Derereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 105 



ghosts of their victims, have formed a strong object cathexis toward 

 these ghostly beings, and have, therefore, withdrawn from social life, 

 are so desirous of joining their victims in the land of the dead, that 

 they proceed to bait the surviving relatives of these ghosts, until the 

 aggrieved relatives kill them (Kroeber, 1925 a) . Only this vicarious 

 form of suicide enables witches to join forever the souls of those 

 wliom they have bewitched and to retain their empire over them 

 (Devereux, 1937 c ; cf . also pt. 7, pp. 387-426) . 



Summing up, hi : wa itck occurs only in individuals who, from the 

 very beginning, are relatively handicapped in sexual competition and 

 adventures, which constitute one of the chief safety valves of Mohave 

 life. When their carefvilly built-up defense (i. e., their marriage to a 

 young spouse) breaks down, they find themselves in a highly pre- 

 carious position. Not only have they lost a, to them, exceptional and 

 irreplaceable partner (Devereux, 1951 f ) , but they also find themselves 

 without an emotional anchor, and without the security of social inte- 

 gration and marital companionship in their old age. In view of the 

 fact that the IMohave have little use for highly personalized affective 

 bonds, which, according to them, are silly, the formation of such bonds 

 and the need for such marriages is already atypical and perhaps even 

 pathological. The occurrence of such marriages is, thus, already an 

 expression of a preexisting trend toward social isolation in a given 

 individual. This is given explicit recognition by the Mohave, in their 

 comments on marriages between mother-in-law and son-in-law, which 

 occur when young men tire of the flightiness of young women and seek 

 a stable home life. The Mohave say, "Women sometimes marry their 

 former sons-in-law, but men are not crazy enough to marry their for- 

 mer daughters-in-law" (Devereux, 1951 f ; but cf. Case 104, which 

 has some aspects of such a union) . 



Marriage between mother-in-law and son-in-law is one of the minor 

 patterns of Mohave culture, and appears to cater more to the infantile 

 dependent needs of the young man than to the sexual and affective 

 needs of the older woman. This may explain the discrepancy between 

 the male-female ratio in hi : wa itck. The fact that social recognition 

 is given to marriages between old women and young men may also be 

 reflected in the (not conclusively established) Mohave habit of calling 

 half siblings by kinship terms one generation apart.^® 



In brief, when seen against the background of Mohave culture as a 

 whole, it is relatively easy to understand why Mohave psychiatric 

 thought should consider hi : wa itck a distinct clinical entity. This 

 social background also explains the attitude of normal persons toward 



*=Thls Information was provided by the late Ruth Benedict in a private conversation, 

 but could not be confirmed in the course of subsequent fieldwork. 



