338 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



the unborn child is a sentient and reasonable being, capable of respond- 

 ing botli to objective reasoning and to an emotional appeal to the 

 Mohave value system.^^ 



Responsibility. — In obstetrical deaths caused by future shamans, the 

 blame clearly rests with the fetus. Indeed, even though it is a 

 shaman's nature to act in this manner, it was, in principle, possible 

 for the fetus to yield to the obstetrical shaman's appeals, urging it 

 to be born. In not heeding these appeals he showed himself a bad 

 Mohave, not interested in setting a good example for future 

 generations. 



As regards the obstetrical death of a bewitched infant, the person 

 blamed is tlie witch, whose powers the fetus could not resist, nor the 

 obstetrical therapist neutralize. The Mohave seem to feel that the 

 ])ower a witch uses for such purposes is very great indeed, since 

 obstetrical difficulties caused by witchcraft are said to be the most 

 difficult to alleviate. 



It is especially important to note that the mother never seems to 

 be blamed for such mishaps, although some women not only resort to 

 mechanical means for abortion (Devereux, 1948 d, 1955 a), but may 

 even ask a witch to kill the child in the womb by magical means. If 

 the Avitch agrees to do so he "presses her sides" . . . the implication 

 being that, in this manner, he sends his evil power into the woman, 

 so as to destroy the child in the womb. This operation is called hi :toly 

 matadha :uk masahaye (or thinyeak) (belly bewitch girl, or woman) .*® 

 Unlike the bewitching of the fetus, such magical abortions are not 

 believed to harm the woman herself. 



In brief, since the Mohave deem it inconceivable that any woman 

 would be "crazy enough to ask a shaman to bewitch her foetus in this 

 manner, so as to be able to die with her unborn child," the mother 

 who dies without being able to deliver her shamanistic or bewitched 

 baby is never held responsible for the double misfortuiie.^^ The only 

 women who are blamed for obstetrical deaths are those known to have 

 violated the relevant pregnancy taboos (Devereux, 1948 b). 



*' Compare in this context the appeals made to suflflenly weaned children Piiffering from 

 tavaknyi :k (pt. 7, pp. 340-348), the belief that all children begin to think already in the 

 womb (Devereux, 1948 b) and the thesis that, from the moment they are born, twins have 

 the intelligence of adults (Devereux, 1941). For a discussion of Mohave patriotism, 

 compare Kroel)er 1925 a. 



^ This text having been obtained in 1932, at the very beginning of my first field season, 

 it may conceivably be in "simplified" Mohave, since the words seem to lack suffixes. 



*" In this respect the Mohave seem more sensible than certain extreme exponents of 

 "natural childbirth," who see in every obstetrical complication maternal anxieties, reluc- 

 tances, and the like. While psycholo>;ical factors certainly play a role in some cases, a 

 wholesale "psychological" approach to obstetrics seems unreasonable, as a minimal famili- 

 arity with obstetrical difficulties in animals will prove. It is also half distressing and 

 half amusing to note the persistence of the myth that "primitive women bear their children 

 painlessly and easily," when every tribe appears to have elaborate rules and taboos for 

 preventing obstetrical calamities, and means, both technical and ritual, for dealing with such 

 difficulties when they do arise. The magic surrounding the term "natural" in "natural 

 childbirth" does not make natural childbirth any more pleasant than the "naturar* eruption 

 of teeth Is for the baby. 



