some occidental pregnant women, who suddenly decide to play, e. g., tennis, and manage to take a severe fall on the tennis court. This interpretation implies that some, or all, of her psychiatric symptoms were manifestations of a depression, caused by unconscious guilt over her so-called miscarriage. Why 114 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 she should have felt impelled to bring about a miscarriage is, unfortunately, far from clear, nor is it easy to see why, if she did wish to abort, she did not resort to the standard Mohave method called amayk kavo: ram (on-back step=abor- tion) (Devereux, 1948 d) and improvised instead the abortifacient technique of riding horseback, which no primitive woman seems to use (Devereux, 1955 a). However, since O: ote has had a lot of schooling, she may have heard that riding horseback is sometimes resorted to by white women who wish to abort. (2) O: ote’s recurrent dreams of death and of talking with ghosts should have made her feel that she had either hiwey lak nyevedhi: or else nyevedhi: taha: na while her dreams of hikwi: r snakes and of real snakes should have suggested to her that she had the hikwi: r illness. Such, however, was not the case. Likewise, when this case history was read to other informants, they too ignored these diag- nostic clues and said she was suffering from hi: wa mava:rkh. This suggests that their diagnosis—rightly, we belieye—was determined primarily by O: otc’s reactive depression, rather than solely by the manifest content of her dreams. It should be noted that the fact that O: ote had psychiatric symptoms during her illness was not common knowledge. Thus, Hama: Utce: was surprised to learn that she had exhibited abnormal behavior while in the hospital, but took this information into account when she too, though a layman, made the diagnosis of hi: wa mava:rkh. As for Pulyi:k, who was likewise not a shaman, he de- clared himself unable to offer a diagnosis. HI: WA HISA: HK (HEART ROT) This illness was never formally described as a syndrome. The in- formant simply narrated the case history of an old woman and then stated that she suffered from hi: wa hisa: hk. Tentatively speaking, this disease entity does not seem to be one of the major Mohave diag- nostic categories. Nyortc’s illness appears to have been defined as a “mental disorder” only because this old woman had peculiar dreams and visions—which may not even have been true hallucinations—and was depressed and anorexic as well. CASE 25 (Informants: Tecate and E. §.): Nyorte, of the Nyolte gens, who died around 1928 at the approximate age of 70, was the wife of J. P., who was already dead in 1988. (Tecate momentarily con- fused her with Mu: th Nyemsutkha: vy, who was diagnosed as a hysteric by the reservation physician, M. A. I. Nettle, M. D.) Nyorte was not ill, i. e., she had no pains. She just had a tired feeling all the time. One day she told me one of her dreams. She dreamed that she had died. Also, when she went to the outhouse toilet and sat down on it, she used to see a vision of herself. During the 3 years of her illness she got thinner and thinner, because she had no appetite. They did not know what had caused this loss of appetite, but they noticed that she coughed quite a bit. This was caused by hi: wa hisa: hk. She was never “out of her mind’’; she was sane all thetime. To my knowledge she had never been to the hospital. No one thought that she had been bewitched.” Comment Tentative diagnosis.—Death from old age, perhaps complicated by an upper respiratory infection and some neurotic anorexia. The one truly psychopatho- Devereux} MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 115 logical feature of this case is the fact that Nyorte dreamed that she had died and even saw herself—presumably as a ghost—while sitting on the toilet. HI: WA HIRA: UK The Mohave woman, who still nurses her own child, is reluctant to wet-nurse a small orphaned relative, lest her own child, on being given a rival at the breast, develop an illness called hi: wa hira: uk, meaning heart angry, which appears to be very similar to tavaknyi:k. What little is known of this ailment will be discussed in connection with tavaknyi: k (pt. 7, pp. 340-848). Hi: wa hira: uk is of interest in this context chiefly by virtue of the fact that it is an infantile equivalent of adult hi: wa neuroses (pt. 3, pp. 90-115), which clearly suggests that extreme jealousy in adulthood is rooted in the infant’s unwilling- ness to share the breast. PART 4. DISORDERS CAUSED BY EXTERNAL BEINGS EXOGENOUS DISORDERS This part of the report is devoted to a discussion of psychiatric and psychosomatic illnesses that, according to the Mohave, are caused by the impact of ego-alien and external beings possessed of various supernatural powers, to wit: (a) An insane deity appearing in dream (6) Supernatural snakes (c) Aliens and alien ghosts (d@) Mohave ghosts who cause psychosomatic illness (e) Mohave ghosts who cause depressions (f) Funeral paraphernalia and rituals (g) Witches (h) Magic substances and narcotics An Appendix briefly discusses alcohol, drug addiction, and trance states (the latter being related to “power”) that, if one tries to think along Mohave lines, appear to be related to exogenous psychic dis- orders, as the Mohave conceive of them. INSANITY DUE TO DREAMING OF AN INSANE DEITY According to Kroeber (1948) “People who dream of Mastamho after he became a bald eagle know nothing and are crazy (yamomk) like him” (cf. pt. 2, pp. 50-54). While Kroeber’s data impress one as reliable, it is likely that this belief is not a key concept of Mohave psychiatric thought. Indeed— in reply to a direct question, illustrated by an account of the Indo- chinese Sedang Moi (Devereux, MS., 1933-34) belief that a person who dies insane turns into the “ghost of insanity,” which seeks to make others insane—the Mohave denied that they had similar beliefs. Furthermore, since Kroeber recorded the actual text that describes Mastamho’s insanity—which means that his (apparently sane) in- formant had (theoretically at least) dreamed this portion of the myth without going insane—this raises questions concerning the rigorous- ness of Mohave belief in this assertion. What Kroeber’s informant probably meant was that anyone who dreams of Mastamho only as a fish eagle, and perhaps not necessarily in connection with this myth, may become insane. This view would be compatible with modern psychoanalytic insight. Indeed, the onset of a psychosis is often 116 Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE ig 4 marked by dreams that herald the overt psychotic break in rather clear-cut terms.°** Once we take into account these reservations regarding the real meaning of Kroeber’s data, it is quite certain that the belief that he mentions is not incompatible, e.g., with the belief that the ghosts of the dead may, in dream, induce in the living a sickness complicated by a severe depression, which, according to the Mohave, indicates a psychic compliance of the living with the wishes of the dead, who desire to be joined by a beloved spouse, or relative, in the land of the dead. (This illness will be discussed in part 4, pp. 150-186.) In brief, it is felt that dreams about Mastamho in his psychotic fish eagle (or osprey) avatar—though not necessarily dreams in which knowledge of the relevant portion of the Creation myth is acquired— may actually precede a psychotic break, since it is known that motifs derived from folk tales are often utilized both by occidental (Freud, 1925 c) and by Plains Indian (Devereux, 1951 a) dreamers. Other- wise expressed, certain Mohave Indians may dream of the insane Mastamho because—albeit unconsciously—they sense that they are about to have a psychotic break. In this respect the psychiatric interpretation of such a dream differs from the Mohave interpreta- tion thereof only in that the Mohave consider it etiological, whereas modern psychiatry considers it as the first warning symptom of an impending psychotic break. HIKWI: R HAHNOK The disease caused (hahnok) by supernatural snakes (hikwi:r) was somewhat arbitrarily fitted into the class of mental diseases by the Mohave on the grounds that the dreams causing or heralding it are of a rather peculiar kind, and also because the physical illness some- times involved delirium. The material obtained is rather instructive in several respects, but especially because : (1) Hivsu: Tupo: ma’s account seems to differ in every respect from the other three accounts of this illness, but becomes fully compatible with the latter if one assumes that the snake symbolizes the male organ. (2) Ahma Huma: re’s account contains several acculturation items fitted into a traditional pattern, thus illustrating the “gallant rear guard action” of Mohave culture that Kroeber (personal communica- % This is also true of Indians. When I analyzed a Plains Indian woman, who had had three previous transitory psychotic episodes, she once reported a dream, in which there was much about doorknobs, locked doors, and hospital rooms. Having been at that time only a beginner—hersg being my first psychoanalytic case—I analyzed only the latent content of the dream, expressed by means of symbols, but failed to take adequate notice of the fact that this dream’s manifest content clearly indicated that she expected to be locked up in the near future. This experience taught me to emphasize (Devereux, 1951 a) the im- portance of analyzing also the manifest content of dreams, especially in the case of primitives. 118 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull 175 tion, 1954) noted in the course of his most recent field trip to the Mohave. (8) The same account implicitly relates supernatural snakes to white people, thus connecting the snake illness with the ahwe: nyevedhi: (foreign ghost) illness. This implicit nexus is indirectly suggested also by Teatce’s remark that the snakes appearing in path- ogenic dreams wear the kind of funeral feathers that cause the insanity which affects misbehaving funeral ritualists (pt. 4, pp. 186-195), who are also shamans specializing in the cure of ahwe: nyevedhi: (foreign illness). This fact further increases the plausibility of the suggestion (cf. pt. 4, pp. 128-186) that aliens are more or less thought of as dan- gerous ghosts. (4) Two of the three case histories are autobiographical, and in- clude dreams. (5) The same two case histories are those of a married couple, and suggest that the wife’s “pathogenic dream” may have been influenced by her knowledge of her husband’s pathogenic dream, parts of which provided material (“day residue”) for her own dream. (6) One of these two case histories underscores the dual function of snakes, which both cause and cure the snake illness. This dovetails with the Mohave belief that shamans can both send (cause) and cure certain ailments. In fact, in one of our cases the appearance of two hikwi:r as dream healers coincided with a real improvement in the patient’s condition, but also served as a basis for the diagnosis of her ailment as the snake disease. (Cf. also Case 94 for healing in dream.) Although three of the four accounts converge extensively on the manifest level, and the fourth also appears to be in harmony with the other three, provided that one accepts the symbolic equation snake= phallus, it seems expedient to reproduce the four accounts separately, in the order in which they were obtained, so as to illustrate the range—as well as the coherence—of Mohave psychiatric theories. However, in order to obtain a real understanding of Mohave ideas concerning the hikwi:r hahnok illness, it is first necessary to describe briefly Mohave beliefs concerning snakes in general. As will be seen, snakes—be they real, imaginary, or mythical—play an important role in Mohave belief, custom, and fantasy. (1) Concrete snakes.—If a Mohave is bitten by a rattlesnake he may not eat the first crops produced in the course of that year, lest he should “dry up” (huyate avi: rk=breath finished) like an old witch who had spent his powers. If the penis touches any part of a rattlesnake’s skin a permanent erectile im- potency ensues. The penis becomes “paralyzed,” and the paralysis will eventually spread also to the rest of the body (Devereux, 1950 a). If a pregnant woman or her husband kills a rattlesnake, she gives birth to a monster, whose head Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 119 resembles that of a snake. Such monsters are prone to bite the nipple, and their bite is believed to be poisonous (pt. 6, pp. 257-259) .™ (2) Snake dreams.—If one dreams of being bitten by a rattlesnake, or of fire falling on one’s finger, one will be bitten by a rattlesnake (Kroeber, 1902). A 12-year-old boy, attending fourth grade and getting B’s and D’s, dreamed, on the night of November 9-10, 1988, that he was bitten by a snake, and then woke up. He was unable to say what kind of a snake it was (Case 78; see also Case 77). It is noteworthy that dreams of real snakes usually involve being bitten, while the hikwi:r snakes appearing in dreams simply blow upon the dreamer, thus underscoring their supernatural shaman status, or else use guns and bayonets, thus resembling the “evil” white people. (For other snake dreams, see Case 24.) (8) Imaginary snakes.—Snakes are feared so much that they are seen everywhere. CASE 26 (Informant: Modhar Taa: p, gens O: ote): At a dance a boy went into the bushes to urinate and was badly frightened by what he mistook for the hissing of a snake. He immediately jumped to one side, in order to dodge the snake. After looking around more carefully he realized that what he mistook for the hissing of a snake was merely the sound of an old woman urinating. (Cf. Case 134.) Comment Freud’s (1924 b) remarks about fausse reconnaissance are fully applicable to this misidentification, since in Mohave psychology urinary exploits, including the attempted exploits of women, are closely connected with phallic-exhibition- istic impulses and, therefore, also with snakes, which among the Mohave are phallic symbols. Snakes also occur in alcoholic hallucinations. I reported elsewhere (Case 134) the case of an intoxicated man who, while walking home at night through the bushes, saw white snakes everywhere. Two maladjusted boys also had dreams of being bitten by snakes (Cases 77 and 78), and snake dreams are a charac- teristic feature of the hikwi:r hahnok disease. (4) Snake charms.—See part 4, pp. 202-212. (5) Mythical snakes—A mythical snake plays an important role in the Creation myth of both the Mohave (Kroeber, 1925 a) and the Yuma (Harring- ton, 1908). It is a dangerous and destructive “shaman,” who encircles the world and is eventually destroyed by certain supernatural beings, acting as witch killers. (For hikwi:r dreams, without hikwi:r illness, cf. Case 24.) In addition to hikwi: r hahnok (disease from the hikwi: r snake)— the most commonly used term—the hikwi: r disease is known by other names as well, e. g.: (a) Kumadhi: hikwi:r (thorn hikwi:r). (bo) Hitoly hiva: um hikwi:r. (Roughly translated as stomach pain, stands there, spreads.) (Or else hitoly hiva: um: hitoly havekwi:r.) (Cf. pt. 1, p. 11.) Turning now to the four general accounts of this disease, it is pro- posed to present them in succession, each account being followed by a brief cultural comment. *% These monsters may be children suffering from hereditary syphilis. 120 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 Hivsu: Tupo:ma’s statement (1938) —" The hikwi:r hahnok illness is caused by having intercourse under water. It only affects women. When, during swimming parties, couples cohabit in the water, they do it standing up. When intercourse is vaginal, the man may stand either in front or behind the woman; when it is anal, he stands behind her. Unless a woman does this too often, if her blood is good she will not contract this illness. I will now describe to you the symptoms of this illness: There are pains going from one side to the other in the abdominal region. The upper limit of the tender area is the navel and its lower limit the superior edge of the pubic bone. Unless a shaman is called in to treat the sick woman, death will occur in a matter of days. The shamans specializing in the cure of this disease are Harav He: ya (whisky mouth) of Needles, Calif., and Kwathany Hi: wa (lizard heart) of Parker, Ariz. [After translating this statement, the woman interpreter laugh- ingly remarked, “I don’t know why intercourse under water should cause disease. Why, it’s only a good wash!” *] This exchange of repartee put Hivsu: Tupo: ma in the mood for some typical Mohave banter. Turning toward one of his friends, he remarked sarcastically, “Of course, if you were to do that to a woman, the water would come out again, right away.” (I. e, “you have so small an organ that it could not plug the vagina.”) Put on his mettle, the man retorted, “Sure, it would come out again, but not via the vagina. It would come out via her mouth.” (I. e., because his penis is so long that it would push the water high up.)” MHivsu: Tupo: ma had the last word, however, when he replied, “Indeed, there would be water coming out of her mouth! The water she drank!” (I. e., She would vomit, because cohabitation with so inadequate a man would nauseate her.) This scurrilous conversation, so typical of Mohave banter, shows that the characteristically humoristic approach of the Mohave to all sexual matters not directly related to gestation (Devereux, 1951 c) may manifest itself even in the course of serious discussions about diseases that usually elicit con- siderable concern. Comment Hivsu: Tupo: ma’s theory differs from that of others, in that he attributes this illness to the action of the male organ™ whereas the other informants attrib- uted it to the action of snakes. It also differs from the others in stressing the element of ribaldry, this being chiefly due to Hivsu: Tupo :ma’s extroverted and Rabelaisian personality makeup. It is probable, however, that precisely this aspect of the informant’s personality enabled him to translate the snake symbol into its real meaning and to offer, instead of the cultural and symbolic etiological theory of this illness, a nonsymbolic theory thereof (Devereux, 1957 a). His account tallies with that of others in stressing that this illness is contracted in, or under, water. The nefarious influence of cold water, especially on female organs, is standard Mohave belief (Devereux, 1949 d). Hikye:t’s statement: See part 1, page 11. Ahma Huma:zre’s statement (1938).—The Indians believe that the hikwi:r is someone like a human being in the night (i.e., the nocturnal father, viewed as a sexual ogre). You, of course, might not believe this. % Although this shaman did not specialize in the treatment of hikwi:r hahnok, he could give reliable information even about diseases not coming within the scope of his own therapeutic activities. The following account is therefore probably authoritative. % This acculturated woman may have been familiar with douches. 7 A related exaggeration is reported by the Berndts (1951) from Arnheim Land. 8 Under certain conditions a harmful effect is ascribed to the penis (Devereux, 1948 b). Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 12 CASE 27 (Informants: Ahma Huma: re and Hama: Utce:) : A bunch of snakes lived along the banks of the Colorado River, near Needles. There was a white man who used to go there, looking for the skins of these snakes. A Mohave man told this white that he shouldn’t take the (sloughed-off?) skins of these snakes, because he would be sure to contract some sickness. Despite this warning the white man came and took one of these skins. Not long afterwards he was taken ill. The Mohave man, who had warned him not to take the snake skins, thereupon visited him and told him that he was dying because of what he did. He said that he had warned him that some day those snakes would come to him in his dream and take away his soul. [Which of his four souls?] I know of only one soul.” Finally, they took this man to Los Angeles and he died there. In the dreams of persons suffering from this disease, these snakes are some- thing like a hayiko (white person). They even use guns and bayonets! When a person dreams that this snake did something to him with a gun—that he stabbed or shot him with it, ete-——he awakens from his dream with a severe headache and has no appetite. Sometimes such a patient also hemorrhages from the mouth and becomes insane (delirium?). He will do a lot of talking about anything and everything. He will die from this disease. He also has a tendency to run away. [Was that the disease old Mrs. Uta: e¢ (Case 38) had?] I don’t know what her illness was. The (principal?) place where these snakes live is known as Amat kupa:ma (earth to-go-out, or earth to-exit), which is near Prescott, Ariz. This snake is also called hikwi:r nyamat (snake earth). These snakes are ipa: (persons), and whites are also persons. Comment We already stressed that this particular account contains references to objects of foreign origin (guns, bayonets) which are integrated with a basically Mohave belief, and that it compares white people to supernatural snakes. (The Mohave routinely refer to whites as beavers (apen), which are semiaquatic.) In addi- tion, it shows that even a white man, who is culturally alien and therefore skeptical of Mohave beliefs, may contract this illness. Similar harm also befell a Mohave who disregarded this tribal belief (Case 30). The “stabbing” and “shooting” of the guns owned by these snakes can, I think, be at least tentatively thought of as symbolic of the nefarious thrusts of the penis mentioned in Hivsu: Tupo: ma’s account. It is also noteworthy that whereas the skin of real snakes causes only impotency, that of the hikwi: r causes a more serious illness. Tcate’s statement (1938)*—There is a lake where people used to get mud for their shampoo (Kroeber, 1925 a). I don’t know exactly what there is about that lake, but after Hamuly Huk’ yé: ra did something to it, they began to call it Hanyeo Masthidhe:. Before that it was known as Hanyeo Kwaahwat (Lake Red). They believe that if anyone now bathes in that lake, or takes mud out of it, he will have headaches and may even hemorrhage from the mouth, because the lake was bewitched by putting some hikwi:r into it. This is a snake “all by itself’? (i. e., unique). [Interpreter E. S. remarked that he had never seen one.] It is not a rattlesnake. It is the kind of snake men- tioned in the English version of the Halyeku:p song cycle, which you read to me out of Kroeber’s book (1925 a). I saw one of these snakes myself. % This is manifestly inaccurate (Devereux, 1937 a). 1Though Tecate was a laywoman, she was extraordinarily well informed. Her account dovetails with the others perfectly and adds new and significant data to them. 122 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull 175 It looks like the rattlesnake. There isn’t much difference in color or ap- pearance (pattern on the back of the snake) between the two, but the hikwi:r js larger. It is twice as big as a rattlesnake—it is about 4 or 5 feet long. I don’t know just what causes the terribleness of these snakes. People who dream of this snake say that at night it is a person (ipa:). When one is going to get sick from this snake, one dreams that the snake appears in the form of a person, and tells the dreamer its name, which is a personal name, like that of human beings. Then the dreamer believes that the snake is a person. The patient suffering from this illness hardly ever knows how to tell what he dreams about this snake, nor can he tell all that this snake does (partial repression), because he has such a severe (tension?) headache. Nowadays the lake is no longer bad.? Nonetheless, because of all this business, hardly anyone ever goes down there nowadays. However, they are doing quite a bit of farming near that lake. It seems that the drainage system goes into the lake, and therefore the lake doesn’t look any more the way it used to look. [P. H. told me that there was also a two-headed hikwi:r.] That is right, and there is only one of those. It has two heads; one at each end of its body. The Indians call this snake hi: dho havi:k (face two). It is at a place called Amat Ku: kiyet (earth cut-off). This snake is in a cave called Kuyanyava: (cave-house), to the north of Fort Mohave. There is a group of hikwi:r there, who have only one head. The one with two heads is the only one of its kind; he is the chief (ipa: taha:na) of these snakes. These hikwi:r are actually referred to as ipa: (persons). They use some kind of feathers. They wear these feathers in the dreams of the people who see them, and they look like people. Atco: ra Haté: va knew more about these matters than I do and so does Kwathany Hi:wa. It would be hard to get Kwathany Hi:wa to talk to you about these things. He is a coward at heart and is afraid that one might do something (bewitch?) to him. Comment Teate’s account brings into the dream imagery, characteristic of this ailment, the feathers that play so important a role in the psychosis of the funeral ritual- ist, who is also a healer of the foreign sickness. Thus, her narrative completes and clarifies Ahma Huma: re’s concrete allusions to whites, who, are believed to be highly phallic and, thus, symbolize the nocturnal sexual father (Devereux, 1950 a). In addition, she introduces the theme of the bewitched lake, which is only tangentially mentioned in Ahma Huma: re’s narrative, and which plays a significant role in Case 80. She also mentions the two-headed chief of the snakes. Psychoanalysis and mythological material alike suggest that two-headed beings are a condensation of two separate—or, at least, separable—beings (see Case 29, for a dream about two cooperating snakes). In this instance, the two heads are connected by means of a snake body—an imagery whose psychoanalytic meaning is fairly clear, especially in terms of “bridge-symbolism” (Ferenczi, 1926). Per- haps the most important point raised by Tcate refers, however, to the fact that people who dream of the hikwi: r cannot recall the hikwi: r’s personal name that was communicated to them in dream, nor even give a full account of the snake’s 2Perhaps because Hamuly Huk’ye: ra died recently, allegedly bewitched by Kwathany Hi: wa. In reality his half brother, Hivsu: Tupo:ma, admitted to me that, motivated by sibling rivalry, he, personally, had disposed of him, through witchcraft (Devereux, 1948 1). *Compare the psychosis allegedly caused by contact with the feathers of funeral regalia, part 4, pp. 186-195. Cf. also the Mayan feathered serpent. Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 123 activities in the dream. Instead, they have a (tension?) headache. This is clearly a description of the repression of the dream on awakening, which is made necessary by its painful or embarrassing (latent?) content. (Cf. Hivsu: Tupo:ma’s account.) The inability of the dreamer to communicate the name of the hikwi:r is strongly reminiscent of the Mohave belief that a bewitched person knows the name of his magical foe, but cannot tell it to the therapist, either because the shaman “sealed the victim’s lips” or else because the victim is actually willing to become the witch’s beloved prey and a member of his faithful retinue of ghosts (pt. 7, pp. 383-886). Since the Mohave explicitly state that the mutual attraction between witch and victim is usually a sexual one, and is implemented in dream (Devereux, 1937 c), the dreamer’s inability to recall the name of the hikwi:r must be related to the dreamer’s repression of the snake’s actions in the dream. While these remarks are admittedly speculative, they are not too fanciful to deserve consideration, at least as work- ing hypotheses. The fact that the snake assumes in dream the form of a person has a twofold significance. We already saw (pt. 2, pp. 42-46) that, according to the Mohave, the only animal people dream of is the bull, and that the bull is a shaman in disguise. By contrast, in this instance it is a supernatural snake which is ‘‘disguised”—or would it be more correct to say “unmasked” ?— as a person. The specification that the snake is recognized as a person only when it tells its name is also significant. Tcate specifically said that this snake first appears in dream in a disguise, i.e., in the form of a snake; only as the “dream work’ progresses (and as the mounting excitement overcomes the “dream censor”) is the real identity of the snake revealed. Indeed, it is hardly necessary to argue the reasonableness of the assumption that only a person whom one does not wish to recognize needs to be smuggled into the dream in a disguised form. Were it otherwise, there would be no need for a disguise. Taking into account that, on awakening, amnesia partially blankets both the actions and the identity of the snake, and considering the nature of the attrac- tion that, according to the Mohave, exists between witch and victim, the sugges- tion that such dreams may be oedipal ones does not seem farfetched. Indeed, in terms of what is known of dream symbolism, the “king” of snakes can only be the father’s phallus, while the two-headed snake almost certainly symbolizes the primal scene. One minor, but interesting, point to be stressed is that the hikwi:r snakes appear in dream disguised as persons. This belief may be related to the Mohave Indians’ (erroneous) conviction that the only animal they dream about is the bull, and that the dream bull is but a shaman in disguise (pt. 2. pp. 42-46). This belief is complemented by the thesis that the hikwi:r, who have all the characteristics of supernatural shamans, appear in dreams in a human guise. Hilyera Anyay’s statement (1988).—This statement is of special significance, in that it was made by a person who claims to have the hikwi:r hahnok ailment. [What makes peopie go insane?] A person may be sane to start with, but when he is (in a state of, or afflicted by) suma: te itcem (dreams evil) (Wallace, 1947) sickness comes to him and he goes insane. When he is insane, they some- times say that he is hikwi:r hahnok (snake contamination). Such people have bad dreams. When these dreams stop, they seem to get better. But if they keep on dreaming, having such dreams time and again, they naturally get worse. At that point it is no longer a plain (or ‘straight’) sickness like pains, or hemorrhages, as it was in the first stages. Yet it sometimes happens that when people grow old hikwi:r hahnok does not (any longer?) have an effect on them. On the other hand, if these bad dreams keep on coming, 492655—61——_9 124 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 people get worse before they get old. They must be (have) suma:te itcem (dreams evil). What I told you just now is a matter of general knowledge regarding the good and the bad aspects of hikwi:r hahnok. What I explained to you up to now is one kind of sickness. I am describing to you the various (mental) illnesses one by one. Comment Hilyera Anyay’s statement is significant chiefly because it stresses that hikwi:r hahnok tends not to affect older people as severely as it affects younger ones. If hikwi:r hahnok should really turn out to be a mental disorder—and Hilyera Anyay listed it first among mental derangements—the specification above could fit both hysteria and manic-depressive psychosis. The informant’s emphasis on the psychiatric aspects of the illness is interesting, in view of the fact that both he and his wife (Cases 28, 29) seemed unusually pleasant, neither of whom complained of overt psychiatric symptoms, though their hikwi: r dreams were obviously neurotic ones. CASE 28 (Informant: The patient) : Dreamer.—Hilyera Anyay, a very old and nearly blind shaman, was most cooperative, unusually intelligent, and a very clear thinker as well. The events reported were stated to be recent ones. “TI was standing by the lake (Red Lake) and in my heart I knew that these hikwi:r things (snakes) were living somewhere along the bank. In my dream I knew that I had to get to the other side of the lake, so I went into the water and started to wade across. When I was halfway across, I suddenly felt warm around the legs. I knew that this warmth was the breath of one of these snakes.” Associations.—“Now, in my old age, I feel (have sensations in) my legs and have rheumatism. That is why I had this dream, which was the sign of the coming of rheumatism. Hence, I got sick after having this dream. When I get up and try to walk after sitting for a long while, my legs feel heavy and I have such sharp pains in my knees that it sometimes causes me to fall down. In my younger days I used to run races and ran long distances. Now, in my old age, the thing I have to think about, and must forget, are these pains.” Comment Mythical as well as real snakes are pathogenic agents. The lake in question (Red Lake) is believed by some to have once been “good”; women used to go there to get mud for shampooing their hair. However, a malevolent shaman, Hamuly Huk’yé: ra did “something” to that lake, and now it is “bad.” The breath of shamans and witches, both human and supernatural, is an important magical substance, used in therapy as well as in witchcraft. Heat is an im- portant therapeutic agent among the Mohave. Mohave men literally sit on their upturned soles (Kroeber, 1925 a; Devereux, 1948 a, 1949 b), which is probably an uncomfortable position for an old man to assume. The Mohave are noted for their great ability to run incredibly long distances (Kroeber, 1925 a). Tentative diagnosis.—Onset of rheumatism, eliciting an anxiety dream. Interpretation —This dream is stated to have heralded or caused the onset of rheumatism, which put an end to the dreamer’s former agility and speed. The warm breath of the snakes on the dreamer’s legs appears to be a denial of the illness, since old people suffering from rheumatism often have poor circula- tion, so that their legs feel cold rather than warm. One tentative interpretation Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 125 of the warm feeling around the legs while wading may be that children—and sometimes even adults—urinate into the water in which they wade or swim, which causes a sensation of heat on the legs.