132 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



name under wliich they appear on the Agency register. Now, even 

 though almost the only fmiction of the gentes is the transmission of 

 gentile affiliation and the insuring of gentile exogamy, a disturbance 

 of the gentile pattern is highly midesirable from the Mohave point of 

 view, since a given etlmic group's "systems of classification" are among 

 its most characteristic (Devereux, 1956 a) and most cherished cultural 

 possessions.^® 



The pervasiveness and importance of xenophobia in Mohave society 

 may best be ascertained by determining whether inherently unrelated 

 material is forcibly coordinated with it, in a relationship of "arti- 

 ficial compendence" (Devereux, 1957 a). We have already stressed 

 tliat not only aliens, but also the alien's foodstuffs, may cause the 

 foreign illness. In tliis instance artificial compendence is relatively 

 minimal, since the nexus is brought into being by means of a simple 

 expansion of the concept "alien" to include not only the foreigner, but 

 also all Ms works and possessions, by recourse to the pars pro toto 

 principle. It is on this basis that alien food is held capable of causing 

 tlie foreign ilhiess. 



The artificiality of the compendence is more pronounced in the 

 case of magic-laden substances, or charms, which "do not really belong 

 to the Mohave," but to alien tribes. Since the Mohave have no real 

 "power over them," the Mohave possessors of these substances are 

 ultimately harmed by these charms. However, in contradistinction 

 to alien foods, these alien magical objects apparently do not cause 

 the "foreign illness," but a disease which is sui generis, and which 

 is caused primarily by contact with magic-laden substances and only 

 secondarily by the fact that these substances belong to alien tribes 

 (pt. 4, pp. 202-212). 



We will postpone for the moment a closer scrutiny of the problem 

 whether, in a roundabout way, "alien" and "magical" may mean 

 the same thing, at least in the unconscious, and will examine instead 

 the even more farfetched artificial compendence that the Mohave 

 seem to cstablisli between live foreigners and the ghosts of deceased 

 Mohave Indians, both of whom may cause the "foreign ghost illness." 

 Now, it stands to reason that the ability of the ghost of a Mohave 

 Indian's own deceased parent, relative, or spouse to cause the foreign 

 ghost illness is, to say the least, startling, especially since, officially at 

 least, the Mohave believe that the ghost of a Mohave continues to be 

 a Mohave also in the land of the dead. 



At the same time it was possible to point out, in connection with 

 the culturally atypical hoarding behavior that characterizes persons 



" For example, the notion that "gender" Is related to "sex" la so deeply ingrained In 

 our culture that I once experienced considerable dlfflcultlcs in persuading several 

 behavioral sclentlstH that the absence of gender In a given language does not imply that 

 persons speaking that language minimize or Ignore sex differences. 



