The Canela (Eastern Timbira), I: An Ethnographic Introduction.
By William H.Crocker
Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology,
Number 33, 487 pages, 11 tables, 51 figures, 78 plates, 1990.
<<back table of contents next>>
<<return to literature
The Canela have been compared to the Australian aborigines (Maybury-Lewis, 1979:303) because, like the Aborigines, they have developed a complex system of social organization at a relatively low level of technological development. Anthropologists who try to work out scales or ladders of unilinear or multilinear social evolution find the Canela social complexity to be uncharacteristic of most other tribes that are between the hunter-gatherer level and the fully agricultural one. (See Carneiro, 1967). Because this complexity makes the study of social organization a crucial one, and because most Central and Northern Gê specialists have concentrated on this topic, I have placed the main focus of the book on presentation of Canela social organization.
The first chapter, "Socialization and Related Adult Activities" is about the enculturation of the young through the various foci of socialization. It is also about the social forces that keep adults within traditional lines of behavior. This traditional human processing, as carried out by parents, was permissive until puberty when much of the control was passed to aunts and uncles, who restricted the behavior of their nieces and nephews through severe discipline. By the mid-1970's, these roles of the aunts and uncles had all but disappeared, with the roles of the parents strengthened somewhat.
This chapter is followed by what is partly the product of socialization, "Psychological Polarities, Values, and Behavioral Orientations." Aspects of this sort seemed best studied among the Canela through analyzing key polarities, such as individuality within solidarity.
The third chapter, "Socioceremonial Units," is informational, describing and defining for the rest of the monograph the principal social units involved in on-going daily living and in the festival system, whether political [III.D] or ceremonial [IV.1, 2].
The fourth chapter with sections on the chieftainship, council of elders, and judicial system emphasizes the political structures of Canela society. The tribal chief is in control of most of the political power in the tribe, while the members of the council of elders check and limit his political behavior and act in their own right with respect to ceremonial matters, governing festivals and bestowing prestigious awards on good performers. Canela informal law is well developed, especially with respect to keeping marriages with children together. Interfamily public hearings are frequently held to reduce excited or hurt feelings related to almost any disturbance of the peace. The chief of the tribe is the ultimate judge and arbiter in legal matters.
The terminological relationship systems discussed in the fifth chapter include consanguineal and affinal terminology, name transmission, Formal Friendship, Informal Friendship, teknonymy, the contributing-father system, mortuary terms, and ceremonial practices. These systems constitute most of the interpersonal social organization, in contrast to the political social organization, in a tribe at the Canela's position in social evolution. Marriage completes the discussion of interpersonal linkages. The kinship system is Crow III in Lounsbury's system (Nimuendajú, 1946:351–393), but "parallel transmission" equivalences published by Sheffler and Lounsbury (1971:110–112) provide more congruence with both the empirical data and the social structural correlates.
[III.A] SOCIALIZATION AND RELATED ADULT ACTIVITIES
The chapter concentrates on the specific points in the life of a Canela at which the forces of socialization are most intense. "Forces of Socialization" [III.A.3] is divided into three age groups: children, adolescents, adults. In discussing each group, emphasis is placed on the "forces" (that is, the outside influences, pressures, and facilities) that (1) restrict or discipline (i.e., limit), (2) reward or positively motivate (i.e., attract), or (3) activate or help (i.e., equip) the individual to develop in the socially desirable patterns. Thus, I see the individual moving through life reacting to (1) the restricting and restraining forces, (2) the facilitating and rewarding pressures, and (3) the aids provided and her or his own personal abilities. Reality is more complex. This simplification was adopted for heuristic purposes.
The next to final section presents ethnotheories of growth [III.A.4], some Canela ideas about the social development of the individual, and a summary of my observations [III.A.5] about Canela socialization.
[III.A.1] Research Methods
It would be methodologically correct, but too time-consuming, for an ethnologist to move systematically throughout an entire village, observing socialization from house to house, day after day. To some extent I did just this in both villages of the Canela in the late 1950s, and in the Apanyekra village of Aguas Claras (Map 8), while involved in other kinds of research (census taking, for instance). At such times I did notice and record various kinds of socialization in most houses of the villages. My principal studies of socialization, however, were carried out through observation in my houses of residence and through extended discussions with research assistants, which systematically covered the field of socialization.
[III.A.1.a] PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS
About 75 percent of my observations on socialization of children were made in the Canela houses of my adoptive sister Te?hôk and my adoptive brother Hàwmrõ and his wife, Mïï-khwèy. In Te?hôk's house, her several sisters were usually present with their children. In my brother's house I could watch the socialization practices of my brother's mother, and later, the practices of his three grown and married daughters with their babies and children. Four generations lived in that house. The socialization practices in the house of my adoptive Apanyekra sister Pootsen provided another source of observation.
In all three of these houses of adoption, the age range of children was from breast feeding through belt winning for girls and through Pepyê internment for boys. During my 22-year period with the Canela, I observed some children mature into adulthood and raise their own children. It was not uncommon to see mothers and daughters raising their similarly aged babies and older children all together.
Opportunities to observe casually what older people were doing for children were excellent. I simply sat on a mat or chair while eating three meals a day, day after day for years, and watched what was happening in large rooms where many activities were occurring. I was one of the many fixtures of such rooms, being inactive but eating and observing. It was possible to take notes right there, or to speak into a microphone in English without disturbing the family interaction. Moreover, I often traveled with whole families to farms, or to one of the other villages. These trips were slow, lasting three days instead of one, because women and children took a long time in preparation for moving and then walked slowly. Sometimes I observed the traveling group and wrote or spoke simple notes for later elaboration. Observations made at such times (while eating or traveling) were often discussed with research assistants who went and asked details from the adults involved to improve our understanding of the facts of the situation. The socialization incident was then elaborated upon and its possible variations and parameters discussed in my research assistant council.
[III.A.1.b] DISCUSSIONS WITH RESEARCH ASSISTANTS
Another way of approaching the study of socialization besides observing incidents was working with a group of research assistants on this topic. In 1958 and 1959, I studied with one or two research assistants [In.4.d]. Then, in the spring of 1960 and again in 1964, I worked intensively with a group of research assistants who used to debate points among themselves and then turn to me with their opinion in Portuguese, after I had been listening to their debate in Canela.
Although socialization was never again the principal topic of investigation after 1964, I reassessed this subject with research assistants from time to time during the 1970s to learn more about the more obvious trends and changes I was observing. It should be assumed, however, that the socialization process presented here comes from examples observed in 1959 and 1960 (i.e., "the late 1950s" [In.4.f]), unless otherwise stated, or unless some observation of the 1970s is specifically being contrasted with the earlier period.
[III.A.1.c] CANELA APANYEKRA SOCIALIZATION PROCESSES
Canela villages are relatively homogeneous in social training because of the openness of Canela life and the lack of significant intratribal ethnic differences. Nor are there class differences of any significance, although they were beginning to develop in the 1970s. Individual differences exceed any variation in family traits that might evolve because of relative status differences. However, child training in a Wè?tè house [III.D.3.e.(3)], or a political chief's house, could be somewhat different from socialization in an ordinary family house because the sociocultural atmosphere and traditional assumptions could be quite different. Significant differences could also exist between a house of self-sufficient individuals of high self-esteem [I.G.1,4,15] and a household of people who, rather than maintaining their own self-sufficiency through farm plots, depended on work at the houses of backlanders for support in September through December of each year [II.C.3.g]. This chapter, however, is not designed to cover such a possible range of variation in socialization, and focuses instead on a normative range of behavior.
I did not carry out intensive studies of Apanyekra socialization processes. Because their tradition is almost the same as the Canela's (both tribes being Timbira Indians of the eastern variety), it is assumed that their socialization processes are similar. I observed the Apanyekra, for a total of 10 months over 17 years. It must be remembered, however, that the slightly different values of the Apanyekra probably are reflected in their socialization processes as they are in their versions of certain myths.
[III.A.2] Foci Of Socialization
The foci of socialization presented here represent periods in a baby's, child's, or adolescent's life that are more intense and formally focused than other periods. The underlying principles that govern socialization in general operate more conspicuously in these periods, and comparisons between earlier (pre-pubertal) and later (post-pubertal) foci provide information on continuity or change.
[III.A.2.a] INFANT CARE
An infant lives at the breast of its mother. In the late 1950s infants were rarely put down except to clean them. Whenever a baby cried it was given a breast on which to suck. It was believed that infants and babies should not cry very much, and that the moment any baby did, it should be pacified, or distracted. A breast was the usual means. The four or five women in a household took care of each other's babies [III.F.7], and almost always more than one of them could furnish milk. Thus, the very young babies, up to several weeks old, could be switched from breast to breast when one mother was absent, maybe fetching water or firewood.
Unrelated individuals who had fed at the same breast as babies were said to be "milk siblings," and sometimes in later life called each other by siblingship terms. (This is also a backland practice, so the Canela may have learned it from them [II.d].)
In the house of Te?hôk, her uterine sister (Hapôl) was usually present, and two more "sisters" (really parallel cousins), Tel?khwèy and the younger Khroytsen, lived next door. In the late 1950s and 1960, Te?hôk's daughter, Te?kurà, was part of the baby-tending team, and by the 1970s another daughter Píyapit had grown up to join it, but by then Te?kurà had died.