‘ If this interpretation is cor- rect, it ties up with Hivsu: Tupo:ma’s statement that the hikwi:r illness is caused by coitus under water—both coitus and urination being phallic feats. Speaking in the most tentative manner, entering water often symbolizes a return to the womb and/or dying. It may be noted in this connection that the land of the dead is under the Colorado River (Devereux, 1937 a). Crossing water often symbolizes death and rebirth; the idea of rebirth being present in Mohave society, especially in connection with twins (Devereux, 1941). Another be- lief in the return to the womb is discussed in part 4, pp. 150-175. (See also Devereux, 1948 b.) The presence of snakes (=—phalli) in the water may con- ceivably be related to the Mohave belief in an interaction between the phallus and the fetus within the maternal body (Devereux, 1948 b, 1949 ec). It should be stressed, however, that the preceding interpretations are highly tentative. They are cited here not so much in order to offer a psychoanalytic interpretation of the dream, as in order to stress the importance of understanding the cultural meaning of personages or events occurring in a dream, before offering a psycho- analytic interpretation. Even if the preceding interpretation should prove in- eorrect, it is quite certain that a more correct interpretation of this dream would be impossible without taking into account the cultural significance of the ele- ments occurring in this dream. On the other hand, it is extremely likely that one purpose of this dream was to bring the—possibly still only preconsciously perceived—onset of the illness in line with cultural beliefs regarding its etiology, and, as regards the warm breath of the snakes, to deny the illness, since heat is a recognized therapeutic agent in Mohave culture, while cold water (=wading through water) is deemed to be harmful. (Devereux, 1949 d, 1950 g). This interpretation suggests that in this dream the snakes perform a typically shamanistic double role: they cause illness, and yet blow warm breath on the legs of the dreamer. This is in line with the Mohave belief that shamans can both cause and cure a given illness (Devereux, 1937 ¢c). CASE 29 (Informant: The patient) : Dreamer.—The aged wife of the shaman Hilyera Anyay reported the following recent dream : “T shall tell you first about my illness. My abdomen was swelling up and I could not breathe. Then, one night, I dreamed that I was standing by an adobe structure or house. A woman, whom I did not recognize, was sitting by my side. This woman told me that two people wished to treat me, and I said ‘All right.’ I lay down outdoors, near the south side of the house, when I noticed two snakes near the southwest corner of the house. As I lay down, I closed my eyes and wondered how it would feel to have two snakes doctor me. (Polyandrous fan- tasy?) The snakes came out of their hole, crawled on my abdomen and chest, and blew their breath upon me, the way shamans do when they doctor a sick person. Then, almost as soon as they had come, they went back to their hole again. When the snakes were gone I got up and stood there, looking at the hole into which they had disappeared. Then I woke up.” Associations.—‘Shortly after I had this dream I began to notice that the swell- ing of my abdomen was decreasing. It went down so much that I could once more 4This interpretation was suggested by Martin H. Stein, M.D. (personal communication, 1957). 126 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 take long (=deep) breaths. I felt much better. But when the swelling went down, I had no appetite any longer, and by the time I was well again, I was quite thin. Now I am gaining weight once more. When I woke up, I told my dream to my husband. I did not know whether or not this was a good dream. The night (which is a ‘person’ who ‘sends’ dreams) seems to tell us what is going to happen... or is not going to happen. The name of my disease is hikwi:r hahnok (snake-caused). [How do you know it is not hiwey lak nyevedhi: =anus pain ghostly?]° The two diseases are much alike. Both start the same way, but when the illness gets worse, the ghost (nyevedhi:) element comes into the picture.” Comment Tentative diagnosis——The fact that the swelling of the abdomen and the shortness of breath rapidly improved after a crucial night suggested to Martin H. Stein, M. D., and Hilis Devereux, M. D., the possibility that this old woman had been suffering from right heart failure, causing an accumulation of fluid in the body, which was alleviated in a single night by a (temporary) cardiac recovery. Cultural comment.—In this dream, snakes function as healing shamans, treat- ing an illness caused by snakes. This double function of snakes tallies with the belief that he who can cure a certain illness can also cause it (Devereux, 1937 c). The snake as a therapist is not a specifically Mohave cultural phenome- non. Snakes played a significant role in the ancient Greek Aesculapian cult, and its cult emblem, the caduceus, survives as a medical symbol to this day. The fact that these dream snakes spontaneously offer to treat the dreamer is, however, atypical, since real shamans wait to be consulted by prospective patients or their families; they are not ambulance chasers. On the other hand, the snakes cured the dreamer by standard Mohave means, e.g., they blew on the patient, though, unlike real shamans, they sang no songs. It is also significant that even though such snakes may appear in pathogenic dreams disguised as human scalper- funeral-ritualist-foreign-disease-healers, in this curing dream they appear in their real shape. The fact that two snakes treated the patient simultaneously is also atypical, since two shamans never treat a patient at one and the same time. Possibly the appearance of two snakes may be a dream expression of belief in the existence of a two-headed chief of the hikwi:r, the meaning of which is indicated above. With regard to the hole into which the snakes dis- appear, it is well known that snakes do not dig holes for themselves, but preempt holes dug by small burrowing animals, such as rats. The Mohave believe that the soul of a very young child, whose chin has not yet been tattooed, does not go to the land of the dead that lies under the Colorado River® but into a rat hole, and sometimes returns to the womb of its mother, causing pseudocyesis (false pregnancy), which is one of the forms of the hiwey lak nyevedhi: illness (pt. 4, pp. 150-175). Interpretation.—Aristotle knew that one may perceive in dream the onset of an illness long before one becomes conscious of it in a waking state. 5 The purposes of this question were: (1) To test the dreamer’s conviction of the cor- rectness of her diagnosis (pt. 1, pp. 24-85). (2) To clarify whether the manifest content of the dream preceding illness or the symptoms of the illness form the basis of Mohave diagnoses. Indeed, the swelling of an older woman’s abdomen is often believed to be eaused by a ghost pregnancy (pt. 4 pp. 150-175). *It should be noted in this connection that even though the hikwi:r snakes are said to live in water, they were never mentioned to me in connection with the Colorado River. Devereux] MOHAVE BTHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 127 In this case, however, it is the impending improvement that is heralded by a dream, perhaps because the heart temporarily resumed its normal func- tioning. The crawling of the snakes on the belly and chest may be related to the existing shortness of breath’ and their departure may have been dreamed of at the precise moment when the functioning of the heart im- proved. The choice of snakes as dream figures is hard to interpret with any degree of confidence. In general, psychoanalysts find that the dream per- sonage pressing down on the dreamer in the nightmare is a parental figure (Jones, 1981), and curing by blowing was interpreted by Réheim (1932) as a symbol of cohabitation. However, in this instance at least, the primary determinant of the appearance of snakes in the dream may be the fact that, the husband having had snake dreams causing hikwi:r hahnok, the wife felt unconsciously motivated to adopt a similar dream symbolism.’ However, since reality factors (illness, and also the dream of the husband) seem to account for much of the dream’s content and symbolism, and since the dream was not obtained in a psychoanalytic situation and the personal associations to the dream are relatively meager, it would be hazardous to interpret fully the unconscious content of this dream and the interplay of psychic forces in the dream work that caused Mrs. Hilyera Anyay to have this particular dream.’ CASE 30 (Informants: Tecate and EH. §.) : Hu:kyev Anyay (=to bring together light), whose English name is for- gotten, belonged to the Mu:th gens, and was married to Nyorte Kupu: yha. This couple had no children.° Nyorte Kupu: yha was a very nice (pretty?) girl, and had lovely hair. Hence, she frequently sent her husband to get mud for a shampoo from Red Lake, which is some four-fifths of a mile from Parker, near Ben Butler’s farm. This lake had been bewitched by the shaman Hamuly Huk’ yé: ra, simply because he was a shaman, and shamans do just any- thing to be odd. He did it just because people kept going to that lake. Hu: kyev Anyay had heard of the spell cast on the lake, but he kept going there all the same to get mud, because he did not believe in the spell. This happened around 1910, about the time the land allotments were made. As a result of his doing this, he became quite ill. He didn’t do anything strange. He did not even talk or move the way Le: va (Case 35) did, who was also bewitched by the same shaman. He merely had an abdominal hemorrhage and, when he died, his stomach was puffed up with blood. He was treated by Hukuwalyevalye (=Kuwaly) who had hiku: pk suma:te (venereal disease dream power), and was famous for having been the husband of more than one male transvestite (Devereux, 1937 b).” [Why did they get a hiku: pk shaman to doctor a patient 7Suffocation is characteristic of the true nightmare (Jones, 1931) and is specifically referred to in the German term Alpdruck. 8 Parallel dreams of closely associated persons, in which the dream of A. serves as a “day residue” for the dream of B., are known to occur. The most extreme forms of such a psychic interdependence are ‘folie & deux’”’ and the ‘deputy lunatic’ (Devereux, 1956 a). ®The interpretation of dreams to which there are few associations, especially if the dreamer’s personality is not well known, is a highly speculative undertaking and may lead to off-the-cuff interpretations bordering on a psychoanalytic parlor game. Such over- interpretations have no standing in responsible psychoanalytic research. 20The designation of the wife as Nyortc, instead of Nyolte, shows that she had given birth—presumably in a previous marriage—to at least one child, who died (Kroeber, 1925 a). uTf a transvestite happens to be a shaman, he or she is always a very powerful one indeed. However, a shaman married to a transvestite is not, ipso facto, an exceptionally Powerful shaman, 128 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 who had hikwi:r hahnok?] I don’t know why they chose him, rather than some other shaman. He specialized in venereal diseases. If you had been here at that time, and had had gonorrhea, he would have doctored you too. (A typical bit of Mohave banter.) Despite the treatment, this man died within a week after contracting this illness. His wife (Case 61) eventually re- married and had a child by her next husband. No close relative of this man survives; he was the last of his family. The same thing happens in many cases of witchcraft (and incest)—the family just dies out (Devereux, 1939 a). Comment Tentative diagnosis.—The clinical picture might suggest stomach ulcer with hemorrhage, though, since stomach ulcer is rare among primitives, it is more probable that the man had both tuberculosis and venereal disease. Psychiatric symptoms were denied, though his deliberate defiance of the dangers of a bewitched lake suggests that he had some self-destructive impulses, and that, once the disease became manifest, he may have had anxieties. This, however, is simply a probability, and not an established fact. The diagnosis of hikwi:r was obviously made because of this man’s repeated contacts with a lake which contained hikwi: r and was, moreover, under an evil spell. These facts impelled the Mohave to diagnose this case as “hikwi:r hahnok,” complicated by witchcraft, even though obvious psychiatric symptoms could not be observed. The combination of hikwi:r hahnok with witchcraft would, in terms of Mohave medical theories, make this a “not straight” (mul- tiple) type of illness. THE AHWE: PSYCHOSES Roughly speaking, the ahwe: disorders fall into three main groups: ahwe: hahnok (or mahnok or hahnotc) = foreign (enemy) contamina- tion, ahwe: nyevedhi: = foreign (enemy) ghost, and ahwe: ma: n (pt. 2, pp. 43-45). The boundary between the first two conditions is not always sharply drawn. Ahwe: hahnok may only be a simpler, or earlier, or more benign form of ahwe: nyevedhi:, exactly as hiwey lak appears to be a less complex form of hiwey lak nyevedhi:, or as the nyevedhi: element may complicate the hikwi:r ailment. In fact, ahwe: hahnok may even be simply a “straight” disease, and ahwe: nyevedhi: a “not-straight” (multiple) disease, involving also either other disorders or ghosts, or else witchcraft. The third type, i. e., ahwe: ma:n, was discussed elsewhere (pt. 2, pp. 43-45). The Mohave themselves spontaneously relate the ahwe: group to the scalper’s psychosis (pt. 2, pp. 43-45) that Pulyi: k specifically des- ignated as a form of ahwe:; a juxtaposition that, in the light of Mohave etiological theories, seems perfectly reasonable. At the other end of the scale, ahwe: nyevedhi: is said to be related to hiwey lak nyevedhi:, apparently because the dreams occurring in these two ill- nesses are extremely similar and involve dream interaction with ghosts. At first glance, the fact that dreams about the ghost of a deceased spouse or relative, i.e., of a person who is usually a Mohave, are capable of causing the ahwe: (alien) illness seems utterly paradoxical, at least Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 129 on the (logical) conscious level. It is, however, perfectly reasonable, if one assumes that ghosts and aliens are affectively (unconsciously) experienced as the same kind of beings . . . an inference supported by the fact that the scalper, who is also a funeral ritualist, may, in his former capacity, contract the scalper’s psychosis (said to be a type of ahwe: nyevedhi:), and, in his latter capacity, the psychosis caused by misconduct during memorial rites (pt. 4, pp. 186-195) ; in addition, he is also usually a ghost doctor (Fathauer, 1951). Before presenting Mohave accounts of the ahwe: psychoses, it there- fore seems desirable to outline briefly the Mohave’s attitude toward, and fear of, aliens, since the “xenophobia of fear” is a major theme in Mohave culture. Mohave xenophobia is determined by several considerations: The Mohave refrain from all close contact with other tribes, and even more from intimate connections with alien races. Mexican blood is, however, relatively safe; Pulyi:k felt it was not too strong. As regards halibreeds, Hama: Utce:, a halfbreed, reports that, in her childhood, people refused to eat from the same dish with her, though, needless to say, she was given as much food as anyone else. (How- ever, she did play with other children and was made to carry around the baby of one of her relatives (Devereux, 1948 c).) Food received from aliens and nonaboriginal food also cause the alien sickness. K. M. Stewart (1947 c) specifies that, when female captives were distributed, only older men put in a claim for them, because they did not expect to live long anyhow. This suggests that the malignant influence of aliens requires some time to take effect. In addition, the Mohave believe that alien males are phallic, sexually potent (Devereux, 1950 a), and genetically prepotent. They believe this is true even of Mexicans. Thus, in connection with the belief that if a pregnant woman changes sex partners her new partner will modify the biological and social identity of the baby,” it is held, on the one hand, that it is hard for a Mohave to change the racial identity of a halfbreed fetus, and, on the other hand, that a single sexual act with an alien may suffice to change the racial identity of a full- blood Mohave fetus (Devereux, 1937 d, 1949 c). The extreme sex- ual effectiveness of the alien male is also reflected by his “dangerously” large male organ and hyperpotency (Devereux, 1950 a). Last, but not least, the killing and/or scalping of enemies—or even a mere 2This belief is highly convenient in a society where marriages are very brittle, and children much desired and loved, since it enables the pregnant woman’s new spouse to claim her previously conceived baby as his own. 13 Since the partial breakdown of Mohave culture, men sometimes visit alien prostitutes in order to lend ‘‘spice” to the sexual act, whereas formerly only impoverished women had relations with whites capable of paying them for their services (Devereux, 1948 f). 130 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 participation in a raid—exposes the Mohave to the dangers of the ahwe : illness. On an altogether different level, the Mohave stressed that all of Kroeber’s informants died shortly after working with him,’* ap- parently because, by imparting to him tribal secrets, or knowledge ob- tained in dream, they exposed themselves to the ahwe: illness, (and, perhaps, also to witchcraft). Summing up, the three most intensive forms of physiological inter- actions—eating, cohabitation, and killing—and the most significant form of psychological interaction—discussing the knowledge one ac- quired in dream *—expose the Mohave to the dangers of foreign contamination. Less intensive contacts are, by contrast, not especially dangerous. The second, and more general, factor is the streak of insularity in Mohave personality, which, paradoxically, 1s complemented by a tendency to explore distant countries,—e. g., for “name traveling” (MeNichols, 1944)—secure in the knowledge that no one would dare attack even a single Mohave traveler, lest the dreaded Mohave club- bers should, later on, retaliate. Like many other Mohave paradoxes, this, too, becomes less paradoxical on closer scrutiny. Thus, Dr. A. M. Halpern (1938) informed me that men sometimes deliberately strayed into enemy territory, because they wished to be killed (pt. 7, pp. 426-481). Getting oneself killed by enemies is, needless to say, a way of expiating warlike aggression, guilt feelings of this type being quite common in many warrior societies. In another sense, the fear of aliens—and the deliberate incurring of risks by coming into con- tact with aliens—is but another facet of the type of reaction to con- quest which, in other tribes, led to waves of suicide in early reserva- tion days. A third factor, related especially to impregnation by alien males, is tribal concern over the transmission of gentile affiliation. Among the Mohave, gentile affiliation is transmitted by the male, though the gentile name is used exclusively by females (Kroeber, 1925 a). Thus, both a man’s sisters and his daughters may be called, e.g., O:ote, while he himself will have a strictly personal made-up name, although this name sometimes (though not often) is an allusion to his gentile emblem, which may, or may not, have been formerly a totem. Now, whereas the Mohave accept certain gentes of the related Yuman tribes as equivalent to their own, so that, e.g., a Yuma father of the Hipa: 14 Needless to say, this was due to the fact that, like all anthropologists investigating a rapidly decaying culture, Kroeber worked chiefly with older persons. 15 Compare in this context the fact that shamans are reluctant to speak of their own power dreams, medical theories, and therapeutic practices in the presence of another shaman, because they fear that the latter—offended by views partly differing from his own—may bewitch them (Devereux, 1957 b). Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 131 gens may transmit membership in the Mohave Hipa: gens to his children," it is not known whether a Yuma father of the Wahas gens will transmit to his child membership in the Mohave Vaha:th gens, because of the similarity of names, or whether he will transmit to it membership in Syuly gens, because of the identity of the emblem (or “totemic reference”). As regards non-Yuman men, be they Indians or racially alien persons, they cannot transmit to their children mem- bership in a non-Mohave gens, even if, in the father’s tribe, gentile affiliation is transmitted in the male line. Originally this rule did not admit of exceptions; in more recent times it became more flexible, however. Thus, the daughter of an Italian father and Mohave mother, whose family name on the Agency register is that of her Italian father, is, by courtesy, sometimes called Mah, and was even considered sufficiently Mohave to have her nervous breakdown attributed to the foreign illness (Case 81), perhaps because she was raised entirely among the Mohave. She was certainly not believed to have the for- eign illness because she was a halfbreed, since halfbreeds are appar- ently not believed to be—if one may use so daring a metaphor— “allergic to themselves.” Also, as specific descriptions of the foreign sickness show, halfbreeds are considered racially alien, and therefore capable of causing fullblood Mohave Indians to contract the foreign illness. By contrast, even a decade or two earlier, the Mohave were less accommodating in this respect. Thus, when Hama: Utce:, who was of mixed blood, more or less considered herself to be—through her mother—a member of the Kunyii:th gens,” her claim does not appear to have been challenged by anyone, but neither was it ever formally accepted. In brief, the child of an alien father usually has no gens, and, if a female, does not wear a gentile name. Such persons either have a “funny name”? or else are known by the “English” 16 Gifford (1918) published a tabulation of gentile equivalences among the Yuman tribes, which, while probably correct, has certain puzzling features, in that identically named gentes mostly do not have the same “‘totemic references” in all Yuman tribes. This may indicate nothing more than an obsolescence of the totemic function of the referents . . but may also indicate that these referents were not true totems even in early times. In fact, they may simply be relatively recently adopted emblems, this being suggested also by the fact that some gentes have several unrelated referents in one and the same tribe. Thus, the Mohave Nyolte gens has five referents: Sun, fire, deer, eagle, and humahnana beetle. While “sun” and “fire’’ may be interrelated, the relationship between these two and the other three is probably nil, and furthermore, the last three likewise do not seem to be related to each other. The problem is too complex to be discussed in this context. Suffice it to say that whereas it may be possible to establish, even at this late date, a gentile equivalence system in terms of the capacity of an alien (though Yuman) father to transmit his gentile affiliation to his half-Mohave child, it is almost certain that emblem equiva- lences are no longer susceptible of being established, and that the question of whether the Yumans ever had real totems will remain permanently in abeyance. 7 The word “ipa :’? means both person and lineage. The question “Kute simu :ly ipa:?” (= what gens people) means actually: ‘‘To what gens do your people belong?’’—but, because of the double meaning of ipa: (= person and also social group, lineage, family), it can also be translated as “You are a person of what gens?” 1% This is far from unique. The Mohave revel in weird, self-chosen names, such as “Drygoods’ anus’? (Devereux, 1951 c). 132 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 name under which they appear on the Agency register. Now, even though almost the only function of the gentes is the transmission of gentile affiliation and the insuring of gentile exogamy, a disturbance of the gentile pattern is highly undesirable from the Mohave point of view, since a given ethnic group’s “systems of classification” are among its most characteristic (Devereux, 1956 a) and most cherished cultural possessions.?® The pervasiveness and importance of xenophobia in Mohave society may best be ascertained by determining whether inherently unrelated material is forcibly coordinated with it, in a relationship of “arti- ficial compendence” (Devereux, 1957 a). We have already stressed that not only aliens, but also the alien’s foodstuffs, may cause the foreign illness. In this instance artificial compendence is relatively minimal, since the nexus is brought into being by means of a simple expansion of the concept “alien” to include not only the foreigner, but also all his works and possessions, by recourse to the pars pro toto principle. It is on this basis that alien food is held capable of causing the foreign illness. The artificiality of the compendence is more pronounced in the case of magic-laden substances, or charms, which “do not really belong to the Mohave,” but to alien tribes. Since the Mohave have no real “power over them,” the Mohave possessors of these substances are ultimately harmed by these charms. However, in contradistinction to alien foods, these alien magical objects apparently do not cause the “foreign illness,” but a disease which is sui generis, and which is caused primarily by contact with magic-laden substances and only secondarily by the fact that these substances belong to alien tribes (pt. 4, pp. 202-212). We will postpone for the moment a closer scrutiny of the problem whether, in a roundabout way, “alien” and “magical” may mean the same thing, at least in the unconscious, and will examine instead the even more farfetched artificial compendence that the Mohave seem to establish between live foreigners and the ghosts of deceased Mohave Indians, both of whom may cause the “foreign ghost illness.” Now, it stands to reason that the ability of the ghost of a Mohave Indian’s own deceased parent, relative, or spouse to cause the foreign ghost illness is, to say the least, startling, especially since, officially at least, the Mohave believe that the ghost of a Mohave continues to be a Mohave also in the land of the dead. At the same time it was possible to point out, in connection with the culturally atypical hoarding behavior that characterizes persons For example, the notion that “gender” is related to “sex” is so deeply ingrained in our culture that I once experienced considerable difficulties in persuading several behavioral scientists that the absence of gender in a given language does not imply that persons speaking that language minimize or ignore sex differences. Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 133 preparing for death (Kroeber, 1925 a), as well as in connection with the possessiveness of the recently dead (Devereux, 1942 a), and the acquisitiveness of twins, whom one set of Mohave beliefs defines as reincarnated ghosts (Devereux, 1941), that the Mohave do, in fact, ascribe to the dying and to the dead an acquisitive and selfish type of misconduct which they consider characteristic only of living aliens, and especially of whites. Hence, even though they formally deny that the ghost of a Mohave Indian turns into a kind of alien, their beliefs concerning the economic selfishness of supposedly Mohave ghosts and their conviction that the ghosts of one’s own relatives may cause one to contract the foreign ghost illness, indicate that the formal belief concerning the nationality of Mohave ghosts is not echoed on a deeper attitudinal and affective level. (Cf. p. 139.) Without falling into the more extreme errors of the old-fashioned comparative method, it is not inappropriate to recall in this context that primitives often equate truly strange groups with the ghosts of their own ancestors. Thus, at least one Australian tribe argued that the newly arrived whites had to be the ghosts of their ancestors, since otherwise they would have been unable to find their way to that tribe’s territory. In Melanesian “cargo” cults, whites also tend to be viewed at least as the emissaries of the tribe’s ancestors. If we now combine the culturally implicit, and psychologically more or less unconscious, tendency to equate aliens and Mohave ghosts with the fact that magic substances cause harm primarily because they do not truly belong to the Mohave, we must conclude, be it only ten- tatively, that—at least in psychological-attitudinal terms—the Mohave experience one and the same type of dread in connection with aliens, magical powers, and the ghosts of the deceased.”” It is quite certain that such an identity of psychological reactions cannot take place in a cultural vacuum and cannot fail to have at least latent cultural consequences. Thus, on the cultural level, the fear of magical substances and the dread of ghosts appears to be brought into a relationship of artificial compendence with the Mohave Indian’s pervasive fear of all that is alien, partly because of the obnoxious acquisitiveness manifested by aliens, and partly because the alien’s blood, soul, or “power” causes the Mohave to contract the alien sickness. In brief, on the cultural level, the Mohave Indian’s xenophobia is the source of his dread of ghosts and magical powers. By contrast, on the psychological level it is probable that the source of the Mohave Indian’s conviction that aliens, as well as magical powers and substances, are dangerous, is, in the last resort, his fear 20Tt should be recalled that one and the same person functions as scalper, purifier of warriors, healer of the alien and the ghost sicknesses, and funeral orator. 134 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 of ghosts. The psychological transformation of the beloved rela- tive’s or spouse’s ghost into a dangerous being is due partly to un- conscious resentment over the beloved person’s “desertion,” and partly to the final eruption, triggered by the trauma of mourning, of the hitherto repressed aggressive component of man’s unconscious am- bivalence toward those whom he overtly loves. A further triggering factor is the feeling that neither ghosts nor aliens act as real, live Mohave should. We will return to this point in a moment. Be that as it may, the Mohave themselves are quite conscious of their xenophobia, though, when accused of being terribly prejudiced, they at first strenuously denied it. However, in the end Hama: Utce: remarked: “The Mexicans are really closest to us; yet we would do more for an (American) Chinese or Japanese, than for a Mexican.” Sometimes the Mohave neutralize their xenophobia by pretending that a likable alien is really a Mohave; a trait already mentioned by Garcés (1900). Thus, I, personally, was told time and again that I was not really a white but a Mohave, since I felt and acted the way a Mohave does.” Otherwise expressed, an alien who acts the way a Mohave should act, is, both emotionally and by courtesy, no longer a true alien. This, in turn, implies that a Mohave, such as Ha: wl, who is selfish like an alien, is felt to be “more like a white than like a Mohave.” It is therefore reasonable to suggest that one reason why ghosts are implicitly viewed as sufficiently alien to be capable of causing the alien ghost illness is that their conduct is un-Mohave, which, in essence, means: not predictable in terms of Mohave “systems of classification” (Durkheim and Mauss, 1903) and of the expectations which are rooted in such a system of classification.” It is of interest to note, at least in passing, that, even though the Mohave say that the Yuma are like the Mohave, and even though Hama: Utce: specified that the Mexicans were closer to the Mohave than any other racially alien group, I know of no instance where the expression “he is really a Mohave” was applied to anyone other than a white, and this despite the fact that the whites are the most foreign and most dangerous of aliens. Indeed, once in a while someone will even refer to ahwe: hahnok as apen hahnok (=beaver contamina- 21 Since, to the Mohave, ‘‘white’”’ means primarily “American,” the fact that I had first come to them straight from France, also mitigated the odium of my being white, especially since those Mohave, who fought in World War I, admired French valor in general, and that of French officers in particular. ‘The officers were always the first to emerge from the trenches when the French attacked.” 22¥'rom the psychological point of view it is important to note in this context that, for the small child, the behavior of adults—and especially that of parents—is essentially arbitrary and unpredictable (Devereux, 1955 b). It is therefore suggested, at least tentatively, that the relative unpredictability of ghosts and of foreigners is, psycho- logically, a major determinant of the tendency to equate ghosts, aliens, and also magical powers which, by definition, are unruly and unpredictable. In brief, the ghost becomes as unpredictable as the parent (= witch) sometimes seemed to the child. (Cf., however, pt. 5, pp. 254-255.) Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 135 tion) or apen nyevedhi: (=beaver ghost) ; the term “beaver” referring specifically to whites, who were formerly known as apen kutctha :ny (=beaver eaters), though nowadays they are called “hi:ko” by the older generation and—even when speaking Mohave—“Americans” or “whites” by the younger people.” On the whole, Mohave xenophobia—which formerly led to the killing of halfbreed infants (Devereux, 1948 d)—appears to have been quite an effective barrier to miscegenation, since, as late as the 1920’s, the reports of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs listed fewer halfbreeds among the Mohave and the other Yumans than among many other tribes. The last point to be considered is the tendency of the Mohave to think of the alien disease as the most basic of all disorders. Hikye:t (pt. 1, pp. 9-17) more or less equated ahwe: nyevedhi: with ku: na: v uyevedhi:, and so did Pulyi: k. This latter term means, roughly speak- ing, “the foreordained ghost (disease).”* The implication of this name is that the disease in question was already foreseen and fore- ordained at the time the human world was first organized and that it was mentioned by Mastamho as the prototype of diseases. This was taken for granted by all informants, though it should be noted that Kroeber’s (1948) version of the Mastamho myth does not discuss this illness in any way. This omission does not cast doubt either upon the accuracy of the text recorded by Kroeber, or upon the veracity of my informants, since everything that exists is automatically held to have been foreordained in the beginning. Furthermore, since the Mastamho myth does account for the origin of various nations, even before it accounts for agriculture, etc., it is clear that national differences are, in the opinion of the Mohave, among the most fundamental categories of the human order. This, in turn, necessarily implies that diseases due to contact with aliens must, ipso facto, be among the most basic of all disorders. AHWE: HAHNOK The first set of data to be presented pertains nominally only to the ahwe: hahnok entity, though it will be noted that it contains many references to ahwe: nyevedhi: as well. In fact, it seems evident that certain passages supposedly pertaining to ahwe: hahnok refer pri- marily to ahwe: nyevedhi:, which is believed to be a closely related, though more complex, disorder, whose nature is supposed to shed light upon the nature of the simpler ahwe: hahnok disorder, and vice versa, 23The word “hi:ko’’ also denotes Negroes, perhaps because—according to M. A. I. Nettle, M.D.