244 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



The shaman Hilyera Anyay also heard of cases m which manic 

 attacks alternated with depressions : 



They seem to be taken up by some thought and seem very sad and quiet. At 

 other times they are so excited that they even get into quarrels and fights. 

 [Is there a flight of ideas?] No — they just pick arguments with people, but do 

 not pour out words. This disorder is closely related to hi:wa itck (pt. 3, 

 pp. 71-106). 



The meagerness of data concerning manic-depressive psychosis is 

 doubly significant. On the one hand it shows that mood swings must 

 be excessive indeed before the characterologically cyclothymic Mohave 

 consider them in any way abnormal. On the other hand the "manic- 

 depressive psychosis" of one of the rare Mohave who was sufficiently 

 disturbed to require hospitalization, was believed to have been caused 

 by his unwillingness to admit that he possessed shamanistic powers, 

 and to use these powers (pt. 2, pp. 57-71). The Mohave Indians' cas- 

 ual acceptance, and even institutionalization, of extreme mood swings 

 may, thus, explain why acute manic-depressive psychosis is so rare 

 in this tribe, especially in its manic phase. On the other hand, it ex- 

 plains also why depressions, with or without anorexia, seem to be the 

 characteristic "ethnic psychosis" (Devereux, 1956 b) of the Mohave 

 Indians. 



ARTiriCIALLY INDUCED STATES OF DISSOCIATION: ALCOHOLISM, DRUG 

 ADDICTION, AND TRANCE 



Habitual drunkenness and occasional bouts of intoxication are 

 known to occur in Mohave society. Since Mohave alcoholism is fully 

 described in a special Appendix (pp. 505-548) it is not discussed in 

 the present section. 



Drug addictions are unknown, and no extreme addictive craving 

 for tobacco, such as is known to occur among the paleo-Siberian tribes 

 (Bogoras, 1904; Sverdrup, 1938), was reported from the Mohave. 

 Peyotism is also absent. 



Nonritual "intoxication" by voluntary temporary self-suffocation, 

 causing anoxemia, which occurs among the Groenland Eskimo (Peter 

 Freuchen, personal communication), is also absent, though suicide by 

 suffocation (Case 123) does occur, as does the inducing of trance by 

 such means (pt. 7, pp. 426-431). 



Temporary trance states, many of whose symptoms are somewhat 

 similar to those of intoxication, are rare, and occur only in a ritual 

 context ; for example, in divining the whereabouts of a person lost in 

 enemy territory. Since the Mohave do not consider such a (suffoca- 

 tion) trance state to be a mental disorder, it is discussed in this 

 monograph in a different context (pt. 7, pp. 426-431). It should be 

 stressed, however (Devereux, 1956 b), that the fact that a given form 