Ideally, even when a mother was sleeping, she held her baby in her arms. In the 1970s, however, babies were often left in hammocks as long as they were not crying; but if any crying started, they were picked up and nursed immediately. Sometimes they were carried around in commercial cloth slings instead of on the hip. Fathers sometimes hold babies, but this is not a regular practice.
[III.A.2.b] BREAST FEEDING
Babies were not only fed on demand, but often were nursed for long periods. On a trip to Barra do Corda in 1960, Atsuu's baby was at her breast and nursed almost the whole time, even while they were in the back of a truck where riding was rough. This trip, through Leandro and Escondido (Map 3), must have taken a dozen hours, including rest periods. The breast was the place of security for a baby, and a mother encouraged it to nurse there during any long periods of stress.
Active attempts to distract a baby were a principal socialization technique and pattern of adult behavior. A baby became enculturated to put up with almost no confrontations and relatively few difficult aspects of living. When something unpleasant happened or when a baby was frightened, its attention was distracted from the disturbing object. Its mother gave it her breast, or it was put on the breast of some woman it knew.
However, by the time that the baby was five or six weeks old, it could distinguish and preferred its mother to other women and often did not accept the breast of another "mother." No attempt was made to force a baby to accept a woman it did not like. Sometimes in my brother Hàwmrõ's household, babies were given to their grandmother or great grandmother, the older Khroytsen (Figure 22), to hold and nurse, even though she had no milk.
At about 2 to 4 months, depending on a mother's attitude, she feeds her baby mashes of foods, such as bananas, manioc, sweet potatoes, rice, and even brown sugar. By 9 months, she might feed it soft, well-cooked meat. I never saw, and my research assistants denied, what Nimuendaju (1946:108) reports: that mothers gave babies pre-masticated food.
A baby is given only soft foods until it has teeth. In the late 1950s, babies were spoon and finger fed. No bottle feeding existed. Nothing was forced on a baby of that age. By the 1970s, however, some babies had plastic pacifiers in their mouths.
[III.A.2.d] EXPLORATION AND DISTRACTING SMALL CHILDREN FROM DANGERS
Babies first experience some degree of freedom in creeping and crawling across the earth or sand floors in their maternal houses. They are not restrained. They are encouraged to go where they wish and explore whatever they happen to find.
Sometimes older children put a toy a half meter ahead of the baby and coax it to crawl to the toy. When the baby almost has the toy in its hands, the child moves the toy a little bit further, not to frustrate the baby, but to encourage it to crawl a little more. Any signs of frustration, however, are appeased by immediately letting the baby have the toy. No crying for any length of time is allowed.
When my wife arrived for the first time in Sardinha (1963), she was disturbed to see little boys barely able to stand playing with large knives, wielding them and poking them at objects. While this happened quite often, I never saw or heard of a baby hurting itself with a knife in such a situation. Babies also wander close to fires, but more than one adult, including a parent, is usually watching. They let the baby wander and explore, but the moment it endangers itself with fire, or anything else, they call to it to draw its attention to move in a different direction. They may also pick the baby up, giving it the breast as a distraction so that it will not cry for what it has lost.
In the late 1950s, I witnessed an excellent example of the freedom to explore allowed toddlers. In Baixão Prêto, a large rooster, well tied with cords, was lying on the ground just inside the house. A little boy, A?prol, barely able to stand, approached closely and watched it. The rooster could swing its head slightly and could have pecked at the boy, but not with much force because of its tied position. With great patience, his parents, especially his father Hàwmrõ, were observing the situation, but nobody interfered. They could see the baby was not going closer to the rooster and therefore was safe.
This kind of freedom continues for boys of 7 or 8, when they go in groups into the cerrado to play [II.D.1.c]. They are not called to account for what they were doing during most of the day. This freedom to explore continues for men as adults when they go on trek to the large coastal cities [II.A.3.a.(3)]. Groups of men, sometimes with a woman or two, escape most restrictions of tribal life when they go out "in the world" (no mundo), as they call it [II.D.3.i.(1)].
[III.A.2.e] STANDING AND WALKING
At 11 to 15 months, adults encourage babies to stand and walk by holding them upright by their hands and encouraging them to take steps. A mother often holds her baby boy from behind with one hand while guiding its hand with her other hand into shaking a toy gourd rattle, hoping he might grow up to be a sing-dance leader [II.F.1.a]. I saw parents holding girls of that age by the ribcage, causing their bodies to go up and down, while their knees bent in the traditional rhythmic manner. Such a mother was hoping her daughter would grow up to be a great sing-dancer [II.D.2.e.(1)].
They encourage babies to walk at the beginning of their second year, though they do not make an ordeal of the learning experience. They still give it a breast if it cries, and relieve it of any activity that might cause crying. Nothing is forced. They believe each child will walk when she or he is ready to do so [III.A.4.a].
One of the oldest Canela men, Khà?po (Plate 70e) [I.G.7], who was in his early 80s in the late 1950s, reported that, in earlier times, weaning occasionally took place as late as 3 to 4 years. He demonstrated the age by pointing to two little girls, Kahuk and Píyapit, who were 2 and 4 years old. My research assistants identified several living people who had been weaned at this age (e.g., Khen-khwèy of Baixão Prêto and Yawè of Ponto), but this was not a usual practice by the late 1950s. By then, the weaning took place this late only when it especially suited the mother, they said. If nursed too long, they believe the child would grow up a weak person (irerek) [III.A.4.b].
My younger Canela research assistants said that the proper time for weaning is between teething and walking, depending on how the child appears to be maturing. Any time beyond standing and walking, up to 1½ or 2 years, was considered too late by the late 1950s. In any case, if the mother becomes pregnant, in spite of the practice of avoiding intercourse while actively nursing, they quickly wean the baby. They believe mother's milk is for the fetus rather than for the baby. They said a baby would become sick if it continued to nurse while a new pregnancy was developing.
[III.A.2.f.(1)]
The principal technique in weaning is to fool the baby (i?-hey: it /fool/trick/deceive: fool it: enganar êle: fool he [as is said ungrammatically in Maranhão backland Portuguese]). They attempt to trick a baby so as not to have to force it to do anything against its will. Thus, they encourage a baby to eat soft mashes of foods increasingly, especially when it is obviously hungry and more receptive to accept almost anything. Later on, even when it is less hungry, such soft foods are given more and more often in order to accustom it to them and train it to accept them in place of a breast. Any food that a baby does not like is quickly removed from its mouth to avoid an outburst of crying. If crying does occur, a breast is quickly given to the baby. They make attempts, however, usually through mild chatter and persuasive talk, to take a baby's attention away from a breast and focus it on the substituted food.
[III.A.2.f.(2)]
If weaning is absolutely necessary because a mother is pregnant, she sometimes applies babaçu nut oil or mild pepper (pimento) to her breasts to make them distasteful to her baby. This technique is a regular backland approach, according to research assistants, and therefore highly criticized. The Canela say that the backland women have no feeling for their children [III.B.1.b.(1)]. These women always wean their babies early with pepper, which makes them cry most of the day. The Canela disapprove of such treatment and only a few mothers practice it.
[III.A.2.g] TALKING
As in any culture, babies learn to talk by listening to their parents and imitating them. Parents attempt to have them repeat phrases, especially in joking relationships between kin. For a baby girl, if one of her joking uncles comes into the house, an appropriate adult begins the relationship by telling the girl what to say to joke with him. I heard extended conversations of this sort between uncles and nieces and aunts and nephews. (Naming-aunts and uncles, and those who have assumed disciplinary roles, seldom joke [II.D.1.b,c].) They even tried to teach me Canela in this manner. In old Ponto in the late 1950s, Pat-khwèy, an aunt next door, used to scold me, but my niece Te?kurà spoke my answers, so I merely had to repeat her phrases, at first scarcely understanding them. They were usually highly descriptive of personal sexual matters.
[III.A.2.h] URINATION
The urine of a baby in her arms does not seem to bother a Canela mother. If she is standing, she might hold the baby away from her to let it urinate more freely while she continues talking with somebody. With tiny boys this might be a problem, however, because of the direction of the spurting, but even here it caused women little concern. If a mother were sitting and busy working or talking to another person while holding her baby in her lap, she let the liquid wet her wrap-around cloth and pour down her legs, without giving it very much thought. Cloth dries quickly in the dry tropics and can be washed easily during any one of the several visits to the stream a woman is likely to make each day. Thus, they do not attempt to control urination in any way.
Female research assistants commented on how differently backland women viewed the urinating of their babies. They do not tolerate their clothing becoming wet this way.
In the late 1950s, Canela men urinated openly, anywhere, in the sight of Canela women. Research assistants asserted that if a grown woman walking along a trail in the late 1950s needed to urinate (even with a number of men present) she simply stepped somewhat off the trail, loosened her wrap-around skirt, and urinated while standing. By the 1970s, however, women no longer do this openly, but they still urinate standing in the dark of the early morning within 20 meters of their houses, when most people are asleep.
In the late 1950s, however, the Canela were concerned about being seen urinating by certain relatives. They were reticent in front of any individual they addressed using the personal pronoun yê [III.E.3.c], instead of ka. A man avoided being seen by his mother, sister, and daughter, and a woman by her father, brother, and son [III.E.2.b].
