48 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



there is no evidence that anyone ever refuses to implement the simple, 

 lay powers needed in order to function effectively in the workaday 

 world. 

 Tliis fact has three important implications: 



( 1 ) In contradistinction to supernaturalistic powers, lay powers are 

 never felt to threaten the integrity and equilibrium of the ego. They 

 are not ego-dystonic and therefore no one rejects the call to be a 

 good farmer, the way the Sedang Moi, who feels shamanistic powers 

 budding in him, may seek to reject these pov/ers (Devereux, MS., 

 1933-34). The essentially ego-dystonic, and even culture-dystonic, 

 quality of shamanistic powers is discussed in part 2, pages 57-71. 



(2) It is probable that the idea that power is received in dream 

 was extended from supernaturalistic activities to ordinary, workaday 

 activities as well, partly in order to make them seem more respect- 

 able, and partly in order to reafRiTn in every possible way that Mo- 

 have culture is, indeed, a dream culture (Kroeber, 1925 a)." The 

 forcing of essentially extraneous items into the procrustean bed of 

 some leading cultural theme may be denoted by the term "establish- 

 ment of artificial compendences." The number of essentially extra- 

 neous traits that are forcibly subordinated to some leading theme or 

 institution may well be a fairly reliable measure of the importance 

 of that theme or institution in a given society (Devereux, 1957 a). It 

 is suggested that the explanation of success in ordinary activities in 

 terms of dream poAver represents the establishment of an artificial 

 compendence between ordinary activities and supernaturalistic ones. 

 The artificiality of this compendence is revealed by the fact that, unlike 

 people who refuse to exercise their supernatural powers, those, if any, 

 who refuse — and do not simply fail— to exercise their workaday powers 

 are not expected to become psychotic. 



(3) The belief that the intensive implementation of magical powers, 

 and even intensive lay activities, can produce pathological se- 

 quelae sharply contrasts with the belief that the nonimplementation 

 of supernatural powers may cause psychosis. These two, seemingly 

 contradictory, sets of beliefs apparently represent a cultural imple- 

 mentation of man's basic ambivalence over all problems of activity. 

 The Pueblo Indians solved this problem by condemning all that is 

 outstanding in the individual (Ellis, 1951). The Mohave attitude 

 seems to be, roughly speaking: "You are damned if you do, and 

 damned if you don't." 



" Likewise, the fiction that feudalism and chivalry still exist in England is main- 

 tained l)y knighting, or by elevating to the peerage, persons whose profession (I)nsiness, 

 acting) or Ideology (socialism) is inherently incompatible with the traditions of feudal 

 society. 



