542 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 175 



The above considerations, together with our earlier discussion of 

 oral elements and of incest in relation to all forms of alcoholism, 

 form a connecting link between obsessive preoccupations with the dead 

 and the regressive oral component in Mohave alcohol addiction. 



3. OEAL SADISM, WITCHCRAFT, AND INCEST 



The relationship between oral conflicts and alcohol addiction was 

 first suggested by Freud (1930). This nexus is reasonably obvious in 

 the case of the JSIohave, whose orality was described elsewhere in some 

 detail (Devereux, 1947 a) . It was found that the Mohave : 



(c) Are aware of the existence of an oral sadistic stage, and credit future 

 shamans and witches with the tendency to bite the nipple. 



( &) Believe in an intense sibling rivalry for the maternal breast. 



(c) Are conscious of the traumatic effects of weaning. 



(d) Tend to equate milk with saliva and with semen. 



(e) Prohibit the oral stimulation of the woman's breasts during sexual inti- 

 macies, because it seems quasi-incestuous to them. 



(/) Practice fellatio, which they seem to equate unconsciously with nursing 

 the "bad" mother, but refrain from cunnilingus. 



(ff) Assign an important role to saliva, both in shamanistic therapy and in 

 witchcraft. 



(ft) Assert that witches are prone to commit incest and tend to bewitch 

 principally their own relatives. 



(i) Implicitly believe that witches experience severe guilt feelings. The 

 Mohave are convinced that all witches wish to be killed, since, should they die a 

 natural death, they would lose their hold on the ghosts of their victims. 

 Kwanami:hye heroes (Stewart, 1947 c), who are also professional witch killers 

 (Devereux, 1937 c) even though they themselves are sometimes incestuous 

 witches (Devereux 1939 a), likewise prefer to die a violent death (Kroeber, 

 1925 a). 



In view of these facts, it is worthwhile to attempt to discover 

 whether the behavior of Mohave witches addicted to alcohol includes 

 significant oral mechanisms occuring in combination with self-destruc- 

 tive actions. 



CASE 139 



The shaman Hivsu : Tupo :ma was an exceptionally voracious eater, even for a 

 man of his enormous bulk. He specialized, among other things, in the treatment 

 of the weaning trauma (which is believed to be caused by a rivalry with an 

 unborn sibling, whose impending birth brings about a cessation of the flow of 

 milk) (pt. 7, pp. 340-348). This is highly significant, especially since one of his 

 victims was his elder uterine half-brother, who was his mother's favorite and 

 whose daughter was one of the women with whom he had had incestuous re- 

 lations. Six incidents of bis life illustrate certain self-dostructive mechanisms 

 in the drinking history of an older Mohave shaman : 



(a) On the occasion of a trip to Los Angeles, a group of Mohave shinney- 

 players had intercour.se serially with the two intoxicated Mohave concubines 

 who had accompanied them. Eventually, despite Ilivsu : Tupo: ma's objections. 