—a Negro cavalry regiment, commanded by white officers, was once stationed in Mohave territory. 74Ku:na:v can be translated as: foreordained, prophesied, a prophecy, telling (in an impressive manner), to inform, something told. 136 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 of course. Both diseases closely resemble also moua: v hahnok (pt. 4, pp. 184-186). Hivsu: Tupo:ma’s statement (1933).—People who come into close or pro- longed contact with foreigners go crazy. The stronger blood of the stranger “hits’ (in some unexplained way) the weaker blood of the Mohave, causing him to become ill and to go crazy. Of course, a Mohave Indian’s blood may also affect an alien adversely.” Formerly, there were shamans who could cure this illness, because they had ahwe: suma:te (foreign dreams, i. e., dreams pertaining to the treatment of the foreign sickness). Now there are none. (The Mohave insisted that Hivsu: Tupo: ma himself, as well as Ahma Huma:re, had the requisite powers, although both denied this not only to me, but also to the Mohave themselves.) It is possible, of course, that some- ohe may have the appropriate dreams sometime in the future, and if that happens, there will again be a shaman who can cure this sickness.” Some of Hivsu: Tupo:ma’s subsequent remarks indicated that the term “blood”—at least as used in this context—may also carry a peripheral connotation of “power.” Thus, once in a while he would say that the stranger’s power hit the blood of the Mohave, although most of the time he said that this was done by the alien’s blood.” Somewhat along the same lines, Teate stated that it was the soul of the alien that hit the soul of the Mohave. This was also the opinion of Hilyera Anyay. Tcate’s statement (1938).—[What is the cause of insanity in general?] Insanity is, in general, caused by intermarriage with different tribes. This is called ahwe: (short for ahwe: hahnok). The soul (matkwisa:) and the blood of aliens are stronger than ours. They hit the blood and soul of the Mohave, who then contract this disease. [Which of the four souls is involved? (Devereux, 1937 a)] You, who saw your sweetheart in dream, should know that. It is the matkwisa: suma:te mitcemvete. (The soul wherewith one has bad dreams.) Even if your children are not real aliens, but merely half- breeds, you will see this (stronger) soul among your children. (Weeks later, when summing up her remarks about mental disorders, Tecate once more stated :) I have now finished telling you about all the crazy people I have known. Now that there are all these intermarriages with different tribes and with one’s own relatives™ there ought to be a lot of crazy people, but, oddly enough, there are not. [Why not?] There are no fullblood Mohave anymore.” Maybe— I am not sure of it—but it may possibly be that that is why they do not go In the same sense, any discussion of the psychodynamics of severe obsessive-compulsive states invariably contains references to the dynamics of paranoid schizophrenia, since a severe obsessive-compulsive may, if his analysis is not conducted with extreme skill, become a full-blown paranoid schizophrenic. While we certainly do not suggest that ahwe: hahnok and ahwe: nyevedhi: are effective and scientific nosological entities, in the modern sense, the Mohave feel that they are genuine clinical categories, and that ahwe: hahnok can develop into ahwe: nyevedhi:. If one accepts this Mohave view, the constant references to ahwe: nyevedhi: in discussions supposedly limited to ahwe: hahnok, and vice versa, are both logical and necessary. This view is in accordance with the principle that one may draw perfectly “logical” (though inherently false) conclusions from a set of coherent, but false, premises. An example of this is Plato’s logically airtight, but factually fallacious, defense of slavery. * This was not mentioned by any other informant and may be a personal opinion. 27 Compare the belief that the witch killer becomes psychotic because he sees the blood of his victim in his dreams (pt. 2, pp. 45-46). The juxtaposition of tribal exogamy and incest further supports the inference that the “superpotent” alien symbolizes the sexual, “evil” paternal ogre (Devereux, 1950 a). #2 This gross overstatement is made by many fullblood Mohave Indians. Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE ta crazy from the effects of all these foreign contacts. The ‘‘delinquent” boy Nepe: he (Case 76) is an example of this. Ahma Huma: re’s statement (1938).—A person who gets the ahwe: hahnok disease is suma: te itcem (has evil dreams). A long time ago the original food of the Indians sometimes caused them to become ill. Le: va (Case 35) had this illness. It is called iteuma: te.” They (sometimes?) dreamed that they were eating too much of some of this aboriginal food. But now that we have these foreign foods, they see in their dreams some other person—not a Mohave—who is preparing this food (for them) and dream that they eat too much of some of this food. When they have such dreams, they have no appetite. They vomit quite a bit and sometimes also have fever. The halfbreeds whom they marry may also cause them to have this sickness. The Mohave are said to have a weaker blood and weaker souls than other races. They may also dream of cohabiting with members of other tribes, or even with whites, and this causes them to contract the ahwe: hahnok disease. Ahwe: means the same thing as ahwe: hahnok. [What is the apen hahnok disease?] There was a person who ate apen (beaver). The beaver is not what we would call the original food of the Mohave. Yet, even in the olden days, when people were hungry and meat was scarce, some people killed beavers and ate them. Some of them got sick from doing that. I do not know what dreams such people had. People who had this sickness suffered from a swelling of the body. I do not know in what way they would be crazy, but they did say that such people became crazy. By the way, whites are called apen kutctha :ny, which means beaver eater. Sometimes we also call the whites simply apen. It means beaver. [Is the term hi:ko still used to refer to whites?] No. Nowadays we refer to them mostly by the term “American.” Hilyera Anyay’s statement (1938)—[What do you know about the ahwe: nyevedhi: ailment?] Ahwe: hahnote (another form of the word hahnok) is a sickness that is contracted by coming in contact with other tribes and with persons of mixed blood. A Mohave is weaker in soul and blood than are other races. This sickness is accompanied by bad dreams. As time goes by, and the patient continues to have these bad dreams, he seems to be afraid of everyone and runs away. [Was this the trouble with Uta:c’s father-in-law?] Yes. Such a person runs away from people not just once, but many times, because he is scared of people. Then people run after him and bring him back. Some- times, in wintertime, when such a person runs away at night he may freeze to death." At other times he falls into the river or into a lake and drowns. [Was this what happened to Teivakong?] Yes.* [You explained all this very clearly. Thank you for helping me get this straight. A few of my other informants got me somewhat confused about this disease.] Even after a person reaches this stage of the disease, he will be all right again if his bad dreams cease. I am trying to tell you that when people suffer from this sickness they either get worse, or else they get well. Now ask me some more questions, so that I can explain everything to you just right. [Thank you. What sort of dreams do such people have?] Let me give you some examples: Should a Mohave marry 2 member of another tribe, he may see in his dreams the body of his spouse, or see humthi:ly (the discharge of the nose) on his own 50 According to Pulyi: k the complete term is itcema:v hahnok, and is efther actually the same as ahwe: hahnok, or very much like it. “This may also happen to guillt-ridden intoxicated persons. Not long after Hivsu: Tupo:ma confessed to me that he had practiced witchcraft, he got drunk, fell asleep outdoors in wintertime, contracted pneumonia and died (Devereux, 1948 1; and Case 139). 2 Wor a different diagnosis of Tcavakong, see Case 6 and Case 103. 138 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 face.* He might also see that his hair appears very greasy and oily. He also dreams of other things. He may dream of having the body secretions of his spouse, ie., her saliva, urine, feces, or nasal mucus, on his own body.™ If these dreams cease, he may be all right again. On the other hand, he may even dream that his spouse urinates on his body.” When a man has such dreams, he loses his appetite, and cannot keep the food down in his stomach. This condition is called suka:t lyidhi:k (=nausea). When he eats, he thinks of these dreams, and of these various secretions on his body. That is what makes him vomit. He is nauseated. In the ahwe: sickness, the person sees in his dreams only a person of mixed blood, and the power of the mixed blood.” [Does the dreamer also see his own sperm in dreams?] No, he doesn’t.” The ahwe: hahnok case material will be found on pages 142-144. AHWE: NYEVEDHI: The ahwe: nyevedhi: disease greatly resembles the ahwe: hahnok disease and may be a more or less aggravated “not straight” form thereof. Hilyera Anyay’s statement (1938).—I will now explain to you the difference between the foreign disease (ahwe: hahnok) and the foreign ghost disease (ahwe: nyevedhi). In the latter illness, a patient has dreams in which he mingles (consorts) with his dead relatives. He eats, plays, and talks with them. [Does this mean that this illness resembles hiwey lak nyevedhi:?] Yes. When these dreams continue, the patient seems to lose all interest in the activities of earthly life, because his heart and his mind are always with his dead relatives.” When he awakens from some such bad dreams, he sometimes sits for a long time without eating or talking, and sometimes he cries, remembering his dead relatives. A patient who has such bad dreams is advised to take young arrowweed tops and to fumigate himself with them, or to steep arrowweed roots in water and bathe in this, or to do both. If the patient is suma:te ahot (has good, or power- giving dreams) his bad dreams will then cease, and he will be all right once more. In other instances the patient is advised to take some tasi: lyk weed, soak it in warm water until it lathers, and then bathe in this water without disrobing. Then he must go down to the water (i. e., river) and bathe there. When he is ready to come out, he leaves his clothes in the river and is careful not to emerge from the water at the same place where he had entered it. % When kissing, the partner’s saliva may cause venereal disease (Kroeber, 1948). 34 Compare the witch killer’s dreams about blood (pt. 2, pp. 45-46), and the belief that evil creatures were born of Sky rattlesnake’s body foam (Kroeber, 1925 a). 35 Weminae venerea voluptate commotae nonnumquam super virum mingunt (Devereux, 1950 a). Muller etiam temulenta, cum iuvenes nequam crinem pubis incendissent, incen- dium emissa urina exstinxit (Devereux, 1948 1). Mohavia mulier cum per venerem varie excitatur, sphincteres quos habet nonnumquam patefieri sinit: vel e vagina murmures emittit (Devereux, 1950 a) vel inflationem ructusque dat (Devereux, 1951 e) vel super mentulam in anum immissam cacat (Devereux, 1951 e) vel, dum fellat, salivam semine intermixtam ab ore ebullit (Devereux, 1947 a). 86 Presumably the informant mentions here only mixed blood because most racially exogamous marriages nowadays involve Mohave halfbreeds rather than fullblood aliens. 87 Witches are similarly obsessed with dreams and thoughts about their dead victims, who are frequently close relatives (Devereux, 1937 ¢c). By contrast, scalpers and witch killers have unpleasant dreams about their victims (pt. 2, pp. 43-46). % Bathing and/or fumigation rites are, in one form or another, also part of childbirth, menstruation, and funeral observances (Devereux, 1942 a, 1949 d, 1950 g). Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 139 If all this is done and the bad dreams cease, the patient may be all right. After all this has been done and the patient has put on different clothing, he is able to think straight again. Then he seems to forget his dead relatives and his bad dreams and gets well. (This suggests that this treatment psychologically duplicates and reinforces the basic function of the funeral ritual, which seeks to sever the bonds between the dead and the mourners. ) A woman who lost her husband may also have such bad dreams. She may dream that she is still living with her husband, and is doing all the things which they did during his life on earth. This sickness of widows is much the same as the illness of persons who dream of the dead blood kin. This illness, too, is called ahwe: nyevedhi:. If the sick widow performs those actions which are also prescribed for the cure of the previously mentioned ailment, the results are the same. [What if one dreams of one’s dead spouse during the first 4 days after the death of that spouse?]” It is ali right to have such dreams during that period; one does not get sick from them. It is not a sign of sickness if one dreams of one’s dead spouse during the 4 days which follow cremation. Once in a great while one may even dream of one’s dead spouse ata later date. People say that one has such dreams when the dead spouse thinks of the surviving spouse. When the widowed spouse has such bad dreams about the dead spouse, it is a sign of the coming of sickness. In the case of a woman, there seems to be some hard substance, or some “muscles,” in her vagina. Then, in her dreams, she has sexual intercourse with her dead husband. This particular condition is known as ahwe:tci:. (Note that dead husband—enemy, i.e., ahwe: !) This hard thing, is roughly speaking, like a real object inserted into the vagina (i.e., an imaginary foreign body). It is not just that a part of the vagina is getting hard. (Phantom phallus.) * Comment The preceding account strikingly illustrates the connection between aliens, the ghosts of relatives, and the ghosts of dead spouses. The “internal phantom phallus” has also been mentioned by Euro- American psychoneurotics. It must be specified that the “experience” of an “internal phantom phallus” in a waking state is very different from dreams of having intercourse, and represents an almost schizo- phrenic impairment of the body image. The pathogenic dreams related by Hilyera Anyay appear to differ from those which cause hiwey lak nyevedhi: only in that the latter type may involve also dream-incest, dreams “causing” pseudo-preg- nancy (pseudocyesis) and dreams about one’s childhood.” 89 During this period the dead soul, which is not yet a true ghost, revisits its old haunts. 49 At this point Hilyera Anyay was asked about the globus hystericus. His answer is reported in part 5, pages 216-218. 41 An experienced psychoanalyst stated that when a psychoneurotic woman was speaking of her dead father, she began to experience the sensation of having some object in her vagina. The analyst promptly told her to get up from the couch and sit in a chair, since he rightly feared that if the woman remained in the prone position—whose purpose it is to facilitate the (gradual) emergence of unconscious thoughts and feelings—there might occur an uncontrolled and massive “return of the repressed,’ which may lead to a sudden schizophrenic break. The woman spent the rest of that hour sitting in a chair. “This last type of dream is, of necessity, related to dreams about the dead, since one would see in dream a house which was burned down (Kroeber, 1925 a) at the death of a member of the household. 492655—61——_10 140 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull, 175 A supplementary statement by Hilyera Anyay is cited further below. Ahma Huma: re’s statement (1938).—[What causes ahwe: nyevedhi: ?] Such people have bad dreams which resemble hiwey lak nyevedhi: dreams. [Then what is the difference between the two ailments?] As regards dreams, there is practically no difference between the two. A person may dream that he has some sort of relations with his (dead?) relatives, but these relations need not necessarily be sexual ones. If the patient does not tell every single one of his dreams, then, even though he is being treated, there is no cure for him. The patient must tell his dreams just the way he dreamed them (this specifi- cation is also a part of the “basic rule” of psychoanalytic therapy), so that the shaman may know what his sickness is. Of course, if the person is bewitched, then it is only natural for him not to tell all his dreams.* If a patient is bewitched, it is death if he does tell his dreams (because the witch may take revenge), and it is death if he does not tell his dreams (because he cannot be cured). If the patient does not tell such dreams, he dies instantly, unless a shaman, who is not the bewitcher, happens to be treating him that very minute. In that case there is a chance that the patient may recover. [Can dead people bewitch the living? Is that why hiwey lak nyevedhi: and ahwe: nyevedhi are so similar?] No. The dead can’t bewitch the living in the sense in which we apply this word to the acts of living witches. Of course, ghosts also appear in dreams, etc., but that is not quite the same as witchcraft. Hikye:t’s statement (1938).—This informant asserted that ahwe: hahnok (foreign disease) is not identical with ahwe: nyevedhi: (foreign ghost) (pt. 1, pp. 9-38). G. T.’s statement (1938).—This ahwe: nyevedhi: is also known as nyaévudho:- ka. That is all I know about it. (According to Kroeber (1925 a) nyavu- dho: ka is also the name of a song cycle.) Hilyera Anyay’s statement.—[Do you know what nydavudho: ka is?] There are several things by that name. [Interpreter, after conferring with Hilyera Anyay, suggested that it would be better to ask Ahma Huma: re about this term, since Hilyera Anyay thought that this term designated the entire group of ghost diseases. ] Hivsu: Tupo:ma’s statement (1933).—Kunyoo:r, who can take people by the hand and make them visit the land of the dead (Fathauer, 1951) can also cure insanity caused by dreams about one’s dead relatives.* 6 A witch who is not yet ready to make himself known as a witch, f.e., who is not yet ready to be killed, ‘‘seals’”? the lips of his victim, or else appears in his victim’s dreams disguised as another person, whose shape he deliberately borrows in order to escape de- tection (Devereux, 19387 c). This belief is extremely interesting, since psychoanalysis has shown that persons whom one does not wish to recognize appear in dream in the guise of other persons. This belief implies furthermore that the Mohave tend to interpret dreams symbolically, whereas most primitives interpret dreams either directly or else by opposites. Even Homer is quite primitive in this respect, since his epics contain only one dream, that of Penelope (‘‘Odyssey,” bk. XTX), which is interpreted symbolically . . . and this despite the fact that Homer was a keen observer of dreams—witness his comparing the filght of Hector from the pursuing Achilles (‘‘Iliad,’” bk. XXII) to a dream in which one runs and runs and does not advance at all. “ Hivsu: Tupo:ma, who did not specialize in the treatment of this group of diseases, always felt free to list all living specialists known to him; e. g., it was he who referred me to Ahma Huma:re, Haravy He: ya, and Kunyoo:r. Ahma Huma:re, on the other hand, being a specialist, only mentioned a dead specialist, Hulo:k. The fear of being bewitched by his competitors probably played an important role in silencing the reliable and cooperative Ahma Huma: re. Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 141 Two points mentioned in the preceding statements deserve special notice: Hikye:t, a somewhat weird and probably quite disturbed witch, whose opinions often seemed quite idiosyncratic,“ denied that ahwe:nyevedhi: is fundamentally identical with ahwe: hahnok. G. T., an intelligent layman, related the ahwe: nyevedhi: syndrome to the Nyavudho: ka song cycle. Kroeber (1925 a) calls this song cycle Nyava- dhoka, but only states that little is known about it, that it begins at Aha’av’ulypo (the primal house), and that the singer slaps his thigh. Hilyera Anyay was puzzled by G. T.’s statement, and Ahma Huma:re, to whom he referred me for further information, was, unfortunately, not available at that time for consultation. In the absence of other information about this song cycle, the problem of its relationship to ahwe: nyevedhi: cannot be resolved. INCIDENCE All informants agreed that whereas one would expect to see many cases of foreign sickness, one actually sees very few of them nowadays. Tcate’s statement (1938).—[Do you think that there are more insane people nowadays than there were formerly?] In the past more people became insane, because they had more Mohave blood in them. They were fullblood Mohave and were therefore constantly exposed to insanity (through contacts with aliens). Nowadays there are a lot of halfbreed Mohave. No wonder, then, that there are so few insane. Yet, there should be more of them around because, in the olden days, they went insane if they married an alien. THERAPY Teatc’s discussion of the basic principles of all psychotherapy re- veals the importance she attached to ahwe: hahnok, which seemed to represent for her the very essence of all mental disorders. Tcato’s statement (1938): [Do shamans now living know how to cure insanity?] No. [Then what do the Mohave do when someone becomes in- sane?] In the old days there were ailments which we called straight sicknesses. In those days, when our only food was corn, pumpkins, melons, beans, hamo:se and hatey-i: ly, we got sick from these foods, but these ailments were called “straight (ordinary) illnesses.” When we began to eat strange food, the sickness (which it caused) was no longer called a “straight” one. All shamans who doctored such ailments in the olden days seem to have gone by now. When 4 The tendency to present personal views as cultural material may be quite common among the Mohave. Thus, Kroeber (1948). reports that when a woman named Maha (= Mah) told him a certain ‘‘Coyote” story in the presence of other people, the latter vehemently protested that she did not tell a traditional story, but simply a (private) dream. Kroeber failed to add, however, that many personal dreams may eventually become part of Mohave culture, provided that they fit the Mohave cultural pattern—which Mah’s dream seemed to do—and provided also that the narrator’s “dream inspiration” is accepted as genuine. In fact, even a budding shaman must first demonstrate his power publicly, if he wishes to persuade others that he is, indeed, a shaman who had the proper power- dreams. Even then he does not rate as an established shaman until he has a few cures to his credit (Devereux, 1937 c). The growth and renewal of Mohave “dream culture” is, thus, largely determined by a given dreamer’s ability to persuade others that his addition to Mohave culture or mythology has genuine ‘dream authority” behind it. This, in turn, depends to a large extent on the congruence of the new material with the basic pattern of Mohave culture. 142 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 shamans treated such (“straight”) ailments, there was only one who would doctor such a sickness, because the patient had only one sickness (at a time). Nowadays, however, when a person has ahwe: hahnok, he also has other sick- nesses at the same time, so that a number of shamans have to be called in. No shaman now living knows how to cure the ahwe: nyevedhi: illness. Nowa- days, if someone contracts this illness—and some people do contract it—he goes to the hospital. And, if nothing can be done for him, he dies. GENERAL COMMENT The principle that polar opposites are often interchangeable and may symbolize each other is often of great importance both in primi- tive cultures and in the individual unconscious.“ This principle ex- plains why the Mohave Indians’ deceased relatives and spouses, as well as their enemies, can cause them to contract the foreign ghost illness. This suggests that gentile exogamy, combined with tribal endogamy, is a typical compromise solution between the oedipally motivated urge to commit incest and the reaction formation against this urge, which impels one to marry a complete outsider. It is this reaction formation against incestuous wishes that provides the moti- vation, e.g., in the legend of King Cophetua who married a beggar girl. The same defense against incestuous wishes is often also a major motivating factor in disparate unions, as exemplified by hypergamy or by miscegenation. CASE MATERIAL It is proposed to present, first, cases of ahwe: hahnok, and then cases diagnosed as ahwe:nyevedhi:. It is noteworthy that whereas the accounts of the former “clinical entity” are more elaborate than are the accounts of ahwe: nyevedhi:, our case material contains more examples of the ahwe: nyevedhi: illness than of the simpler ahwe: hahnok ailment. Since one of the ahwe: hahnok cases was also ob- served and described by the reservation physician, it is this case which will be presented first. AHWE: HAHNOK CASES CASE 31 (Informant: James L. Troupin, M. D., reservation physician (1938) ): M. D., 21 years old, is the daughter of an Italian father and a fullblood Mohave mother of the Mah gens. (According to Pulyi:k this young woman is permitted to claim membership in her mother’s gens on a courtesy basis, but does not seem to have a supplementary Indian name or nickname to differentiate her from all the other women named Mah, so that she is commonly called—and referred to—by her “Hnglish” name.) 46 Among the Sedang Moi of Indochina, that which is big in the land of the living is small in the spirit world, and vice versa. Hence, the share of the sacrificial animal which is given to the spirits is always very small. Likewise, whereas both human beings and the supernaturals associated with the Sedang tribe walk and stand in the normal position, the Thundergods of the enemy Halang tribe are believed to stand on their heads (Devereux, MS., 1933-34). Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 143 This patient was seen by me for the first time in January 1940. Information about her was obtained from her mother (through an interpreter), from her younger sister, and from members of the tribe who have known her since child- hood. Much of the data received from the latter source is unreliable and colored by individual imagination. The father was an Italian who was apparently normal, but who met a death of violence some years ago. He was shot by the watchman while attempting robbery. The mother is a mild-mannered Mohave woman who speaks fairly good English, but cannot understand all that is said to her, probably because of the speed of the speech. She seems to be above the average in intelligence (among her own) [sic!]. The patient is bedridden and is constantly attended by her sister L., age 19, the latter even accompanying her to the hospital for her brief stay. The relatives say that Mah was quite normal as a child. She was willing to play with other children, and a history of moodiness and of self-centered and introspective characteristics was not obtained. At the age of 6 she went to the Indian boarding school at Fort Mohave, and returned there the following Sep- tember for her second year, but, for some reason which was not clear, the mother took her home at Christmas and she never returned to school. Another informant said that formerly Mah played with other children at campfire meet- ings, etc., by running from them and squatting in the grass a short distance away, giggling, and covering her face. Her life was uneventful for the next few years; that is, her relationships with the remainder of the tribe were practically nil, but stories are told of periods of excitement, during which it was necessary to chain or tie her to the bed. There was apparently some movement on foot to commit the patient, for there are stories of the mother standing by with a gun and threatening to shoot the first one to lay a hand on her. About 5 years ago, the patient took to her bed, and has been there ever since. Attempts to elicit a history of delusions, hallucinations, or illusions have met an absolute blank, not because the family is trying to hide anything, for indeed they are most cooperative, but because they have seen so much of the patient, for so many years, that they do not remember. As one looks at the patient, however, one sees a continual movement of the lips as though she were talking to some invisible person. She also makes sharp movements with her head, as though she suddenly saw something to one side or the other. The patient seems to recognize her surroundings, and is alert enough to respond to visual and auditory stimuli. There are many grimaces of lips and eyebrows, but no actual speech. The sister claims that the patient is capable of asking for food and water, though she is incontinent and has been so for years. There is contracture of both knees in a flexed position, but motion is rel- atively free with arms. At one time, the patient was surprised in the so-called “fetal position,” under a blanket. When she learns to know someone, she is perfectly willing to smile and shake hands. The mother was very anxious to know the prognosis, and she is almost des- perate for a new treatment for Mah, as she has tried everything suggested to her, and at one time was trying to scrape together 10 dollars for a blood test, which some doctor wanted to do. A diagnosis of schizophrenia, hebephrenic type, was made, and a poor prognosis given. The mother was advised to put the patient in an institution, so that the sister may have a more healthy and normal life, but the mother would like to keep her at home. 144 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 Comment Mohave diagnosis—Ahwe: hahnok. This diagnosis is culturally most inter- esting, since this woman is a halfbreed. The fact that such a diagnosis was made may be due to her having been granted a kind of courtesy membership in her mother’s gens, making her a real Mohave. Tentative diagnosis.—Schizophrenia, hebephrenic type. Less probably: re- current transitory confusional state, resembling a so-called ‘three-day battle- field schizophrenia.” This patient is the only Mohave who, during her psychotic episode, is actually known to have assumed the typically schizophrenic fetal position. AHWE: NYEVEDHI: CASES CASE 32 (Informant: E. S., son of patient) : Iam going to tell you what my mother, Vi: mak Kuko: tha (=to hit a barrier), of the Vi: mak gens, told me about the time when she, herself, was temporarily insane. It happened before I was born. She was at that time already married to my father, who was the son of a Cocopa Indian, of the Nyolte gens,” and of a Mohave woman. My mother never told me about the dreams she had had at that time, but she said that while she was insane her father and her mother “ came to her. First they called her, and then they ran away. At least that is what she thought was happening. My mother then ran away, thinking that she was running after her parents. My mother thought that this hallucination made her get up (from her sick bed) and run away. Naturally, people im- mediately ran after her. They must have been the ones she mistook for big balls that seemed to be chasing her. My father, too, must have been chasing her, because she used to see a red ball among the big balls that were chasing her. The other balls were all black. The shaman who treated her—I forgot his name—told her that this red ball was a halfbreed. That means that it rep- resented my father, who was half Cocopa.” That is all my mother told me about the time she was insane. Comment Mohave diagnosis (inferred from symptoms) —Ahwe: nyevedhi:(Pulyi: k was not sure this woman had an ahwe: disease.) Tentative diagnosis —Anxiety state with hallucinations, suggesting a transitory confusional state. It is unlikely that Vi: mak was delirious at that time, since her son did not mention any organic illness. CASE 33 (Informant: Ahma Huma: re): Nyortc, of the Nyolte gens, a Mohave woman of about 70, lived at Needles, Calif. Sinee she was not married at that time, she lived with her daughter, Mrs. C. F., and got along well with her daughter and her son-in-law. She died in the middle 1930’s. One day this old woman ran away from her daughter’s house, went down to the riverbank, fell into the mud, and remained there for 47The Mohave recognize the Cocopa gentes as being the equivalents of their own. However, Gifford (1918) does not list a Nyolte gens among the Cocopa, and neither does Kelly (1942). 48 One must assume that Vi: mak’s parents were already dead at that time. #@This is puzzling. Most Mohave informants say that red is associated with women, and black with men. Only Pulyi:k said that black paint was used only by shamans and by the kwanami:hye braves). One explanation may be that only the husband's mother was Mohave. This is, however, not a satisfactory cultural explanation of the fact that a red ball symbolized the husband. Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 145 2 days. The first day of her absence her relatives called for help upon the now- deceased shaman Loho: ha (whose gens was probably Tui: ly and who had no English name). He was the only shaman who, at that time, knew how to treat this ailment. He was asked to call the lost woman back. In accordance with his sumac: te (power) he sang some songs, and called her, and, after 2 days, she did come back. ‘Then he treated her for a few days, and she made a full recovery. Comment Mohave diagnosis.—Ahwe: nyevedhi:. Tentative diagnosis.