Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 211 



powers, are intimately linked with infantile fantasies of omnipotence. 

 This inference is particularly convincing if one recalls that shamans 

 are, by definition, persons who remember their intra-uterine existence 

 (Devereux, 1937 c). As regards the excreta, they play a significant 

 role also in the myth which accomits for the origins of agriculture 

 and the end of large-scale infanticide (Devereux, 1948 d). Last, 

 but not least, female secretions occur in the pathogenic dreams of cer- 

 tain neurotics (pt. 4, pp. 150-175) . 



Yet, it is almost impossible to determine precisely which body 

 product is the ultimate prototype of magic substances in Mohave 

 psychology. The most obvious source of this difficulty seems to be 

 the fact that, due to Mohave child-training techniques, the oral and 

 anal stages of development tend to overlap with the phallic and 

 oedipal stages, which probably accounts for the paradoxical belief 

 that the first orally absorbed nourishment of children is not milk, 

 but semen (Devereux, 1937 d, 1947 a, 1948 b). It is, hence, im- 

 possible to do more than underline the significance of oral elements 

 in such practices as the chewing of charms, the drinking of decoc- 

 tions, and the pulverization of rocks, and in the belief that some of 

 these dangerous substances paralyze the tongue — just as contact with 

 rattlesnakes paralyzes the penis (Devereux, 1950 a) — causing loss of 

 speech. In this latter context it is important to recall that the mother 

 of a child born mute is believed to have performed fellatio during 

 pregnancy (pt. 6, pp. 248-251). The most telling argument in favor 

 of an oral interpretation of these beliefs is, however, the fact that 

 charms and shamanistic powers are closely connected with fantasies 

 of omnipotence, which, as is well known, belong primarily to the oral 

 stage. The fact that semen is so systematically equated with mJlk is 

 probably due to the relatively complete fusion of the "partial drives" 

 with genitality in Mohave society, which, in turn, is made possible by 

 the fact that the various stages of psychosexual development tend to 

 overlap to an unusual extent in Mohave maturation (Devereux, 1947 a, 

 1951 e, 1950 c, 1950 b). 



The fact that "good" charms and powers tend to turn "bad" in the 

 long run seems to be due to the successive emergence into the field of 

 consciousness of the two poles of an ambivalent attitude, which prob- 

 ably mirrors the process whereby "good objects," such as the mother 

 or her milk, turn into "bad objects," such as the denying and frustrat- 

 ing mother (Devereux, 1947 a) and feces. It is not improbable that 

 this process is ultimately responsible for the basic characteristics of 

 all sacred objects, which, as Durkheim has shown, are invariably 

 thought of as both sacred and dangerous. 



Although the above interpretations are, admittedly, tentative ones, 

 it is at least reasonably certain that charms are adult representatives 



