278 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BulL 175 



"While I was still in the hospital, R.'s mother wanted to fight my mother, 

 because she did not want anyone to say things about her daughter; however, 

 in the end, they did not fight after all." After I got out of the hospital, my 

 mother beat me. She asked me why I did it, and told me not to do it again." " 

 (At this point I commented that the older Mohave do not approve of child 

 beating, whereupon my young interpreter said: "My mother (who is well 

 educated and admits that the Mohave acquired the habit of beating their chil- 

 dren through being beaten by their teachers in school) even used to throw stones, 

 bricks, and knives at me, but she doesn't do it any more. Nowadays she just 

 whips me. Even my stepfather whips me occasionally nowadays, but most of 

 the time he intercedes with my mother on my behalf."] ^* 



"At that time I was in the town school and not in the Valley school, where 

 I am now. I was not punished by the teachers for what I had done." (Extraor- 

 dinary as it may seem, no white appears to have suspected that Hamteya :u and 

 R. had had sexual relations, even though all the Mohave knew it, and even 

 though both children were hospitalized at almost the same time with 

 gonorrhea.) 



Public ridicule and neurotic response. — "I used to be known as a clown before 

 all this happened." But, when I got out of the hospital, people made fun of 

 me. Then I stopped talking and became contrary (negativistic) and uncoopera- 

 tive. I know a little Indian girl named E. ; she is like me, but she talks even 

 less than I do. She just stands around and no one plays with her.*'^ Children, 

 not adults, laughed at me; chiefly Case 78, E. S., A. B., and a girl of 14 I. T. 

 All these are school children like I am, but only Case 78 attends the Valley 

 School like I do." 



As was shown above, Hamteya : u spontaneously attributed his neurosis and 

 bad grades to ridicule and to tensions in the family. He felt certain that, if 

 the ridicule ceased, both his behavior and his grades would improve. 



Plans. — "When I grow up I will work at any kind of job I can get." 

 [Are you a budding shaman?] "No." 



Sex-identification. — This topic was approached indirectly, by asking first my 

 interpreter whether he would rather be a boy or a girl. The interpreter said 

 he preferred to be a boy, and Hamteya :u agreed with him. "It is much easier 

 to be a man. You can work ; you can make a house. Women must get married 

 to make a living. Of course, some women can work in an oflice and rent a room. 

 Most women know how to cook, while only a few men can also cook. [Do males 

 envy the procreative functions of females?] Well — some people want babies 

 badly, but cannot have them, and so they adopt some." 



Hamteya tu's medical record: 



This 10-year-old boy was admitted to the hospital with gonorrheal urethritis 

 (9 days after R. was admitted to the hospital with vaginal and urethral gonor- 

 rhea ; no connection seems to have been suspected). He was placed in an isola- 

 tion ward. 



" Mohave parents are Inclined to fight the parents of children who harmed their own 

 ofl'sprlng (Devereus, 1950 h). 



^ This beating was presumably due to anger over the humiliating publicity, 



" The stepfather was an extraordinarily sweet-tempered person, even for a Mohave 

 (pi. 10, b) (Devereux, 1950 f). 



" Excessive clowning In a child Is a well-known neurotic attention-getting device, which 

 often conceals much underlying sadness and loneliness. 



1" The case of this girl was not investigated. The above data do not enable one to decide 

 whether she was simply abnormally shy or else mentally retarded. Later Information 

 suggests that she was not feebleminded (Case 71). 



