Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 37 



pyre of a deceased husband and then remarry almost at once (Deve- 

 reux, 1942 a) (pt. 7, pp. 431-450). Finally, even though suicides are 

 pitied, they are also criticized for being weak, especially if they kill 

 themselves over a woman (pt. 7, pp. 308-327) . 



As regards the genuinely insane, they are treated just like other sick 

 persons. An attempt is made to cure them by shamanistic means, and 

 only if this treatment fails do the Mohave have recourse to American 

 medicine. A progressive family was criticized for hospitalizing one 

 of its members before a shaman had a chance to treat him; and a 

 woman who thought that her daughter would be taken to a mental 

 hospital kept watch over her with a gun (Case 31) . Lunacy hearings 

 are attended by tribal deputations (Case 4) and hospitalized psy- 

 chotics are visited to make sure that they are well treated (Case 4). 

 The failure of a distant hospital to advise the tribe that a neuro- 

 syphilitic Mohave patient had died, and the fact that her cori)se was 

 put in a morgue instead of being shipped back for cremation, aroused 

 a storm of indignation (Case 75). Should occidental treatment also 

 fail, the patient (especially if he is about to die) is withdrawn from 

 the hospital, against medical advice, and is taken home, partly in 

 order to give shamanistic treatment another try and partly in order 

 to permit the patient to die in familiar surroundings. 



A good example of the social utilization of the abnormal person is the 

 fact that, even though the shaman is considered more or less crazy, he is 

 called upon to perform important services. By contrast, the exploi- 

 tation of the abnormal individual is relatively minimal in Mohave so- 

 ciety. A transvestite may be encouraged to make a show of herself by 

 "fighting for her spouse" (Devereux, 1937 b) ; the compulsive promis- 

 cuousness of an otherwise decent woman may be taken advantage of by 

 men looking for adventure (Case 14) ; and people may laugh at the 

 antics of some psychotic who is not believed to suffer from a serious 

 mental illness. On the other hand, the Mohave do not systematically 

 exploit or take advantage of the deviant or the abnormal ; do not habit- 

 ually incite him to scurrilous activities ; do not abuse him in any way ; 

 and, above all, do not kill him, unless he happens to be a self -proclaimed 

 witch. Also, no odium appears to be attached to being, or having 

 been, insane. Mental disease is viewed like any other illness, its oc- 

 currence is not concealed and the patient in remission is not personally 

 or sociallj'^ handicapped in any way. 



In brief, the generally humane and tolerant attitude of the Mohave 

 Indians also extends to the insane, conceivably because, due to their 

 constant preoccupation with dreams and other autistic processes of 

 their own psyche, they have a certain ability to empathize with the 

 mental processes of disturbed persons and are therefore able to con- 



