226 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



Moreover, precisely because he experienced no discrimination, his Mohaveness 

 was not a defiant or self-vindicating, but a matter-of-fact and generally ac- 

 cepted, self-definition. Thus, John's sociocultural self-definition as a Mohave 

 contrasts with that of some of the older members of his family, who are some- 

 what insistently Mohave, precisely because, when they were young, it was still 

 hard for a Mohave of mixed ancestry to be accepted by the tribe. 



( III ) Body image. — Once, while talking and kidding with a boy his own age and 

 with a friendly and well-educated older adult, John spontaneously made a series of 

 drawings (pi. 1), which shed a great deal of light upon his "body image" and 

 self-definition at the age of 11 or 12. These drawings, as well as some scrib- 

 blings which accompanied them, are of some importance, and will therefore be 

 discussed in some detail. 



(A) 6X9 ruled sheet (pi. 1, a): 



The center of the sheet is occupied by a head in three-fourths profile, facing 

 left, 31/4X41/^ inches in size, which makes it the largest head of the series. The 

 drawing is that of a somewhat microcephalic but large-chinned boy, with a 

 curiously distorted tip-tilted nose and a huge chin. The hair is stubbly, i.e., 

 apparently clipped short, which, in Mohave culture, suggests mourning. This 

 inference is confirmed by the four huge tears rolling down the boy's left cheek. 

 The grossly exaggerated Adam's apple has three probable meanings : 



(a) Swallowing. — This is a plausible inference in the case of a design that 

 shows a person who is apparently mourning, since eating and swallowing 

 fantasies are highly characteristic of mourning depressions in general (Freud, 

 1925 d), and of Mohave depressions in particular. (Pt. 4, pp. 128-186.) This 

 interpretation also agrees with John's dreams of starving, thirsting, and ex- 

 periencing oral deprivation in general. 



(6) Choking. — Suffocation and the feeling of strangling are common in ve- 

 hement grief and crying. Suffocation plays a conspicuous role in John's dreams. 



(c) Masculinity. — A developed Adam's apple is characteristic of adult males. 



The top of the piece of paper in question is occupied by John's elaborate 

 signature, which, for obvious reasons, cannot be reproduced. It has the fol- 

 lowing characteristics : 



(a) The careful shading of all loops. 



(&) The running together of the (English) given name and surname. (As 

 in "Johnsmith.") 



(c) The tallest letter is the initial of the given name (1 inch), the next 

 tallest are such "tall" letters as "b" or "f" (% inch), and the third tallest 

 letter is the initial of his surname (i/^ inch) (minimization of surname?). 

 The rest of the letters are only a shade less tall (% inch) than the initial of 

 the surname. 



(d) There is some exaggeration of the horizontal elements. 



(e) The "signature" ends in a small backward and upward loop, which 

 cuts — ^with some justification — through one of the last letters of John's 

 surname. 



The bottom of the page is occupied by the very awkwardly scrawled given 

 name of one of John's male playmates. This scrawl is so overloaded with very 

 awkward curlicues that it is barely legible, and, if one uses John's own 

 elaborate signature or the drawing as points of reference, it is written "upside 

 down." (180° rotation of paper, clockwise.) 



The back of the sheet was written as follows : 



(a) First line. — The awkwardly written given name of the playmate, and 

 then the very carefully written full name of the playmate, with all loops shaded. 



