252 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



when discussing snake-headed monstrous births (see below) they never 

 referred to mental defect — an omission that is comparable to their 

 marked unawarenes of the psychological and intellectual deterioration 

 of the aged (pt. 5, pp. 25'^255). Last, but not least, not once did a 

 Mohave refer in my presence to another Mohave as "stupid." ^^ Con- 

 versely, the Mohave hardly ever say that someone is especially intelli- 

 gent (Case 49). This is not necessarily a primitive trait, since e.g., 

 the Sedang Moi of Indochina (Devereux, 1947 b; MS., 1933-34) are 

 greatly interested in the presence, development, and deterioration of 

 intelligence.^" 



In brief, stupidity (dull normal intelligence) was never mentioned 

 at all, and feeblemindedness, when taken cognizance of, was simply 

 considered a form of "craziness" (yamomk), hut only if a marked 

 abnormality of behavior was present. 



The tendency not to take cognizance of simple stupidity, nor even 

 of actual mental defect, goes hand in hand with the tendency to im- 

 pute an adult intelligence to shamanistic fetuses (pt. 7, pp. 331-339), 

 to newborn twins (pt. 7, pp. 348-356) and possibly even to sucklings 

 (pt. 7, pp. 340-348) who, if they become ill because they are weaned 

 too suddenly, can be cured by reasoning with them, though the person 

 who reasons with them must be a shaman who has the necessary super- 

 natural powers. Likewise, intelligence is not held to be impaired in 

 the psychoses of shamans, whose confused and ineffectual behavior is 

 believed to be due to the fact that their "comprehension" or "knowl- 

 edge" (=autistic-supernaturalistic fantasy) exceeds their "heart" 

 (pt. 1, pp. 9-38). Finally, in discussing the development of children, 

 the Mohave stress ethical maturation, rather than an expansion of in- 

 telligence or performance. 



In psychiatric parlance one would say that the Mohave do not 

 believe in genuine mental defect and view all intellectual limitations 

 as "pseudodebility"; as an inhibition of an inherently normal intel- 

 ligence.^^ Needless to say, this statement does not imply that the 

 Mohave actually discovered the existence of pseudofeeblemindedness, 

 in the scientific sense of that term. Rather do they believe that every 



7» After translating Case 19, Haraa : Utce : added that "this must have been a weak- 

 minded family." It seems probable that she simply meant to say that this was a mentally 

 unstable family. However, even if she meant to say that they were stupid — which they 

 were not — this dops not mean that the Mohave tribe is preoccupied with problems of 

 stupidity, since Hama : Utce : Is, even by American standards, an unusually well educated 

 person, and therefore more likely to think of people as either intelligent (cf. her comments 

 on Kumadhi : Atat, Case 40) or stupid. 



"Thus, in discussing children, they will say: "So-and-so already has (or else, does not 

 have as yet) intelligence ; he can (or else, cannot as yet) do such-and-such work." In 

 discussing adults, they nearly always say whether or not they have intelligence. An old 

 man, who was mentally still very alert and an exceptionally good Informant, often com- 

 plained that he was now less intelligent than formerly (Devereux, MS., 1933-34). 



^ "Pseudodebility" is a technical term, suggesting pseudofeeblemindedness resulting from 

 the neurotic inhibition of an inherently normal Intellect. 



