Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 341 



This inference is supported by the fact that Hivsu : Tupo : ma, a noted 

 tavanyi :k specialist, was so voracious an eater that even he sometimes 

 joked about his appetite. Moreover, even the name he had selected 

 for himself alkides to food; Hivsu: Tuponna means "burnt raw," 

 and refers to the parching of corn. It is true, of course, that Hivsu : 

 Tupo :ma justified his choice of this name by saying that the totem 

 of his gens, Tcatc, is corn (Spier, 1953), but this explanation does 

 not account fully for his choice of a food-connected name, since Mo- 

 have men show no preference for personal names that have a totemic 

 reference. It is, therefore, far more likely that, since the best conceal- 

 ment for unconscious impulses is notoriously a seemingly realistic 

 "reason," he simply took advantage of the fact that his gens had an 

 edible totem, to justify his choice of a name referring to food. Finally, 

 it is known that Hivsu : Tupo -.ma was quite jealous of his male half 

 sibling, and eventually bewitched him, "because my mother preferred 

 him to me" (Case 139) (Devereux, 1948 i) . 



It is highly characteristic of the Mohave that they impute radically 

 different psychological reactions to children who have to be weaned 

 because of the mother's new pregnancy, and to those who have to 

 share the maternal breast with another child. Only forcibly weaned 

 children are said to become "suicidal." Most children who must learn 

 to share the breast with another suckling are believed to be able to tol- 

 erate and to accept the competitive situation in which they find them- 

 selves; hence, only a few develop the hi :wa hira:uk ailment (pt. 3, p. 

 115). One might almost say that whereas the forcible weaning of a 

 newly pregnant woman's child is viewed and explained in infantile 

 terms related to the nursing process, the sharing of the breast is 

 brought within the scope of the mature and ideal pattern of generous 

 sharing, which characterizes Mohave social interaction. Hence, the 

 sharing of the breast will be discussed only in order to highlight the 

 differences between the psychological reactions imputed to forcibly 

 weaned children and those attributed to children who must learn to 

 share early in life. 



In regard to twins, the Mohave feel that they readily adapt them- 

 selves to the need of sharing the maternal breast, and nurse either 

 at the left or at the right breast. On the other hand twins become 

 resentful and also very jealous of each other if they are not treated 

 exactly alike and are not favored above all other children. Moreover, 

 twins, one of whom is a boy and the other a girl, sometimes quarrel 

 with each other, the way spouses do. In all such instances the slighted 

 or offended twin causes himself (or herself) to die, and is usually soon 

 followed into death by the surviving twin. Finally, twins are said 

 to be exceptionally prone to develop tavaknyi :k if their mother be- 

 comes pregnant before she had time to wean them (pt. 7, pp. 348-356). 