—Fugue, caused by delirium or, less probably, by senility. In this instance the shaman does not appear to have used the trance technique for locating a person lost in enemy territory, nor could he deal with this problem as one does with soul loss, since in this case the patient herself was lost. One infers that he treated her in absentia for ahwe: nyevedhi:, and that this therapy at a distance (McNichols, 1944) was thought to have been sufficiently effective to bring about a partial recovery, enabling the woman to return home on her own and to undergo the rest of the treatment under normal circumstances. Be that as it may, this is the only instance known to me in which a shaman undertook such a task. CASE 34 (Informants: Tecate and E. §.): Amat Valaka (earth open) of the Mah gens, died around 1888, at the age of 80 or 90. His case history, though reported in reply to an inquiry about fiexibilitas cerea, suggests senile dementia, or perhaps paralysis caused by a stroke. This is the only person Tecate ever saw in that particular condition. In the beginning, his illness took the form of a lot of coughing. He did not have his full appetite and sometimes ran a high fever. (The Mohave seldom mention fever in any context.) He did not become insane at any time during his illness. He was sane right up to his death and did no insane talking what- soever. In fact, he did not talk at all, and, in the later stages of his illness, he could not move at all. If they spread his hands palms upward, he could not put them back into a normal position. If they turned his head sidewise, he could not right it. People were very much puzzled by his condition, since he himself had been a shaman who could cure precisely this type of disease. Some people even thought that his power had turned back on him and had produced these symptoms.” An alternate, or possibly supplementary, theory was that he had been bewitched by the shaman Tcavakong, who was one of his relatives, and who had already bewitched several of his own relatives, as witches usually do. In fact, Teavakong himself freely admitted that he had bewitched Amat Valaka. Eventually Tcavakong was killed by his own first cousin, Aoo: ra.” (For a different version of this murder, cf. Case 6 and Case 103.) Comment Mohave diagnosis.—Ahbhwe: nyevedhi: hahnok (sic!) and suma: te itcem (dream bad). It should be recalled that a shaman is said to be able to cure because he can kill, and vice versa. 5i'The data given above indicate that various members of this shaman’s family practiced shamanism, witchcraft, and witch killing. It is therefore interesting to note that, in accord- ance with Mohave expectations, this family was also guilty of “incest,” in that Aoo: ra’s daughter’s son married the daughter of Aoo: ra’s brother Altonio. This marriage, which Teatc had forgotten, was described in detail by the shaman Hivsu: Tupo: ma (Devereux, 1939 a) (Case 89). 146 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 Tentative diagnosis.—Senile dementia and/or stroke causing paralysis. This case is a typical illustration of the ‘‘complications” theory of ahwe: nyevedhi:, which is defined as an illness that is “not straight.” The present case involves, in addition to the ahwe: element, references to witchcraft—which is a typical complicating factor in various diseases—and also to the “activity psychosis” (pt. 2, pp. 45-56). CASE 35 (Informants: Tecate and E. S.): Le:va (no English name) belonged to the Kumadhi: gens, and, at the time of his death, which occurred around 1914, was about 40 or 50 years of age. (Q) I do not recall how long before the onset of his illness his parents had died, but I do know that they were already deceased when he became ill. Le:va’s younger maternal half brother, Madhuly Hi: dho (sugar eye), was a shaman specializing in the cure of the food disease (itcema:v). Madhuly Hi:dho’s daughter, Nyo:rtec, known as Nyo:rte Tce:vs, was the mother of the shaman Hivsu: Tupo: ma, and, by another man, also the mother of the witch Hamuly Huk’ yé: ra (who was eventually bewitched and killed by Hivsu: Tupo: ma (Devereux, 1948 i)). Le: va was also related to 8.S.’s family. He was a heavy- set man, resembling C.S. in build. He was a good man, and much respected by his tribe. Le:va lived where he had been born and raised: near a lake called Hanyom Masthidhe: va (Lake dangerous, lake to be dreaded). Some shamans oceasionally have the urge to bewitch someone, for no special reason whatso- ever. They do it simply because they know that they have the power to do such things. They tend to bewitch their closest relatives, because they claim to have the power to take the souls of their victims to a certain place, and to keep them there, so that they can visit them [Devereux, 1937 c]. That is what happened in Le:va’s case. His great-nephew Hamuly Huk’ yé: ra be- witched him. He used this lake, and, in some way, through his power, he did something to the lake with Le: va, in Le: va’s own dreams. (I.e., he guided Le: va’s dreams.) Asa result of these dreams Le: va became ill. He was unable to get around and, on his deathbed, he did quite a bit of talking. [BE. S. guessed that he was delirious.] He said just anything; sometimes he would even eall out the names of all his dead relatives. (This, being taboo, is, by defi- nition, “typically insane behavior.’’) He would try to get up and pick up anything within reach and would then throw these objects around. He re- mained in that condition for more than a year. All he did in his delirium was talk about his dead relatives. Sometimes he would also talk about his good planting and harvesting, and at other times he would tell precisely who had bewitched him. He also spoke of that lake. I specifically recall that, just before his illness reached its final stage, he sometimes called for his dead father and mother. We believe that his spirit eventually went to the place where his father and his mother were, namely, to the land of the dead ealled Calya: yt (Devereux, 1987 a). When he began to speak of his parents, the Mohave knew that he was nearing his death. I knew Le:va’s parents, having become acquainted with them when they lived at Needles. In the end Le:va’s physical condition deteriorated quite rapidly. He did not have his full appetite and ate very little, yet he would eat something anyway, just because he did not know that he was eating something. In the final stages of his disease, this formerly heavy-set man was nothing but skin and bones. His brother Madhuly Hi: dho tried to treat him, but could not effect a cure. At the very end, just before his death, he ceased to talk for about half anhour. Then he died. Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE TAZ Comment Mohave diagnosis —Ahwe: nyevedhi: complicated by witchcraft. Tentative diagnosis.—Possibly delirium, but more probably involutional melan- cholia. The presence of a serious organic illness is probable. The Mohave diagnosis is not easy to justify in cultural terms. It may have been determined by the fact that Le:va cured itcema:v, which Ahma Huma :re related to the ahwe: group of illnesses. The fact that Le:va was bewitched and also called out the names of his dead parents and relatives would suggest to the Mohave that he dreamed of them. This would place his condition in the ahwe: nyevedhi: class. On the other hand the fact that his bewitchment had something to do with the bewitching of a lake into which hikwi:r snakes had been placed by the same witch (pt. 4, pp. 117-128) could have led to the diagnosis of hikwi:r. Finally, the fact that he, who had been able to cure the itcema:v (food) illness, which is related to the ahwe: illnesses, eventu- ally displayed a, possibly neurotic, aversion to food (anorexia nervosa) sug- gested to the Mohave that, in addition to everything else, his illness was also complicated by what we have called “activity psychoses” (pt. 2, pp. 46-56). Given these multiple diagnostic possibilities, the fact that his illness was ealled ahwe: nyevedhi:, rather than hikwi:r or something else, reveals the importance which the Mohave assign to the dangers of all contact with aliens. The tentative diagnosis just offered is, admittedly, speculative, and was deter- mined by the fact that depression, preoccupation with one’s dead parents, ideas of being bewitched, and anorexia, occurring at the age of 40 or 50, suggest involu- tional melancholia. The patient’s boasting of his skill as a farmer is, however, not typical of involutional melancholia, which is characterized by feelings of worthlessness. The boast may therefore represent a defense against feelings of worthlessness, which are necessary for the development of paranoid ideas (belief in being bewitched). His boast may also have been specifically related to his marked anorexia, because he stressed his skill in producing food precisely at a time when his intake of food was minimal. CASE 36 (Informants Tecate and E. 8.) : Matkwisa: Namak (Soul leaves) of the Nyolte gens, a resident of La Paz, was married to Va:hath, and was father of two boys and two girls. He died at the approximate age of 50, around 1890, when I (Tecate) was about 20 years old. This man had ahwe: nyevedhi:. He had a bad dream, which may have been a recurrent one. He dreamed that he was visiting his father and his mother, who had died, and toward the end of the dream he even ate food prepared by his dead relatives. After he woke up, he hardly ever ate anything, because the food he ate in his dream had decreased his appetite. In the end he was nearly starved, because he had no appetite for real food. Every time he ate anything, he would vomit it out again. He had a kind of stomach trouble which they call suma :te nyevedhi: (dream ghost). ‘This term refers in this context exclusively to the man’s gastric troubles. In the later stages of his disease he also had severe headaches. 52 Anne Parsons’ (1956) recent attempt to differentiate formally between delusional Persecutory ideas and the fear of being bewitched is overintellectualized psychodynamics, and also reflects a trend in certain sociological circles to justify at all cost the essential “rightness” of society (or of culture) even if it happens to be one which destroys the human being psychologically. 148 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 During daytime he sometimes talked of his dead relatives.“ It seemed just as though he did not know the things that were going on in real life. They eall this matkwisa : hidha : uk—“The dead souls have taken his soul” (soul loss). That is why he did not know anything. (According to Pulyi: k, this condition is also called ahwe: hidha: uk meaning “enemy took-it,’” which once more sug- gests a tendency to equate ghosts with enemies.) When Matkwisa: Namak reached this stage, his wife looked for a shaman who could cure him. The two walked from La Paz to Hipaly Kuvlyeo (Tongue white), where I (Tcatc) used to live in my youth. During the trip the wife went off looking for something, and left the patient under a cottonwood tree, telling him to stay there until she came back. This much we know for certain. Now for the rest. When his wife left him, the sick man must have gotten up and gone on the road alone. He must have kept on walking until, somehow or other, he began to walk toward the river. We do not know how far he went. We think that he may have crawled under a mesquite tree, and died there. No one found his remains at that time. However, 10 years later the Mohave ex-policeman, Kohovan Kura :u, found a skeleton in that place. Everyone thought it was the skeleton of this man. The skeleton was neither cremated nor buried, but left where it had been found. The bones were scattered all over the place and the skull was the only part of the body which suggested that these bones were those of this man. On second thought I think that they did bury the skull, but I am not sure of this. [How did they dispose of the dead man’s property?] After searching in vain for a week, this man’s relatives foregathered at a place called Ah’a Dhoku:pit (cottonwood owl) and held a mourning ceremony, in the course of which all of this man’s property, including his dwelling, was burned. This is a simple case of psychosis (yamomk), since the man was not a shaman, and was not thought to have been bewitched. Comment Mohave diagnosis—Ahwe: nyevedhi:, complicated by suma:te nyevedhi: (dream of ghost) and by matkwisa: hidha:uk or ahwe: hidha:uk, i.e., soul loss or theft. It was also specified that he was yamomk (insane). Tentative diagnosis.—Inyolutional melancholia. It may be simply a striking coincidence that the self-chosen name of a person suffering, inter alia, from soul loss should have been “Soul leaves.” On the other hand, the choice of this name may, conceivably, have been determined by his long-suppressed dim awareness that he was losing his mind . . . a far from rare occurrence in psychoses which have a slow and insidious onset. CASE 37 (Informants: Tecate and E. §.): Cii:p (straight erection, a baby name which was never discarded) of the Mah gens, was the son—others say, the nephew—of Mr. and Mrs. Uta:e (Case 38). He died at the approximate age of 24, many years before the death of his mother. One day, on his way home from school, Cii:p stopped by a fallen cot- tonwood tree and began to cry. People who saw him asked him why he cried, but he replied that he did not know. After this incident he became ill and had severe headaches. Asa result of these headaches he died in a short(?) time. I myself did not witness these events. I only heard about them. Some people 8 This is a violation of a very important Mohave taboo, and therefore almost a critical symptom of psychosis in a tribe where such a taboo obtains. Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 149 claimed that Cii:p had been a victim of witchcraft, but there is plenty of room for doubt on that score. Comment Mohave diagnosis.—Ahwe: nyevedhi: (?) perhaps complicated by witchcraft. Tentative diagnosis—The crying incident followed by headaches suggests simply the onset of some physical illness. On the other hand, the fact that Cii:p had this crying spell while coming home from school, but did not die until he was about 24 years old, suggests that the crying spell and the death were not connected. The fact that this man’s baby name was Cii: p (= straight erection) suggests that he had frequent “tension erections’ in babyhood. If this supposition is correct, it is possible that his mother may have felt inadequate as a mother, which would then explain why, when she, too, had a transitory psychotic episode, eried a lot, had headaches, and believed herself bewitched. CASE 38 (Informants Tecate and E. 8.) : Mrs. Uta: ce, 85 years old, of Parker, Ariz., had, according to some informants, married into a family allegedly addicted to shamanism, witchcraft, witch killing, and even incest (pt. 5, pp. 245-247). Mrs. Uta:c was bewitched by Hikye:t. She had been living a normal life and no one knew why Hikye:t should have wanted to bewitch her. She was all right until about a year before her death, which occurred in the late 1930’s. Around that time she became ill and had severe headaches, but felt better after a few days. While she was going through this crisis, she had spells, during which she cried out the names of her dead grandparents, saying that they were dead and that people should cry (mourn for them). When the spells ended, she became normal once more, but kept on having slight headaches. Approximately 6 months before her death she was taken to Needles, to attend the funeral of one of her relatives named Coo: ta. While at Needles, she again had one of her spells. She got up in the middle of the night and complained that her chest was hurting her. Then, all of a sudden, she lost her mind. She began to talk—about anything at all—and kept on raving for about half an hour. I myself (Teatc) did not see this, I only heard about it. Eventually she quieted down and went back to sleep. In the morning her husband visited the shaman Masahay Teammahay (an untranslatable name, which has something to do with a girl bird) of the Mu:ha gens, who, at the husband’s request, con- sented to treat her.—I (H.S.) was present when Mrs. Uta:e was taken to Masahay Tcammahay’s house, where she had breakfast with her niece (sister of another Mah, who is alleged to be an incestuous witch (Devereux, 1989 a). Toward 10:00 or 10:30 a.m. she bad another attack, during which she did not lose her mind, but merely complained of pains in her chest. The shaman im- mediately began to treat her, whereupon she felt better almost at once, and had no further attack until about 4:00 p.m. Then she once more complained of pains in her chest, and was treated again by the same shaman. She then slept well all night. I left the house in the morning, so that I myself did not witness the rest of the incident. Two or three days later she was brought back to her home at Parker by C. N., who is said to be (at least potentially) a shaman-killing brave. During the last two weeks of her life she was completely out of her mind. At times she rose from her bed as though she were well, and then suddenly tore off her clothes, so that her two nieces, both called Mah, had to hold her down. Some- 150 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 times they even had to restrain her by wrapping her into a blanket. During these attacks she would talk about her dead relatives, but especially about her parents, describing their deaths, and urging people to mourn with her. At one time she also said something about her dead son (?) Cii:p (Case 387) and grabbed her husband, Uta:e¢ of the Mah gens, asserting that he was her son. I (Teate) did not visit her during her last illness, although she was my contemporary, having been born just one night before I myself was born. During her last illness they had put her in the hospital, but, when death seemed immi- nent, they took her home again, since the Mohave like to die at home. Mrs. Uta:e herself claimed that she had been bewitched by Hikye:t. Asa result, her husband called on Hikye:t, asking him to treat her, in the hope that his better nature (hi: wante kinyai:m=heart says) would induce him to cure her, if he were asked to do so. Hikye:t accepted the assignment and treated her for two nights, but finally gave up the case as hopeless. Uta:e then asked Kapel Teukye:va to treat his wife. He, too, failed to cure her, however. At present, all of Mrs. Uta:c’s relatives have a personal grudge against Hikye:t. In conclusion, Teate remarked teasingly : “Maybe you too will be like that, but I hope not.” This remark referred to the fact that I was at that time believed to be hi: wa itck (heartbroken), due to disappointment in love. This jocular remark may suggest a slight nexus between ahwe: nyevedhi: and the relatively mild and somewhat humorously viewed ailment called hi: wa itck (pt. 3, pp. 91-106). Comment Mohave diagnosis —Ahwe: nyevedhi: (?) complicated by witchcraft. Tentative diagnosis.—Senile dementia. (Highly uncertain.) The similarity between Cii:p’s and Mrs. Uta:c’s symptoms is quite striking. Also noteworthy is her insistence that others help her mourn her dead relatives,* and her mistaking her husband for her dead son. CASE 39 (Informant not recorded, perhaps Pulyi: k.) : Tcate (not to be confused with the informant of that name) suffered from ahwe:nyevedhi:. (No other data were obtainable.) THE HIWEY LAK GROUP An important group of psychiatric or, more specifically, psycho- somatic conditions is known by the name of “hiwey lak” (anus pain). Many Mohave informants tend to view hiwey lak primarily as a kind of venereal disease, even though every Mohave who had the character- istic symptoms of gonorrhea or spyhilis was diagnosed as having hiku :pk. Broadly speaking, there are two types of hiwey lak diseases: (1) Hiwey lak proper, which rates as a “straight disease” (2) Hiwey lak nyevedhi: (anus pain ghostly), which is a “not straight” disease and is closely related to ahwe: nyevedhi: (pt. 4, pp. 128-150). 54 Compare the insistence of transvestites, who profess to have given birth to a stillborn baby, that their “husbands” should also mourn for this ‘fecal baby’? (Devereux, 1937 b). Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 151 Hiwey lak is certainly an ancient diagnostic category, since Kroeber (1925 a) mentions an apparently unrecorded song cycle called Wellaka, which is used in the cure of diarrhea.*> “Wellaka” is certainly a contraction of hiwey lak, since I, myself, first recorded the name of this illness as “‘weylak.” Generally speaking, all forms of hiwey lak seem to involve a variety of nutritional disturbances, from actual diarrhea to seemingly neu- rotic anorexia. The significance of the fact that pseudocyesis, too, is assigned to this group will be discussed at the proper point and will be shown to form no exception to the statement that hiwey lak is chiefly related to nutritional disorders. One may even venture to suggest that just as the hi: wa group of illnesses (pt. 3, pp. 90-115) seems to lump together cardiovascular emotional reaction patterns, so the hiwey lak group seems to be made up of gastrointestinal emotional reaction patterns. THE DATA AND THEIR CONTEXT.—The connection in which one seeks information about a certain topic radically affects the range, scope, and patterned orientation of the data which one obtains. Hence, one’s information on a given subject is bound to be incomplete unless that topic is studied in relation to every major cultural matrix to which it belongs (Devereux, 1957 a). Data on hiwey lak were obtained in four contexts, two of which were spontaneously mentioned by the inform- ants themselves: (1) Venereal disease—The term “hiwey lak” was first mentioned by Hivsu: Tupo:ma, in response to questions about venereal diseases. When asked to describe this illness, he explained that he was not an expert on hiwey lak and advised me to consult two recognized spe- cialists, Haravy He:ya and Ahma Huma:re. He added that Harav He:ya was actually qualified to treat all sex-linked disorders, since he could treat not only hiwey lak, but also hiku:pk (gonorrhea, granuloma inguinale, and syphilis). In fact, even though Ahma Huma:re treated only hiwey lak, but not hiku:pk, Hivsu: Tupo:ma was of the opinion that it was more or less natural for a shaman to treat both of these groups of diseases.°* This view was shared even by Ahma Huma: re, who definitely considered hiwey lak as a “venereal disease without eruptions,” though he, himself, did not treat hiku: pk, and, naturally, it was shared also by Harav He: ya, who treated both hiwey lak and hiku:pk. He specifically mentioned the transmission of hiwey lak by saliva, which, according to the Mastamho myth & Diarrhea is far more common among the Mohave than is constipation. As I recall, my Mohave informants mentioned constipation only in connection with the faked “preg- nancies” of transvestites (Devereux, 1937 b) and with tuberculosis (Case 44). 56Tt might be noted in passing that, in referring me to these experts, Hivsu: Tupo:ma simply transposed to the fieldwork situation the standard shamanistic procedure of referring patients whom one is not qualified to treat to the proper specialist. 152 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 (Kroeber, 1948) is the way in which venereal disease (i.e., chiefly hiku: pk) was to be transmitted in times to come. Ahma Huma: re, on the other hand, seemed to view hiwey lak as a broadly sexual rather than as a specifically venereal disease, and therefore spontaneously referred to the connection between hiwey lak and obstetrics, which was his second specialty (Devereux, 1948 e) and which appears to be also the second cultural context or matrix of the hiwey lak group of diseases. (2) Obstetrics—Ahma Huma: re fully agreed with the definition of hiwey lak as a sexual disease but, due to his subjectively deter- mined interest in obstetrics,” emphasized chiefly its connection with this latter specialty. In fact, just as Harav He: ya, who also treated hiku: pk, stressed the connection between the power to cure hiwey lak and the power to cure hiku: pk, Ahma Huma: re asserted that shamans who treated hiwey lak specialized in obstetrics also, even though, at that time, he appears to have been the only Mohave shaman who had this dual competence. This fact illustrates the great flexi- bility of even major Mohave systems of belief. It should be stressed, however, that in postulating a necessary nexus between the two specialties, Ahma Huma: re did not introduce any radically new point of view into Mohave medical theory, since the connection between hiwey lak—one of whose symptoms may be ghost pregnancy (ie., pseudocyesis)—and obstetrical difficulties is, in a way, “natural,” so that both logically (culturally) and subjectively (psychologically) Ahma Huma:re was on solid ground. (83) Psychosomatics—During the 1938 field trip devoted to the study of Mohave psychiatric theories, Ahma Huma :re was once more asked to discuss hiwey lak, but this time with special reference to ghost pregnancy (pseudocyesis), viewed as a psychosomatic con- dition. While discussing this hiwey lak symptom in this particular context, Ahma Huma: re spontaneously provided data which Jed to additional questions concerning the purely psychiatric aspects of this group of ailments. (4) Psychiatry—While discussing hiwey lak from the psycho- somatic and psychiatric point of view, 6 years after discussing this illness as a sex-linked disease, Ahma Huma: re demonstrated that he had been aware all along of the psychiatric aspects of that disease and had simply failed to elaborate this aspect of the problem at a time when he was expected to discuss its sex-linked (venereal) aspects. It should be stressed that, though very cooperative, Ahma Huma:re was by no means suggestible. It is quite certain that in discussing 5 As stated elsewhere (Devereux, 1948 e) Ahma Huma:re obtained obstetrical powers in dream, shortly after his wife and unborn child died. Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 153 the psychiatric aspects of hiwey lak, he did not, in an overcompliant manner, improvise a psychiatric approach to this group of illnesses, but simply provided additional information that he had neglected to give at a time when he was asked to discuss hiwey lak as a sexual illness. In brief, the psychiatrically oriented leading questions, asked in 1938, did not put words into his mouth but simply served to focus his attention on the psychosomatic and psychiatric aspects of this illness. Had Ahma Huma:re been simply suggestible, he would not, in 1932-33, have spontaneously related hiwey lak to obstetrics, nor would he, in 1988, have discussed this illness psychosomatically (1.e., with reference to the role of ghosts in an organic illness) in such a manner as to make a supplementary inquiry into its purely psychi- atric aspects mandatory. What is to be retained here is that the data obtained when hiwey lak was being discussed as an (organic) venereal disease are not, in an absolute sense, more authentic or more important than the data ob- tained when this illness was discussed in, e. g., a psychiatric context. The fact is that hiwey lak has at least four cultural matrices: venereal, obstetrical (Cases 45 and 46), psychosomatic (ghost), and psychiatric. Any investigation of this disease that fails to take into account all four of these matrices is bound to yield only fragmentary data. In brief, the following accounts do not simply provide further data belonging to one and the same matrix or cultural frame of refer- ence, but reveal the functional nexus between hiwey lak and its four distinct cultural matrices and, implicitly, also the functional connec- tion between these four matrices themselves. Thus, the additional data not only increase our knowledge of the factual aspects of the hiwey lak complex, but, above all, expand our insight into the nature of Mohave cultural matrices and help us to understand the manner in which these matrices are not simply juxtaposed, but also integrated into a whole, both on the abstract level (Devereux, 1951 a) of the cultural pattern and on the concrete level of actual belief and practice. In addition—especially in the passage in which Ahma Huma:re establishes a connection between hiwey lak and obstetrics—we also gain insight into the manner in which personal interests and biases can exploit a latent and implicit, but a priori logical, connection be- tween two existing patterns so as to conjoin them in a manner which is in harmony with the basic orientation of that culture as a whole. Indeed, in postulating a necessary nexus between the practice of ob- stetrics and the treatment of hiwey lak, Ahma Huma:re did not breach the latent cultural pattern underlying Mohave medical theories, 58In the same sense, a good internist, when asked to discuss peptic ulcer, will stress primarily its organic apects, but will, when asked about its etiology and prognosis, describe also its psychiatric aspects. 154 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 but simply developed and institutionalized an already present, but previously only latent, nexus. In brief, he did not revolutionize Mo- have medical theories but expanded and elaborated them in a manner which, both substantively and procedurally, fitted the basic orienta- tion of Mohave culture and medicine. Tuer DATA Hivsu: Tupo:ma’s statement (1932).—Some women contract a sexual ill- ness called hiwey lak (anus pain) which is caused by a ghost pregnancy. A woman who was never pregnant and never lost a child cannot dream of being pregnant with a ghost child and therefore cannot have pseudocyesis. This ill- ness is contagious and is transmitted through intercourse. The man’s sperm carries it to the woman and the woman’s discharge during the orgasm transmits it to the male.” You should ask Harav He:ya and Ahma Huma:re for in- formation about this illness. They are specialists in its treatment and know more about it than I do. Comment It is extremely interesting that, just as in the case of hikw:r (pt. 4, pp. 117- 128), Hivsu: Tupo:ma gave a relatively nonsupernaturalistic, down-to-earth ac- count of the manner in which hiwey lak is transmitted, whereas the two experts, Harav He:ya and Ahma Huma:re, gave highly supernaturalistic explanations. Yet, even this nonspecialist’s theory of the transmission of this disorder by means of the genital secretion of living persons is ultimately rooted in the mythical theory of the transmission of venereal disorders by means of saliva. It is simply restated in more realistic terms, modeled upon the now-known means whereby true venereal disorders are transmitted. This observation tends to strengthen the thesis presented elsewhere (Devereux, 1958 b) that real science comes into being when culturally and supernaturalistically “tainted” or “obfuscated” knowledge is stripped of its cultural connotations, thus making possible a subsequent elaboration of the factual core of what was previously nothing more than “temple science.” It is also tentatively suggested that the mythical theory that venereal dis- eases are transmitted by means of saliva, i. e., while kissing (Kroeber, 1948), may not date back in its entirety to aboriginal times, since the practice of kissing does not seem to be an ancient one. If that is so, then the nefarious effects attributed to kissing (saliva) may, in part, reflect a resistance to ac- culturation which is rooted in the belief that the aliens, and all their works, are harmful to the Mohave (pt. 4, pp. 128-150) and in the attitude that occidental techniques of lovemaking are obnoxious (Devereux, 1948 f, 1950 a). If this view is correct, then it is necessary to predicate a connection between the foreign illness (pt. 4, pp. 128-150) and at least the type of hiwey lak caused by ghosts, since, as Fathauer (1951) has shown, there are also many other indica- tions that the Mohave equate ghosts with aliens (pt. 4, pp. 128-150). On the other hand, due consideration must also be given to the probably ancient Mohave belief that the body fluids of a slain monster produced harmful small creatures (see further below), and that dreams of contact with the various secretions of a spouse (pt. 4, pp. 128-150) or of a slain foe or witch occur in t° This etiological theory, presumably inspired by the “transmission through the saliva” theory mentioned in the Mastamho myth (Kroeber, 1948), may explain why hiwey lak is thought to be a veneral disease. Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 155 certain serious illnesses (pt. 2, pp. 48-46). We may therefore suppose that the mythical explanation of the transmission of venereal diseases by means of saliva—rather than by means of other secretions—simply combined into a uni- fied scheme the Mohave’s ancient dread of secretions and their explicit (Devereux, 1950 a) anti-acculturational (Devereux and Loeb, 1943 a) rejection of occidental patterns of lovemaking. An additional reason why precisely saliva was chosen as the chief vehicle of sexual contamination may be the fact that the supposedly “venereal” hiwey lak disease group is, at least in theory, a gastrointestinal ailment that is caused, in part, by eating the food of ghosts, is characterized by anorexia, diarrhea, and the like, and is specifically ealled “anus pain.” In fact, it is almost necessary that the Mastamho myth should mention saliva as the principal means whereby sexual diseases are transmitted, if not only hiku: pk, but also hiwey lak, were to be defined as pre- dominantly sexual ailments. Haraw He-ya’s statement (1933).—Haray He: ya of Needles, a nearly blind old specialist in the treatment of hiwey lak and hiku: pk (venereal diseases), was an exceptionally willing informant, who gave a detailed account of hiwey lak and sincerely tried to help me record his curing songs. Unfortunately, despite the admonitions of his wife and nephew, he was at first altogether unable to sing slowly and clearly enough to enable me to record his songs accurately. In fact, most of the time he mumbled se badly that even my two expert assistants, Hivsu: Tupo:ma and Hama: Utce:, could not understand all the words of his songs well enough to repeat them for me in their entirety. Furthermore, when they asked him to repeat a word, Harav He:ya simply be- gan to sing the song once more from the start.” By contrast, his meticulous prose account of hiwey lak could be recorded in its entirety. In the following account the noncapitalized pronouns “he” and “they” refer to shamans or to the laity, as the case may be, while the capitalized pronouns “He” and “They” refer to the “Ancient Ones,” from whom Harav He:ya de- rived his shamanistiec powers. Unfortunately, the exact identity of these “Ancient Ones” is one of the unsolved problems of Mohave ethnology. All we know is that shamans whose power comes from the “Ancient Ones” are said to be more powerful than those whose power comes from the gods and that they use the right, rather than the left, hand in treating their patients. The most likely hypothesis concerning the identity of these “Ancient Ones” is that they are the culture hero Mastamho (cf. Anma Huma: re’s account) and his contemporaries. In ancient times They divided the crowd and Them. Some were to the right and some to the left. The shamans on the left were given the power to cure hiwey lak, and They were telling them what will cause them (the people) to be sick. In this house (Matavilye’s?), They are telling them how they are going to become sick and then taught them the method by which this illness may be cured. They also described the symptoms of this illness. Even in their own homes (i.e., even where they are not exposed to contamination by aliens(?)) their dreams may be such that they will get sick. In everyday life, wherever they go, they will perhaps become ill; and, when they are ailing, they will think of the shaman to whom the power is given to cure. Then, while they were still gathered together, the power to cure was distributed. There was to be sickness also in the coming generations. The boy is like 60 This indicates that a Mohave song forms a Gestalt exactly as an occidental melody does and can therefore only be remembered as a Gestalt. 