MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE: 

 THE PSYCHIATRIC KNOWLEDGE AND THE 

 PSYCHIC DISTURBANCES OF AN INDIAN 

 TRIBE 



By George Devereux" 



INTEODUCTION 



The present monograph is the first systematic study of the psychi- 

 atric theories and practices of a primitive tribe,^ Its primary focus 

 is, thus, the exploration of that portion of Mohave culture that per- 

 tains to mental derangements, as understood by the Mohave. In 

 this sense the present work is comparable in its orientation to mono- 

 graphs entitled, e. g., "Ethnobotany" or "Etlmogeography" that deal, 

 respectively, with the botanical or geographical ideas, beliefs, and 

 practices of some aboriginal group, but are primarily contributions 

 to anthropology rather than to botany or to geography. In simplest 

 terms, the present study is a kind of "Mohave textbook of psychiatry," 

 dictated by Mohave "psychiatrists" to the anthropological fieldworker. 



The second focus is the recording of all obtainable information on 

 psychiatric illnesses in the Mohave tribe and an analysis of their social 

 and culture setting. In this sense this work is a contribution to the 

 study of "culture and the abnormal personality," or, as this field of 

 inquiry is presently called, ethnopsychiatry. 



The primary objective would not have permitted this work to be 

 entitled "Ethnopsychiatry," since this term has come to denote pri- 

 marily the science of the relationship between culture and mental 

 disorder — i. e., that branch of "culture and personality studies" that 

 deals with the abnormal personality. However, since the secondary 

 objective of this work was to collect data on mental disorders in 

 Mohave society and to interpret them in terms of Mohave culture and 

 society, the title, "Mohave Ethnopsychiatry" is correctly used in both 

 of the senses that the term "ethnopsychiatry" now possesses. 



Although this work is addressed primarily to anthropologists, it 

 is hoped that it will prove of interest also to psychiatrists and to the 



•Professor of research In ethnopsychiatry, Temple University School of Medicine, and 

 lecturer in anthropology, Columbia University School of General Studies. 



^ Laubscher (1937) dealt primarily with the psychiatric illneasea of the Tembu and dis- 

 cussed their psychiatric knowledge only incidentally. 