Traditionally, men went completely naked in their houses and villages. During the exile (1963–1968) in the village of Sardinha [II.B.2.g], they had to start wearing shorts or long pants because of the occasional, unannounced visits of Guajajara women, who lived in a village 500 meters away [II.A.2.g.(6)]. Thus, urinating in full view of the opposite sex tended to stop also. These changes with respect to clothing and urination were maintained and completed after the return to the cerrado in 1968. Since the late 1960s, men no longer go naked in Escalvado, and they are careful to hide themselves when urinating except in the presence of men.
[III.A.2.i] DEFECATION
The principal point to make about toilet training is that it is carried out completely and satisfactorily only when the child can understand and do it for her- or himself. The toilet training of a child occurs between the ages of 2 and 4 years. There is no punishing or shaming if the child makes a mistake. Proper behavior is rewarded simply by signs of approval and affection.
When a child of 2 to 3 years starts to defecate, the mother, father, or even some other person carries her or him by the armpits quickly to the bushes behind or beside the house. There the child is allowed to continue, and then is cleaned by the parent or another person who happens to be child tending at this time.
During one of my visits to Baixão Prêto, a certain little boy of three in my family was still making mistakes in the house. His parents were very patient with him. They did not punish or make him feel ashamed; they merely moved him outside and helped him take care of himself. They talked and explained while this process was going on but made no attempt to take him out to the bushes ahead of time to help him have the bowel movement there when they already knew he wanted to have one. They let him make the mistake rather than saving him from making it.
The expected result is that sooner or later any young person will, upon feeling the need for a bowel movement, go out to the bushes her- or himself. If the child still makes mistakes inside the house, no form of punishment or disapproval follows, even after the child knows well enough to carry out this function outside the house. They simply tell the child to go out and finish and hope that next time the child will not make the same mistake indoors.
[III.A.2.i.(1)]
The tradition for defecation, unlike that for urination, was for women and men to go separately into the cerrado far enough to completely hide themselves. This, of course, did not pertain to small children, who squatted in sight in bushes near the village and between houses with no concern on their part or on the part of older people who saw them.
The method of cleaning the body after defecation was not to wash the area or to wipe it with leaves or paper, but rather to scrape it clean with the strong, smooth central rib or edge of certain leaves. Thus, when adults looked for a hidden spot away from the village, they usually made sure they were near foliage with a firm and sharp but even rib or edge. The waste was left to dry in the sun, or until some animal, usually a pig, came to consume it. Such practices seemed to work in the cerrado countryside where the sun baked feces dry, and where they were scattered throughout a large area because of the long distances individuals had to go to find sufficient cover. (Most small trees are cleared for firewood around any village within two years, so the cover is lighter than generally found in the cerrado.) Thus, unburied feces, their traditional practice, were not a health hazard in the cerrado. Moreover, the Canela bathed themselves twice a day.
Although they carried out adult defecation in private, the Canela were not concerned about anybody knowing they were leaving the village to defecate. In the late 1950s, I often heard people of either sex say, when they passed me leaving the village, that they were going out to defecate: wa ikhwè (I defecate: I am going to defecate). In similar situations, they said they were going out to urinate: wa itu (I urinate: I am going to urinate). Such natural daily salutations, like wa yü: I sit; wa tsa: I stand; or wa nõ: I lie (I am lying down), are the way they say "hello." By the late 1970s, however, nobody referred to their going out to defecate any more as a salutation. They had become embarrassed.
[III.A.2.i.(2)]
Defecation practices was one of the Canela non-adaptations to the village of Sardinha (Map 3) in the dry forests [II.B.2.g.(5)]. They still followed the principles developed in the cerrado that they merely had to be out of sight and did not need to bury feces. While this often involved walking as many as 500 meters in the cerrado, in Sardinha the distance necessary for cover was 50 meters or less, especially when it was raining heavily. Consequently, feces deposited near the village produced unattractive odors in the bushes and shrubbery.
Accumulation of waste so close to the village contributed to sanitation and health problems. I never saw or smelled such conditions in the cerrado where the waste was more widely dispersed. As I understand it, the Guajajara Indian defecation practices in the dry forests around their Sardinha village were very different. They were more embarrassed about defecation, so they sought better cover and went greater distances. The Canela did not bury their feces in the dry forests, except when they came from a child who had left them in or around a house. Then, a parent removed the feces with a shovel to some place not far away and buried them.
After the missionary-linguist and his family arrived in Escalvado in 1968, they built an outhouse behind their house, which was on the village circle. For the visit of my second wife and three step-children in 1969, we followed the same practice. Possibly because of us, the Indian service personnel tried to teach these practices to the entire village. They required men of every house to build outhouses about 30 meters behind their houses. These outhouses were actually built but rarely used except for urinating, and just when somebody wanted to do this quickly.
The problem with outhouses was that they had to be built properly and maintained carefully or flies would swarm out of them into family kitchens. To prevent this, they had to dig the holes sufficiently deep, and they had to continually refurnish a pile of earth to throw over and thoroughly cover the feces below every time, so light would not reach them. The alternative was to make the hole lightproof. To do this, they had to make a usable cover in such a way that no light could penetrate the hole, and this was difficult but not impossible to do with just the woods and carpentry of the village. Another approach in some areas, though not the Canela one, was to lightproof the outhouse itself-impossible with just the available materials.
While most Canela were certainly capable of obtaining (not making) usable, lightproof covers or repairing the inevitably developing cracks in such a hole cover, not enough of them were sufficiently interested in the construction and maintenance processes to do these necessary tasks well enough. Therefore flies swarmed from their outhouses and invaded kitchens and sat on food. This practice was obviously not a healthy one to continue, as the Canela themselves liked to point out.
Some of my research assistants maintained outhouses to save time—to avoid long absences from our council sessions—but they nevertheless complained of smells that they believed would bring them diseases.
In a society where frequent extramarital sexual relations were the custom [IV.A.3.f], and where the purpose of certain festival acts was to help young women become accustomed to multiple sexual relations with men [II.D.2.e.(3)], sex training of the very young and of adolescents must be especially interesting and unusually important to them.
[III.A.2.j.(1)] Penis Play
Mothers occasionally twist or tweak the penises of their young baby boys. This is done, like the use of a breast, to distract a baby from whatever he might be doing that adults feel is inappropriate, untraditional, or dangerous. It is done to give a baby an alternative pleasure, or interest by indirectly diverting its attention away from what is not desirable [III.B.1.h.(4)].
More often than mothers, however, the infant's other wife category persons [III.E.3.a.(6).(a),(c)] are the most active in teasing or playing with his penis. In my sister's house, one childless young woman in her early thirties, who had been married for a while to one of the baby's older brothers in his twenties, spent a lot of time teasing the baby about his penis. (Since she had been a wife to his older brother, she was a classificatory or "other" wife to him.) Several years later when the baby was 4 or 5 years old, she threatened several times with a knife to cut off his penis. This was done in a spirit of fun, nevertheless he was scared, and sometimes cried. Then she rushed in to reassure him, becoming very supportive.
Research assistants said that sometimes much older brothers pull a baby's penis, and that women may also do this to a tiny nephew. In the latter case, this practice is consistent with the extensive joking relationship that traditionally exists between aunts and nephews [II.D.1.b, c]. Nothing similar was recorded for a baby girl.
Under no circumstances are any attempts ever made to pull back the baby's foreskin, which should remain intact until the time of his first sexual experience [II.D.3.c].
[III.A.2.j.(2)] Masturbation
In babies and young children masturbation is strictly disapproved of and not allowed. If a little boy of 1 or 2 years develops the habit of playing with his penis, his mother gently corrects him. If much older, his mother and sisters are embarrassed and ashamed to approach such matters. Thus, for a little boy of 5 or 6, a grandmother or aunt who has been summoned for the purpose tells him to stop the activity. Parents traditionally do not like to talk about the sexual matters of their children [II.D.3.c.(1)], although they would talk to their children in the absence of aunts, uncles, and grandparents. One unmarried female research assistant [In.4.e] reported that she had had to correct her young son in this way. The Canela can be expected to be flexible about almost any matter.
[III.A.2.j.(2).(a)]
One reason given for such directness with both girls and boys is that either could lose their virginity payment, the significance of which is serious for girls [III.F.4.b,c.(1)] [II.D.2.a] but slight for boys [III.A.2.j.(5).(b)]. Apparently, some foreskins have to be torn somewhat to be retracted, they say. Sufficient stretching could occur through masturbation so that no tearing occurs during first intercourse.
Just like the girl, the boy is said to lose his payment for the loss of his virginity, if his foreskin can be retracted easily and does not tear when he has his first sexual relations with an older woman. Although this is the traditional position on male virginity, one male research assistant [In.4.e] said his foreskin did not tear upon retraction in intercourse with a classificatory wife at the age of puberty, though no masturbation preceded.
Whether this physical concept of virginity can apply to men of the world in general is an interesting ethnological question. An obstetrician in Washington, D.C., told me that this variation—a tight or loose foreskin—exists among human babies. More research is needed among tribes in which males are naked from birth through puberty, tribes in which no traditional alteration is performed, such as circumcision or subincision, or could have occurred through masturbation. However, it may be too late in the history of the world to find such comparative ethnological evidence.
[III.A.2.j.(2).(b)]
Canela do not pull back the prepuce and expose the glans in order to clean or inspect it. This is not done generally, although some may do this in a hidden manner under stream waters, they say. A woman or man feels embarrassed to see a glans penis exposed, including men seeing those of other men, except for a man with a sexually contacted classificatory spouse or his wife.
