Cultural and Characterological Traits of the Mohave Related to the Anal Stage of Psychosexual Development

This study of the cultural and characterological implications of the anal stage of psychosexual development in Mohave society begins with a description of Mohave toilet training practices, followed by an analysis of fantasies rooted in the anal stage of development, and of the cultural and behavioral effects of these fantasies. To co-ordinate anally determined fantasies with the preceding oral, and the succeeding phallic-oedipal stages of development, one subsection presents orally tinged anal material, a second anal material only, and a third describes phallic-genital repercussions of the anal stage. This grouping is suggested by W. C. Menninger's study of the anal stage of psychosexual development (44). A third section is the study of anally determined aspects of the character structure and behavior of the Mohave, with special reference to Menninger's tabulation of these traits (44). This method of presentation is chosen not merely for convenience, but also because it makes our data readily comparable with the clinical findings of psychoanalysts, thus making possible a cross-cultural testing of certain aspects of the psychoanalytic theory of psychosexual development.

The compatibility of Mohave data with psychoanalytic theories pertaining to the anal stage and the anal structure of character came somewhat as a surprise because the great leniency of Mohave toilet training led to the expectation of finding an almost total absence of traits rooted even partially in reaction-formations to the anal expulsive phase, or of direct carry-overs