Devereux] MOHAVE E,THNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 333 



After 6 lunar months of pregnancy have elapsed, the fetus has an 

 immutable identity (Devereux, 1937 d, 1949 c) and an autonomous 

 psychic life. At that time the normal child begins to dream of Avays 

 of being born, while the shamanistic fetus dreams of ways of not 

 being born, and, due to his "devilishness," assumes a transversal po- 

 sition in the womb. He wishes to kill the first person he can get hold 

 of, even though that person is, of necessity, his own mother — whom he 

 does not hate, but loves — and even though he realizes that this trick 

 will kill him too. He does not mind dying, since he does not wish to be 

 born. Such an unborn shaman cannot hurt anyone except himself 

 and his mother. "The murderous unborn does not take its mother to 

 the land of the dead ; both proceed there together.'''' 



It is to be noted that future shamans are supposed to dream of 

 shamanistic powers already in the womb: One of the deities "re- 

 peats" for the future shaman the portion of the creation myth that 

 pertains to his future speciality. This point is of some importance 

 for the underetanding of the association between shamanistic power 

 and suicidalness. Since, in his therapeutic work, the shaman neces- 

 sarily deals with matters related to life and death, it is permissible to 

 infer — even though no specific statements to that effect were either 

 asked for or volunteered — that, in the course of this intrauterine "re- 

 petition" of creation, all shamans would, of necessity, dream not only 

 of the incident of Creation which pertains to their speciality, but 

 also of Matavilye's precedent-setting intentional death (quasi-suicide), 

 which, as we have seen, represented psychologically a resurgence 

 of those suicidal impulses which this deity already manifested 

 when he temporarily refused to be born. This myth may therefore 

 explain the close relationship between birth, death, and suicidalness 

 in Mohave belief. 



In addition to suicide shamanistic fetuses, who spontaneously (?) 

 decide not to be born, there are also fetuses who compliantly assume a 

 transversal position because a witch "taught them this trick meaning 

 death." The fact that these bewitched fetuses are said to assume this 

 lethal position (instead of being thought to have been passively ro- 

 tated in the womb by the magical powers of the witch) implies that, 

 like the cooperative adult victims of witches (pt. 7, pp. 383-386) they 

 are compliant because they are willing to die, in accordance with the 

 wishes of the witch. The voluntary nature of their malposition is 

 further underscored by the fact that, when appealed to by the obstet- 

 rical shaman, they— like shamanistic fetuses— are capable of resuming 

 the normal (head first) position in the womb. 



Mohave beliefs concerning voluntary suicide and murder at birth 

 have certain interesting psychological implications. 



(1) They clearly reflect the— culturally predicated— close con- 

 nection between suicidalness and murderous impulses (pt. 7, pp. 

 327-329). 