Although both sexes used to go naked in their homelands most of the time, some circumstances were considered embarrassing regarding body exposure: the exposure of the glans penis for men [II.D.3.c.(3)], and the visibility of the inner genitalia for women.
[III.A.2.j.(3)] Opposite-Sex Siblings' Sex Play
Canela socialization is mild in disciplining children; but opposite-sex sibling sex play is one of the two occurrences about which they are quite non-permissive, although never cruel or abusive.
In the context of socialization, I asked research assistants what could be the worst possible occurrence imaginable (short of death or dismemberment) that could occur if a parent were returning home and heard a great commotion in her or his house from a distance. What would the parent fear? The answer eventually after much discussion, was either that two young sons had been fighting or that a young daughter and son had committed some form of incest, the latter being the worse by far of the two possibilities. Actually, incest (Glossary) between young cross-sex siblings was so unthinkable that it was not the first mentioned offense. Incest was not thought of as a possibility, but when I suggested it, the reaction of research assistants was one of extreme dismay.
A mother uses distraction to discourage the usual infractions of tradition, or just frowning disapproval when the misdeed involves a 2 to 4 year old. She would, however, be very severe and scold a daughter of this age who was playing with her little brother's penis or a boy who was exploring his little sister's genitalia, they said. At the ages of six to eight or older, however, such occurrences could precipitate the calling of aunts and uncles to administer more severe punishments [II.D.1.c].
It is considered worse for girls to be caught in opposite-sex sex play than for boys. It is very important for a girl not to lose her virginity so that she can receive her virginity-payment (ganho) [III.F.4.c.(1)] promptly from her first lover (by definition her first husband).
[III.A.2.j.(4)] Adolescent Or Adult Incest
With adolescents or adults, cross-sex sibling incest is punished, according to tradition, by a shortened life, or even by early death for uterine siblings. Another result of uterine sibling incest was that both participants soon become crazy.
The Canela have a story about sibling incest that occurred in 1937, after the time of Nimuendajù in 1936 but before the first residence of Indian service personnel near a Canela village in 1938. In this case, it is believed that the full siblings went crazy after having had sexual relations with each other. The woman died very soon after. The man survived but became so physically dangerous that they had to imprison him in what was called a "pig pen" (a small stockade). They constructed a cage a little larger than his standing body of strong poles made of saplings stripped of bark, put in the ground as posts, and tied together securely. Confined and continuously watched in this stockade, the man soon died. This occurred in one of the two old village sites that are close together on the Raposa stream just below the actual village site where Nimuendaju (1946:33) joined two parts of the tribe during his last visit with them in 1936.
This story is not a myth in the classical sense, although it may become one. In the late 1950s the Canela informants knew the names, time, and place of these events. They showed me the site of the stockade in 1960.
[III.A.2.j.(5)] Sexual Education of Males
Young boys first hear about sexual relations in stories told by adults. Adolescents or grown people do not modify their stories involving sexual relations just because of the presence of young children or pre-adolescents. Sometimes when my research assistant group was talking about sexual relations, small boys sat near us listening with interest. None of my research assistants seemed at all concerned about their presence.
Another way that young boys learn of sexual relations is by hearing the sounds of sexual intercourse coming from platform beds in the rafters [II.D.2.d]. A young wife, or a young woman who has lost her virginity but not retained a husband, is often sexually active at night in her high platform bed. Sexual relations are approved of by the family as long as they cannot be seen—even though everything can be heard. Thus, a little boy can add these sounds to the stories he has heard and understand something about what is going on.
If a young boy has a classificatory spouse of the right age (adolescence to 20s or even 30s), the joking relationship described earlier, which involved her threatening his penis with a knife, might take place [III.A.2.j.(1)]. In this context, particularly with their verbal exchanges rather than just the threats, he is likely to learn extensively about sexual relations.
A young boy also learns about sex from overhearing the ordinary joking between aunts and nephews and uncles and nieces. In my sister's house, when a certain uncle of one of my adolescent nieces came in, they invariably had a sex joking exchange [II.D.1.b.(3)]. One time he said she had a large vagina, like a mortar made from a tree trunk, into which it would please her to have a large wooden pestle grinding. She responded that his penis was twisted at a strange angle and had a black head. This descriptive joking went on between the two relatives, amusing everyone for about 15 minutes.
Inferences from Nimuendajù suggest that parents and siblings of such role performers were embarrassed to hear such verbal exchanges. However, my observations were that such one-link-away kin merely sat or stood by quietly, paying little attention, but nevertheless listening and appearing to be unamused but certainly not embarrassed.
The situation in which many boys learned most extensively about sexual relations was when they spied on couples having sex in the woods. Young boys of 6 to 9 years were often used as messengers between lovers. One research assistant told me he first saw sexual relations taking place when he was such a messenger boy. Since he knew where the tryst was going to take place, he went there, hid, and watched. Considering the freedom allowed boys between the ages of 6 and 12 [II.D.1.c], I have no doubt this kind of sexual learning often took place.
[III.A.2.j.(5).(a)]
Research assistants reported that homosexual acts did not occur between pre-adolescent boys wandering alone through the cerrado. If discovered, this offense would have been cause for being struck by an uncle. Boys were warned thoroughly about such matters, and of the likelihood of losing their first sex payment if their foreskin became loose.
Turning to associated adult practices, only three men were thought of as being homosexuals during my period with the Canela. Two were in their 60s in the 1970s, and one was also identified for me in Nimuendaju's (1946) volume. Both wore wrap-around skirts like women, though the lower edge of the skirt was a little higher than the knees, instead of well below the knees as women wear them. One of them had effeminate mannerisms but the other one did not. Neither raced with logs when younger but tilled the soil and helped their female kin keep house. The more effeminate one was ridiculed occasionally, but not to his face, so research assistants said. He was married, but his wife required him to leave, even though they had children. I never heard the less apparent homosexual being ridiculed, even though his wearing a short wrap-around skirt made it clear to everybody that he did not intend to carry out certain male roles. He lived with his female kin. Both of these men belonged to the age-set of the Pró-khãmmã of the 1960s and 1970s. However, they seldom sat with the Pró-khãmmã in the plaza in the late afternoon, nor were they active talkers in the council of elders.
Research assistants said neither man was an active homosexual, but that the more effeminate one occasionally allowed Canela men to have anal intercourse with him when he was younger. No tradition existed among the Canela for homosexuals or transvestites to follow. The Canela have no berdache tradition, as do some North American Indians, and they have no myths or stories about homosexual practices. It is an important comment on Canela social relations that the individuality of these two men was respected, and that they did not receive extensive criticism. They were allowed to remain as they were [III.B.1.f.(2)].
One man of the age-set of the new Pró-khãmmã (Glossary) of the 1980s had obvious effeminate characteristics. At the time of my arrival in 1957, he was a late teenager just leaving his childless first marriage, with his family paying the girl's kin heavily [III.D.3.e.(5)]. Then, he went to live at the Ponto Indian service post (Plate 11a) and made dresses there on the new sewing machine, following the instructions of the Indian agent's wife. In 1963 and 1964, he lived away from the Canela community entirely, spending many months as a cook's assistant in hotels, first in Fortaleza and then in Sao Luis.
When he returned to the tribe in 1966, he owned and played one of the first radios. Later, between 1967 and 1969, he married again and had a first child in 1972. Research assistants commented that nobody was very sure that the child was actually his son. The child was more likely the product of several contributing-fathers [III.E.9], they thought, although as the social husband he might have contributed some small amount of semen, but they doubted this, considering him impotent. Nevertheless, this younger homosexual—if he was one—was not conspicuously oriented in this behavior in the late 1970s. He remained a married man, had several children, and did not wear a wrap-around skirt. Homosexuality was more disapproved of by the late 1970s than the late 1950s because of acculturation, a fact that may account for his marrying and not wearing a skirt.
[III.A.2.j.(5).(b)]
An adolescent male has his first sexual experience [II.D.3.c] at about age 13 with a woman considerably older than himself who wants to initiate her young classificatory spouse, or who might simply like the young fellow.
Older research assistants said that the earlier age for initiating a young man into sexual relations was for the old "wife" to be 45 or 55, but that could not happen these days. Now, the woman would be in her late teens or 20s. Afterward, an aunt of the boy approaches the woman to receive a small payment from her.
One research assistant claimed that a woman's vagina is very hot, and therefore not good for the penis of an adolescent boy. He also said that if a woman took a boy who was too young, he might be so shocked by the experience he would become ill.
A belief supported by all research assistants was that the penis and testicles grew after his first sexual relations, and that these organs matured because of occasional sexual relations. Also, the first nocturnal emission occurred as a result of sexual relations.
[III.A.2.j.(6)] Sexual Education Of Females
Little girls learn about sexual matters by hearing detailed sex jokes, probably not from older "husbands" but rather from uncles. Of course, they also hear sounds coming from platform beds in the rafters (Plate 9b) [II.D.2.d] occupied by an older sister or another female relative.
By the time she is 6 years old, a little girl is closely segregated from boys and has to stay near her female relatives, especially her mother, doing small tasks [II.D.1.c]. The feared potential danger is that a gang of little boys might catch and experiment sexually with her, it was said.
In the late 1950s, a girl started wearing wrap-around cloth by 11 or 12, but by the late 1970s, she began at 7 or 8.
