534 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuU. 175 



1. PKEOCCUPATION WITH THE DEAD 



The intoxicated Mohave Indian shows a significant tendency to be 

 preoccupied with the dead. Intoxicated witches refer to their victims 

 (Cases 139, 140) with intense longing, while lay individuals consciously 

 think and speak of their dead relatives (Cases 137, 138), in spite of the 

 tribal taboo on mentioning the names of the dead (Kroeber, 1925 a; 

 Devereux, 1937 a). Conversely, obsessive thoughts and anxieties con- 

 nected with the beloved dead can apparently lead to alcoholic excesses 

 (Cases 137, 138). The fact that the loss of realistic object cathexes 

 often plays a major role in intoxication is also underscored by the ob- 

 servation that deserted and divorced women are especially prone to 

 drink to excess, thereby inviting rape. 



It is important to realize in this context that there are certain 

 clearly formulated Mohave rules concerning the manifestation of emo- 

 tions on the occasion of the severing of affective bonds. The Mohave 

 condone — but do not admire — female displays of emotion both before 

 and after separations and divorces (Devereux, 1937 b and pt. 3, pp. 

 91-106), and also before, during, and after fmierals (pt. 7, pp. 

 431-459). By contrast, male displays of emotion are expected to 

 cease once the separation or divorce is final and also when the crema- 

 tion ceremony is finished. Hence, if a man continues to fret over the 

 desertion and remarriage of his wife, his behavior will elicit ridicule 

 rather than sympathy (pt. 3, pp. 91-106). 



Furthermore, it is specifically believed that obsessive preoccupation 

 with dead or lost love objects causes certain ailments (pt. 4, passim), 

 that the dead attempt to lure the living to the land of the dead, and 

 that witches seek to be killed in order to join the ghosts of their be- 

 loved victims (pt. 7, pp. 387-426). 



These data suggest that the rule prescribing dignified self-restraint 

 and the taboo on the names of dead represent a culturally standard- 

 ized attempt to suppress intense preoccupation with lost love objects, 

 in order to reduce anxiety and feelings of guilt to a minimimi. 



Intoxicated persons tend, however, to violate these rules and taboos. 

 It is tempting to dispose of this entire problem in the traditional man- 

 ner and to explain these violations of taboos in terms of the theory 

 that "alcohol dissolves the superego." However, inasmuch as the 

 "dissolving of the superego" is supposed to abolish anxiety, the tra- 

 ditional explanation appeal's to be inadequate, for in this instance the 

 purpose of the rules and taboos in question is precisely the reduc- 

 tion of anxiety. 



The actual psychodynamics of tlie situation arc somewhat different. 

 Paradoxically, intoxication can bring about noncompliance with these 

 beneficial taboos only because it substitutes itself to the latter and 

 achieves the goal of reducing anxiety by idiosyncratic, rather than by 



