Devereux] MOHAVE ETHNOPSYCHIATRY AND SUICIDE 527 



hini with liquor. Although he did not resent my question, he pretended that he 

 did not know the bootlegger's name and added that there were plenty of whites 

 willing to malie some easy money by peddling liquor to the Indians. "The 

 fact that there is a law against selling us liquor only means that we have to 

 pay more for our drinks than the whites do. This gives white people an addi- 

 tional chance to exploit us." We then talked for a while about my experiences 

 in Indochina and about the recent activities of our mutual friends. Throughout 

 the conversation my Mohave friend behaved in a cordial and courteous manner, 

 and, even though he was obviously delighted with my unexpected return, did 

 not become either maudlin or overenthusiastic. After a while we bade each 

 other good night and separated. I understand that he returned to his home 

 unescorted and did not run into any diffculties. 



It cannot be overstressed that this kind of amiable and quiet 

 intoxication, rather than the spectacular org:y of murder, is the 

 characteristic behavior of the intoxicated Mohave. If this fact is 

 disregarded, it is impossible to understand a major component of 

 Mohave personality structure, since many significant aspects of Mo- 

 have ego psychology will necessarily escape one's attention. 



III. UNCONSCIOUS FACTORS IN MOHAVE ALCOHOLISM 



Psychoanalytic conceptions of the dynamics of alcohol addiction 

 are derived from the study of individuals belonging to our culture, 

 in which alcoholic beverages have always played a significant role. 

 An attempt to test directly the applicability of these theories to our 

 Mohave data would be a meaningless exercise of mental agility, unless 

 one proved first that alcohol is meaningfully integrated with contem- 

 porary Mohave life, both on the social and on the intrapsycliic level. 



1. It was shown above that drinking is fully integrated with Mo- 

 have social life, and that the alcoholic excesses of Mohave Indians 

 must be thought of in terms of what Linton (1936) called culturally 

 standardized "patterns of misconduct," rather than in terms of an 

 atypical individual's purely marginal and idiosyncratic deviation 

 from the social norm. However, though Linton himself did not do 

 so, we must further refine the concept "pattern of misconduct" in 

 terms of four Lintonian categories: universals, specialties, alterna- 

 tives, and individual peculiarities. Universal misconduct patterns 

 are available only to full members of the gi'oup : Only citizens can be 

 traitors ; aliens can only be spies. Specialty misconduct patterns are 

 limited to members of a given subgroup : Prostitutes continue to be 

 considered female ; male prostitutes barely count as men. Alternative 

 misconduct patterns are usually categorized without regard to their 

 actual social harmlessness : Wastrels who pay their gambling debts, 

 though not their tailors' bills, remain "gentlemen." Individual mis- 

 conduct patterns highlight the repetitive core of neurosis : Habitual 

 burglars are often readily identified by their "style." Mohave alco- 

 holism is a universal misconduct pattern, available to all Mohave in 

 situations of stress ; moreover, they hold that a drunken Mohave mis- 

 behaves, while a drunken white simply acts like a typical wliite. 