An uncle who is not carrying out a disciplinary role might joke with a niece extensively. One such uncle in his early 30s threw his 10-year-old niece on the ground in the boulevard, in front of all their relatives, and pretended to be having sexual relations with her, thrusting between her legs, to the merriment of everybody, but to the inexperienced girl's embarrassment. There is safety in the kinship relationship, in the protection of clothing, and in the presence of onlookers.
[III.A.2.j.(6).(a)]
By the age of 10 or 11, a girl received inspections of her genitals from an aunt, or the person who had made it her responsibility to carry out the role of her disciplinary aunt. If it were found that she had lost her virginity without gaining a husband [II.D.2.a] [III.F.4.b] at an age ranging from 10 through 14, her aunt or uncle required her to reveal the name of the man (or men) who had taken it. If she refused to tell, her uncle might have slapped her. This is one of the very few extreme situations in which an aunt or an uncle might have resorted to physical punishment, a practice that was not continued into the 1970s.
[III.A.2.j.(6).(b)]
Before serving as a girl associate or participating in the various semipublic extramarital situations, a girl learns to be sexually generous through individual experiences. The man who takes her virginity is her husband by definition, if he has fathered no children in an already existing marriage. He remains her husband unless his kin pays for him to leave her [III.F.4.b.(1)].
For several months after her marriage, the young girl is allowed to be exclusively with her husband. Then men, her "other husbands" [III.E.3.a.(6).(a)], begin to seek her out to ask for what they believe is their right, namely, to have sexual relations with her. If she refuses too often, so that female and male groups begin to talk about her lack of cooperation, the refused men organize themselves to teach her to be generous (hà?kayren) [III.B.1.a].
Usually, these men gain the cooperation of a female companion of the "stingy" girl. If the companion agrees that the girl has been stingy, the companion takes her stingy friend out to the woods or into the cerrado to collect fruits, having first told the men where to find them. The men may leave the companion to herself or enjoy her sexually, but a half dozen "other husbands" will force intercourse on the stingy girl, if necessary, holding her down and having intercourse with her in turn. The lesson for the stingy girl is that she must be generous in individual relationships with men. When men desire her, she must give her assets or suffer such group encounters again.
My research assistant groups reported on different occasions that if the "stingy" girl were hurt (bleeding or a bone broken) in such an encounter, her kin could not collect a payment [III.D.3.e.(5)] as a result of an interfamilial judicial hearing. Her uncles would be too ashamed of her [III.D.3.c.(3)] to bring her case to a hearing [III.D.3.a]. Her mother and her female kin would also be ashamed of her but would give her sympathy.
Comparing such group encounters with the Murphys' gang rape among the Mundurucú, research assistants of both sexes say that the Canela "stingy girl" group encounters mature an early adolescent girl into traditional sexual generosity, while the Mundurucú gang rape serves to maintain male supremacy over mature women. "The loose woman who seduces men takes the initiative from them," and if she persists, gang rape by 20 Mundurucú men or more, not by four or five rejected Canela lovers, follows as her punishment for stepping beyond the limits of male control (Murphy and Murphy, 1974:107). Older Canela women participate and take the initiative in sexual trysts as fully as men [III.F.8.b]. Three women giving a male work force "relaxation" in the early afternoon do it out of generosity and to cooperate with the chief [III.D.1.c.(2)], not to enable men to maintain their supremacy.
This kind of training for generous sexual behavior still existed in the late 1970s. It is relatively easy for traditional occurrences that are as inconspicuous and private as this "lesson in generosity" to continue into modern times, because it is not a socially visible activity carried out in the plaza, by a farm hut, or near some other public place. The traditional sexual practices being lost are those that are socially conspicuous, like the Ayrën ceremony [IV.A.3.f.(2)], where the sexes sit on either side of a fence and choose lovers sitting on the other side (Figure 47). The purpose of this ceremony was fairly obvious to an Indian service agent in the 1940s, exerting his "right" to roam around freely [I.A.1] [III.A.2.s.(2)]. Similarly, the festivities during the Wild Boar day [IV.A.3.f.(1)] can be hampered by the presence of backlanders or Indian service agents wandering through the village. A group of young men teaching a girl to be generous is carried out only where it can be seen by Canela individuals. Thus, it can be expected to remain part of the practices by which girls are made to understand what is expected of them as mature women.
[III.A.2.j.(6).(c)]
By 12 or 14, if not earlier, a girl becomes a girl associate (Glossary) to a men's society, during which time of service she becomes accustomed to group sexual relations with men, depending on the character of the society into which she is inducted [II.D.2.e.(1)] [III.C.9].
A female is not considered a fully responsible adult until she has borne a child [II.D.2.h] [III.F.4.h]. Ideally, childbirth occurs after her belt painting by her mother-in-law and after she has passed some time in the free më nkrekre-re stage [II.D.2.g] [III.F.4.e.(2)]. Thus, before becoming pregnant, she should have been "made tame" (kapônu-re) in a group ambush session, if necessary, and she should have become experienced in sequential group sex through the fun of being a girl associate of a men's group. Through these group experiences she is well prepared for the free existence of the nkrekre-re woman who spends much of her time mixing with men and having free sexual relationships with them even though both may be married.
[III.A.2.k] AGRESSION REGULATION
Socialization largely prevents Canela individuals from being aggressive in tribal life. In earlier times, aggression in times of war was highly valued, but such hostilities were expressed against the outsider [IV.C.1.c.(2),(14),(16)]. This need for extra-group aggression, however, has not existed for over 150 years. Consequently, training in this area cannot be expected to represent pre-pacification orientations.
[III.A.2.k.(1)]
Aggression between women rarely occurs. For little girls, I noted only a few examples. In the house of my sister, Te?hôk, one of her daughters who was just 2 years old was behaving in an aggressive manner to a smaller girl, a baby from Porquinhos. Her mother did not scold her; she merely put mild negative expressions on her face, and this was a sufficient indication of disapproval to check her daughter.
[III.A.2.k.(2)]
Second only to cross-sex sibling sex play, the worst possible behavior male research assistants could imagine was fighting between their sons. Fighting between boys is simply not permitted. As with incest taboos, the taboos against fighting are so strong that the parents might call in the disciplinary-uncle to take action. In an extreme case, the parents might even encourage the uncle to hit the boy if his lectures and scolding are insufficient to gain their son's respect [III.A.3.a.(2).(i)]. Some research assistants emphasized that "respect" and "fear" (hũũpa) are very close, so that if some considerable degree of fear is not instilled into the boy, he would not become a fully socialized adult [III.A.4.b]. These same research assistants lamented the loss of control of the uncles over the nephews, a loss that was apparent by the 1970s.
Research assistants pointed out that if the boys were the same size, the situation would not be as serious as if one of the boys was larger and had initiated the fight against the smaller one. They do not tolerate bullies. Causing scratches and bruises was not considered sufficient damage to require legal payments, but if blood were drawn, bones broken, or an eye severely injured, the aggressor's family had to pay a sizable amount after due process through a formal hearing [III.D.3.c.(3),(4)]. Such a hearing and consequent payment are a great family shame [III.A.3.c.(3).(a)].
The taboos against boys or adolescents fighting are so strong and effective that such offences may not have taken place at a serious level during the 22 years I was there, because I never was aware of such occurrences nor did my research assistants report any to me [III.D.3.c.(3)]. The fights reported occurred only between drunk adult men.
[III.A.2.k.(3)]
In my brother Hàwmrõ's house, A?prol (age 3) was unusually high spirited and willful. He did not get into fights with other boys but was aggressive and demanding of them. Research assistants said that A?prol's behavior reminded them of a traditional belief that if a mother hit her son on the back of the head with a dead bat, he would grow up to be fierce and daring. The only way this bat's spirit could be taken from him would be if a woman, presumably the mother of a boy he had aggressed, were to bite him lightly on the forearm. Then he would become tame and docile once more. Research assistants suggested that A?prol was like the boy who eventually matured into becoming a war leader (hààprãl) in past eras.
[III.A.2.k.(4)]
A?prol's behavior reminded me of the older Tààmi who perished in the July attack of 1963 [II.B.2.f.(3)]. Everybody knew that when Tààmi was a young man in his 20s traveling out "in the world," he had killed a Brazilian backlander in the state of Ceará. He managed to escape from the Brazilian authorities, however, and returned to his tribe by keeping to the countryside and traveling only at night. When he arrived in the Canela area and sent word in about what had happened, they required him to go through the traditional ceremony of the warrior who had killed an enemy tribesman before allowing him to rejoin daily life. This ceremony included leaping over a dead deer upon first entering the boulevard and a long seclusion outside the village and very severe food and sex restrictions [IV.D.3.d].
In the late 1950s, the older Tààmi also had displayed a fierce demeanor. He did not get into fights, but if he had, he would surely have won through his strong will and compulsion to prevail and through his innate ferocity. Men did not test the aggression-potential of this man, whose temper threshold seemed very low. They stayed out of his way. Research assistants convinced me that the older Tààmi would have been the ideal Canela warrior in earlier times, and that little A?prol in my brother's house behaved in a similar manner.
When boys are in their Khêêtúwayê internment, their uncles come to their two age-set cells (Plate 41a) [IV.A.3.c.(1).(a)] and tell stories about ancient warriors who were fierce when fighting the enemy but who curbed themselves while in the tribe citing Tààmi as a model.
