Devereux] MOHA\E ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 371 



tuberculosis, and possibly also with an abscess of the lung. Other informants 

 felt, however, that her tuberculosis had been simply aggravated by her con- 

 stant anxiety. Later on, an informant said that Tcatc (N) finally died of 

 tuberculosis and worry, predeceasing her husband. 



Around 1932 Sudhu :ra also came down with tuberculosis, and was in such pain 

 that he begged his family to shoot him. The details of his illness and death 

 are recorded elsewhere in this work (Case 44). 



Comment 



Although at Sudhu :ra's marriage the traditional wedding rite for cousins 

 was not performed, it was accepted as a bona fide, albeit objectionable, 

 marriage. Its most significant aspect is the fact that it was cited as a 

 proof that cousin marriages do, in fact, lead to the extinction of entire families. 

 A relatively unsatisfactory informant even added that Atci : Akw(o)ath's grand- 

 daughter lost a child — apparently because of this marriage." This clue was 

 not followed up, and may be erroneous, since my field notes contain no other 

 indication that Atci: Akw(o)ath ever had a granddaughter, and especially not 

 one old enough to lose a child in the early 1930's. This entire — and presumably 

 erroneous — detail is mentioned here only in order to show the extent to 

 which the Mohave are convinced that incestuous marriages decimate the 

 extended family. 



CASE 91 (Informant: Tcatc) : 



X. Y., whose family is supposedly riddled with witchcraft and incest 

 (Devereux, 1939 a), married his second cousin Nyoltc, without the proper ritual. 

 The bridegroom's paternal grandfather and the bride's maternal grandfather 

 were siblings. 



Comment 



Informants cited this case in support of the thesis that incest and witchcraft 

 recur in the same family. It is therefore more than a coincidence that 

 Sudhu :ra, who supposedly died because he, too, had married his second 

 cousin, was also believed by some people to have been bewitched by two of 

 X. Y.'s sisters, E. and W., one of whom had actually been caught in the act of 

 committing incest (Devereux, 1939 a). A juvenile delinquent (by Western 

 standards) (Case 77) also belonged to this family. 



SUMMARY 



At incestuous marriages the Mohave performed a rite which appears 

 to have symbolized the partial social death of the groom. Since the 

 groom freely submitted to this observance and since, moreover, in con- 

 tracting an incestuous marriage, he exposed himself to death, both 

 symbolically and also through running the risk of dying as a result 

 of his incestuous act, the rite may be viewed as an attenuated and 

 symbolic form of vicarious suicide, and was so viewed by several 

 reliable informants. 



VICARIOUS SUICIDE 



PSYCHOSOCIAL DYNAMICS OF VICARIOUS SUICIDE 



The Mohave define as vicarious suicide any procedure whereby 

 a person who wishes to die, but does not choose to be his own execu- 

 tioner, maneuvers someone else into killing him, or at least consents 



