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 Iiiohave 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 itck 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. Eather 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 

 fmieral pyre of their deceased husbands (Devereux, 1942 a). This is 

 often a mere gesture, so that, even though the widow is sometimes 



TO Tcatc's wording did not equate such suicides with hi : wa itck. 