III.A.2.k.(5)]
During my time with the Canela, I never saw boys fighting. Fights probably occurred in the cerrado when boys were off in groups exploring and having a good time by themselves, but research assistants reported no fights of this sort to me, maybe because of their forbidden and shameful nature. I believe, however, that generally the research assistants reported almost everything to me.
The Canela orientation is toward non-confrontation in almost all the various foci of socialization. They resort to diversion, not punishment of babies and small children for avoiding unacceptable or dangerous activities. Their parents never confront them with an absolute "no," nor does anyone else who is socializing them, except their uncles at puberty [III.A.3.b.(1).(b)]. Moreover, the society provides many ways to channel feelings of hostility and aggression into other activities. Frustrated young people, depending on the sex, may sing (Plate 32d), dance, run, and participate in log races. These diversions provide many outlets for the young Canela's energies [II.F].
[III.A.2.1] EATING PRACTICES
Children are allowed to eat anything they want with the exception of tripe, brains, and the eyes of animals, all of which are reserved for the aged. Other foods that are denied to older persons are not denied to children. They may eat meats that are considered "rich" (encarregado) and are included in the restrictions of anyone becoming a shaman [IV.D.1.c.(2)] or going through the period of their post-pubertal restrictions [IV.D.3.c]. They also may eat liver and kidneys which people at the age of making babies may not eat for fear such organs would make them infertile or sterile.
Children are not required to eat at regular intervals, and no forced or required eating exists. Little boys come and go as they want, and are not usually called to specific meals unless they happen to be present at the time of their serving. Little girls eat with their parents. In the late 1950s, meals were very irregularly served even for adults. People ate when meat was brought in by hunters, regardless of the time of day or night.
These especially permissive eating practices for children continue until puberty, when the lives of girls and especially boys are considerably changed. Then, aunts and uncles require food restrictions of several months for girls [IV.B.1.f] and of several years for boys [IV.A.3.c.(2).(a)].
[III.A.2.m] INDEPENDENCE/DEPENDENCE
Besides showing respect for the individuality of children [III.B.1.d.(1),(2)] during the times of weaning and toilet training, parents allow boys to roam quite freely in the cerrado between the ages of 7 and 12 [II.D.1.c]. They play games in the cerrado, such as tossing chips of manioc on top of other chips from a distance, diving into streams to see how much vegetation could be brought back at one time, and climbing trees together. Boys swim much of the day and amuse themselves. For instance, they tie tiny strands of buriti fiber to flying insects or lizards in order to lead them around, and they shoot birds with miniature bow-and-arrows and slingshots. In contrast, girls keep close to older women, do chores, and help their mothers and older sisters with household matters and babies [II.D.1.c].
At the age of 5 or 6, boys carry messages to other houses, fetch water when older people are thirsty, and bring burning sticks with coals for old men to light their cigarettes. Girls begin to help their mothers and sisters in almost any activity they are capable of carrying out. Little girls of seven often mind younger children and babies.
By the time a boy is 6, he might go on hunting expeditions with his older brothers; by age 10, he might go hunting by himself after his father or uncle train him. At 8 years of age, one of my nephews, Ta?pa [III.A.3.a.(1).(a)], went fishing alone and usually brought home a number of small fish for the family to eat. A father might take a boy of 10 or 11 to work in the family fields, depending on the time of year. This is not, however, a consistent practice. Boys are allowed considerably more freedom than girls, approximating the relative amount of freedom allowed adult men in contrast to adult women [II.C.3.d] [II.D.2.h.(2)] [III.F.4.e.(2)].
Continuing the contrast into adolescence and adulthood, boys are allowed to run wild in packs in the cerrado. They are interned (Glossary) in cells during festival situations [IV.A.3.c.(2).(a)], so their age-set leaders (Glossary) and uncles can enculturate them [II.D.3.d]. Girls are confined to the sides of their mothers and older sisters in service to the family household; but the moment their belts are painted by their female in-laws, they are free to have as much extramarital sex as they wish [III.F.8.a]. Men are free for most of their lives to move with their age-set [II.D.3.f], hunt for game, travel out in the world, and chat with each other each morning and evening in the plaza. Women, once children arrive, are bound by their duties to their home and farm. With acculturation, however, men's activities have shifted increasingly to extensive work on their farms for which their earlier psychological orientation provides little support [II.D.3.i.(6),(7)], while women's activities have shifted less—from extensive gathering to more farming.
[III.A.2.n] KHÊÊTÚWAYÊ FESTIVAL
A number of socialization factors come into play in the Khêêtúwayê (Glossary) festival for prepubescent boys (Plate 41) [IV.A.3.c.(1)]. First is the impact of internment for several months with members of the boy's age-set [III.C.3.a]. This is a boy's first time away from his parents, when he lives with a group of boys ranging in age from 4 to 10 years old [II.D.3.a]. Instead of being under the authority of parents, they are under the command of young men who are not their relatives. If the novices disobey, they can receive several whipping strokes with a thin, flexible wand (pĩ ?-hii-re: wood it-thin-dim.) carried by each of the commandant's assistants.
[III.A.2.n.(1)]
While learning the new aspects of formal group living, the boys file to the plaza several times a day to sing songs [II.F.1.c.(1)] that attract ghosts. The boys are in danger of losing their lives to these ghosts, except for the protection of their sisters or other female relatives who come to the plaza to hold them from behind by their ribcages as they sing. Thus, the influence of female relatives as protective agents is another socializing influence besides the impact of group living away from home. Uncles also stand behind the line of female relatives and sing. The message conveyed to the boy novices is that if people live in groups, they will be safe, and if they rely on female and male relatives, the latter will protect them from ghosts and presumably from other known and unknown dangers.
[III.A.2.n.(2)]
More socialization of young boys during the Khêêtúwayê festival takes place while they are interned in the two large cells (Plate 41a). Their being fixed in location, probably against their will, makes it possible for their uncles and certain older people to come and instruct them about the traditions and values of the ancestors, through telling stories. The period of group seclusion, known to the backlander as prisão (prison), stands in sharp contrast with their usual freedom to roam the cerrado.
[III.A.2.o] EAR-PIERCING FOR BOYS
It is difficult to assess the socialization impact of ear-piercing (Plates 24, 25) [II.D.3.b] [IV.B.1.e], because the Canela no longer practiced it in a regular manner by my time. In contrast to roaming the cerrado in small groups, or internment in the Khêêtúwayê festival in a large group under the command of an older man, the ear-piercing seclusion took place alone in the youth's maternal home in a dark corner separated from the rest of the house by mats. The boy had time to think about his life, and his advising-uncle visited him frequently, teaching him values through telling stories.
The expression for advising and counseling, or lecturing and warning, is to hapak khre (make/do ear hollowed-out-space: to open up someone's ear hole). I associate this kind of activity with creating in the boy socialized responses to hearing and understanding, namely, to receiving orders and obeying them. The Canela are a very order-oriented society [III.D.1.a.(1)] [III.B.1.k]. Attention to the ears and to receiving aural information epitomizes the compliance required in the socialization process.
[III.A.2.p] PUBERTY
When it is known that a youth has had his first sexual experience [II.D.3.c], his advising-uncle tells him that he may no longer spend nights in his mother's and sisters' house. After a week's seclusion in his mother's house, he has to sleep in the plaza [III.A.3.b.(1).(c)], or in a future wife's house. If sick, he may return temporarily to his mother's and sisters' house. The simplistic rationalization for this move out of his natal home is that his mother and sisters will be very embarrassed to see his erect penis at night while he was sleeping. Today young men wear shorts or even long pants and sleep clothed so that nothing embarrassing can occur in the house of their mother and sisters. The primary reason for the move to the plaza was more profound, however: the move effected the transfer of relative control over the boy from parents to uncles. Now that the move to the plaza does not take place, the transfer of authority to the uncles is not complete.
[III.A.2.q] PEPYÊ FESTIVAL
In contrast to the Khêêtúwayê festival, the Pepyê festival is post-pubertal in orientation [II.D.3.d] [IV.A.3.c.(2)]. The main focus of the festival is the internment of the novices in their maternal houses, where discipline is exerted through restrictions against the pollutions of certain foods and sexual relations [IV.D.3.c]. These restrictions are to develop and maintain strength for the youths to carry out the prized roles in life [IV.D.3.f]. Maintaining restrictions is a tool for developing one's ability in running, racing, hunting, log carrying, and endurance under the midday sun, and formerly, ability in warfare. When a man (or woman, to a lesser extent) does well in some activity—except for sing-dancing and in agriculture—it is said that he (or she) must have maintained very high restrictions against food and sexual relations during his (or her) post-pubertal period.
When the youths are released from their internment, they continue to associate with those in their age-set. They spend about 6 weeks together camped outside the village, following the same routine every day under the disciplinary leadership of their commandant until the terminal phase of the festival. Sometimes they carry out tasks for the community. Thus, in the Pepyê festival, socialization toward individuality takes place during the internment, but the emphasis toward group solidarity [III.B.1.d] occurs in the terminal period of the festival.
[III.A.2.r] GROUP DISCIPLINARY PRACTICES
Traditionally, the older generations maintain considerable control over the younger ones. The older generations apply their authority through the aunt-niece, uncle-nephew, and uncle-niece relationships. That the uncles largely or even partly prevented adolescents from having sexual relations with each other is a measure of this authority and control. The public act through which they enforced much of this control was uncles disciplining nephews before the dancing line of women in the late afternoon [II.B.1.e].
