Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 315 



Tcat&s statement (1938) : There are more suicides now than there were for- 

 merly. [Why?] Most suicides seem to be due to unsuccessful murriages. 

 [Were people more happily married formerly than they are now?] There were 

 just as many unhappy marriages then as there are now, but people did not 

 commit suicide so much. [Why not?] So-called {sic!) civilization must have 

 something to do with it. White people commit suicide all the time (cf. Case 82). 

 [Did you ever hear of children actually committing suicide?] No. 



C omtn en t.— Since Tcatc was a very conservative person who idealized the 

 good old days and felt convinced that the Mohave had deteriorated as a result of 

 their contact with occidental civilization and its representatives, her remarks 

 should be viewed solely as characteristic Mohave utterances, rather than as 

 factual statements. They shed light upon the Mohave attitude toward suicide 

 and acculturation, but contribute nothing reliable to our actual information 

 about historical trends in the incidence of siiicide. 



Inferences regarding suicide in aboriginal times. — Many facts 

 suggest that suicide was not uncommon even in aboriginal times. 



(i) Mythology: Although there seem to be no mythical episodes 

 involving actual suicide, the idea of self-destruction is explicitly pres- 

 ent in the Mohave myth concerning the origin of death : ISIatavilye de- 

 cided to die in order to institute death and funeral rites by setting a 

 precedent. Some narrators even say that the coming into being of 

 death was willed not only by Matavilye himself, but also by his evil 

 daughter. The psychoanalytic meaning of this myth having been dis- 

 cussed elsewhere (Devereux, 1948 f), it suffices to note here that, 

 in Mohave belief, the first death was a voluntary vicarious sui- 

 cide. Brief mention may also be made of the fact that, in a Mohave 

 tale. Coyote commits what is usually termed "partial suicide." He 

 commits autophagia after being wounded through his own "acciden- 

 tally on purpose" injudicious behavior (Devereux, 1918 h). 



{2) The cultural mass of the idea of suicide: The variety of deaths 

 and symbolic deaths which the Mohave traditionally define as "sui- 

 cide" proves that the idea of suicide played a great role in Mohave 

 culture and thought. It is therefore permissible to assume that, even 

 though real suicides may have been less common formerly than they are 

 at present, vicarious suicides may have been more frequent than they 

 are now, since, due to American interference, witches are no longer 

 slain. Indeed, some Mohave opinions to the contrary notwithstanding, 

 the modern witch's knowledge that he would not be killed, no matter 

 what he did, may very well inhibit not only the provocative behavior 

 of at least some suicidal aging witches, but, possibly, also the urge 

 to commit witchcraft. Indeed, Hivsu : Tupo :ma— who, though gen- 

 erally believed to be a "good" shaman, had confessed to me that he 

 too had bewitched people (Devereux, 1918 i; and Case 92) — 

 sounded almost wistful when he said that in former times he would 

 never have reached old age; moreover, not long after making this 

 statement, he got drunk, accidentally on purpose, slept outdoors in 



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