516 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bnll. 176 



time to see his wife and her former lover walk hand in hand toward the 

 outhouse.' He also observed and heard J's attempts to have coitus per anum 

 with G., who was bending over the toilet seat. These attempts were only 

 partly successful, because J., due perhaps to his intoxication, found it difBcult 

 to become sufficiently tumescent. When P. heard J. exclaim prematurely, "It 

 is all right now," he broke down the door of his house and began to creep 

 toward the outhouse, intending to surprise his wife, who, being less drunk than 

 the men, heard the noise and quickly pushed J. into a comer, trying to hide 

 him from her husband. By that time P. had come close enough to grasp his 

 wife's shawl, whereupon G. slipped out of her shawl and ran toward the house, 

 while P. lost his balance and fell down. He rose immediately, however, and 

 followed his wife into the house. He then accused her of various misdeeds and, 

 despite her denials, threatened to thrash her. Next, P. decided to look for J., 

 who, by then, had disappeared. This angered P. so much that he struck G. on 

 the head with a blunt instrument, knocked her unconscious, and left her lying 

 on the ground. G. was found next day, with a wound on her head, by the owner 

 of the ball place, who notified the authorities. When G. was questioned, she 

 pretended at first that she did not understand English, but eventually broke 

 down and confessed that she had had sexual relations with J. In view of her 

 confession, the case against P. appears to have been dismissed. 



(c) In extreme instances — i.e., if a major component of the tribal 

 value system appears to be threatened — an intoxicated Mohave may 

 even commit murder. The case history about to be quoted is of great 

 interest, because, in contradistinction to the previous case, the provo- 

 cation is inadequate in terms of the American conception of justi- 

 fiable homicide, whereas it would strike the average Mohave as a 

 particularly grievous one, altliough even they felt that Mukoh's vio- 

 lence was altogether excessive. Yet, since the continuity of the tribe 

 (Kroeber, 1925 a; Devereux, 1939 b) and of the family (Devereux, 

 1939 a) are among the basic values of Mohave culture, they did 

 not seem surprised that the rivalry of two men, over which of them 

 had fathered a certain infant, eventually led to murder. It should 

 be pointed out, however, that the aggressor's wrath may have had 

 some other sources as well. Indeed, the Mohave is not only not per- 

 mitted to fight when his wife deserts him, but, once his former wife has 

 settled down with another man, he is expected to show a great deal 

 of indifference and self-restraint (pt. 2, pp. 91-106). It is therefore 

 tempting to infer that Mukoh was glad to be able to claim — and 

 perhaps even to persuade himself — that his resentment toward his 

 wife's new husband was due exclusively to his culturally justifiable 

 indignation over the latter's insistence that he, rather than Mukoh, 

 was the legal father of an infant conceived by INIul^oh's former wife. 

 This interpretation is quite plausible, since some men are known to 

 have arbitrarily repudiated the paternity of a child whose mother 

 they had deserted (Devereux, 1948 d). 



• This detail tends to support my thesis that the actual onset, depth and termination 

 of the alcoholic stupor are more decisively influenced by psychodynamic than by physi- 

 ological factors. 



