312 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



Mohcave culture (Devereux, 1937 a) and is specifically held responsible 

 not only for the nyevedhi: group of psychiatric disturbances (pt. 4, 

 pp. 128-186), but also for the suicide of the second of a pair of twins 

 and for that of witches and of a dead brave's young admirer. At the 

 same time no informant so much as hinted that a person who actually 

 killed himself did so because he was haunted by the ghost of one of 

 his dead relatives. In fact, haunting was never even alluded to in 

 connection with actual suicides. On the other hand, haunting is so 

 consistently mentioned in connection with various psychosomatic ail- 

 ments and also in connection with certain forms of vicarious suicide, 

 that psychosomatic death appears to represent for the Mohave a type 

 of vicarious suicide. 



In the preceding paragraphs we differentiated between the Mohave 

 Indian's reactions to the act of the suicide and his reactions to the 

 person who kills himself. The best way of justifying this distinction 

 and of demonstrating the intensity of the Mohave Indian's condem- 

 nation of suicide is to examine his reaction to the suicide of aliens, and 

 especially of white persons. The Mohave view of the white suicide 

 is quite uncharitable and therefore clearly reflects the intensity of his 

 basic condemnation of suicide, even if one makes allowances for the 

 fact that, in Mohave opinion, nearly everything a white does is 

 necessarily bad. 



The chief difference between the Mohave Indian's evaluation of the 

 suicide of a white person, and of that of a Mohave is that, in 

 his opinion, the Mohave suicide regrettably failed to live up to both 

 ideal and (supposedly) real Mohave standards, whereas the white 

 who killed himself acted in a manner which is (supposedly) precisely 

 what one can expect from members of a characterologically and ethic- 

 ally defective group, which consistently fails to live up even to the most 

 basic standards of human (= Mohave) dignity .^^ The basic ethical 

 code in terms of which Mohave and white conduct are judged is the 

 same. However, whereas the Mohave is condemned for violating tribal 

 standards, whites are blamed for conforming to their (unethical) 

 national standards. In brief, whereas the Mohave suicide is viewed 

 as a maladjusted member of an ethical society, the white suicide 

 is held to be a fully adjusted member of an unethical society. 



The following case histories, obtained from Mohave informants, but 

 involving aliens, reveal the intensity of the Mohave Indian's con- 

 demnation of suicide. 



Suicide of foreigners. — Since the Mohave disapprove of both suicide 



■" This manner of evaluating objectionable conduct Is a basic characteristic of the Mohave 

 ethical system. If a Mohave is stinpiy, he is said to violate basic human ethics and to be 

 ethnically atypical. If a white Is stinpy, he is held to have conformed to Western "ethics," 

 which violate all basic human ( = Mohave) standards of decency, and Is therefore felt to 

 be typical of his group. 



