334 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



(2) They emphasize that, even though the weaned infant, who no 

 longer spends most of its time in the carrying cradle (Devereux, 

 1947 a and 194S c), ceases to consider the womb as "its place," at least 

 some adult Mohave continue to remember the womb (pt. 7, pp. 302-303, 

 passim) and may unconsciously long to return to it, as do the ghosts 

 of certain dead infants, who, in reentering the womb, are also likely 

 to kill their mothers (pt. 4, pp. 150-175) . Were such ideas and wishes 

 not present even in the adult Mohave unconscious, this tribe would not 

 have evolved the notion that some infants refuse to be born and that 

 certain dead infants return to the womb, nor would they have been 

 able to accept (Devereux, 1948 h) such ideas through diffusion from 

 anotlier culture. 



(3) Many unborn shamans, whom the obstetrical shaman persuaded 

 to give up their murderous and suicidal impulses long enough to be 

 born, eventually turn into murderous witches who, in the end, long to 

 be killed, and incite others to kill them (pt. 7, pp. 387-426) . 



(4) The fetal shaman is in an exceptionally favorable position for 

 insuring that he and his mother would never be separated. By killing 

 her and by dying himself during birth, he never has to emerge from 

 her womb and can therefore go through all future reincarnations with 

 his mother, without ever being separated from her. Hence, unlike 

 adult shamans, who must delay the entrance of their victim's ghosts 

 into the land of the dead until they themselves are killed (pt. 7, 

 pp. 383-426), the infant shamanistic murderer can automatically 

 achieve this end by killing his mother at the same time as he, himself, 

 commits suicide.^" 



Needless to say, the four beliefs just cited shed light only upon tlie 

 psychology of the Mohave adult^ who imputes certain impulses, 

 actions, and ideas to the unborn child. They do not, and cannot 

 possibly shed light upon the "psychodynamiics" of the unborn child, 

 for the very good reason that the fetus has no psyche in the ordinal^ 

 sense of the word. Hence, K. A. Menninger's (1940) attempt to use 

 these Mohave beliefs in order to demonstrate the existence of prenatal 

 instinctual conflicts and to support the theory of the primary death 

 instinct is untenable.^^ 



Diagnostic problems. — The Mohave believe death at birth to be 

 usually pathognomonic of felal shnmanislic, murderous, and suicidal 

 impulses. Indeed, in their opinion the overwhelming majority of 

 obstetrical deaths and stillbirths are caused by shamanistic fetuses, 

 and most of the rest by the fact that the fetus had been bewitched. 



* Fantasios about obstetrical doatlis may be the Infantile models of so called "suicide 

 pacts." 



" It might be added in passing that a great many of our supposedly "scientific" ideas 

 about child psychology appear to be little more than projections of the adult mind. Dif- 

 ferently expressed, they are adult fantasies, Imputed to children. This criticism applies 

 not only to the views of such psychoanalytic ( ?) extremists as Melanie Klein and her 

 school, but also to much of our academic child psychology (Devereux, 1956 a). 



