450 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



1949), the Mohave continued to impoverish themselves periodically. 

 Like everyone else, they apparently felt that it was more important 

 to alleviate anxieties and inner conflicts than to obtain practical benefits 

 at the cost of an intensification of inner turmoil. A more systematic 

 application of this insight to the study of irrational-seeming tradi- 

 tionalisms and obstacles to progi'ess would probably clarify many 

 puzzling aspects of the dynamics of social change.^" 



The preceding considerations strongly suggest the presence of cer- 

 tain ego-dystonic and "iinavowable" impulses in the mourners, which 

 are liberated in the course of funerals in the form of semiritualized 

 regressive behavior consisting of a frantic destruction of property '''^ 

 and suicidal attempts. From the strictly anthropological point of view 

 the fact that culture encourages such regressive behavior is a suflScient 

 explanation of its occurrence at funerals. However, if one accepts the 

 view that man is not a cultural robot and that at least a minimal sub- 

 jective motivation is necessary for the behavioral implementation of 

 even the most trifling social mandate (pt. 7, pp. 371-431), it is neces- 

 sary to do more than just prove the presence of ego-dystonic impulses 

 or to demonstrate that, during funerals, their manifestation, in the 

 form of regi'essive behavior, is encouraged by culture ; it is also neces- 

 sary to prove that no other outlet or "safety valve" is available to 

 Mohave mourners. 



One of the Mohave Indian's principal safety valves seems to be a 

 conspicuous sexual laxity, which appears to be largely compensatory 

 in character, since it seems to provide substitute gratifications for 

 a variety of frustrations, at least some of which are economical, and 

 also serves to alleviate tensions of various kinds (Devereux, 1939 b). 

 However, the Mohave prohibit all sexual activity during funerals 

 (pt. 4, pp. 186-195), though, due to the mobilization of a variety of 

 ordinarily repressed impulses, the mourner badly needs an outlet for 

 the tensions and explosive anxieties which he normally controls 

 through sexual activity. 



Denied the use of this habitual technique for the alleviation of his 

 tensions, the mourner is forced to seek relief by means of safety valves 

 "built into" Mohave funeral rites, but strictly forbidden in daily rou- 

 tine. Hence, the individual mourner^ unaccustomed to frenzied de- 

 structiveness and suicidalness in daily routine,^^ experiences these 

 unfamiliar, though culturally sanctioned, funeral safety valves as 

 "improvised" or "idiosyncratic" symptoms of a markedly regressive 



™ A brilliant application of this principle to the history of technology was published by 

 Sachs (1933). 



^ Frenzied destructiveness is so archaic a trait that It occurs even in the lower primates. 



" For a description of a destructive tantrum during the breaking up of a marriage, com- 

 pare Kroeber, 1925 b. Behavior of this type is not common among the Mohave. 