[III.A.2.r.(1)]
One of the most dramatic disciplinary events I witnessed was the hazing that took place in the full ceremony of an afternoon dance [II.E.7.b] [II.D.3.c.(3)]. An uncle came into the plaza dressed as a warrior and summoned a nephew to stand before the line of sing-dancing women, who stopped to watch with impassive attention. The uncle then yanked the youth off the ground by his sideburns (Figures 14,15), which caused the youth much physical pain, as well as shame. Traditionally, not currently, this harassment was given the youth for two reasons. The first was to see if he could endure the shame and pain [III.B.1.e]. The second was to punish him for having had sexual relations with too many young women. This current disciplinary act, however, appeared to me to be perpetrated by the uncle more to satisfy his ego than to teach a youth that his actions were socially unacceptable.
Other disciplinary measures that have been taken on these occasions in the past were that an uncle might pull sharp-edged grass [II.A.3.b.(2).(b)] under the youth's armpits, thereby cutting him; or scrape the youth's back, legs, and chest with the teeth of a coati until blood was drawn. As many as six nephews were disciplined in this manner on any afternoon. Since 1938, however, such disciplinary actions constitute mock situations, because the authority of the uncles over youths has diminished within the society.
[III.A.2.r.(2)]
The Apanyekra held a hazing ceremony in 1975 in connection with their Pepyê internment festival. Pepyê novices knelt in a row sitting on their heels in the center of the plaza facing their similarly kneeling sexual partners, whether wives or lovers (Plate 37b,c). A lover's Formal Friend may take the lover's place in this act [III.A.3.c.(2).(b)], sparing her or him this embarrassment. Chiefs and elders then gave the group severe lectures for breaking internment celibacy. I have never seen such a severe lecture among the Canela. My Canela research assistants claim their ancestors never practiced this ceremony.
[III.A.2.s] TRADITIONS LOST DUE TO SERVICE PERSONNEL'S PRESENCE
With the arrival of the Indian service personnel to live by the tribal village in 1938 [II.B.2.b], the Canela had to abandon this hazing practice. It was too embarrassing for an agent or his wife to watch a man openly hazing his nephew. These Barra do Corda dwellers called such hazing acts "cruelty" and forbade their practice.
With the abandonment of this hazing ceremony around 1935, the uncles lost a social device that enabled them largely to control their nephews [II.B.1.e.(2)], and, more particularly, they could no longer enforce the prohibition against youths having sexual relations with girls their own age. Once their nephews no longer feared this kind of public punishment, the uncles lost their traditional influence.
[III.A.2.s.(1)]
The arrival of Indian service personnel in 1938 also coincides with the end of the practice of youths having sexual relations with women approximately 20 years older [II.B.1.e]. The age-set of the older Kaapêltùk graduated through their final Pepyê festival internment in 1933 during the time of Nimuendaju. Their members reported that, according to tradition, they had sexual relations during their post-pubertal period almost exclusively with older women. The graduation of the age-set of Chief Kaarà?khre in 1941 occurred after the arrival of Indian service personnel, and their effect on these puberty-aged youths was considerable. Members of Chief Kaarà?khre's age-set reported they had sexual relations with older women in their post-pubertal period only occasionally. In contrast, research assistants from the age-set of the younger Kaapêltùk reported that they never had sexual relations with older women during their post-pubertal period. His age-set graduated from their final Pepyê festival in about 1951 (W. Crocker,1984a:75).
[III.A.2.s.(2)]
Another practice that was lost because of the arrival of Indian service personnel was the custom of women without children sleeping with men in the plaza at night. It was too embarrassing to a Canela woman to be found in the plaza before dawn by an Indian agent who was wandering through the village at night. The Indian service personnel were ill at ease when they came to realize that "promiscuous activities" were taking place, and they revealed their puritanical orientation by shaming the Canela about such practices. The Indian agent at the Ponto village post between 1940 and 1947 told me he had seen women sleeping in the plaza and that they did have sexual relations there. The disapproving tone in his conversation with me was obvious.
[III.A.3] Forces of Socialization
Socialization can be seen in terms of many forces impinging upon, or influencing, the individual, molding his behavior and character. I heuristically divide these forces between those that I see to be restraining and those that I see to be rewarding or facilitating. In addition, for adolescents and adults there are forces that I believe to be enabling—namely, those resources or facilities that channel the individual impulses to move forward against the restraining forces or with the facilitating ones. I see enabling forces also to be "props" or instruments that the individual chooses to use, or not use, through her or his own volition, such as restrictions on food and sex to keep out pollutions [III.A.2.q] [IV.D.3.a].
The process of socialization will be divided diachronically into three parts for the purpose of discussion: (1) children, (2) adolescents, and (3) adults.
[III.A.3.a] FORCES OF SOCIALIZATION FOR CHILDREN
Both sexes from infancy to a few years before puberty are referred to by the same terms—a?khra?re (children [no më]) reflecting the fact that the stages (Table 9, Figure 16) they are passing through are relatively similar for males and females, as are the forces which are socializing them. A few years before puberty and always after puberty, however, the series of terms for their stages are different, reflecting the greater differences in the forces of socialization for the two sexes and the differences resulting between the sexes—më kuprè (the-pl. girl: girls) and më ntúwayê (the-pl. youth: youths [male]).
[III.A.3.a.(1)] Rewarding And Motivating Forces
Some forces are "positive," rewarding, and motivating (in the sense that they can be seen as moving the individual on through life), while other forces are "negative," in that they restrain and mold the individual. (No moral connotations are meant here.)
[III.A.3.a.(1).(a)]
In the late 1950s, a Canela mother's primary goal was to take care of, gratify, and socialize her children. To accomplish this, her principal activities were to take care of the house, cultivate and bring food from the farm plot, and keep her family happy.
A particularly good example of this supportive role was demonstrated by my sister, Te?hôk, toward her son Ta?pa (trade: he trades for things). This motivated and energetic youth had a harelip, the only one in the tribe. Since the Canela usually attempted to hide rather than explain away such abnormalities or problems [III.B.1.f.(3)], Ta?pa was in a difficult situation, because he could not conceal the defect. He may have felt he had to do more than other boys to overcome such a handicap. In any case, at about the age of eight, Ta?pa began fishing independently for his family rather than roaming the cerrado with the other boys [II.D.1.c] [III.A.2.m]. He was successful in this enterprise, and frequently brought fish to supplement the family fare. This was greatly appreciated by his mother and father, and Ta?pa was highly rewarded with praise and extra food.
His mother served and apportioned the food at meal times to each of her children, to her husband, and then to herself [III.E.2.e.(1).(a)], usually from a large cast iron pot into small bowls made of gourd. (In later years, dishes or bowls of enameled metal were popular.) Quite visibly, so that all could see, his mother, Te?hôk used to ladle an extra portion into Ta?pa's bowl, expressing her great pleasure with this particular son and his fishing. Although it is unlikely that Ta?pa would have been treated badly because of his harelip by the other boys in the groups that roamed the cerrado, the extra support that Ta?pa received from his mother surely helped him to develop self confidence. Ta?pa later became the age-set deputy commandant [III.D.1.i.(1)] of his age-set.
The father, depending upon his age and particularly his personality, could be merely an adjunct to the family, or he could be quite strong, as was the case with my sister Te?hôk's husband, the older Krôôtô. There was no father-in-law in this family, so the older Krôôtô was the principal male, except when my sister Te?hôk's brothers and male cousins came to dominate a situation. The older Krôôtô played a large role in socializing and in pleasing the children, both in rewarding as well as in disciplining them.
In the house of my brother Hàwmrõ, he too was a significant influence. We were proud of his hunting ability; he often brought home game for everyone to eat. He was a skillful storyteller to the children when they behaved well, keeping their attention upon the narrative by a subtle rise and fall in the inflections of his voice and by the vivid narrative details that he presented. Most fathers are good narrators, whether of myths, stories of the ancestors, or of events that might interest the children.
Fathers make simple toys, often with wheels, including little airplanes. They also make little trucks that can carry small stones, pebbles and rocks. Particularly in the late 1950s, such trucks were in style, and were referred to as caminhão (truck). They are frequently seen in houses or pulled on a string along the boulevard by small boys [II.P.3.a].
[III.A.3.a.(1).(b)]
Although parents may spend 10 times the amount of time with their children as the aunts and uncles, the aunts and uncles [II.D.1.b] still bring love and attention into the child's world. Except for the certain ones carrying out disciplinary roles, they behave in ways consistent with the Canela values of affection and generosity.
Praise and joking from the visiting aunt or uncle comprise the principal forms of reward for the niece or nephew. Moreover, the uncle frequently tells stories to the children during his visits in the evening, although these occasions are becoming less frequent. By the mid-1970s, the parents were taking the socialization roles over more completely [II.B.1.e]. The visit of uncles after the council meeting in the morning was still a frequent occurrence, however. The socialization uncle must be particularly aware of what is occurring in the lives of his nieces and nephews, and consequently usually appears for a few minutes to discuss matters with his sister [II.D.1.b.(2)]. This was the case in Te?hôk's household.
