Although the Mohave Indians are fond of children, live burial of infants which were repudiated by the father, or of those conceived in intercourse with a white man, occurred in earlier times. When children were repudiated, mothers wreaked revenge on the deserting father whose duty it was to execute the burial. Burial of half-breeds expressed rage against the despised white race.

Historical case material concerning infanticide is reported along with the Mohave myth which suggests a causal relation between the burial of a child and the birth of agriculture. Analysis thereof reveals that the act of infanticide is determined by restitution fantasies (return of the child to the earth-womb), the equation child = father, and a cannibalistic motif.