Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 175 



Erroneous Sei^-diagnosis of Hiwey Lak 



CASE 45 (Informant: M. A. I. Nettle, M.D., reservation physician) : 



When I came to Parker 20 years ago (1912?) as reservation physician, 

 N., who at that time was only 4 feet tall, already had a child. A little while 

 ago (1932?) she thought she had reached the menopause and, on noticing the 

 symptoms of pregnancy, went to consult the shaman, Kwathany Hi :wa, who 

 specializes inter alia in the cure of ghost pregnancies. She has a baby right 

 now and her previous child is seven years old. There are also several 

 other women on the reservation who menstruate regularly at the age of 45 

 (Nettle, MS., n.d.). 



Comment 



Tentative diagnosis. — Psychological crisis due to a presumably unwanted 

 pregnancy. 



The preceding case illustrates the implicit nexus between hiwey lak nyevedhi : 

 and menopausal disturbances, which, in this case, caused N. to mistake the 

 symptoms of a late (and perhaps unwanted) pregnancy for hiwey lak. Compare 

 this case, which was known also to my Mohave informants, with that of G. A. 

 (Case 46), who mistook an early (and certainly unwanted) illegitimate preg- 

 nancy for hiwey lak nyevedhi :. Both cases also demonstrate the tendency of 

 Mohave patients to make an initial diagnosis of their condition and then to con- 

 sult a shaman who specializes in the cure of the disorder which supposedly 

 affects them. 



CASE 46 (Informants: Ahma Huma:re and E. S.) : 



G.A., 17 years of age, single and without gentile affiliation — since her father 

 was not a Mohave — became ill and was taken to the hospital where "they couldn't 

 do anything for her." They didn't know that she was pregnant. She was 

 then taken to my (Ahma Huma:re's) place and I told them that she was preg- 

 nant. People didn't believe me, however. Since women are not well when they 

 are pregnant (being an obstetrician) I treated her all the same and she eventu- 

 ally felt better. Subsequent developments proved that she was pregnant and, 

 in due time, she gave birth to a child, which is still alive. The father of this 

 child is unknown, since G.A. is a kamalo:y (lewd woman) (Devereux, 1948 f). 



Comment 



Tentative (diagnosis. — Unwanted pregnancy causing physical psychic malaise. 



This case illustrates the nexus between hiwey lak nyevedhi : and obstetrical 

 conditions. It is significant that the therapist was Ahma Huma :re, who appears 

 to have been the first to formulate this nexus explicitly. His skillful diagnosis 

 of G.A.'s real condition appears to have received considerable publicity, since 

 years later Pulyi : k, a layman, woh was simply asked to give G.A.'s Momave 

 name, spontaneously referred to the fact that she did not have pseudocyesis, 

 but was simply pregnant. 



nyevedhi: taha:na 



(ghost genuine) 



An attempt to understand the nyevedhi: taha:na (ghost genuine) 

 illness brings one face to face with one of the fundamental ambiguities 

 of Mohave culture. 



