Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 465 



In brief, on the latent (Chapin, 1935) level of Mohave culture a 

 suicide appears to be socially defined as a model even for those who 

 do not have an adequate subjective reason for killing themselves. 

 This explains why quite a few of these "imitative" or "derivative" 

 suicides were either bungled, or else never got beyond the stage of 

 suicidal ruminations. 



In a very genuine sense, all societies seem to construe death as a 

 "model" for the mourners, this being especially true of the Mohave, 

 who believe that death came into being through Matavilye's deliberate 

 attempt to die of witchcraft (Bourke, 1889; Kroeber, 1948), so that 

 his (voluntary) death may serve as a model and as a precedent for 

 all future deaths. In fact, nearly all funeral customs — from suttee to 

 mere self-denials and taboos during mourning — symbolize, in one way 

 or other, a total or partial death of the mourners and may be viewed 

 as a kind of blackmail levied by the dead on the living (Devereux, 

 1956 a ; and pt. 7, pp. 431-459) .«^ 



Thus, on the whole, we are led to agree with Mauss' (1925) view 

 that suicide is, in a social sense, the "prestation supreme" demanded 

 from the living. In the light of Mohave belief, suicide is, thus, simply 

 the quickest and most dramatic means of achieving the reunion of the 

 living with the dead and of doing homage to them. 



CASE MATERIAL 



Since the outstanding characteristic of Mohave suicides appears to 

 be their tendency to cluster ( 14 cases, forming 7 clusters, contrast with 

 6 unclustered cases) it is proposed to present first the clustered cases 

 and then the isolated ones. 



The clustered cases are divided into three subgroups, depending on 

 the degree of explicitness of the clustering mechanism involved. 

 Witliin each cluster the cases are cited in chronological order. 



As regards the single cases, they are grouped together according to 

 the type of motivation involved. 



Clustebed Cases 



Subgroup I. — Cases illustrating the triggering role of the death (or 



suicide) of a relative, explicitly expressed by the depressed 



survivor. 



Cluster A. — Suicide of 0:olva, who was nagged by his kinsman 



P. N., followed by the suicide of his brother Amalyk Tumadha:p, 



who brooded over O rolva's death. (Cases 112 and 113.) 



"s Compare in this context Homer's description ("Odyssey," book 11) of Achilles' 

 psychic state in the underworld, which is, strictly speaking, the psychic state of a 

 mourner, here imputed to the deceased. Compare, also (ibid.) the belief that the dead 

 become more lively if they drink the blood of freshly slaughtered sacrificial animals. 



