220 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



would be possible to claim that formal rituals replace individual com- 

 pulsive rituals (Freud, 1924 a), and represent a standardized defense 

 against the types of anxiety and conflict that, in our society, produce 

 obsessive-compulsive neuroses. However, since Mohave culture con- 

 stantly under-emphasizes ritualism (Kroeber, 1925 a), it is evident 

 that this explanation fails to account for the striking absence of this 

 well-known Occidental syndrome. Since the inference, that the Mo- 

 have are "racially" incapable of developing an obsessive-compulsive 

 defense system is, obviously, an inadmissible one, one is forced to 

 conclude that Mohave culture does not produce the type of anal char- 

 acter structure which, in our own society, may evolve into an obses- 

 sive-compulsive neurosis. This conclusion can be substantiated not 

 merely by reference to the fact that toilet-training in Mohave society 

 is both a lenient and a belated one — so belated, in fact, that it overlaps 

 with the early stages of the oedipal period (Wallace, 1948 ; Devereux, 

 1951 e) — but also by pointing out that the psychological manifesta- 

 tions of anal retentiveness are consistently penalized by the Mohave, 

 who value generosity almost above any other virtue (Devereux, 1939 

 b, 1951 e). If this conclusion is correct, then the argument that a 

 genuinely permissive upbrmging cannot prevent neurosis seems to 

 stand in need of revision.^^ 



The Mohave Indian's total inability to understand the meaning of 

 compulsive acts is exemplified by Hilyera Any ay's remarks. 



Hilyera Anyway's statement (1938). — [Do you know people who have some 

 small compulsion, like jingling coins in their pocket, or getting up at night, 

 time and again to check the door, or something else?] People who jingle coins 

 might be called name:hlak (= willing to do it). As for getting up at night — I 

 just can't seem to understand what you are driving at. There seems to be no 

 term to denote such things. The nearest thing to it might be hi :wautc 

 kunyume: him (=heart changed, doubting). They know that certain things 

 are thus and so, but if they have a feeling that if they do not see that things 

 are actually that way — well, this might be called in Mohave hi :wa hak hu :dhauk 

 (=heart??). That is as near as I can come to explaining it to you. 



Tcat&s statement (1938). — Some people just do things without knowing it. 

 When a person is that way, they say that he is nyammuna :k (habit?). I can't 

 give you an example of such behavior, because none occurs to me just now. 



The IMohave Indians do not seem to be unique in not producing 

 obsessive-compulsive neurotics, since anthropological and etlinopsy- 

 chiatric sources contain almost no references to this type of neurosis 



«« One often hears the statement that the children of early psychoanalytic enthusiasts, 

 who were brought up In a very permissive atmosphere, eventually developed neuroses. 

 This line of reasoning disregards certain crucially important social aspects of the problem. 

 The pormissively educated child is constantly rebuked by his contemporaries, teachers, 

 and otlier associates outside tlie home. He has a "neurosis of sanity." i. e., he is a "frealf" 

 among "woU-adjusted" neurotics (Devereux, 1951 a). It is, furthermore, quite obvious 

 that a child growing up in a permissive home is psychologically unprepared to adjust 

 himself to what Jones (1951) calls our "anal culture." 



