532 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuU. 175 



greater significance. A conservative Mohave shaman, of the Mah 

 gens, who disapproved of drunkenness, called himself : Harav He :ya= 

 whiskey mouth. What is of the greatest importance in this context is 

 that this shaman also had a second self-given name: Mowaiva 

 Kwanye :na=his-relatives coitizes (conunit incest) . 



The fact that this champion of resistance to acculturation chose for 

 himself two names, one of which condemns alcoholism and the other 

 incest, strictly parallels Tcatc's already cited spontaneous juxtaposi- 

 tion of alcoholism and incest, in connection with her disapproval of 

 acculturated behavior. This observation provides the best starting 

 point for an analysis of the role of alcoholism in the Mohave uncon- 

 scious, especially in relation to acculturation. The fact that accultura- 

 tion often permits the acculturated individual to express behaviorally 

 certain impulses, which were strongly inhibited by his aboriginal cul- 

 ture, explains why the first persons to be acculturated are so often 

 either the subjectively maladjusted, or else those who are most con- 

 sistently victimized by the aboriginal culture. The latter frequently 

 behave as though they were idiosyncratically neurotic, simply because 

 their culture denies them access to, and the use of, certain culturally 

 standardized defense mechanisms, thereby inf antilizing them and ren- 

 dering them comparable to neurotics (Devereux, 1956 b). 



It is hardly necessary to stress that whether acculturation is used by 

 a given individual primarily as a means for the uncreative, self- 

 destructive and sterile "acting out'' of previously inliibited urges — 

 for example, by becoming a dissolute alcoholic — or whether the pre- 

 viously inhibited impulses, freed by acculturation from their 

 aboriginal cultural shackles, are immediately transformed into subjec- 

 tively productive and culturally valuable sublimations, depends 

 primarily on the acculturated person's pre-existing degree of psychic 

 health or illness. The already maladjusted person will put his 

 acculturation to neurotic uses. The emotionally healthy person will 

 systematically attempt to use acculturation creatively. Instead of 

 "acting out" his newly disinhibited impulses neurotically, he will sub- 

 limate them, thereby increasing both his own psychic security and the 

 sociocultural security and productiveness of his own group. 



It is quite evident that, during the historical period to which the 

 data presented in this Appendix belong, the Mohave did use cre- 

 atively a number of cultural items which they obtained in the course 

 of their acculturation. It is, however, equally evident that they used 

 the borrowed item "alcohol" primarily in a way which must be de- 

 scribed as symptomatic acting out. This is proved both by Tcatc's 

 statement and by Harav He : ya's two names : "Whiskey mouth" and 

 "Commits incest," and is exemplified by Sahaykwisa :'s (Case 140) 

 and Amat Yavu:me's (Case 138) self -destructive alcoholism. The 

 use of acculturation as a means for evolving new and creative sub- 



