350 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BnU. 176 



offense to twins which reveals the presence of an intense ambivalence. 

 Otherwise expressed, the Mohave do seem to "protest too much" and 

 to overprotect twins precisely because they feel hostile to them.'^ 



This finding calls for certain methodological considerations, which 

 are of fundamental importance for an understanding of the structure 

 of culture, especially in relation to the cultural implementation of 

 basic attitudes. 



The existence of hostility toward twins, reflected by a second set 

 of beliefs, in terms of which they are not honored heavenly visitors 

 but contemptibly acquisitive ghosts, was not discovered until 1938, 

 although its existence could have been predicted solely on the basis 

 of cultural considerations. Indeed, most tribes either heap honors on 

 twins, the way the Mohave and other Yuman tribes do, or else they 

 consider them as a calamity and therefore kill either one or both 

 twins (Thomas, 1937). Now, whenever the same social stimulus 

 elicits in various groups one of two extreme and mutually contra- 

 dictory patterns of reaction, it is almost certain that the reaction type 

 which is emphatically excluded from, and negated by, the strongly 

 formalized and emphasized "mainstream" (Devereux, 1954 a) of a 

 given culture will manifest itself, in one way or the other, in the 

 "latent" (Chapin, 1934, 1935) or subsidiary portion of that culture 

 (Devereux, 1957 a).^ 



One possible cause of the Mohave Indians' ambivalence toward 

 twins is the fact that, in aboriginal times, the life expectancy of twins 

 was quite low, so that the birth of twins usually meant that the family 

 would soon have to mourn the loss of one or both twins. This in- 

 ference is materially strengthened by the finding that the Mohave 

 themselves are, in a roundabout way, quite aware of the fact that 

 twin mortality was rather high in aboriginal times, and state this 

 insight in two ways: 



(1) A culturally rather unimportant expression of the insight 

 is the belief that, due to a (purely imaginary) change in the climate 

 the number of twin births has increased in recent years, although, 

 in reality, it is survival rate of twins which has increased.^ 



^ It is a well-established fact that maternal overprotection Is Invariably rooted in hostility 

 toward the child (Levy, 1943). 



* Thus, the mere fact that there exist cultures — such as Islam — In which dojrs are 

 despised and consldored unclean, makes it certain that even officially cynophllic cultures — 

 such as our own — will have a secondary attltudinal pattern toward dogs, in which the word 

 "dog" is an opprobrious epithet. Conversely, the existence of a highly cynophllic pattern 

 In certain cultures, such as ours or that of certain Australian tribes, suffices to make us 

 expect that even the markedly cynophoblc Arabs would have a secondary, cynophllic 

 pattern. This expectation is confirmed by the finding that the purebred Arab greyhound 

 is so highly esteemed that his pedigree — like that of the purebred Arab horse — Is some- 

 times recorded In the family Koran (Devereux, 1957 a). 



"Twins who, under aboriginal conditions, died in Infancy were soon forgotten, partly 

 because of the general taboo on mentioning the dead (Kroeber 1925 a) and partly because 

 they did not live long enough to do anything worthy of remembrance. 



