340 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



SUICIDE AT WEANING (TAvAkNYI :K) 



Under ordinary circumstances the Mohave child is nursed for 2 or 

 3 years, and great care is taken not to traumatize it by weaning it 

 too suddenly or by means which might frighten or distress it. More- 

 over, the intensity of the weaning trauma is even further reduced by 

 the fact that it occurs at a time when the mouth is no longer the 

 chief erotogenous zone of the child who, at the age of 2 or 3 has already 

 reached the anal stage of psychosexual development (Devereux, 1947 a ; 

 Devereux, 1951 e) , Similarly, Mohave toilet training also occurs rela- 

 tively late (Devereux, 1951 e, Wallace, 1948) — at least by occidental 

 standards — i.e., at a time when anal erogeneity is largely superseded by 

 phallic-genital interests. Thus, the control of oral, respectively of anal 

 functions, requires less self-constriction and less renunciation on the 

 part of the Mohave child than on that of the occidental child. This 

 finding probably sheds a great deal of light on ISIohave character struc- 

 ture and also on the character structure of other tribes in which wean- 

 ing and toilet training occur at a point in time when the renouncing of 

 oral, respectively anal, interests is appreciably facilitated by the fact 

 that, as a result of normal psychosexual development, the pleasure to 

 be renounced is no longer the child's principal source of gratification. 

 This point is of some importance for the understanding of certain 

 types of cliaracter structure, although a detailed discussion of this 

 matter is beyond the scope of the present study. 



Yet, despite the lateness and gentleness of the weaning process, the 

 belief that certain weaned children develop the "suicidal" tavaknyi :k 

 disease shows that some Mohave at least empathize rather readily 

 with the plight of the infant about to be weaned. It is probable that 

 this insight into the weaning trauma is not exclusively due to the 

 proverbial insatiability of the oral drive. Indeed, there are, even 

 in Moliave society, certain infants who experience such intense oral 

 frustrations and rivalries that they remain orally fixated for the rest 

 of their lives. 



Genuine oral frustrations and rivalries are experienced by three 

 types of persons likely to reach adulthood : °° 



(1) Children who must be weaned suddenly, because of the mother's new 

 pregnancy. 



(2) Twins who have, from birth, a rival for the breast. 



(3) Children whose mothers give them a rival for the breast, by suckling also 

 a small orphaned relative (pt. 3, p. 115) .*^ 



It seems extremely probable that at least a few such persons later 

 on become shamans specializing in the cure of the tavaknyi :k disease. 



"" Snake-headed monstrous births, whose bite Is so preatly dreaded that they are not 

 nursed, seldom reach adulthood, and are therefore unlikely to contribute to the genesis of 

 new beliefs and opinions (pt. 6, pp. 2f)7-259). 



»iThe only one to mention a white child's Mohave wet nurse is McNichols (1944), who 

 does not tell us what had happened to the woman's own child. 



