506 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



and tentative intei-pretation thereof in terms of Mohave culture 

 and of certain reasonably well-established psychological mechanisms. 



HISTORY OF THE USE OF ALCOHOL 



The Mohave Indians had no intoxicating beverages in aboriginal 

 times. According to Kroeber (1931), the Gila River was the north- 

 western boundary of the area in which aboriginal types of alcohol 

 were manufactured. It is characteristic of Mohave cultural ethno- 

 centrism that, despite their passion for distant travel, they never 

 learned the art of preparing fermented beverages from other tribes. 



The first contact of the Mohave with European alcoholic bever- 

 ages occurred presumably not before the middle of the 16th century, 

 and probably not later than the end of the I7th. There is no evi- 

 dence to suggest that European or Mexican alcoholic beverages 

 played an important role in Mohave life during the period of 

 Spanish contacts. Alcohol began to make appreciable inroads only 

 during the second half of the 19th century, as a result of an influx 

 of white Americans, who used alcohol in the economic and sexual 

 exploitation of the Mohave (Devereux, 1948 f). According to 

 Allen (1891), "Those who go to the railroad towns and mining 

 camps soon become demoralized by whisky and contaminated by 

 tramps." 



During the last decades the advent of law and order in Arizona and 

 in California has somewhat reduced the indiscriminate debauching 

 of Indians by disreputable whites. Federal laws prohibiting the sale 

 of alcohol to Indians, as well as other forms of liquor controls, had 

 also decreased excessive drinking in the tribe, for the average Mohave 

 could seldom afford to buy illegal, and therefore expensive, beverages. 

 On the other hand, the fact that the Mohave woman was unable to 

 purchase alcoholic drinks at a reasonable price tended to revive the use 

 of alcohol for seduction and as an outright fee in informal and occa- 

 sional prostitution, especially during the building of the Parker Dam, 

 which necessitated the importation of many single white and Mexican 

 workers. At the same time, the Mohave employed on that project 

 began to earn enough money to purchase illegal and overpriced alcohol 

 more frequently. 



According to recent information, the current inflationary trend in 

 wages and in the price of agricultural products, which appreciably 

 increased the purchasing power of the Mohave, also led to an increase 

 in drinking. 



All things considered, the Mohave cannot be described as a tribe 

 whose vitality and social structure have been appreciably impaired by 

 alcoholism. Drinking remains a marginal phenomenon in Mohave 

 life, and the fundamental drinking pattern is the one-night "spree," 