492655— 61—_—_11 156 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 Heaven and the girl is like Earth." If they see all the things which He tells, and grasp its meaning and have it in their hearts, it will be in their power to cure hiwey lak and also other ailments of that type.” In later times this sickness will be very common. At present, however, it is less common, because I am curing it. Hiwey lak is sometimes accompanied also by some other sickness, which makes the cure very difficult. In such cases I do my part and, then, if the patient is still sick, I send him to another shaman who will cure the remaining sickness. When a man receives the power to cure, he calls himself by a name. He folds his arms behind his back and declares to heaven and to all (cardinal) directions that he has the power to cure certain sicknesses and gives himself the name Maikwitcedhom. (Cf. Mastamho calling himself Pahotcate; Kroeber, 1948.) Now I will tell you also about the different disorders which resemble, or result from, this disease. When a man and a women live together, the woman may have a child (who dies?). Sometimes, immediately afterwards, her (menstrual) blood may seem to turn back instead of flowing out, and may cause a sickness called idhotk. I can do some good also in connection with this ailment. Such a woman may (then?) have one or two more children, but, later in life it (idhotk) will come again. It will seem as though the spirit of her dead child had entered her womb again. Yet, even though some people claim that it is a dead child (that is troubling her), in reality it is only that something is wrong with her blood.® When this condition occurs, I call it hiwey lak nyevedhi: (anus pain ghost) and eure it. Even the woman herself may think that the child’s spirit returned to her womb. She may dream that she is pregnant, or in labor and nearing the moment of delivery, or else she may dream that the child, a little tot about one or two years old, is running beside her, or that a slightly older child is playing at a distance and is approaching her, calling her “mother.” Then, when people call on me to help, I see it all. I call this hiwey lak nyevedhi: and cureit. Imyself have had hiwey lak during my life.“ In such cases the spirit of the child enters its mother in order to kill her. She won’t even eat her favorite dishes. Her lack of appetite may even go so far that the very smell of food will nauseate her, so that she will throw up something that has a greenish, or yellowish, or white color.” If that happens, it becomes evident that the child tries to go into her and kill her.” This too I will cure. Hach dream makes the woman a little more ill and every one of her illnesses will be a little worse than the previous one. 6 This appears to be an allusion to that portion of the Creation myth which describes Matavilye’s parents as Sky Male and Harth Female (Bourke, 1889). ®& This is, presumably, an allusion not only to the Mohave method of grouping certain {llnesses together, but perhaps also to the combining of various specialties, such as hiwey lak and hiku:pk in Haray He:ya’s own case, or of hiwey lak and obstetrics in Ahma Huma: re’s case. 68 A childless woman, or one who had no child that died, cannot, in theory, dream of a ghost pregnancy. **In many primitive societies the healer is a former patient. It is psychologically of the utmost importance that Haray He:ya mentions his own illness after describing essentially feminine symptoms. This is clearcut evidence of a (neurotic) partial feminine identifica- tion, perhaps related to the belief that transvestite shamans are more powerful than heterosexual ones (Devereux, 1937 b). 65 Sucklings jealous of an unborn sibling are said to have stools of this color (Devereux, 1947 a). 6 Certain bewitched or shamanistie fetuses also try to kill thelr mothers (Devereux, 1948 e). Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 157 The patient may also dream of the old home in which all members of his (or her) family were formerly living. In dream the patient sees once more the old house, as it was when he (she) was happy there. In other cases, how- ever, the home of the patient’s youth appears all battered and abandoned in his (her) dreams. He (she) will also see the path which he (she) used to take when he (she) went to the fields or for wood. A young man may dream of how he picked up an ax or some other implement which he once used and will see the roads which he used to travel. The patient will dream of his youth and of the (puberty?) ceremonies he participated in, in order to gain endurance (Devereux, 1949 a). Some women are generous and some hold a high position in the tribe. The patient may dream about the objects which (such?) women use in their every- day life, e.g., he may dream about their metates, etc.” All such dreams cause disease. In dream, one may find it difficult to grind the corn on the metate or else one may dream that one is tired and that one’s legs and hands ache. Then, as one’s endurance decreases, one wonders why this happens. These fatigue dreams then cause one to have the same kind of pains also when one is awake. This too is a form of hiwey lak. Yet, if the patient has a great deal of resist- ance, he may not become ill in spite of the pains that rack him. If one dreams of cohabiting with persons whom one likes, in dream one may even like their way of spitting, and may therefore allow them to slobber into one’s mouth (while one is kissing them) in dream,” and one will do whatever the loved one wants. When I speak of such dreams to patients, they may recall certain of their forgotten dreams. I mention every type of dream that may cause this sickness, so that the patient may recognize (recall?) his dreams. A patient may also have incestuous dreams about the dead. It is really not right for me to tell you all I know, because another shaman may be offended by my way of doing things, or else he may so greatly resent the order in which I am telling things that he will send out his bewitching power and bewitch me. If that happens, I may carry on for two or three more years and then die bewitched (Devereux, 1957 b). Professor Kroeber’s in- terpreter, Jack Jones, who interpreted everything, and especially the Creation myth, died from this.” Cure: I use my right hand, because my power comes from the Ancient Ones. I may, however, also use my left hand, as do those whose power comes from Avikwame. [At this point the interpreter remarked: “The same power may have been given also to Ahma Huma:re:, but Harav He:ya goes deeper. There are fundamental differences between their respective methods.”] [I was told there were certain food taboos.] Some shamans (e.g., Ahma Huma: re) forbid certain foods, but I don’t, even though some foods may pull down the resistance of the patient. I give them whatever food is handy, and should it harm them, I will cure them of that illness too. As to their relatives and my- self—we can eat what we want. [Isintercourse taboo?] My treatment does not involve sexual taboos. With my right hand I gently press the abdomen, and the region just below the solar plexus. It is only a sort of massage, because 8 Homosexually inclined boys are attracted to female regalia and to female occupations (Devereux, 1937 b). 6 Compare in this context the ahwe: syndrome (pt. 4, pp. 128-150). Cf. also the mythical theory that saliva transmits veneral diseases (Kroeber, 1948). ® These remarks were indirect allusions to the fact that this interview took place in the presence, and with the help, of the shaman Hivsu: Tupo :ma. 158 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 the patient is too weak for me to hurt him. Then the stomach gas goes out either way (eructation or flatus).” I blow on the solar plexus first and then immediately press my hand on the same spot, to keep my breath on it. I may also blow on the patient, starting from the upper part of his chest and progressing toward his abdomen, to remove the pains. If the pains are strong, I will also boil the bark of the white mesquite tree, or make a willow bark tea and give it to the patient to drink. Summing up, at first the child’s body consists only of menstrual blood which is kneaded into human shape by the father’s sperm. If the pregnant woman then cohabits with some other man or men, the semen which she receives molds the child to the likeness of the new partner(s).” The ghost of the dead child sometimes returns to its mother’s womb and, without help from human semen, makes a body for itself out of the menstrual blood which accumulates between (two or more) menstrual periods. This disease kills the mother. We believe that the ghost child kills its mother and takes her soul to the land of the ghosts. Curing songs: The final version of the following songs approximates rather closely the actual text of Harav He:ya’s songs, which varied considerably as he repeated them. Haray He:ya’s singing was interspersed with copious throat clearings, stage whispers, explanations given in a kind of recitative which could barely be told apart from the songs themselves, and even with extra syllables, allegedly caused by “shortness” (sic) of breath, (e.g., oh-eyam, in- stead of eyam). The entire performance of this toothless, stubborn, but willing old man, who lost his bearings and had to start all over again whenever he was asked to sing more slowly, caused the interpreter to exclaim, “If we hadn’t had Hivsu: Tupo:ma along, who had heard these songs before, I couldn’t have grasped a single word for it.” In fact, even Harav He: ya’s alert old wife and his highly cooperative nephew, who had heard him sing these songs many times, were unable to catch certain words well enough to repeat them for me. There are four songs altogether. The first one had to be recorded three times and the second and third twice. The fourth was recorded only once because, by that time, Harav He:ya had finally learned to sing more slowly. The differences between the various recordings suggest that the actual text of the songs is flexible. This supposition is wholly compatible with the fact that, unlike the ritual formulas of obsessive-compulsive ethnic groups, the effectiveness of Mohave songs does not depend on their letter-perfect reproduc- tion, but on the singer’s possession of the necessary powers. In fact, several informants stated that when a certain illness is not treated by anyone for a number of years, because no one had received suitable powers in dream, the text of the traditional songs may be lost forever, so that the next person to receive the necessary powers will simply recite the (condensed?) prose text of the relevant myth, instead of making up new songs.” The variability of Mohave ritual texts is, both from the anthropological and from the psycho- logical point of view, too complex a problem to be discussed in this context (Devereux, 1957 b). 70 Jones’ (1951) analysis of Hindu pneuma-theories is illuminating in this context (see also part 1, pp. 9-17). ™ Note the nexus between this theory of modifiable paternity (Devereux, 1949 c) and theories of ghostly pseudocyesis. 722Jt may be assumed, however, that even such narratives will approximate the singing style and will consist primarily of a series of key words. Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 159 To illustrate the flexibility of Harav He:ya’s texts, as well as the difficulties met with when trying to record them, all versions are reproduced as recorded. The numbers in parentheses indicate how often a given word was repeated. First song: (a) Final version: miyo:a (4) look at / amay (4) sky / miyo:a (4) look at / amay vadho miyo heavens face-toward you'll see /... (This song, repeated several times, refers to dreams about the homestead of one’s youth.) (b) First recording: vangiyu (9) meaningless? / eyo angiyu (8) ?/eyo... (11) ?/ eyo haymauay ohemay hamanay ?/. (c) Second recording: vidhaue to take / eyam? / amaye heavens / vidhaue to take /. Second song: (a) Final version: miyo:a (12) will see / vangi:yo (12) meaningless? / hemat body, kwisau soul or shadow / idhau take / miyo: will see/. (This song refers to the ghost or shadow which comes and assumes a shape.) (b) First recording: e-matkwisa: soul or shadow / idhau take / hiyuk to see / vangi:yu Meaningless?/. (The interpreters first thought that “hiyuk” may be an onomatopoea for hiccoughing or sneezing. In fact, one of them suspected that what I had recorded as hiyuk was an actual hiccough: However, Pulyi:k later on translated it as “to see.’’) Third song: (a) Final version: eyam meaningless? / ama:ye heavens / vedho:a will be / midha:ua will take/. (This song refers to pseudocyesis and to the ghost of the dead child.) (0) First recording: hongoyi meaningless / manyau monoyi where you were / myoyima (2) all gone / nyoyima hohima moved on / eyam hamauayh ? heavens / midho: a is there / manyaui gone invisible / monoyi where you were /. Fourth song: Final (and only) version: manga: ui (12) all gone / eyam meaningless? / ama:uay heavens / amat earth / kwisa: soul or shadow / idhauem taken / havi:yum meaningless / anyaue vanished /. (This song refers to the destruction of the old homestead, when “all is over,” i. e., when, after the death of a person, the building in which he lived is burned down. ) ELpilogue-——The interview with Haray He: ya had an aftermath, which casts an interesting sidelight upon the psychological effects of listening to a shaman who is discussing his powers: Interpreter: “After listening to Harav He:ya, I dreamed of dying and became a7? Anthropologist: “TI will doctor you for it and you will never dream of it again.” Hivsu: Tupo:ma: “I, for one, do not want helpers around me when I discuss such things with you, because, should the assistants become ill later on, they will blame their illness on me. Comment (1) It is quite striking that, after specifically denying that the baby actually returns to the mother’s womb, Harav He:ya promptly proceeded to interpret most of this illness precisely in terms of this supposedly untenable theory. This seeming self-contradiction illustrates, in the anthropological frame of reference, 160 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 the degree of latitude permitted to the individual shaman in evolving his per- sonal medico-etiological theories. However, from the psychoanalytic point of view, the two, seemingly incompatible, theories actually say the same thing.” Indeed the menstrual blood from which babies are formed is simply equated with a ghostly fetus, because many psychic and somatic effects of a pathological retention of the menses and of a natural pregnancy are, according to the Mohave, almost identical (Cases 45 and 46). (2) The narrative contains two passages which reveal a certain confusion about sexual self-identification. The first of these passages opens with a description of ghost pregnancy and motherhood, immediately followed by the, logically extraneous but psychologically relevant, remark that the singer—a man— formerly had hiwey lak. The second passage states that male hiwey lak patients may dream of female regalia and possessions, at which point we noted that such dreams and interests are said to be highly characteristic of future transvestites. What is especially relevant in this context is that male trans- vestites who have “husbands” not only fake menstruation and pregnancy, but even deliberately constipate themselves so as to be able to “give birth” to a fecal “child” (Devereux, 1987 b). This practice may be the (implicit) link which connects ghostly pregnancy (pseudocyesis) with a disease whose very name (hiwey lak = anus pain) indicates that it is believed to affect primarily the digestive tract. Thus, the entire concept of hiwey lak nyevedhi: appears to be a culturally structured and implemented fantasy about the oral-anal origin of babies, such as children evolve during the anal stage of psychosexual development (Devereux, 1951 e). Indeed, both normal children and adult schizophrenics sometimes fantasy that babies are conceived orally and are born through the anus or navel. Mohave male transvestites actually implement this fantasy, by drinking a constipating decoction and by “giving birth” to a hard fecal mass, which they choose to call a “stillbirth,” while in hiwey lak nyevedhi: the retention of the menses and the ghost pregnancy resulting from it are said to cause major gastrointestinal disturbances.“ Ahma Huma:re’s first statement (1932).—The disease called hiwey lak may come from dreaming about intercourse with a person of the opposite sex, or about drinking stagnant water or else water found in the hiils. The person one dreams about is not responsible for these dreams or for the subsequent illness. Symptoms: The chief symptoms of this disease are stomach troubles because (sic!) hiwey lak is a venereal disease without skin eruptions. Once a person has such dreams, even his favorite dishes will not seem to taste good. There will also be frequent headaches, and vision will be disturbed and hazy (migraine?). When the patient looks at a distant object, the thing he looks at seems deformed. There is, furthermore, a general nervousness of the eyes; one cannot look at things for any length of time, because one’s vision becomes hazy and flashy (scintillating scotoma?). Unless a shaman is asked to cure the sick person, death may be considered a certainty. Origin of power: I do not say that my power comes from Matavilye, because I believe that Matavilye lived and died without telling about, or giving, the power to cure this illness. In this respect, our religion differs from the religion 7% Cf. the basie identity of two, supposedly incompatible, etiological theories of the hikwi:r illness (pt. 4, pp. 117-128). ™ The fact that the same illness may be caused also by dreaming of the homestead of one’s youth, which was destroyed when a relative, who lived in that house, died, is psycho- logically also related to this retentive process and is a defense against the sense of psychic and material loss which death, followed by the destruction of property previously avail- able to the survivor, entails (Devereux, 1942 a). Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 161 of the whites, who claim that God gave every power. Mastamho, who came after Matavilye to teach, was the one who did it; he had the power to teach in dreams. My personal experience of this power is as follows: I see things only at night. As a child of seven or eight, I saw Mastamho in my dreams, and he, who came to me in my dreams, told me about hiwey lak, gave me the power to cure this sickness, and described its symptoms to me. He came only at night ” and taught me from sunset to sunrise. He said to me, “It is fine from sunrise to sunset. Therefore, let your right arm be like the day (the day too, being a dream-bringing “person”) and your left arm like the night—for with the left arm you will be able to cure. The power will be in your left arm when you touch people who claim to have this sickness. And if the illness they have is really this one, the touch of your left arm will cure them.” Thus, if the patient is not cured by the time I am through with the fourth song of the curing rite, he does not have this disease. (Traditionally, right—paternal, life—=maternal kin.) Hiwey lak nyevedhi: is a form of the hiwey lak sickness. It is caused by dreams of intercourse with the dead and is cured the same way as ordinary hiwey lak. Cure: When they bring me a patient who claims to have hiwey lak, I ask him to tell me his dreams, so that I may be sure that he does have hiwey lak and not some other disease. If I discover that he does not have this illness, I will advise him and tell him which shaman he should consult. I must also take into account that a patient’s bad dreams may be balanced by his good dreams. I can cure not only Mohave Indians, but also whites who have this disease.” I forbid the patient to eat any kind of watermelon or pumpkin, other than the grayish-white variety of pumpkin. The rest of his food will be prepared as usual. I prescribe a diet only in very serious cases. No other taboo of any kind need be observed. The patient, his relatives and the shaman are neither painted nor dressed in any special way. The ghost who appeared in the patient’s dreams is not contacted and has no connection with the cure. The patient is treated at some convenient place, i. e., generally at the house of the shaman, if the latter is married and has a home of his own. If he is single, or has no home of his own, the patient may be treated wherever it is convenient to everyone concerned. Audience: An audience, as numerous as possible, is useful. The audience just sits around and says, “Yes, yes,” whenever I sing. I press the patient’s abdomen with my left hand, blow on it, and sing my four songs. Songs: Before presenting Ahma Huma:re’s songs, as sung in 1982, it is de- sirable to quote first his 1938 description of the manner in which he acquired them: “TI know the traditional songs while some other shamans don’t. However, the fact that they do not know these songs does not affect their healing powers in any way. What matters are not the songs themselves but the power to cure, which one receives in dream. When I was a child, some of my old relatives were still alive. They, too, used to treat hiwey lak” and would sing the songs which I now use. I did not pay much attention to them or to their songs, at that time. Yet, once in a while, these songs would come to me and ® The night itself is also a “person” (ipa:) who brings dreams. 7 Despite this statement, both Ahma Huma:re and Hivsu: Tupo: ma refused to treat me both for a genuine indigestion and a recent “typical hiwey lak’ dream. (See dream B, pp. 170-171). ™ Shamanistie powers supposedly run in certain families. 162 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 I would sing them.* Whenever I sang these songs in the presence of these old people, they said that I too would eventually treat hiwey lak, and their prediction seems to have come true. [I commented that his spontaneous re- marks dovetailed perfectly with the conclusions I had previously reached regarding the manner in which “learning” took place in a dream.] What various shamans tell about their suma:tc (dream power) is not always the same thing. But the questions you now ask about insanity refer to something whose causes we can describe as we hear and see them.” (1982) “My songs are in archaic Mohave and relate certain events in a ‘preaching’ (schematic and telegraphic) style. The Yuma, Cocopa, Yavapai and Maricopa, and even some Walapai may understand my songs but the Havasupai and the Dieguefio cannot understand them. Unless the case is a very severe one, it can be cured in one night—the treatment takes place at night. As a rule, the illness is cured before the sun sets next day. In severe cases I (first) tell (in prose) about the songs which I am going to sing, because the sick person must be helped before the fourth song is finished. If he is not cured by that time, he does not have hiwey lak.” First song: Hamayvi teami:ye, teami:ye—(heavens, under control, under control.) (Pulyi: k translated it as: heavens, put-down-lower-and-lower. ) Hamayvi tcami:ye, teami:ye Mayvi tcami:ye, teami:ye Mayvi tcami:ye, teami:ye Mayvi tcami:ye, tcami:ye, teami:ye Mayvi tcami:ye, teami:ye, teami:ye Hamayvi teami:ye, tcami:ye Mayvi tcami:ye, teami:ye Ete.” Second song: Hamayvi kono:(h)yi: ko(h)ono:yi (as we are on earth, they are in heaven.) (Pulyi:k said it meant: heaven, right down here—patted down with the hand on the patient. ) Mayvi kono: (h)yi ko(h)ono:yi Hamayvi kono: (h) yi ko(h) ono :yi ko (h) ono :yi Mayvi kono: (h) yi ko(h) ono:yi ko(h)ono:yi ™ This is a clear-cut description of the quasi-involuntary and preconscious manner in which ritual knowledge is acquired and explains why these songs are afterward also “relearned’”’ in dream. This process resembles that which Pétzl (1917) tested by means of his now famous experiments: He briefly flashed a picture on a screen and instructed his subjects to describe what they had seen. The morning after, he recorded his subjects’ dreams. It was found that those details which the subjects had not consciously seen and recalled, appeared as elements in the dreams they had during the following night. This may be due to the fact that uncompleted tasks are remembered better than completed ones (Zeigarnik, 1927). 7?This concluding remark clearly differentiates between dream knowledge and empirical data (Devereux, 1957 b). 8) This song goes on for a long time and there is no strict rule as to where and when the meaningless syllable “tha” should be inserted before ‘‘mayvi.’’ There is, likewise, no rule as to whether one should repeat the word tcami:ye twice or three times in a given phrase. These things vary according to the melody. In fact, the song changes a little every time it is sung. Whenever tcami:ye is repeated three times, the melody becomes a little less monotonous, but this is not an absolute rule. In brief, the song changes whenever the singer wishes to change it. For this reason, only the basic lines of the following songs will be recorded. These lines may be repeated as often as the singer wishes and may recur at any time during the singing of this song. | | | | | | | | | | | Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 163 Third song: Meya me-eya me-eya (An exact translation could not be obtained from Ahma Huma:re. He said it refers to “their” (whose?) physical makeup. Pulyi:k said it referred to a contest or argument with the illness.) Hameya me-eya me-eya (Sometimes me-eya is sung thrice.) Fourth song: Hono:me yono:me yono:me (This still refers to “their” makeup. Pulyi:k stated it meant: He goes after the illness saying in effect: “Do you hear me?’’) No:me yono:me yono:me (Sometimes yono:me is sung thrice.) As a general rule, every line is repeated at least once. Hvery time the second word is repeated thrice, the melody loses its shuffling monotony and becomes quite pleasing. The song is sung moderato, mezzopiano, and, at the end, morendo (fading away). The phrasing is rather abrupt, and the rhythm is dotted. Translation: ‘Your interpreter (Hama: Utce:) cannot really translate this for you. All the words have, of course, a real meaning in everyday language but in this song they mean more than that.” (l.e., they are catch phrases or slogans.) The interpreter also agreed with this statement. “I am not giving you a real running translation of these songs. I will translate to you what Ahma Huma:re says his songs mean.” These remarks reveal that the Mohave themselves realize that in shamanistic songs each word is surrounded by a halo of implied meanings derived from mythology. ‘Thus, in a sense, the shamanis- tie “poet’’ seeks to transcend the limited meaning of words, and to compress the story of, e.g., the ‘‘Creation” in the two words “heaven and earth,” in order to convey to the patient and to the audience certain general ideas which seem to transcend the everyday “core meaning” of Mohave words. A discussion of the complex problem of “translating” Mohave ritual songs will be found elsewhere (Devereux, 1957 b). For the moment, it suffices to stress that a ritual song can be translated on three different levels: (1) One can translate the “core meaning” of the words, as was done some 15 years later by the excellent linguistic informant Pulyi:k. (2) One can translate the “halo meaning” of the words, as was done by Hama: Utce:, in consultation with Ahma Huma :re. (3) One can explain the meaning of the songs as a whole, as Ahma Huma:re did. The meaning of the songs: In the first song I tell about the whole of heavens; how beautiful and full of life it is. I also say the same thing about the earth. I say that people were meant to be healthy and full of life and that, as I sing, this sickness, which is foreign to (does not fit in with) all this life, will leave and disappear. In the second song I say, ‘You will have to tell your dreams and by the time I am through with my singing, you will be healthy.’ The third song is really just a ‘different pronunciation’ (sic) of the first song and is supposed to convey the same meaning. The fourth song is also the same; it conveys the idea that it is in my power to cure.” Left hand: I use my left hand because my power comes from the super- naturals on the mountain Avi:kwame:. Cases: At this point Ahma Huma:re briefly referred to three patients whom he had treated recently (Cases 40, 41, 42). Ahma Huma:-re’s second statement (1933)—Sometimes the ghost of a dead child returns into the mother’s womb, causing hiwey lak nyevedhi:. Its body is just a clot of menstrual blood. This condition is treated by shamans like myself, who specialize in obstetrics. This disease is due to the fact that the 164 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 dead child tries to kill its mother so as to take her soul with it to the land of the dead.” Ahma Huma:re’s third statement (1938).—Lay people call ghost pregnancy hiwey lak, but we who have power (shamans) call it nyevedhi: utu:y (or utu:ly). The disease is caused by dreams of intercourse with dead relatives, which precede dreams about the return of dead babies. Such dreams of inter- course with the dead cause the woman to have a ghost baby in her womb. This condition, too, is called nyevedhi: utu:y (or utu:ly). [Is the man with whom the woman cohabits in dream the father of the ghost baby?] Yes, he is. [Do ghosts have semen?] They do. [Can it be seen?] No. [Does the woman who dreams of intercourse have a dream “pollution’?]“ Yes. [Does this happen only to women whose baby died?]. Yes. In order to have such dreams one has to have both a dead baby and a dead husband. [If the woman did not have a baby who died, this cannot happen?] No. [Do such people act queer?] Yes. [What do they do?] Yavoo:k means that they talk without knowing what they are talking about. They do a lot of talking. [Do they speak Mohave or an unknown language (glossolalia)?] They speak Mohave, but sometimes they also hear other languages and then they speak that way too. It is, naturally, always a language that they have heard, like Yavapai or Yuma. They do not act peculiar in other ways—they only speak—it is only a sort of queerness. [Do they speak fast?] Yes. [Do they throw themselves about so that you can’t hold them?] Yes. [Do they have fugues?] Yes, some of them do, but not all. [Is there also retardation—like this (mimic)?] Yes. [Are they sometimes excited and at other times retarded?] Yes, they alternate. When I treat them, I have to blow in their ear and if my power is able to cure this type of sickness, it will cure it. All three types of hiwey lak make people act that way and I can cure all three types. [I describe a manic female patient whom I saw in a mental hospital.] Yes, that is how they act. [What are the physical symptoms?] They seem to run a temperature. Their body is very shaky and they have stomach troubles. I can cure all three conditions. [Have you had patients of all three kinds?] Yes. [Can you tell me this afternoon about your patients, one by one?] Certainly. [Did you ever treat a nyevedhi: utu:y (or utu:ly) case?] I never had such a case on the reservation. I know about it from my dreams. [Whence comes this term?] I heard itin my dream. Utu:y (utu:ly) is a well known name for sickness. [Interpreter remarked: “Even I know it.’’] I have heard of such cases, but I have never doctored one personally. I just heard of them but know of no special case. I personally never had a case where real insanity (yamomk) was one of the symptoms of this disease, nor have I heard of such a case. [When ghosts dream of living people, do they get sick too?] Nobody knows about that. Ahma Huma-re’s fourth statement (1938)—[Why do you, and others as well, hint that hiwey lak is a kind of insanity?] In their younger days people live with their own parents. Then, because of death in the family, they some- times move from one place to another. For example, they may lose their own parents and then have to move to another place (because the death house is burned down (cf. Kroeber, 1925 a)). Im such cases they may get hiwey lak nyevedhi:, because they have suma :tc itcem (bad dreams). In their dreams they see these dead relatives and may also see their old home which was destroyed. In other instances they dream that they are doing the things they did when %1 The Mohave believe that women also ejaculate. Their “sperm’’ seems to be the vaginal moisture (Devereux, 1950 a). Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 165 their parents or dead relatives were still alive. Sometimes they have dreams in which the dead relatives prepare foods, such as pumpkins and melons, which are supposed to be the original food of the Mohave. When they awaken from such dreams, their appetite is lost, their bowels are loose, and they urinate to excess. In their dreams they see before them the body of a dead relative; they see the matkwisa: (soul) arise from that body and then step aside, turn around and speak to them. Then the dreamers talk to the ghost and answer. At that point the person who has such dreams goes insane. The spirit that arises from the body and steps away from it is said to be ite tu:atck (the end, the termination). A sick person also has another kind of dream. He sees that his dead rela- tives have come back. They tell him that they have come for him. They say ‘The place you are living on now (i.e., the earth) is bad.’ The clothing which the dreamer destroyed at the funeral of his dead relatives is supposed to be in the land of the ghosts. The land of the ghosts is called Calya:yt (Devereux. 