You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
The systematic study of primitive obstetrics is still in its infancy. Even though standard anthropological monographs usually contain detailed accounts of obstetrical rituals and taboos, actual cases of childbirth are seldom described, and the psychological and social significance of the crisis of childbirth is hardly ever subjected to a careful scrutiny. Hence speculations about primitive childbirth tend to distort reality to a rather considerable extent, witness the widely held belief that “most primitive women, not being neurotic, bear their children without pain and without complications.” It is not easy to understand how such an extraordinary belief could have come into being, when even relatively sketchy anthropological studies usually list rituals and taboos believed to facilitate childbirth, protect the mother and child, and overcome various dffiiculties connected with delivery. (36)
Hence it is felt that a detailed study of Mohave Indian obstetrics may be of some value not merely to anthropologists but also to students of psychiatry and of the history of medicine.
The crisis of childbirth is usually a comparatively short and climactic one, and hence calls for brisk activity, rather. than for complicated ritual observances. On the other hand difficult childbirth, unduly prolonged labor and other obstetrical emergencies find the Mohave relatively helpless, and are hence usually the occasion for complicated shamanistic performances. The Mohave themselves were apparently