Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 449 



Indeed, as Kelly (1949) points out, the Cocopa — and obviously also 

 the Mohave — practice of completely destroying the dead person's 

 property prevents the accumulation of capital and therefore also 

 impedes material and social progress. Unfortunately, this sociologic- 

 ally and economically very penetrating comment disregards certain 

 important psychological consequences of this practice. In societies 

 where the survivors inherit, death wishes toward older relatives are 

 often strengthened by practical considerations, whereas in societies 

 where not only the entire estate of the deceased but also additional 

 property is destroyed, acquisitiveness does not intensify unconscious 

 death wishes. Hence, psychologically speaking, the custom of destroy- 

 ing the dead person's property helps the relatives of elderly people 

 to control their death wishes. Tliis is of some importance in Mohave 

 society, where the care of the aged was sometimes a genuine burden 

 for the young, as is shown by the fact that at least one son shamefully 

 neglected his old mother (Case 123) . In fact, it is probable that many 

 societies suspect the old of witchcraft chiefly because the young are 

 forced to support them. Hence, the absence of inheritances and the 

 massive destruction of additional property in Mohave society pre- 

 sumably helped the young to repress their hostility toward those 

 whom they had to support, because their unconscious primary death 

 wishes were not intensified by the prospect of deriving tangible benefits 

 ("secondary gain") from the death of aged dependents. Otherwise 

 stated, even though many a Mohave had to support an old person, 

 the aged relative was less of an economic problem alive than dead.*^^ 

 The effectiveness of the destruction of property in reducing hostility 

 toward the aged in Mohave society is suggested by two facts : 



(1) On the whole, the Mohave seem somev/hat less inclined than 

 many other groups to view the old more or less indiscriminately as 

 witches, though they did believe that the singers of certain song 

 cycles became shamans — albeit not necessarily also witches — in old 

 age (Kroeber, 1925 a) and that some aging shamans became suicidal 

 witches (pt. 7, pp. 387-426). On the other hand, the average old 

 person was not suspected of witchcraft simply because of his age. 



(2) The Mohave were unaware of the existence of senile psychoses 

 and possibly even of certain minor psychological symptoms of old age 

 (pt. 5, pp. 254—255) . This striking gap in their otherwise compendious 

 nosology suggests either a marked lack of hostility toward the old, 

 or — more probably — a fairly effective sublimation of, or at least con- 

 trol over, such hostilities."® 



This finding explains why, even though the cremation of property 

 prevents the accumulation of capital and impedes progress (Kelly, 



*8 The same is even more true of a spouse, or of a son or daughter. 



*' Another factor was probably the shorter life span characteristic of aboriginal life 

 conditions. 