1987 a) or Nyevedhi: nyaAmat (ghost earth). That place also contains the nyevedhi: nyeva:tce (ghost dwellings) and Ahate kupi:lyk. When he dis- covers that his dead relatives have come for him, the dreamer may decide to go back with them to the land of the dead. I mean, of course, that his soul, matkwisa: sumate mitcemvete (soul of evil dreams) may do so. When one reaches that stage (has such dreams), that too is a cause of insanity. When the dreamer tells of having such a dream, people know that he has hiwey lak nyevedhi:. This is so well known that even ordinary (lay) people know (can make) this diagnosis. [In English we call this autistic regression. You are quite right, it sometimes does involve insanity. By the way, I heard of two other things that cause this disease: The return of the dead child into the womb, and dream intercourse with ghosts.] As regards the return of dead children into the womb, ordinary people may, perhaps, call it hiwey lak nyevedhi:, but we, who have power (shamans), call it nyevedhi: utu:y or utu:ly. We also apply that name to dreams of intercourse with ghosts, because they precede dreams about the return of the dead baby and do, in fact, cause ghost pregnancy. But when one merely dreams of intercourse with ghosts, the resulting sickness is called hiwey lak nyevedhi:. [What if one dreams of inter- course with sexually tabooed living relatives?] That only causes straight hiwey lak (Case 42) and not hiwey lak nyevedhi:. [Can women conceive babies that way?] No. they can’t. {I am getting a little confused—there seem to be so many kinds of ghost ilInesses.] There is, first of all, nyevedhi: taha:na (ghost real) [see pt. 4, pp. 175-184]. A person who has this ailment sees his dead relatives in dream; they prepare food for him and he eats this food. He also dreams of engaging in various activities with his dead relatives, much as he did when they were still alive. Hiwey lak and hiwey lak nyevedhi: are just about the same illness. Their symptoms are the same. There was a man here at Parker, by the name of Hulo:k, who also had the power to cure this illness. He is dead now and there is no longer anyone who can treat such cases. [Then what do you do with people who have this illness?] They just die. There is only one man left who might know something about it, but I am not sure of it. That is Kapel Tcukye:va. [I asked people to tell him I wanted to talk to him, but he doesn’t seem to want to talk to me. Why doesn’t he?] He must be afraid of these things. Persons who are called real shamans, because they have bewitched people, are very touchy about telling anyone their 166 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 dreams and power. This applies also to Hikye:t™ and to Kwathany Hi:wa (lizard heart) as well as to Kapel Teukye:va. No matter how much money you offer them, they don’t want to say anything about their powers.” Acate’s statement (1938).—Hiwey lak seems to be connected with menstrual troubles and with the pseudocyesis which such troubles cause. Menstrual blood is bad blood, which is expelled from the body. Some women bleed little, how- ever, because they are sick; such women are eventually killed by this disease. Some of them do not get with child even from men who already fathered other children. Something is wrong with their blood and with their stomach, and is likely to kill them. They dream of having children and then their blood forms some sort of ‘child’ inside of them. That is one cause of hiwey lak. Hiwey lak dreams.—With the exception of dreams of incest with living relatives (Case 42), all hiwey lak dreams supposedly con- cern the dead, either directly or indirectly. An important exception to the rule that such dreams cause illness is the belief that during the four nights following death the soul of the deceased—which is not quite a ghost as yet—revisits its old haunts, and may even have inter- course with the surviving spouse, without harm to the latter. The belief that witches may have erotic dreams about their victims—whose souls they temporarily prevent from going to the land of the dead, i.e., from becoming real ghosts (Devereux, 1937 c)—without becoming ill is, InN a sense, simply a more complex expression of the basic belief that only relations with fully fledged ghosts, already residing in the land of the dead, can cause disease. The chaotic variety of dreams cited in the preceding accounts actually falls into a very few, closely interrelated categories: (1) Dreams restoring the status quo ante.—These include dreams of the house of one’s youth, of the rites one underwent at puberty, of the actions one per- formed and the roads one traveled while one’s relatives were still alive; dreams of female (i.e., maternal) regalia and possessions, which recall the future transvestites’ preoccupation with female regalia; activity dreams which cause one to feel tired first in dream and then also on awakening, ete. This latter type of dream suggests a nexus between hiwey lak and the activity psychoses (pt. 2, pp. 46-56). (2) Dreams accepting the loss—Dreams of the old home, which eppears battered and abandoned in dream, as it now is also in reality. (3) Social interaction with ghosts—One is visited by, or else visits, the ghosts of one’s relatives, who seek to persuade one to join them in the land of the dead. Sometimes the ghost rises from the corpse and engages the dreamer in conversation. At other times one engages in various routine activities with the ghosts of one’s relatives. (4) Food.—The ghosts prepare aboriginal food for the dreamer, who then partakes of it and thereafter has no appetite for human food. One may dream *2This shaman did, eventually, consent to an interview. However, his extremely con- fused statements and his air of embarrassed vigilance indicated that Ahma Huma:re was right in saying that he would be afraid to speak of his powers (pt. 1, pp. 9-11). 8 The implications of this remark are: (1) Ahma Huma:re talked to me not simply for pay, but chiefly from friendship, and (2) unlike the shamans just mentioned, he was not a witch who is afraid of revealing the nature of his powers. Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 167 of drinking unusual types of water, such as stagnant water or water found in the hills (which may symbolize the water drunk by the dead). The various cannibalistic dreams reported in connection with nyevedhi: taha:na (pt. 4, pp. 175-184) suggest that eating the food of the dead symbolizes eating the dead themselves. This meaning of ghost food is so close to consciousness that one woman actually saw that the fish she ate had the head of her dead mother (Case 47). The feeding of the dreamer by the ghosts of his relatives, which causes him to lose his appetite for earthly food, is clearly part and parcel of the ghosts’ attempt to lure their children, etc., to the land of the dead, by providing them with imaginary (infantile?) oral gratifications. (5) Coitus with the dead also appears to be a means of luring the living to the land of the dead. It is also to be noted that witches begin to long for death after cohabiting in dream with the souls of their dead victims, who eften happen to be their close relatives. The dead sex partner acts either like a succubus or like an incubus, regardless of his or her real sex.* (6) Incest with the dead appears to be the principal form of coitus with the dead and the one whose effects are most likely to be fatal. It is interesting to note that Haravy He:ya took pains to stress that in such dream intercourse one allows the saliva of one’s ghostly sex partner to dribble into one’s mouth; this combines the sexual and oral devices by means of which the dead lure the living to the land of ghosts. (7) Pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood dreams occur chiefly in women who lost both their baby and their husband. The dead baby reenters the mother’s womb in order to kill her and take her to the land of the dead. Since unborn shamans, who do not wish to be born, also seek to kill their mothers during childbirth, it may conceivably be relevant in this context that evil shamans are said to be prone to commit incest (Devereux, 1937 c and 1939 a). (8) Incest with a living person occurring in dream causes hiwey lak, but not hiwey lak nyevedhi: (Case 42). On the whole, the dead are believed to resort to a variety of means to lure their living relatives to the land of the dead. These means range from persuasion to oral and incestuous sexual gatifications, or else involve dreams related to mourning. Apparently the manner in which the deceased person died does not affect the quality or intensity of his wish or ability to lure the survivors to the land of ghosts. Thus, it was specifically ascertained that the ghosts of women who died in childbirth are no more eager than other ghosts to induce the living to follow them to the land of the dead. A partial exception to this rule may be the ability of bewitched persons to make their killer long for death (Devereux, 1937 c). The two physiological means of luring the survivors to the land of the dead, and of arousing in them a desire to die—i.e., by incestuous coitus and by feeding them aboriginal food (= milk)—reflect a re- markable insight into the oral components of the Oedipus complex, ®% Thus, twins in heaven drink rain water (Devereux, 1941). 8% This point was made when I mentioned to the Mohave the Navaho belief (Bailey, 1950) that in coitus inversus the man may become pregnant, a notion which made the Mohave laugh out loud. 168 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 against which the Mohave struggle all their lives and which causes them, e.g., to taboo, as suggestive of incest, the oral titillation of the mammae during foreplay (Devereux, 1947 a and 1950 a). It should be noted, however, that at least one of my own two dreams which the Mohave diagnosed as hiwey lak dreams did not fit any of these patterns. This suggests a tendency to diagnose as hiwey lak dreams certain anxiety dreams in which the “ego is split.” Thus, Kohovan Kura :u, who had a “dream within a dream,” was convinced that this was an unlucky and probably pathogenic dream, although he did not specifically mention the possibility that it may be a hiwey lak dream. By contrast, a dream in which he saw the white town of Parker almost deserted, was interpreted by him simply as a prophetic dream, heralding the great economic depression of 1929-1934—per- haps because he knew that the white man does not destroy his house when one of its inhabitants dies. MISCELLANEOUS SUPPLEMENTARY DATA From Various Informants Predisposition—Women who menstruate little or irregularly are especially likely to develop ghost pregnancies. Apparently even irregular or scanty menses, occurring naturally during puberty, or else during the menopause, are sometimes considered pathological, since of the two women who misdiagnosed their pregnancies as hiwey lak nyevedhi:, one was still in her middle teens (Case 46), while the other was old enough to have reached the menopause (Case 45). It should be noted that in both instances the shamans consulted were quite proud of having made the correct (naturalistic) diagnosis, and of having “debunked” the patient’s supernaturalistic self-diagnosis (McNichols, 1944). Witchcraft.—Unlike the other veneral disease, hiku:pk, hiwey lak can also be caused by witchcraft. It is desirable to recall in this context that another type of murderous attack upon the mother by a living and real fetus can like- wise be caused by witchcraft (Devereux, 1948 e). On the other hand, it should also be specified that at least one reliable informant asserted that a witch cannot send the ghost of a dead child back into its mother’s womb and is also unable to shift a real fetus from one woman’s womb to that of another. Yet, even this informant believed that witches can cause simple hiwey lak and, perhaps, also those forms of hiwey lak nyevedhi: which do not involve a ghost pregnancy. Dreams.—Sometimes a dream about a (dead?) baby causes ite hira:v, a dis- order seemingly related to hiwey lak. Symptoms.—Ahwe: tci is a sort of hard object in the vagina, which is caused by dreaming of coitus with a dead husband (pt. 4, pp. 1388-141). This condition, which may or may not be related to hiwey lak, is not generally known to lay- men, since Pulyi:k professed to know nothing about this symptom and had never even heard the term ahwe: tci. (Note that dead husband=ahive:= enemy !) Diagnosis.—The initial diagnosis of hiwey lak is sometimes far from easy, so that a hiwey lak patient may first be treated for another illness, which he does not have (Case 44). Treatment.—Supposedly, usually successful. Treatment despite bad prognosis.—In hiwey lak nyevedhi: dreams one ac- tually goes to the land of the dead. This means that one part of the soul Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 169 (Devereux, 1937 a) actually takes such a trip. If the fourth soul, which is the real self, does so, the case is hopeless. Yet, even in such instances, people may ask a shaman to do whatever he can for the patient. Obscure points.—A number of interesting points could not be clarified. They are: (1) Asked whether stillborn babies or (usually halfbreed) babies who were killed by burying them alive (Devereux 1948 d) could return to cause ghost pregnancies, Hama: Utce: and Pulyi:k replied: “We do not know—we are not shamans.” (2) Given the fact that ghost pregnancies are called “anus pain ghostly,” several informants were asked whether the ghost of the dead child entered its mother’s body via the anus or was eventually expelled via the anus.” This question was also motivated by the Mohave belief that young girls who eat mesquite sap become barren (Devereux, 1948 b), and by the practice of ‘‘mar- ried” Mohave transvestites first to constipate themselves with a decoction of mesquite and then to deliver a “fecal child” (Devereux, 1937 b). Informants were unable to answer this question. (8) The Mohave differentiate between “complete” and “incomplete” beings (Kroeber, 1925 a, Devereux, MS., 1985). Hence, informants were asked whether only “incomplete” (e.g., untattooed) dead babies returned to the womb. Un- fortunately, no one was able to answer this question. (4) Several informants spoke of the role of the various secretions in the hiwey lak group of diseases. A shaman’s story, published by Kroeber (1925 a), states that Halypota, the primordial spider, grew from the “himata hakamalya” of the killed gigantic Sky Rattlesnake. Kroeber translated this Mohave expression as “body form,’ whereas my informants translated it as “body foam.” This latter translation is both logically and mythologically more plausible than Kroeber’s.” Indeed, quite apart from the fact that all over the world mythologies mention dangerous creatures born of the secretions (blood, ete.) of a slain mon- ster, the rest of Kroeber’s own account makes it almost mandatory to assume that “body foam” is meant, since all the other disagreeable and dangerous creatures born from the corpse of Sky Rattlesnake were formed out of the various sticky fluids of its body: its blood, sweat, and the “glue of its joints,” ie., precisely from the type of secretions which certain sick Mohave see in their dreams not only when they have hiwey lak nyevedhi: but also when suffering from certain other neuropsychiatric conditions (pts. 2, pp. 42-46 and 4, pp. 128-150). Erroneous diagnoses of hiwey lak.—The number of cases (45, 46) in which the patient was erroneously believed to have hiwey lak is greater than is the num- ber of all other recorded cases of false diagnosis. This suggests that hiwey lak is a “fashionable disease,’ not only among Mohave laymen, but even among shamans, perhaps because its symptoms are sufficiently numerous and vague to fit a great variety of illnesses. In addition, hiwey lak is also, in a sense, the prototype of “not straight’ illnesses, since it is believed to occur quite often in conjunction with other diseases (e.g., nyevedhi:). As a result, it appears to 8} Compare Haray He:ya’s comment on “gas”? and Hikye:t’s remarks on internal smoke (pt. 1, pp. 9-17). 7 Although the Mohave are quite preoccupied with the concept of “taking a certain shape,” Kroeber (1925 a, p. 775) himself appears to have been puzzled by the highly abstract idea of something being made out of the “body form’ of a dead creature, since he himself placed these words in quotes. 170 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 play in Mohave diagnostics the role of a “catchall” or “wastebasket” diagnosis, which can be made to fit a variety of obscure ailments.™ CASE MATERIAL DREAMS When making a general study of Mohave dreams, I deliberately told several of my own dreams to my Mohave friends, in the expectation—which turned out to be correct—that if I shared my dreams with them, this would encourage them to tell me theirs. Two of my dreams were diagnosed as symptomatic of hiwey lak. Since neither of these dreams resembles the dreams mentioned by the various informants as being pathognomonic of hiwey lak, one is forced to con- clude that a certain type of anxiety dream tends to be considered symptomatic of hiwey lak, no matter what its actual content may be, especially perhaps if it is dreamed after listening to accounts of hiwey lak. This point is of sufficient importance to justify the publication of these—now respectively 37- and 28-year- old—personal dreams.” Dream A: Dreamer.—The anthropologist. I had this dream when my 14%-year-old younger brother died under rather tragic circumstances in 1924. I dreamed that he came back and this made me so happy that I ran around on all fours. (1924. ) Associations.—Even nowadays (19386), when I am very sad, I sometimes dream of my dead younger brother. I was only 16 when he died. Hivsu: Tupo:ma’s interpretation (1936) — (a) Your brother longed for you and came back to see you. (a) The shock of seeing him made you run on all fours in dream. (c) The reason you dream of him when you are unhappy is that he thinks of you. He never forgot you. Dream B: Dreamer.—The anthropologist. Exutus ipse puellam quam amo exutam bracchio teneo. Then I, or my double, chase myself. Still carrying this bur- den, I take off and fly away, while my pursuer remains on the ground. (1933.) Associations.—_I met this person just before my first Mohave field trip and thought a great deal about this meeting. Tcate’s interpretation (1936) .—This is a dream of good luck. Hivsu: Tupo:ma’s interpretation (1986).—I am sure Teate was afraid to tell you the truth, because she is very fond of you. So am I, but I think you should know the truth. (a) Your attire means that you will become poor. (Hivsu: Tupo:ma knew that I was quite “broke” in 1936.) (b) Your flying off means that you will meet someone else and have better luck. 88 In fairness to the Mohave diagnostician, it should be stated that such fashionable “catchall” diagnoses also occur in occidental psychiatry. Thus, at the turn of the century the favorite “when in doubt” diagnosis was hysteria, whereas today the diagnosis of schizophrenia is often applied so indiscriminately that many thoughtful psychiatrists are beginning to bend over backward to avoid making this diagnosis whenever it is at all possible to do so... . partly perhaps to forestall the possibility that the patient so diagnosed would be subjected to so-called shock therapy, or to a lobotomy. 8 Additional reasons that favor the publication of such personally revealing material will be found in part 3, pp. 97-101. | | Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE Lal (c) The one who chases you is also yourself. It is your “shadow soul.” You are also the one who carries this burden. It is fortunate that you dreamed of both of your selves. Had you dreamed only of one, it would have meant death. This is a hiwey lak dream. At this point I asked Hivsu: Tupo:ma to treat me, but he refused to do so on the grounds that he was not qualified to treat a white... but failed to add that he was not a hiwey lak specialist either. Dream C: Dreamer.—Teate (N), a middle-aged woman. I dreamed on two separate oc- casions that some women tried to have intercourse with me. Once I dreamed about one woman and another time about another woman. Both of these women were either close friends or else relatives of mine. I knew even in dream that they were women, though they acted like men and tried to pull up my skirt. Both managed to throw me down and then tried to get on top of me. Fortunately I managed to fight them off in both instances, so that neither of them actually succeeded in having intercourse with me. Associations.—Had these dreams culminated in intercourse, I would have become very ill. [Do you desire women also in a waking state?] Definitely not. Cultural comment.—In principle, incestuous dreams are supposed to cause hiwey lak. In this instance the dreamer did not specify that she might have contracted hiwey lak, had these female relatives succeeded in having intercourse with her. This omission may be fortuitous, since this is the first dream I obtained, early in my first field trip. Tentative interpretation.—The dream reveals unconscious, homosexually in- cestuous wishes. The fact that the women “acted like men” is a tentative denial of the fact that women have no penes. (Small children often fantasy that the powerful mother has a phallus.) The dreamer strenously resists her at- tackers, partly because her homosexual wishes are not ego-syntonic but per- haps also because, had she allowed them to go ahead, she would have dis- covered in the end that women do not, after all, have a phallus. These ag- gressively masculine female relatives may symbolize the dreamer’s mother, such as the small girl sometimes fantasies her mother to be. The aggressivity of the women is presumably related to the child’s “sadistic theory of intercourse” (i.e., “father does dreadful things to mother.”) Narcissistic elements are also present. ActuAL Htwry LAK CASES The most interesting aspect of the recorded cases of genuine hiwey lak is the fact that two of the patients were brother and sister and that incestuous elements, combined with witchcraft and murder, played a great role in the etiology of their illnesses. It is equally interesting that none of the other recorded hiwey lak cases involved obvious psy- chiatric symptoms. This fact further confirms the impression that the Mohave view this illness as psychosomatic rather than as strictly psychiatric. CASE 40 (Informants: Ahma Huma: re and Hama: Utce:): A young man was once brought to my house for treatment. He was all Swollen up. His whole body was swollen from the dreams which he had had. 492655— 61——_12 172 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 I cured him in one night, so that the next day he was able to walk home. (Allergy ?) CASE 41 (Informants: Ahma Huma: reand Hama: Utce:) : I recently cured an old woman who had hiwey lak. CASE 42 (Informants: Ahma Huma: reand EH. §8.): Huau Husek’ (fly whip) of the Mu:th gens, 35 years old, dreamed that he had intercourse with his (living) sister, Mu:th Nyemsutkha:v (= a certain feather for the hair). I treated him and his dreams ceased in 4 days. Oomment Tentative diagnosis.—Anxiety state caused by incestuous dreams. The first point to be noted is Ahma Huma:re’s specification that the dreams ceased in 4 days. No mention is made of a physical illness. This leads one to suppose that the patient called the shaman as soon as his anxiety dreams be- gan, thereby indicating that, for a man of 35, he was unusually old fashioned. His conservativeness also expressed itself in the fact that he was the last Mohave to kill a witch, who, after seducing Huau Husek’s wife, proceeded to threaten both him and his wife with witchcraft (Devereux, 1948 f, and Case 104). An equally important feature of this case is the fact that, in violation of the Mohave custom of not meddling with the domestic affairs of others, Mu:th Nyemsutkha:v went out of her way to inform her brother of his wife’s infidel- ities. This suggests an unusually intense and unconsciously incestuous rela- tionship between brother and sister, who should not discuss sexual matters with each other. This inference is, in turn, strongly supported by the fact that, soon after Mu:th Nyemsutkha:v brought him this news, her brother had incestuous dreams about her. It is also to be noted (Case 48) that, soon after the murder of the witch, Mu:th Nyemsutkha:v herself contracted hiwey lak. CASE 43 (Informant: Ahma Huma: reand E. §.): Soon after her brother Huau Husek’ and his wife murdered the witch Anyay Ha:m (Case 104), Mu:th Nyemsutkha:v, a woman in her 30’s, became hyster- ical and quite ill. Although the informant himself stressed that this illness began shortly after the witch’s murder, he denied that there was any nexus between the two events. No further details could be obtained, since the woman was still too ill at that time to be interviewed. Comment It is known also from other sources that Mu:th Nyemsutkha:v was indirectly responsible for the murder of the witch and for the imprisonment of her brother who killed him, since she took it upon herself to tell her brother that his wife had an affair with the witch. It is also known that, soon after she made this disclosure, Huau Husek’ had incestuous dreams about her. This frightened him sufficiently to induce him to consult a shaman, who diagnosed his case as hiwey lak (Case 42). It is, therefore, probable that Mu:th Nyem- sutkha:y, too, had an incestuous fixation on her brother and that her illness represented partly a guilt reaction to the tragedy caused by her talebearing and partly an identification with her brother’s hiwey lak illness. Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 173 CASE 44 (Informants: Hivsu: Tupo: ma, Ahma Huma: re, and Hama: Utce:) : (Hivsu: Tupo: ma) : Sudhu: ra of the Mah gens is the son of Atci: Akw(0)- ath, who is very old fashioned and antiwhite. Sudhu:ra impregnated his second cousin Tecate (N), whereupon his mother made him marry the girl (Case 90). This incestuous marriage worried the girl so much that she died of tuber- culosis. Then Sudhu:ra, too, fell ill. He was taken to the Agency hospital with pulmonary tuberculosis, but he got worse and worse and the doctor gave him up. He was then taken home and I was asked to treat him for an old horse kick. I work with you during the day and at night I treat him. (Hama: Utce:): Poor old Hivsu: Tupo:ma is singing himself hoarse every night to cure Sudhu:ra, who keeps on saying that it is Hivsu: Tupo:ma who had bewitched him. For a while some of Sudhu: ra’s relatives were even talk- ing about beating up Hivsu: Tupo:ma, but they finally gave up the idea, because they are afraid of the American law.” It just about broke the old man’s heart to have his kinsman Sudhu: ra accuse him of having bewitched him, when he was actually trying to cure him.” (Ahma Huma:re): Since, despite the treatment he had received so far, Sudhu: ra kept on getting worse, I was asked (on January 5, 1933) to take over the treatment and I agreed to do so, Sudhu: ra is getting worse and is also badly constipated.” It is because of this “stomach” trouble that I was eonsulted. He believes that two sisters, Mah (W) and Mah (EK), who belong to a family of witches, bewitched him, causing him to die conscious and in great pain.” Perhaps some of his relatives made him think that. He suffered so much that he begged his relatives to shoot him. I decided that he was suffering from hiwey lak and hiwey lak nyevedhi:, and that his illness was caused by the ghost of his deceased wife, who was also his second cousin (Case 90). I treated him exactly the way I told you I treat this illness. I had also treated a certain old woman in exactly the same way. I am supposed to have improved his condi- tion somewhat, thus proving that he had hiwey lak and hiwey lak nyevedhi:. (Hama: Utce:): Ahma Huma: re is quite proud of his success, which greatly increased his reputation as a shaman. However, in the end, Sudhu:ra died of tuberculosis. There used to be quite a lot of people in that family, but whenever incest occurs people seem to die off. That family practically died out on both sides (i.e., on the right (husband) and on the left (wife) side.) Comment Diagnosis: Tuberculosis. Anxiety reaction with paranoid components. The belief that Sudhu: ra’s fatal illness was due partly to his having con- tracted an incestuous union, and partly to the ghost of his wife—who was also his second cousin—fits both the standard Mohave theory of hiwey lak and beliefs concerning the fatal consequences of incest (pt. 7, pp. 356-871). Hence, The fact that Hivsu: Tupo:ma, though already in his fifties, was still a huge and powerful man, as well as the fact that he, too, was a member of the Mah gens, may also have had something to do with the decision not to beat him up after all. % When Hivsu: Tupo:ma confessed to me that he had bewitched his half brother and his neice, he denied that he had bewitched Sudhu :ra (Devereux, 1948 i). % Constipation is rare among the Mohave and therefore causes concern. It is a relatively common symptom in the terminal stages of tuberculosis. The possibility of a symbolic unconscious nexus between constipation and incest cannot be disregarded (Devereux, 1939 a). * If tuberculosis spreads to certain parts of the nervous system, the pain is sometimes very severe. Whether that happened in this case is not known. 174 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 Ahma Huma:re’s view that Sudhu: ra’s illness was caused by his wife’s ghost and not simply by his incestuous marriage was somewhat unusual, as was the fact that the Mohave readily accepted this somewhat surprising etiological and diagnostic explanation. What may explain both Ahma Huma: re’s diag- nosis and its ready acceptance by the tribe, is the fact that it appears to be patterned upon certain theories accounting for the death of a type of twins. The Mohave hold that twins, one of which is a boy and the other a girl, were spouses in heaven (or else, according to another theory, in the land of the dead) and, while still young, sometimes quarrel on earth, the way spouses do. When that happens, the offended “spouse” may decide to die and will soon be followed by the surviving twin (pt. 7, pp. 348-856). Since Sudhu: ra married his second cousin, who belonged to his own gens, and since this woman had died, Ahma Huma: re apparently felt impelled to equate Sudhu: ra’s illness with the fatal illness of the surviving twin-spouse, which, in a way is—in twins—a pediatric equivalent of the ghost diseases of adults, except that, in the case of twins, ‘‘marriage” precedes the sibling relationship, while in the ease of incestuous marriages the blood relationship precedes the union. Moreover, when viewed in this context, Ahma Huma: re’s diagnosis implicitly takes into account also the harmful effects of incestuous marriages. ‘The considerations which induced Ahma Huma: re to make this diagnosis were, thus, probably also responsible for the tribe’s willingness to concur with it. As for the view that Sudhu: ra’s illness was aggravated by worry and remorse, it is fully compatible with modern medical knowledge. Ahma Huma:re’s avoidance of any reference to Hivsu: Tupo:ma’s efforts to cure Sudhu:ra was partly due to rivalry between shamans (Devereux, 1957 b) but partly also to the fact that the woman Melyikha: had, shortly before, oscillated back and forth between the two men to such an extent that during this period she could not even get credit at the local stores, because no one knew which of the two men was her current husband and would assume responsibility for the debts she contracted on a given day. When, at long last, she finally settled down with Ahma Huma:re, Hivsu: Tupo:ma accepted her decision without resentment, as a good Mohave should. Thus, since there was no hostility between the erstwhile rivals, my friendship with Hivsu: Tupo:ma did not impair my friendly relations with Ahma Huma:re. However, the some- what grotesque aspects of their former rivalry led to a certain amount of em- barrassment between the two men, who avoided each other, presumably because they realized that they had made themselves quite ridiculous in this particular situation. The statement that the patient had been “discharged” from the hospital as an incurable tuberculotie also calls for comment. It simply means that the dying man was removed from the hospital at his own request and that of his family, partly in order to make a final attempt to cure him by shamanistic means, and partly because the Mohave wish to die in their own homes. It most defi- nitely does not mean that the hospital authorities callously discharged the patient because he was incurable, nor even that they did not do everything pos: sible to discourage his removal from the hospital. In fact, such discharges at the point of death, against medical advice, are a frequent cause of friction between the Mohave and the hospital authorities. This case history shows that the test of the correctness of a diagnosis is the effectiveness of the treatment and therefore leads us directly to the presentation of those cases in which the patient’s condition was erroneously diagnosed as hiwey lak. Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 175 ERRONEOUS SELF-DIAGNOSIS OF H1wry LAK CASE 45 (Informant: M. A. I. Nettle, M.D., reservation physician) : When I came to Parker 20 years ago (1912?) as reservation physician, N., who at that time was only 4 feet tall, already had a child. A little while ago (1932?) she thought she had reached the menopause and, on noticing the symptoms of pregnancy, went to consult the shaman, Kwathany Hi:wa, who specializes inter alia in the cure of ghost pregnancies. She has a baby right now and her previous child is seven years old. There are also several other women on the reservation who menstruate regularly at the age of 45 (Nettle, MS., n.d.). Comment Tentative diagnosis.—Psychological crisis due to a presumably unwanted pregnancy. The preceding case illustrates the implicit nexus between hiwey lak nyevedhi: and menopausal disturbances, which, in this case, caused N. to mistake the symptoms of a late (and perhaps unwanted) pregnancy for hiwey lak. Compare this case, which was known also to my Mohave informants, with that of G. A. (Case 46), who mistook an early (and certainly unwanted) illegitimate preg- nancy for hiwey lak nyevedhi:. Both cases also demonstrate the tendency of Mohave patients to make an initial diagnosis of their condition and then to con- sult a shaman who specializes in the cure of the disorder which supposedly affects them. CASE 46 (Informants: Ahma Huma:re and E. §S.): G.A., 17 years of age, single and without gentile affiliation—since her father was not a Mohave—became ill and was taken to the hospital where “‘they couldn’t do anything for her.” They didn’t know that she was pregnant. She was then taken to my (Ahma Huma:re’s) place and I told them that she was preg- nant. People didn’t believe me, however. Since women are not well when they are pregnant (being an obstetrician) I treated her all the same and she eyentu- ally felt better. Subsequent developments proved that she was pregnant and, in due time, she gave birth to a child, which is still alive. The father of this child is unknown, since G.A. is a kamalo:y (lewd woman) (Devereux, 1948 f). Comment Tentative diagnosis.