4 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



creases its psychological plausibility, since cultural expectations are 

 known to influence the structure and content of dreams (Devereux, 

 1951 a). In addition, it is possible to show that many of the data 

 are at once psychiatrically too correct and logically too weird to 

 have been invented on the spot for the benefit of the anthropologist. It 

 suffices to mention the spontaneous references of informants to the 

 phantom phallus, to the globus hystericus, to anorexia following 

 dreams of eating ghost food or of contact with "nauseating" secretions, 

 etc., to prove that the Mohave are good "clinical" observers, and that 

 they reproduce the information available to them with a minimum of 

 distortion. Otherwise stated, the fact that extremely "peculiar" symp- 

 toms — well known to psychiatrists but almost unimaginable to people 

 who have had no chance to observe psychotics or neurotics — were 

 mentioned by a variety of informants, is a practically irrefutable 

 proof of the psychological plausibility, and therefore also of the au- 

 thenticity of the data, especially since in 1938, when most of the data 

 were obtained, I did not even know of the existence of many of the 

 more peculiar symptoms spontaneously mentioned by my Mohave 

 informants. 



In brief, the compatibility of the data with what we know of 

 Mohave culture, and the fact that some of them, which simply could 

 not have been invented, fit perfectly what psychiatrists know about 

 psychodynamics and symptomatology, indicate that even data that 

 are, strictly speaking, "hearsay" can possess a high degree of authen- 

 ticity. This striking fact will also be discussed in the section which 

 examines the objective validity of Mohave psycliiatric knowledge 

 (pt. 8, pp. 485-504). 



ACKNOWLEDGMENT S 



It is a privilege to acknowledge the help of the following organiza- 

 tions and individuals : 



The Mohave tribe as a whole, the individual informants and in- 

 terpreters named in this work, as well as many chance-met individuals, 

 provided the warmest welcome and the kind of dedicated help and 

 friendly cooperation that money cannot repay, nor words adequately 

 acknowledge. 



The officials of the Colorado Kiver Agency, and especially the late 

 Mary Anna Israel Nettle, M. D. (pi. 7, a), and James L. Troupin, 

 M. D., reservation physicians, were extremely kind and helpful in 

 every respect. 



Prof. A. L. Kroeber, of the University of California, was respon- 

 sible for my first contact with the Mohave and helped me to under- 

 stand many aspects of their culture. 



Prof. George H. Fathauer, of Miami University, kindly clarified 

 an obscure point of Mohave ethnography in which I was especially 

 interested. 