—Unwanted pregnancy causing physical psychic malaise. This case illustrates the nexus between hiwey lak nyevedhi: and obstetrical conditions. It is significant that the therapist was Ahma Huma:re, who appears to have been the first to formulate this nexus explicitly. His skillful diagnosis of G.A.’s real condition appears to have received considerable publicity, since years later Pulyi: k, a layman, woh was simply asked to give G.A.’s Momave name, spontaneously referred to the fact that she did not have pseudocyesis, but was simply pregnant. NYEVEDHI: TAHA :-NA (GHOST GENUINE) An attempt to understand the nyevedhi: taha:na (ghost genuine) illness brings one face to face with one of the fundamental ambiguities of Mohave culture. 176 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 On the one hand, the Mohave do everything within their power to terminate, once and for all, any connection between the living and the dead. The funeral ritual provides the mourners with every oppor- tunity to abreact massively their grief, thus abridging the period of mourning. In addition, the property and dwelling of the dead are destroyed and his name is not mentioned again. On the other hand, they dream of ghosts, insultingly mention the name or relationship of a dead person to his surviving relatives (Kroe- ber, 1925 a), and even hire a ghost doctor (nyevedhi: suma:tc, ghost dreamer) to take them as visitors to the land of the dead. Such visits are risky indeed, since, should the client become separated from his shamanistic mentor, and should the latter fail to find him before morning, both will be stuck in the land of ghosts. Furthermore, the visitor’s dead relatives make considerable efforts to pull him away from his mentor and to induce him to remain in the land of ghosts (Fathauer, 1951). Even a shaman sent to the land of the dead to recover a patient’s soul may be kept there by his own dead relatives (Kroeber, 1925 a). It is quite certain that whereas these two formal patterns are, logically speaking, mutually incompatible, psychologically (attitudi- nally) they complement each other, exactly as the two mutually con- tradictory sets of Mohave beliefs concerning twins form a psycho- logical whole, in that they reflect the two aspects of ambivalence toward twins (Devereux, 1941). One of the most interesting aspects of Mohave attitudes toward the dead is that they impute to them their own mourning reactions (Devereux, 1956 a) and reluctance to break old bonds and habits. Thus, the data on hiwey lak nyevedhi: (pt. 4, pp. 150-175) are quite ambiguous in one respect, in that it is hard to decide whether, when a living person interacts with his dead relatives in a dream, this represents a visit of the living person’s soul to the land of the dead, or a visit of the ghost to the land of the living (pt. 4, pp. 150-175). In addition, even though persons on the point of death are supposed to do everything within their power to break all relations with the living and with earthly things, and may even already be spoken of as ghosts, there are indications that this cultural demand is not complied with altogether wholeheartedly. Thus, since at the death of a person everything pertaining to him, including even his pictures, are sup- posed to be destroyed, my old friend Tecate would not allow me to pho- tograph her. Yet, shortly after she died, I was amazed to receive from a young Mohave friend two photographs of Tecate. In his accom- panying letter this young man stated that, sensing that she did not have much longer to live, Tecate dressed up in her best clothes, put on her seldom-used aboriginal ornaments, and asked him to photograph Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE LG her for me, so that I would never forget her (Devereux, 1951 b). In brief, despite her orthodoxy and her previous refusals to leave so much as a photograph of herself behind her, when Tecate felt that she would soon die, she made sure that I at least—whom she often called her favorite grandchild—would never forget her. (PI. 9, }, ¢.) The data concerning nyevedhi: taha:na, about to be presented, com- bine information published by Fathauer (1951) with data obtained when my informants described the powers of (Hispan Himith) Tcilyetcilye, Kuskinave: and Kunyoo:r, who could not only recover souls that had strayed or had been taken to the land of the dead (mat- kwisa: namak=soul leaves, matkwisa: hidha:uk=soul to take), but could also help their clients visit their relatives in the beyond. Kunyoo:r could also cure mental illness caused by dreaming of one’s (bewitched ?) dead relatives. The most important aspect of such planned soul travels is that the visitor deliberately exposes himself to the fatal blandishments of these ghosts, who seek to take him to, and keep him in, the land of the dead, even if they themselves, being twins, are in heaven, or, being victims of witchcraft, are in the evil shaman’s “place.” Yet, at the same time, the Mohave greatly dread dreams in which their dead relatives visit them or in which, without being escorted by a shaman, they visit their dead relatives. On the whole, there are only five situations in which the living can have contact with the dead, without contracting the ghost disease. (1) Association with live twins is not harmful, even though twins are reincarnated ghosts, who must be treated very politely. (2) If one observes the relevant taboos, one can safely participate in all funeral observances. (3) A mourner, and especially the spouse of a deceased person, may be visited by the soul of the deceased during the first 4 nights follow- ing death, and the spouse may even cohabit with that soul in dream, without being harmed by this act. From the point of view of Mohave belief, the innocuousness of “contact” with the dead during these four nights seems to be due to the fact that the newly deceased is not, as yet, a fully fledged ghost already inhabiting the land of the dead, but simply a detached soul revisiting its former haunts and re- peating the major activities of its life on earth (Devereux, 1937 a). (4) Witches temporarily delay the transformation of the souls of their victims into fully developed ghosts, by segregating them “in a place of their own.” Until they themselves die or, preferably, are killed, they dream of their victims, enjoy their company, and engage in sexual relations with them. Although such contacts do not cause witches to contract the ghost disease, presumably because their % No one was able to answer the question whether one dreamed only of dead relatives who had died of witchcraft. 178 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY (Bull. 175 victims are not, as yet, true ghosts, they enjoy these contacts so much that they begin to long for the constant company of their ghostly captives and therefore induce others to kill them (Devereux, 1937 ¢ and pt. 7, pp. 887-426). A further reason why the witch eventually seeks to be killed, is that another witch may kidnap his ghostly re- tainers and permanently deprive him of their company (Devereux, 1937 ¢). (5) Ghost doctors may go to the land of the dead and bring back the soul of a patient who strayed there, without contracting the ghost disease, although they do run the risk of being kept there by their dead relatives, which may be another way of contracting ghost disease. All other contacts with ghosts are believed to expose the living to the dread ghost illness. Before describing this illness, it is important to discuss why it is called “nyevedhi: taha:na” (ghost real), rather than simply, e.g., “nyevedhi: hahnok” (ghost contamination). As already mentioned, a patient’s illness may either be “straight” or “not straight.” In the former case the patient has one disease only. In the latter case there is added to his basic illness a second patho- logical condition, which, in most cases, is related either to witchcraft or to ghosts. Thus, ahwe: hahnok (foreign contamination) (pt. 4, pp. 128-150) and hiwey lak (anus pain) (pt. 4, pp. 150-175) are “straight” diseases, while ahwe: nyevedhi: and hiwey lak nyevedhi: are “diseases that are not straight” because ghosts play a major role in their etiology and symptomatology. In fact, the ghost disease appears to occur mostly in conjunction with other illnesses, so that, when it occurs by itself, it seems necessary to stress that the disease is the genuine (unadulterated) ghost disease, nyevedhi: taha :na. This supposition is so important for an understanding of the rela- tionship between the ghost illness and certain other disorders, that it must be examined in some detail. When asked to describe the nyevedhi: taha:na illness, Ahma Huma :re declared that he had already done so when he described the hiwey lak nyevedhi: il!ness, i.e., that form of hiwey lak in which the patient dreams of intimate contact with ghosts, and especially of eating food prepared by ghosts or of committing incest with ghosts. Fathauer (1951), in turn, stresses that “the ‘enemy dreamer’ cured people who became insane as a result of dreaming of their dead relatives,” i.e., he treated patients who had not only the “straight” ahwe: hahnok disease, but also the “not straight” ahwe: nyevedhi: illness. Since one and the same person usually had the power to function as a scalper, as a healer of the foreign disease, as a funeral orator, as a healer of the illness (insanity) of those who violated funeral taboos, Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 179 and as a ghost doctor as well, Fathauer concluded that these various powers were either inherently interrelated, so that one and the same individual necessarily exercised all of these functions and held the various statuses pertaining to them cumulatively, or else that the foreign disease itself was closely related to the ghost illness.° Tt is proposed to show that the accumulation of these various powers by a single shaman is, as Fathauer’s first hypothesis indicates, due to the inherent relationship obtaining between these various powers, and that such a patterned co-occurrence of interrelated powers in one and the same shaman is actually an important characteristic of Mohave shamanism. This, in turn, implies that Fathauer’s second hypothesis issimply a corollary of his first hypothesis. The basic point is the fact that shamans who treat hiwey lak usually have the power to treat also either the other “venereal” disease called hiku:pk (e. g., Harav He:ya) or else those real obstetrical complica- tions (e. g., Ahma Huma:re) that more or less resemble the difficulties experienced by women whose hiwey lak takes the form of a ghost pregnancy (pseudocyesis) (pt. 4, pp. 150-175). Otherwise stated, it is in the nature of Mohave medical practice to combine related specialties. Thus, the real problem is not whether scalpers specialize also in the treatment of the foreign illness, of the ghost illness, and of illness (insanity) caused by a violation of funeral taboos, but why these various specialties form a pattern, and how they are interrelated. In this connection, Fathauer (1951) suggests that there is a natural affinity between aliens and ghosts, since both these pathogenic agents are, in a sense, not real Mohaves. It was shown elsewhere (pt. 4, pp. 128-150) that, even though the Mohave are convinced that the ghost of a dead Mohave remains a Mohave even in the land of ghosts, there is a definite psychological tendency to equate, affectively at least, aliens and the ghosts of one’s relatives, not only in connection with illness, but also otherwise.” The fact that these various powers are interrelated does not neces- sarily mean that all scalpers acquire all of these powers. Even less does it mean that these various powers are necessarily acquired simul- taneously. Thus, even though Hivsu: Tupo:ma was a practicing % Wathauer’s third supposition, that, due to the breakdown of their culture, the modern Mohave tend to confuse these various functions is, as will be seen, unconvincing. % The fact that the hiwey lak specialist may specialize either in the treatment of hiku : pk, or else in the treatment of obstetrical complications has its parallel 1n occidental medicine, in that a syphilologist may, in addition, specialize also in the treatment of the other venereal diseases (granuloma inguinale, gonorrhea), or else in dermatology. Thus, alien males, who are supposedly oversexed and endowed with huge phalli, are actually projections of the small child’s grossly fantastic image of the father, whose “mysterious” (sexual) activities during the night make him in the child’s eyes a nocturnal ogre on the prowl (Devereux, 1950 a). 180 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY (Bull. 175 shaman and funeral orator, who could cure illness caused by a viola- tion of funeral taboos, and could also have functioned as a scalper had his contemporaries been able to engage in independent warfare, he does not appear to have had the power to treat either the alien or the ghost sickness. He might, of course, have acquired these powers later on, had some subjective experience focused his interest on these illnesses, exactly as the death of his wife and unborn child during labor caused Ahma Huma:re, a hiwey lak specialist, to acquire also obstetrical powers, though relatively late in life (Devereux, 1948 e). Thus, in a sense, it is natural for the ahwe: specialist to treat also the nyevedhi: taha:na illness, since, as Fathauer rightly suggests, the two are fundamentally interrelated, by means of the affective equation alien=ghost. In addition, the dreams of ahwe: nyevedhi: patients greatly resemble the dreams of hiwey lak nyevedhi: patients, not be- cause the “straight” forms of ahwe: hahnok and hiwey lak are the same illness, but because both “nyevedhi:” types are “diseases that are not straight,” in that the ghost factor is superimposed on the basic ahwe:, respectively hiwey lak, “straight illness.” This, in turn, ex- plains why, even though the ahwe hahnok and ahwe: nyevedhi: specialist can treat also the nyevedhi: taha:na illness, the hiwey lak specialist, who also treats (part of?) hiwey lak nyevedhi:, is not, ipso facto, also a nyevedhi: taha:na specialist. What remains to be explained is precisely why the hiwey lak specialist can also treat hiwey lak nyevedhi:, without being, at the same time, also a nyevedhi: taha:na specialist. We can perhaps visualize this situation better if we cite a parallel instance from occi- dental medicine. Thus, even though tertiary syphilis (tabes dorsalis, general paresis, etc.) is, strictly speaking, a neurological disease, most syphilologists are also quite expert in diagnosing and treating this late (neurological) manifestation of syphilis. The Mohave parallel of this is the ability of hiwey lak specialists to treat also the nyevedhi: factor (i.e., the additional ghost sickness) in hiwey lak nyevedhi:, because the two occur together so often. In fact, this combination of illnesses is so common that, as stated above, when asked to describe the nyevedhi: taha:na illness, Ahma Huma:re declared that he had already done so when he described the hiwey lak nyevedhi: illness. At the same time, there are some indications that when the treatment of hiwey lak by means of the specific hiwey lak songs is not altogether successful, the patient is sometimes referred for supplementary treat- ment to a different kind of specialist who, one supposes, is likely to be a ghost illness specialist, or else a healer of bewitched persons. This latter possibility is suggested by the belief that hiwey lak may also Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 181 be caused by witchcraft, which ties in with Fathauer’s finding that the nyevedhi: taha:na illness is sometimes due to witchcraft. The next point to be discussed is the fact that instances in which the ghost illness occurs in combination with other illnesses, such as ahwe: hahnok or hiwey lak, are more common than unadulterated cases of nyevedhi: taha:na. This is presumably due to the tendency of all psychologically “primitive” persons to “somatize;” i. e., a de- pression such as nyevedhi: taha:na is very likely to trigger off also physical symptoms, or at least hypochondrial complaints, while physi- cal illness, in turn, often elicits in psychologically primitive persons considerable anxiety and a depression.*® The last point to be considered concerns the classical symptoms of the ghost illness, and the extent to which our case history fits the characteristic symptomatology of this psychosis, which does not seem to include any organic pathology. According to Fathauer (1951) : People afflicted with the ghost sickness were afraid of darkness, experienced nightmares, were unable to sleep at night, and cried for long periods of time. The shaman could also produce these symptoms by witchcraft, causing the victim to see whirlwinds in which ghosts traveled, and to have bad dreams, which produced the sickness. (It is necessary to stress in this connection that when a Mohave notices that one of the small whirlwinds, which occasionally arise in the desert, heads toward him, he immediately dodges it, lest it carry his soul to the land of the dead, causing him to die.) Fathauer’s description suggests that the ghost illness is a psycho- genic depression of considerable severity, uncomplicated by organic symptoms. The case history given below (Case 47) confirms this impression. The only part of Fathauer’s description which calls for clarification is his statement that the patient has “nightmares.” In psychiatry the term “nightmare” is applied almost exclusively to suffocation dreams, and especially to those in which an unbearably heavy mass seems to press down upon the dreamer’s chest (Jones, 1931). Since our data make no mention of suffocation dreams, we must presume that Fathauer used the term “nightmare” in the col- loquial sense of “severe anxiety dream.” This being said, Fathauer’s characterization of the ghost illness perfectly fits Case 47, which is a typical example of the nyevedhi: taha:na. In her dream, the pa- tient cannibalizes her dead mother, who first appears disguised as a fish, presumably because, even in a dream, the patient could not have Lack of space makes it impossible to show that the witch operates in many ways as though he were a ghost. * There are certain indications that each type of physical illness has distinctive emo- tional-psychiatric sequelae, or at least a distinctive psychic climate (Menninger and Devereux, 1948). 1Compare the German term “Alpdruck” (pressure of a spirit called Alp) and the Hungarian term “lidércnyomis” (pressure of a spirit called lidére). 182 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 forced herself to eat the undisguised body of her mother. Such a hallucinatory disguising of the identity of a member of one’s family, whom one wishes to cannibalize, also occurs among Canadian In- dians afllicted with windigo, who often hallucinate that their wives and children are fat beavers. (Landes, 1938.) ? Only after the can- nibalistic act has already taken place is the true identity of the “fish” revealed. Thus, this Mohave woman’s depression dream has every hallmark of authenticity and could not possibly have been either invented or appreciably distorted in telling it. The dream in question expresses and fuses the following elements: The oral incorporation of the dead mother, the infantile fantasy that the seemingly omnipotent mother is not only female, but, at the same time, also male (fish), or that she symoblizes maleness per se (Fenichel, 1954) and, finally, the infantile notion that the sexual act is an essentially oral process.® In summary, the dream in question is so classical a depression dream that any psychoanalyst whose patient has such a dream would envisage the imminence of an acute psychotic depression. CASE 47 (Informant: E.S.) : The following case history was volunteered by E.S., in order to illustrate Ahma Huma:re’s account of the ghost illness, which he had just interpreted. E.S. first told his story in Mohave to Ahma Huma:re, and, when the latter agreed that this was indeed a case of nyevedhi: taha:na, he repeated it for me in English. Teatc—not your informant Tecate, but another woman of that gens—was, around 1930, about 30 years old. She had been to boarding school and had just(?) returned to the reservation. She was at that time single and child- less. She is still living (1988). Her illness began as follows: She began to dream that she saw a fish being prepared for a meal. When the fish was cooked, she sat down, meaning to eat it. However, after taking two or three bites, she looked at the head of the fish and saw that it was her mother, who had been dead for quite some time. After she woke up, she was unable to eat ... she simply could not keep the food down in her stomach. She also cried now and then, without knowing why she eried. Her “Indian relation” maternal grandfather* Kuskinave: (or Kwis- kwinay)—the one who had homosexual relations when he was in prison (Devereux, 1937 b)—fortunately knew how to treat such cases. He made her tell him her dream and then performed the usual cure for nyevedhi: taha :na, singing all the proper songs. This treatment enabled her to recover her health.” 21It is interesting to note that in “The Gold Rush,” the starving bully first hallucinates that Charlie Chaplin is a chicken and then tries to slaughter him for the pot. 3 These elements are richly represented in Mohave culture where male transvestites drink a constipating infusion so as to be able to “‘give birth” to a fecal “child” (Devereux, 1937 b). Compare also the belief that the first (female) witch, Bullfrog, bewitched her father, the god Matavilye, by swallowing his feces, because he incestuously stimulated her by touching her genitalia (Bourke, 1889). «T.e., her classificatory grandfather on the maternal side. Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 183 Comment Mohave diagnosis.—Nyevedhi: taha:na. Tentative diagnosis —Transitory manic-depressive psychosis, depressive phase, The pathogenic dream in question fully substantiates Abraham’s (1927) well- known interpretation of the psychogenesis of manic-depressive psychosis. The fact that in this particular ‘genuine ghost disease” dream the patient was not, as in hiwey lak nyevedhi:, simply offered food by a dead relative, but was actually induced to eat her mother’s body, strongly supports Freud’s (1925 d) view that the mourning reaction is an attempt to incorporate the lost love object. The choice of a fish to represent the dead mother may be partly determined by the fact that the land of ghosts lies to the south and under the Colorado River (Devereux, 1987 a) from which the Mohave obtain their fish. A further reason why a fish is made to represent the dead (‘phallic’) mother is, presumably, the fact that the fish is not only a common masculine symbol but, among the Mohave at least, also a female symbol.* The suggested diagnosis, manic depressive psychosis, depressive phase, is based both on this patient’s symptoms and on the fact that the first symptoms of this psychosis usually appear in persons 30 years old or less. To clarify further the cannibalistic element in this patient’s dream, it was deemed desirable to append to this case history summaries of three cannibalistically tinged dreams of nondepressed Mohave indi- viduals who, by Mohave clinical standards, did not have the ghost dis- ease. These dreams show, on the one hand that, despite his horror of cannibalism (Devereux, 1948 d and 1951 b), even the “normal” Mo- have has impulses of that kind and, on the other hand, that this de- pressed patient’s dream exceeds in explicitness and in the intensity of affect the more allusive, and less anxiety-tinged, cannibalistic dreams of nondepressed “normal” Mohave Indians. The occurrence of dream cannibalism is far from exceptional among the Mohave. Dream D: The night of November 16-17, 1938, Hama: Utce: dreamed that she was rins- ing meat in the bathtub and that there were lots of dead mice mixed up with the meat. She felt disgusted and nauseated, and was sick the next day. She told this dream in the presence of HE. S., who, as he himself pointed out next day, promptly responded to Hama: Utce:’s dream with a cannibalistic dream of his own. Dream E: The very next night (November 17-18, 1938) E. S. had two dreams. The first dream concerned his father’s cremation; it included the sudden appearance of the father, who told E. S. that he had to leave, because some people (ghosts?) were waiting for him. The father then went off. At this point, E. S. woke up, but soon fell asleep again and then had a second dream, which, oddly enough, he reported to me first.° In this dream he thought he saw a whole steer boiling 5 Thus, a Mohave greatly offended his host’s wife when he kept on saying: “Phew, you Women smell like fish’ (Devereux, 1951 ¢c). Note also that in this case the therapist was Someone who had had homosexual relations (Devereux, 1937 b). ®°The reporting of dreams in reverse order often means that the second dream is a more disguised and therefore less embarrassing version of the first dream. 184 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 in a bathtub (cremation?) but when he went nearer, to examine it, he realized that it was really a man. Because this man had (long) hair and whiskers, BE. S. thought the man was Jesus. This man then talked in a language which E. S. did not understand. After narrating this (second) dream first, E. 8. proceeded to tell me a dream which he had had several days earlier and which concerned his deceased parents. Only then did he tell me the first dream of the previous night, which had something to do with his father’s cremation. In other words, E. S. was unable to report first the key dream, which revealed that the eore of this entire dream series was the cannibalization of his dead father’s corpse. Instead, he had to work himself up to the telling of the key dream by degrees. Such evasive maneuvers are quite common, not only in the psycho- therapy of members of the occidental culture area, but also in that of “primitives” (Devereux, 1951 a). The various ghost diseases known to the Mohave (pt. 4, passim) are, in a genuine sense, also soul loss diseases, which, among many North American tribes (Hultkrantz, 1953), are believed to cause insanity. Among the Mohave, the concept of soul loss appears to be applied chiefly to depressions and to anorexias, whose relationship to true depressions was convincingly demonstrated by Geré (1953). In fact, one is tempted to say that the “ethnic psychosis” (Devereux, 1956 b) of the Mohave appears to be depression (including anorexia and suicide), which perfectly dovetails with their cyclothymic disposition (Kroeber, 1925 a, Devereux, 1939 b). This finding proves once more that so- called “culture and personality studies” which fail to take into account the characteristic ethnic neuroses and psychoses obtaining in a given group are incomplete both psychologically and anthropologically. MOUA:V HAHNOK The moua:v hahnok (relatives, disease from, or relatives, con- tamination by) illness was not mentioned by the informants at the time when psychiatric disorders were investigated, which explains why relatively little is known about it. It was mentioned by Tcate, when she listed the disorders Anyay Ha:m (light passing; also called Amat Hu :dhap—earth rent or torn and I-lyi, the latter being a dis- tortion of his English name) of th Hipa: gens was qualified to cure.’ Tcate’s statement (1938).—Anyay Ha:m could cure hisa:hk (=body sores), hikwi:r (pt. 4, pp. 117-128), hu:the:rv (colds and pneumonia), and moua:v hahnok (relatives, contamination by). [What is this last disease?] Sometimes a man who lost his brother (which is a severe emotional blow (cf. pt. 7, pp. 459-484) ), dreams that the soul of the deceased returns to earth and goes around the way he used to do when he was still alive. Then, when the surviving brother wakes up, he grieves so constantly over his brother’s death that he may not even be able to eat, from lack of appetite. (For other data on Anyay Ha :m, see Cases 42,43, and 104). 7 This witch is mentioned in Cases 42, 48, and 104. Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 185 Hama: Utce:’s statement (1958).—“Some people dream of the dead. R. H.’s mother, an old lady, even now mentions that she dreams of the dead, who put out their hands, seeking to shake hands with her.” ® Comment Moua:v hahnok is apparently a mourning reaction, since such de- pressions are often characterized by a lack of appetite (pt. 4, passim). It is probably significant that the witch Anyay Ha:m spe- cialized in the cure of this ailment, since he openly confessed that he had bewitched his own son, R. E. L., as well as the 48-year-old Arapa:k Thume: (a kind of feathers for the hair), of the Mu:th gens, and Arapa :k Thume’s 30-year-old wife Kat, of the Kat gens, who were the parents of his son’s uncle-in-law Huau Husek’ (Cases 42, 48 and 104). It must be presumed that Anyay Ha:m specialized in the cure of ex- cessive mourning reactions chiefly because—being a witch—he, him- self, developed an abnormally intense longing for his victims, dream- ing of them, boasting of his evil deeds, threatening Huau Husek’ and his wife O:otc by telling them that he would bewitch them as he had bewitched Huau Husek’s parents and, adding insult to injury, by having an affair with O:otc. In other words, this man cured an ill- ness whose chief symptom—longing for a dead relative—was exactly the same as the principal symptom of the suicidal depression of witches: dreams about one’s relatives whom one bewitched, eliciting longing and depression. Since many tribes, in various culture areas, believe that in order to be able to cure certain illnesses the shaman himself must have had that illness, the similarity between Anyay Ha:m’s suicidal depression and the moua:v hahnok illness which he was qualified to cure is, both anthropologically and psychoanalytically, quite understandable and therefore requires no further comment.2 At any rate Anyay Ha :m’s provocative behavior, which included confessions, threats, and adultery, so exasperated Huau Husek’ that, assisted by his wife O:otc, he eventually killed Anyay Ha:m (Devereux, 1948 f and Case 104). The moua:v hahnok disease appears to differ from the ahwe: and the hiwey lak groups of disorders, chiefly in that the deceased relative who appears in dream does not make a specific effort to lure the sur- vivor to the land of the dead, either by cohabiting with him, or by feed- ing him, or by urging him to leave the earth and go to the land of the | dead. He simply appears in dream and behaves exactly as he did § Hama: Utce: did not imply that this 0ld woman had moua:y hahnotk. She simply cited this case as an example of contact with the dead, which frightens the living. (Cf. also “John Smith’s” dream of D. S. (Case 64).) ® Compare the fact that Ahma Huma :re acquired the power to treat obstetrical complica- tions after he lost his wife and unborn child, due to some obstetrical complication (Devereux, 1948 e). 186 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 while he was still alive; it is his mere “presence” which once more elicits a strong mourning reaction in the survivor. However, since in moua:v hahnok dreams the deceased behaves much less seductively than in those dreams which cause the ahwe: and hiwey lak groups of disorders, it is permissible to assume that the moua:v hahnok psychic illness is less severe than the two related groups of depressions. More- over, the fact that it was only mentioned once, and then only in pass- ing, suggests that it is a less common (or “fashionable”) disorder than either the ahwe: or the hiwey lak depressions. The fact that, despite the stringent cultural rule against thinking of the deceased after he is cremated, the Mohave do develop delayed mourning reactions amounting to real depressions suggests, at the lowest estimate, that those who experience such delayed mourning reactions did not manage to abreact most of their grief in the course of the funeral itself. On the other hand it also seems legitimate to infer that even psychologically quite sound ready-made defense mechanisms—such as culturally encouraged extreme grief reactions during funerals—do not always suffice to allay completely man’s anxieties, nor to decrease to a satisfactory extent the impact of some genuine misfortune or loss. In other words, it seems evident that cul- turally provided ready-made defenses become maximally effective only after being also “customized” and adapted to the specific needs of each individual? The process of “customization” is, in fact, easily observable in the case of shamans, who strenuously insist that their particular version of some myth or ritual is the only correct one, and therefore bewitch other shamans whose beliefs or curing rites differ from theirs (Devereux, 1957 b). The last point to be made is that the existence of a depression called “contamination by one’s dead relatives,” whose chief dream symptom closely resembles the principal dream symptom of the depression that is due to aliens and enemies (ahwe:) (pt. 4, pp. 128-150) further sup- ports the inference that the unconscious tends to equate one’s nearest kin with one’s hated foes, or at least with inherently dangerous strangers. PSYCHOPATHOLOGY RELATED TO FUNERAL OBSERVANCES Death is a crisis that necessitates considerable readjustment, both psychological and practical, on the part of the survivors. Affective bonds are broken, ingrained behavior patterns and expectations are destroyed, benefits as well as obligations are discontinued, the net- work of social and interpersonal relations must be rearranged, the 10 The easiest way to visualize this process is to think of a ready-made suit which the department store tailor then “customizes” for the person purchasing it. Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 187 social position of the survivor is changed, expenses are incurred, and material objects belonging to the dead, which were formerly available for use, are withdrawn from circulation. In fact, funeral customs may deeply affect a society’s chances for accumulating the surplus goods which form the basis for socio-economic progress. Thus, the destruction of the dead person’s house and property among the Cocopa represented such a drain on their economy as to make the accumulation of surplus impossible (Kelly, 1949). The same is true of the Mohave, who not only destroy the defunct individual’s prop- erty, but even cast goods, expressly purchased for that purpose, upon the funeral pyre of the deceased (Devereux, 1942 a, McNichols, 1944). Needless to say, the necessity of responding to the crisis represented by death with extensive behavioral and attitudinal changes arouses both anxiety and resentment. Thus, while the Mohave do not go so far as the Hopi, who slap the face of the corpse, accusing the deceased of having died solely in order to grieve the survivors (Kennard, 1937), they, too, are inclined to interpret death as a voluntary, if Inevitable, act. For example, in a Mohave myth (Kroeber, 1948) some deer (consciously?) head for a fatal meeting with their maker, the mountain lion, whois also their destroyer. The Mohave tendency to see suicide even in certain types of death from natural causes (pt. 7), and the ease wherewith the wish to die is said to be mobilized in witches (Devereux, 1937 c) and in persons suffering from certain ghost ailments (pt. 4, pp. 128-186), also show that, in one way or the other, the living define death as a desertion. Hence, like many other groups, the Mohave, too, turn a previously beloved relative into a dangerous ghost and taboo his name (Kroeber, 1925 a). The fact that funeral and memorial rites are defined as acts of piety toward the honored dead does not imply that they are truly loved and defined as beneficial or at least harmless, since the danger- ousness of certain supernaturals is often denied either by renaming the “Hrinyes” (furies) the “Eumenides” (gracious ones) or, like small children, by splitting their image into a good and a bad part, as seems to have been done when the words “deus” and “diabolus” were evolved from the common root “dev.” Even the love that the deceased is supposed to harbor for the living may harm the latter. Thus, the ghost of a spouse or relative may long so much for the survivors that it will visit the latter in dream, so as to lure them to the land of the dead, either by offerings of food, or else by means of dream intercourse (p. 4, pp. 128-184). Similar seduc- tive maneuvers on the part of his victims are held to motivate, at least in part, the witch who seeks to be killed by the surviving rela- tives of his victims (Kroeber, 1925 a, Devereux, 1937 c). In other words, the mourner’s own separation anxieties and mourning depres- 492655—61——13 188 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 sion are, so to speak, ascribed to, and projected upon, the dead, so that, by means of a typical paranoid maneuver, the mourner seems to say: “I no longer feel bound to you and only seek to forget you; it is you who long for me and try to lure me to the land of the dead.” * The obligation to destroy the property of the dead person, which was previously available to the living for their use, and the casting of specially purchased additional property upon the funeral pyre in a frenzy of destruction—which represents spiteful giving—also reflect the degree of resentment experienced by the survivor (Devereux, 1942 a and pt. 7, pp. 481-459). In other words, after being a source of love and support, the de- ceased turns into a source of danger and into a being who is para- sitical on the living. The Mohave even attribute at least to some ghosts a tendency to violate certain basic Mohave ethical patterns and attitudes. Thus, according to one set of belief, twins are acquisi- tive ghosts, who return to earth solely in order to obtain a second set of funeral goods (Devereux, 1941), and whose graspingness is a clear-cut violation of the Mohave code of unselfishness and non- acquisitiveness. (Devereux, 1939 b.) This point is of considerable importance, since interestedness and grasping avariciousness are among the principal sins of the Mohave value system and are, furthermore, supposedly highly characteristic of the hated white conquerors. Thus, even though the ghost of a Mohave is expressly stated to remain a Mohave,” at least some of the behavior attributed to ghosts, is, in principle, radically un-Mohave. In fact, it is just the kind of behavior that they ascribe to the despised whites. It is, likewise the ghost rather than the living who, in defiance of Mohave custom, seeks to breach the barrier between the living and the dead, by haunting the living and trying to lure them to the land of ghosts—sometimes by seducing them into incestuous dream-inter- course, which, in itself, is a gross violation of Mohave sexual ethics. In brief, the Mohave seem to attribute to the dead the actualization of certain wishes—such as the desire to accumulate surplus property, to engage in incest,* and to breach the barrier between the living and the dead—that are severely inhibited by Mohave custom. Tenta- tively speaking, this may mean that, more or less unconsciously, the Mohave define not only their traditional foes, but also the dead, as persons who openly “act out” that which the average Mohave must inhibit and control in himself. The fact that many primitives be- “1 Homer’s “Odyssey” (book XI) describes Achilles’ emotional state in the underworld in terms which unmistakably characterize a mourning depression (Devereux, 1956 a). 12 This was ascertained by means of direct questions (pt. 4, pp. 128-150). 12It was suggested elsewhere (Devereux, 1939 a) that there may be a psychological nexus between avariciousness and incest. Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 189 lieve the world of the dead to be an “upside down” symmetrical rep- lica of the world of the living, where, e.g., big is small and vice versa, also fits the tentative assumption that ghosts are sometimes uncon- sciously viewed as representatives of man’s socially tabooed and psychologically repressed urges. This hypothesis gains additional support from the fact that some basic behavior patterns are violated not only by the dead, but even by those who are preparing for death. Thus, Kroeber (1925 a) re- ports that old women sometimes hoard property, in order to have it cast on their funeral pyres. He mentions, however, that an old woman could be persuaded to sell him some of this property. She rationalized her act by saying that she would invest the money in food, which would pass into her body, and thus, in a way, would still be burned with her. Equally striking is the fact that when Tcatc, who had repeatedly refused to violate Mohave custom by allowing herself to be photographed, thought she would die in the near future, she dressed up in her best finery, and had herself photographed by a young Mohave, whom she then instructed to send me this photograph, so that I would not forget her (Devereux, 1951 b). This was a definite violation of the Mohave rule that the dead should be for- gotten as soon as possible, and that no memento of them should be kept.1# It is even conceivable that modifications of behavior were permitted to elderly people because of an unconscious feeling that _ they must be allowed to prepare themselves for the socially abnormal behavior befitting ghosts. Thus, Tcatc stated that, owing to her ad- vanced age, she felt free to speak up in all-male councils and to usurp also certain other male privileges.** This hypothesis is appre- - ciably strengthened by the fact that not only a ghost, but even a hope- —lessly ill person on the verge of death may, according to Pulyi:k, be referred to by the Mohave as “nyevedhi:” (ghost). Given this psychological situation, which is largely determined by the internal readjustments necessitated by death in the ingroup, and also by the socio-economic deprivations resulting from the death itself, _ as well as from the destruction of property and from other funeral expenses, it is probably unnecessary to argue that one purpose of _ funeral rites is to control or replace an unstructured psychic upheaval | by an anxiety-binding ritual (Freud, 1924 a). How easily psycho- _ logical mourning may turn into a genuine psychotic depression may %4The discarding of mementoes calls for a real effort in every society. Thus, when _ Hama: Utce:’s beloved father-in-law died, her husband toyed, throughout the wake, with | | | the fine bead belt she had recently made for the deceased (Case 107). 1% The widespread lifting of sex-linked taboos in the case of post-menopausal women may, perhaps, have a similar basis. 16 It is interesting to note in this context that the Crow call objectionable people “ghost- like” (Lowie, 1935). 190 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 be inferred from the fact that Nyakyusa mourners feign insanity during the funeral, in order to avoid becoming insane afterward (Wil- son, 1954).17 We may call this a “lightning-rod defense.” The Mohave themselves seem to contrast, at least implicitly, intensely emotional funeral rites followed by a forgetting of the dead, with emo- tional control during funeral rites and the remembering of the dead. Thus, the Mohave Creation myth which I obtained specifically con- trasts the piety of Yuman mourners at Matavilye’s funeral with the callousness wherewith other groups, and especially the whites, de- serted the scene. It is significant that, after mentioning this point, several Mohave informants spontaneously referred to the fact that whites freely and callously mention the names of their dead relatives. Another proof that the Mohave correlate the intensity of mourning with the compellingness of the taboo on the name of the dead is the fact that, when lists of Mohave names were collected, Hama: Utce:, half apologetically and half humorously, turned to the other inform- ant, Modhar Taa:p (penis cover, foreskin, also condom) and said: “So far, I mentioned several of your dead relatives. Soon it will be your turn to mention mine.” Since one obviously mourns for one’s own relatives more intensely than for other persons, the taboo on mentioning one’s own dead relatives is an especially strong one. In fact, among the Mohave, as well as in some other tribes, uttering the names of one’s dead relatives is a frequently mentioned symptom of psychosis. This symptomatic act may therefore be thought of as the socially standardized “signal symptoms,” whereby mentally de- ranged persons notify the community of their claim to be considered insane. Speaking more generally, it is both psychologically and anthro- pologically plausible that the extreme emotionality of primitive mourners during the wake and the funeral permits a massive abreac- tion of grief (and unconscious hostility) and therefore facilitates a subsequent emotional detachment from the dead.** (pt. 7, pp. 431-459). In the case of ordinary persons, who will be missed only by mem- bers of their primary group, the funeral ritual apparently suffices to permit the mourner to abreact his grief and to detach himself from the deceased. However, in the case of leading personages (ipa taha:na), who are presumably missed by the tribe as a whole, a further opportunity for ritual grieving is afforded by the Mohave 117A psychological analogue may be the following custom: Should a Dayak dream that his house burns down, he promptly builds a model house and sets fire to it. In this manner the dream is permitted to come true, without causing material loss. 1% There was a striking contrast between the violent keening and grief of Sedang Moi mourners accompanying a dead child to its grave, and the casual and almost lighthearted chatter of the same persons during their return from the graveyard (Devereux, MS., 1933-34). i : Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 191 “memorial rite,” in which representatives of the entire tribe partici- pate (Kroeber, 1925 a, K. M. Stewart, 1947 b). Mohave memorial rites, often called in English “talking to the feathers” (i.e., to the feathered staves), consist essentially of a highly stylized mock battle, enacted by a line of male runners, flanked on each side by a girl runner and by a horseman. In addition, there is also a great deal of funeral oratory or singing, by funeral orators who, by definition (Fathauer, 1951, 1954) are also scalpers (pt. 2, pp. 48-45) and therefore qualified to cure the alien sicknesses (pt. 4, pp. 128-150). The feathered staves used in this rite are apparently laden with a certain impersonal power. Hence, they may be used only by quali- fied individuals, who must fast and refrain from intercourse during the ritual and must be purified afterward. Apparently these staves are not ordinary personal property, since, when a funeral orator dies, they are not burned with the rest of his property, but, like cer- tain feathers which only shamans may own, are buried in the mud. (See further below.) There appear to be three types of “insanity” which are related to funeral and/or memorial rites. (a) The derangements of funeral orators and other memorial ritualists who violate taboos obtaining during the ritual period. (6) The neuroses of nonritualist mourners who violate certain taboos. (c) Hiyam ahwat (mouth red), which afilicts lay persons who presume to handle feathered staves (and, apparently, also certain types of feathers which only shamans may own). DERANGEMENTS OF TABOO-VIOLATING FUNERAL RITUALISTS In the course of a Jengthy account of his powers and activities as a funeral orator, Hivsu: Tupo:ma (with Hama: Utce: acting as in- terpreter) gave the following incidental information: (a) [Could you sing for me the songs, or recite for me the orations which are used by memorial service orators?] No, I cannot do so, because every time I sing these songs I must undergo a purification and I would be starved by the end of that period.” Also, I would have to bathe in the river and it is too cold to do so in winter. When we bathe, we are not even allowed to warm ourselves near a fire, lest we should begin to shake and become insane. You would not want your old friend to submit to such an ordeal, would you? (b) People (who participate in the ritual?) must refrain from intercourse for 4 days after each ery, regardless of whether or not it is followed by a memorial feather ritual. If they don’t, they go crazy, or else become ill. CASE 48 (Informant: Hivsu: Tupo: ma) : My friend C. 8. did not believe in this prohibition. One day both of us par- ticipated in a funeral (memorial rite) at Needles; we were among the runners. 1?Hivsu: Tupo:ma was a notoriously heavy eater, always ready to joke about his voraciousness. 192 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 Our respective girl friends sat at the end of the row (of mourners and specta- tors) and watched us run. Both of us ran all night, and at seven o’clock in the morning we had to jump into the river. That wasn’t bad, because it was summer. When we came out of the water, we met our girls and paired off. I did nothing with my girl friend that I should not have done, but C. S. had inter- course with his girl friend and told me about it afterwards. I warned him of the consequences, but he just laughed it off. This C. S., who was also a funeral orator, became paralyzed a few years ago, and could hardly talk. Finally a shaman, who has died since then, doctored him and improved his condition somewhat. However, he still mumbles before he begins to talk (stroke?) and therefore can no longer function as a funeral orator. When his illness began, he dreamed of having intercourse with that girl friend of his. The funeral took place about 10 years ago (1922?), and C. S. became ill 2 or 3 years later. At present (1932) he is about 45 or 50 years old. Comment C.S.’s condition, and his subsequent improvement, suggest a mild stroke. The fact that, at the onset of his illness, he specifically dreamed of intercourse with the girl with whom he violated a major funeral taboo, suggests that, despite his professed skepticism, he felt guilty for having violated an important taboo. The onset of his illness, which he seems to have interpreted as a penalty for his mis- conduct, presumably reawakened in him the memory of his misbehavior so that, in accordance with the Mohave cultural tenet that the cause of illness becomes manifest in dream, he began to dream of the very act which allegedly caused him to become paralyzed. NEUROSIS OF TABOO-VIOLATING MOURNERS Hivsu: Tupo:ma’s statement.——Mourners who violate funeral taboos may be- come afflicted with psychiatric disorders. (a) Funeral ceremonies usually take place on the fifth day after death.” On the fifth day the house of the dead is burned down and his property is cremated or spoiled, because anyone keeping the possessions of the dead will be driven crazy by these objects. Jt seems plausible to suggest that this etiological theory is based upon two assumptions: (1) That the preservation of the dead persons’ prop- erty deleteriously prolongs mourning and postpones the severance of the dead from the living; and (2) that the dead themselves drive insane the living who refuse to part with these objects. Here, as in many other instances, the psychological explanation and the socio-cultural explanation of a given phenomenon or belief are not mutually ex- clusive, but rather complement each other.” (0b) People are not supposed to sleep or doze off during the memorial rite. Now and then, however, a girl who had intercourse during this period falls * This delay is presumably determined partly by the Mohave tendency to do things by fours, and partly by the belief that, for 4 days, the ghost lingers on earth and revisits its former haunts before departing for the land of the dead. These 4 days may, without undue imaginativeness, be interpreted as a “mourning period” on the part of the ghost, forming a counterpart to the mourning period of the living. Compare, above, the demonstration that mourning reactions are also ascribed to the dead. *1Tt is probable that much anthropological hostility toward the psychological explana- tion of cultural phenomena is due to a failure of psychologists to demonstrate that the two types of interpretations supplement and complement each other. - Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 193 asleep, but when the orator sings about Pahotcate she wakes up with a jerk, in areal terror. Then she has a fit and makes various noises, which awaken other people who may also be napping. I (Hivsu: Tupo:ma), who sing of Pahotcate, will immediately cure her, by talking (ritually) to her. During such a ritual certain other persons, who also happen to be unwell, will likewise be awakened and become noisy. It is obvious that the preceding statement does not imply that the orator punishes such dissolute girls by supernatural means. It does, however, suggest that young Mohave women are prone to become emotionally disturbed in public, and especially during public ritual activities. This is also suggested by the fact that young shamans first display their powers by mildly bewitching a girl at a gathering. The tendency to have a fit in public is clearly a hysterical trait and causes one to question the validity of the traditional supposition that the Roman morbus comitialis (illness occurring at a gathering) was always true epilepsy and not hystero-epilepsy.” HIYAM AHWAT Informants: Tcate and E.S.: Only those who have obtained the appropriate powers in dreams may use and handle the funeral feathered staves, and take care of them. If anyone else picks up these feathers, it is a usurpation of shamanistic-oratorical powers. Hence, the contact with these feathers will drive the usurper insane. He will hemorrhage from the mouth and will have bad dreams. Also, when he uses these feathers, or feathered staves, he has severe headaches. In his dream he sees this hemorrhage and then he goes crazy.” He may even go down on his knees and plow the ground with his head. It is very much like having a spell (convulsive seizure). They just go insane. Comment It is tentatively suggested that we may be dealing here with tuberculosis complicated by a reactive neurosis. From the cultural point of view, the Mohave etiological theory of this disorder is rooted in the “apprentice sorcerer” motif. Hiyam ahwat differs from the misfortunes that befall unauthorized meddlers with shamanism in that, in the present instance, the illness is not caused by retributive witchcraft exercised by some irate shaman protecting shamanistic prerogatives, but is directly due to the impersonal power which resides in the feathered staves. In fact, certain feathers—such as those of two or three species of hawks, one of which is called su:kwily (chicken hawk ?), those of a turkey, those of a white, cranelike 22In Haiti, at folklore shows held in the Théatre de la Verdure, professional performers sometimes uncontrollably go into a trance. Dr. Louis Mars told me that a Haitian troupe, performing in Paris, was greatly embarrassed when one of the performers went into a spontaneous trance, right on the stage. 73 Compare the belief that scalpers and witch killers dream of blood (pt. 2, pp. 43-46), and that in another mental disorder the dreamer sees himself covered with his wife’s secretions (pt. 4, pp. 128-150). 194 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 bird called thu:dhilyk and those of the uro:ta (pelican?)—must be purified by shamans before laymen may own them or use them in the manufacture of war bonnets. As for eagle feathers and the feathers of the atcoo:r hawk, neither of which is used in the manufacture of war bonnets, they may only be owned by shamans and may not be used for war bonnets. In fact, when the shaman dies, these feathers are not even cremated with the rest of his possessions, but are buried in the mud. It was not ascertained whether the feathers of the saksak—who is either the fish eagle or else the white osprey (Kroeber, 1948)—may also be owned only by shamans. This is a regrettable gap in our knowledge, since anyone who dreams of Mastamho, after he turned into a saksak, is said to become insane (Krober, 1948 and pt. 4, pp. 116-117). I also failed to investigate who may bury the deceased shaman’s eagle and atcoo:r hawk feathers, without incurring supernatural risks. It seems reasonable to suggest that this was done by some other shaman, who is presumably a funeral orator. On the other hand, it is not altogether impossible that even a lay mourner may bury these feathers and that the general purification of the mourners may also effectively protect such a lay person from the dangers which he in- curred by burying a shamanistic relative’s stock of feathers. The chief point to be stressed in this context is that these feathers— and apparently also the feathered staves—are not burned but buried. This is at variance with accepted Mohave funeral practices, since the Mohave only bury stillborn children (Devereux, 1948 e) and living, but unwanted, halfbreeds, and puppies (Devereux, 1948 d). The one known violation of this rule occurred when a Mohave woman venge- fully caused her dead child, whose father refused to recognize it, to be buried in the Parker cemetery (Devereux, 1950 f). The prac- tice of burying feathers remains, therefore, unexplained and deserves further investigation. The only lead to a possible explanation is provided by the fact that these feathers seem rather unique in that, in spite of their being, like charms, laden with autonomous power, unlike charms they do not necessarily turn against their legitimate owners in the end (pt. 4, pp. 202-212). Even this statement must be partly qualified, since there were some vague indications that funeral orators, too, may become insane, independently of the fact that, in their role of scalpers, they are exposed to the scalper’s insanity (pt. 2, pp. 43-45). Another question to be clarified by future fieldwork is whether these staves, which clearly resemble the feathered staves that tribal officers carry into battle (K. M. Stewart, 1947 c; Fathauer, 1954), are actually identical with the latter. The answer will probably be in the affirmative, since the memorial rite is, itself, a kind of mock battle, commemorating important tribal officials. Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 195 A further comment concerns the fact that the illness is called hiyam ahwat—mouth red. 'This may or may not be related to the fact that the “spirit language” spoken by the funeral orator is called ahwat cukwarekwi kusumany (Fathauer, 1954). The preceding discussion suggests that much remains to be known about the basic meaning of death and of funeral practices in Mohave society. The latter have, so far, been investigated chiefly from the viewpoint of the ritual itself. However, such a study is less likely to yield deep insights in the case of an essentially unritualistic society, such as that of the Mohave, than in the case of a highly ritualistic tribe, such as the Hopi. In summary, three types of mental derangements seem to be related to various funeral observances. In some cases the derangement is due to sexual activity at inappropriate times, such activity being, in many groups, deemed to be incompatible with mourning. In other cases the neurosis is caused by preserving items belonging to the dead, which should have been placed on the funeral pyre. In still other instances the disorder results from unauthorized contact with ritual objects used in the memorial rites. Thus, the common denominator of this group of ailments is the fact that all of them are caused by violations of funeral taboos. This fact, taken by itself, suffices to lend plausibility to the basic hypothesis that unauthorized contact with objects pertaining to funeral rites, and/or a failure to forgo economic advantages or sexual gratifications during the mourning period, counteract the beneficial effects of the mourning ritual upon the mourners’ psyche. Deprived of the social support that com- pliance with mourning taboos appears to provide, the mourner’s cha- otic grief reaction may get out of hand, transforming objectively justi- fiable sadness into a psychotic depression, characterized by guilt feelings (Cases 38, 47), panic and other forms of psychic self-ageres- sion. Otherwise stated, funeral rites must be viewed as socially pro- vided and culturally standardized defenses or “type solutions,” which society places at the disposal of individuals struggling with certain statistically frequent “type conflicts” (Devereux, 1956 b). INSANITY CAUSED BY WITCHCRAFT There are many indications that the Mohave expect victims of witchcraft to display abnormal behavior. In fact, it is conceivable that the abnormal behavior of a given patient may, in itself, be the reason why his illness is attributed to the effects of witchcraft. A1- though this inference is, admittedly, not supported by direct state- ments, it is significant that many of the illnesses mentioned in this work were diagnosed as being due to witchcraft at the time the pa- 196 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 tient began to behave abnormally. The fact that, in several in- stances, this abnormal behavior was not due to a neurosis or psy- chosis, but to fever delirium, seemed irrelevant to the Mohave themselves, and is, therefore, irrelevant also from the anthropological point of view. A detailed discussion of witchcraft and of witches is beyond the scope of this section, which is limited to the discussion of the ab- normal behavior of patients believed to be victims of witchcraft. Of course, it is not suggested that the Mohave believe in the existence of a specific psychiatric syndrome caused by witchcraft. On the contrary, it is almost certain that, had these cases been recorded in the course of the 1938 field trip, which was devoted to the study of Mohave ethnopsychiatry, the informants would have spontaneously discussed these cases from the “psychiatric” point of view and would have attached a traditional diagnostic label to each of them. How- ever, since they were recorded in the course of an earher field trip, devoted partly to the collection of data pertaining to witchcraft, the cases were cited as examples of sorcery and—as a glance at the ma- terial will indicate—emphasized the role of the witch, rather than the role of the victim. In view of these considerations, each case will be followed by a sug- gested Mohave diagnosis, as well as by a tentative psychiatric diag- nosis. The suggested Mohave diagnoses are in every case so plausible, that only the strictest adherence to scientific accuracy caused, e.g., Case 49, on magical courtship, to be assigned to the present part, instead of to part 2, pages 83-87, to which it obviously belongs. CASE 49 (Informants: Hivsu: Tupo: ma and Hama: Utce:, 1935): The patient in question, Pi:it Hi:dho Kwa-ahwat (Pi:it eyes red), also known as Kwakuy Tadhuk (Old-woman?),™ was the 30-year-old fullblood son of a woman also said to be a member of the O:ote gens, and therefore named O:ote. He was the classificatory “younger brother” (isuteck) (Gifford, 1922) of Kumadhi: Atat, who bewitched him, causing him to have fits, because she loved him passionately, without being loved in return. A proper presentation of his case requires a detailed discussion of Kumaédhi: Atat’s personality. Kumadhi: Atat, of the Kumadhi: (horn or ocatilla cactus) gens* was, in 1932, about 35-40 years old. This fullblood Mohave woman was relatively well behaved. “She is not a habitual drinker and does not run around with men.” According to Hama: Utce:, “She is sociable; she talks, laughs and jokes.” She is also smart, well educated and speaks good English (few middle-aged Mohave women spoke good English in 1932.) I, personally, like her.” According to Hivsu: Tupo:ma, however, “In the old days she would have been dead (killed) long ago. They say that she is a shaman, even though she does not cure anyone. 4 Men’s names are often a slur on women, and vice versa (Devereux, 1951 ¢c). 2s “And she sure is a thorn in some people’s side,” Hama: Utce: said. *°This remark presumably was meant to suggest that she differed from other witches, who tend to be stealthy and unsociable (pt. 2, pp. 57-71). | | | | Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 197 They think she is simply a killer. In that respect she is an exception, since few shamans are exclusively killers. Yet, if she wished to do so, she could use her power to cure witchcraft, since she knows how to bewitch people. Of course, some shamans can only bewitch, but cannot cure witchcraft, because they do not have enough power for that. I think, however, that she could cure witchcraft, if she chose to do so” (perhaps because women shamans are, by definition, “stronger” than male shamans). (Be that as it may, Kumadhi: Atat was hated and despised by many Mohave.) “Several people would like to kill her, because she is killing people all the time. She is alive only because of the new law” (which prohibits the killing of witches).” At any rate, after she killed her husband, her two children, and the man she was in love with,” people made it so unpleasant for her at Needles, Calif., that she decided to move to Parker with her sister and brother-in-law. Kumadhi: Atat was first accused of witchcraft sometime between 1931 and 1938, when her husband, Tcakwar Ala:y(e), a 25-year-old fullblood Mohave of the Kat gens, and their two children, Pi:it,” a boy of 4, and Kat, a girl of about 3, died within a relatively short time. First she bewitched her husband, because she knew that he was having an affair with another woman and was planning to leave her. Then, the same year, she also bewitched her children who, before they died, accused their mother of witchcraft, saying: “Our mother bewitched us.” [This seems strange to me.] Hama: Utce: retorted a little impatiently: “It is not strange at all—she just wanted to have them with her in the Hereafter.” ” ' Her next victim was Pi:it Hi:dho Kwa-ahwat, with whom she was in love. He did not return her love, partly because he was satisfactorily married to a young woman named Tecate, of the Tecate gens, and partly because he was so closely related to Kumadhi: Atat that the latter had to call him isutck (younger brother). This meant that she could not have married him without first per- forming the already obsolete horse-killing rite, which dissolves the relationship between bride and groom (Devereux, 1989 a; and pt. 7, pp. 356-371). She had two reasons for killing the man she loved: She had had a quarrel with the young man’s mother, and, in addition, she was angry with him because he did not wish to leave his wife and marry her. Yet, even though she was angry with him, she also loved him—she did not hate him.” When she started to bewitch him, the man began to dream of her all the time. He saw her in his dreams and her dream image was so real to him that the next day he would have a convulsive fit. Hence, even though he had a good 27 Many Mohave hold this law responsible for the prevalence of witches, which is believed to threaten the tribe with extinction. 28 This is one of the very rare cases in which the Mohave described another Mohave as “being in love,’’ since intense and exclusive sexual attachments are altogether exceptional in this tribe. Her “being in love” may have been due to her relatively high degree of acculturation, in accordance with La Rochefoucauld’s maxim, that few people would be in love, had they not read about being in love. 22 A very common name among the younger Mohave, and said to have no meaning. The Mohave rejected my suggestion that it may be a Mohave form of ‘Pete,’ which is a very popular English name in that tribe. 30 A witch segregates the souls of his or her dead victims in a certain place, and delays their subsequent reincarnations until he or she, too, dies (Devereux, 1937 ¢c) 31The Mohave believe that the witch usually both loves and hates his victim. Compare also the firm belief of the Mohave that if one openly professes to hate a person of the opposite sex, one actually loves that person very much (Devereux 1950 a). 198 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 job at Needles, Calif., he left town and moved to Parker, Ariz., in order to escape her influence.” As a result of his fight, his condition improved for a while, although, in some obscure way, he always knew in advance when Kumadhi: Atat would visit Parker, and he would have a fit. Thus, the day before his death he happened to be at my house, visiting my cousin’s ailing son, when, all of a sudden, he stood up, exclaimed: “She is coming!” and had a fit. He kept on frothing at the mouth even while they were taking him back to his house. The next day he got up again, and began to walk about restlessly. He paced the floor and said over and over again: “She is coming! She is getting closer!” Then he had another fit.