Children are kept in awe of the disciplining-uncle's presence. They see him coming and going, very often leading or taking a strong part in the tribal council meetings. For instance, Tep?hot rarely joked with his nieces and nephews because he was their disciplining-uncle. He came into the house with a serious expression on his face and was respected by everybody there.
The naming-uncle traditionally gives small bows and arrows (Plate 19a) to his named-nephew, and when these break, he supplies another set, or another appropriate toy [II.D.1.b]. Though they might be seen as toys, the weapons are capable of killing birds. The boy is encouraged to shoot some birds and bring them home as food for the family. Ideally, the naming-uncle takes his named-nephew hunting when he is about 10 years old and teaches him the art of tracking animals. He also tests his named-nephew to see if the lad has the talent and the ability to use a maraca gourd rattle, and to sing traditional songs to its rhythm.
Uncles other than the naming and principal socialization one joke extensively with their nieces and nephews and raise their morale.
A naming-aunt supplies her named-niece with a head carrying-basket and builds a caring relationship with her, as does the socializing aunt. While a naming-aunt's role for a girl is similar to a naming-uncle's for a boy, an advising-aunt has less of a disciplinary role, because much of the disciplining is carried out by the disciplining-uncle, even for a girl.
[III.A.3.a.(2)] Restraining Forces
Some forces are clearly restraining, like punishments, in that they prevent or inhibit individuals from carrying out certain kinds of behavior, while other forces manifest lack of restraint, like not using "bad" names or not restraining a very willful individual. Either case pertains to the use of control or the lack of control, so both are considered here.
[III.A.3.a.(2).(a)]
Parents (the mother in particular, with the father in a supporting relationship) are supposed to teach children not to be stingy with food and toys, etc., not to become angry, not to hit other children (especially younger ones), not to break household items, and not to lie, though veracity is not highly valued. Simple lying is not a serious form of misbehavior [III.B.1.h.(4)], but telling falsehoods maligning other people is. The really objectionable offenses, however, are stealing, fighting, and sex play, especially with opposite-sex siblings, nor may hostility be shown to any pet animal. Parents are very quick to be severe about their children's eating clay, which practice is treated in Canela myths (see Khrúwapu in W. Crocker, 1984b:195).
[III.A.3.a.(2).(b)]
When a child is less than 3 years old, and certainly less than 2, the parents are very mild in their verbal socialization. In this case I am particularly thinking of my sister Te?hôk, whose attention to her children seemed to be her continuous activity in life. Her nonstop crooning comforted the baby. By the time her child was 1½ to 2 years old her constant flow of mild words (directly related to what the child should or should not be doing) was taking on meaning for the child. This monolog was in the form of repetitive mild requests with a rising emphasis in the voice, to carry out certain behavior. Training is through verbal insistence with the expectation that the child will comply: an incessant stream of mild talk, never spoken in anger, but often slightly shaming. Situations such as the child's going too near the fire, slapping a younger baby, or getting into a bowl of poisonous manioc juice, are prevented by this kind of continuous talk.
[III.A.3.a.(2).(c)]
Distraction of the child seems to be the principal Canela technique for channeling actions toward acceptable behavior. They explain this approach as "tricking" the child (i?-hey: it fool; enganar êle: fool it) in order to make it do what they want.
One time when the parents needed the Indian service agent, Hugo Ferreira Lima, to give their 2-year-old daughter, Kahuk, an injection, her father, the older Krôôtô, told Sr. Hugo to wait, saying he would trick the child. He played with her and caused her to smile and be happy, but whenever she saw Hugo's face she burst into tears with fear. Hugo's intention was simply to jab the needle into the little girl's buttocks and leave. The older Krôôtô's intention, in contrast, was to bring the girl into a happy mood and into a position where the injection could be carried out swiftly without her being aware of it. Finally little Kahuk was lying on her stomach on top of the table with her face towards the wall playing with something, and then the older Krôôtô signaled Hugo to perform his duty.
The injection was given in an instant, with the little Kahuk "fooled" into acquiescence. She cried in surprise, but in an instant was in her mother's arms and at the breast. Distraction of the child and then tricking her, while carrying out the act that she had perceived as threatening—all for the sake of not frightening Kahuk and not confronting her will—is the principal pattern of Canela socialization at that age.
[III.A.3.a.(2).(d)]
In any discussion about socialization with research assistants, Canela parents or grandparents invariably made the point that their kind of child training was very different from the practices of the backlander [II.A.3.d.(1)] [II.B.4]. According to the Canela (and what I saw of Brazilian backland socialization supports them), backlanders call their children by negative names, such as cara feia (face ugly), cara inchada (face swollen), and você é ruim (you are bad). According to Canela thinking, parents or aunts and uncles should not speak negatively to their children or nieces and nephews. (Similarly, I could not express displeasure about a research assistant's work without great offense; but I could say she or he was hindering my research by arriving late.) A person may not even treat pets with verbal abuse. (Dogs are not pets.) An adult had to be positive and indirect in talking to another person. Loud accusing talk that other families in the village could overhear (i.e., public shaming of individuals) is not characteristic of Canela socialization, but some loud conversations, nevertheless, sometimes may be heard between adults.
[III.A.3.a.(2).(e)]
Another technique that I observed often in the late 1950s amounted to mildly scaring the child (fazer medo: to make fear). One time, little Píyapit, age 4, was crying so hard that she could not stop, and her mother, Te?hôk, was trying to comfort her. In the meanwhile, her father, the older Krôôtô, attracted her attention by picking up a small hand broom and threatening her with it. There was an exchange of conversation between father and daughter, in which the older Krôôtô simply forced his stronger will on her through scary facial expressions, so that she stopped crying.
Parents may threaten that (1) a ghost will come and kill the child, (2) an animal will arrive to eat it, (3) the child will have to go out the next day to work on the farm, (4) strong pepper will be put in its mouth, (5) the child will have to stay in the house all day long and the following day too, or (6) the backlanders are coming. Parents, however, did not threaten so far as to say that (1) they will give their child away to the backlanders, (2) the Devil will come to get the child, or (3) the child has unattractive characteristics. Negative characteristics of the Devil were more absolute [V.A.5.c.(2)] and frightening than those of ghosts. It is thought these days that if such negative outcomes and traits are made clear to a child when, in a moment, God the Protector is not paying attention, then the Devil might come and give a disease to the child, or actually take the child away in death [II.B.4].
[III.A.3.a.(2).(f)]
Frightening a child out of some form of behavior, or into cooperation, is carried out only to a certain point. For instance the same Píyapit, a year later, was crying so willfully and inconsolably that she could not be stopped. Her parents led her behind the house and left her there to cry as much as she could possibly want. The principle here was that if a parent could not control or dominate a child when it had become too willful, it was better to let it have its way and ignore it than to try to overcome and subdue it, i.e., break its will.
The fierce little 2-year-old A?prol, in my brother's family in Baixão Prêto, was certainly an example of this kind of willful behavior. I saw his parents give way to him many times. One day just after my arrival when I was giving toys to various children, he demanded a miniature truck in addition to another toy I had already given him. I denied his demand because otherwise there would not have been enough toys to go around to the other children in the family. He was so insistent in his temper tantrum that his parents could not comfort him and make him keep quiet. They came to me for another small truck, which they knew I had. I said I could not let them have it because it was due to be given to a child in another family. (Everything had to be rationed fairly, as in a Canela communal meat distribution [III.B.1.b.(2)].) The child nevertheless kept on crying and the parents asked me again for the truck which I finally gave. Thus, the little boy was appeased and calmed himself shortly, having gotten his way, his will not broken.
[III.A.3.a.(2).g]
For certain extreme forms of misbehavior beyond the age of 5 or 6, such as fighting with other boys, especially in cases where the child was being a bully, or in cases of opposite-sex sibling sex play, mild forms of hitting and slapping by parents are permitted. This could include hitting the child on the palm of its hand with an object made of hardwood. This instrument presumably came from backland traditional sources because it only has a Portuguese name, called a palmatória (Table 8, item 92). One research assistant related that a mother sometimes said to a child that if his father had to hit him, he would not grow up quickly the way other children did, and when he had grown up, the father would be ashamed of him.
[III.A.3.a.(2).(h)]
After the age of about 3 years, parents no longer force children to do anything against their wills. In the particular case of a girl of 4 who refused to allow an Indian service agent to give her an injection, her refusal was respected by her parents.
The question of how to administer medicine—forcing it on a child for its good or not giving the medicine to the child at all—seems to have placed many Canela parents in a position of ambivalence. In the late 1950s parents often refused to give their child medicines simply because the child did not want to take them. They could trick a child below the age of three into taking medicine, but it was not possible to do so without a fuss—even by threatening and overpowering the child—over that age. It was against their principles to even try to do so.
One time my sister, Te?hôk, and her husband, the older Krôôtô, wanted me to give the little Kahuk, 2 years old, de-worming pills. Kahuk did not want to take the pills. After several attempts, Te?hôk held the little girl's nose and caused her to swallow the pills with water, and in the scene that followed, she tried to comfort her daughter as much as possible. But Píyapit, 4 years old, simply refused to take the pills and was not forced to do so.
This issue of forcing children was particularly interesting to observe over the course of acculturation. In the late 1950s no force was used on children over three, but the ways of backlanders and Indian service personnel were influencing Canela behavior, particularly in the administration of medicine. By the late 1970s parents who would not have done so in the late 1950s were verbally forcing children up to 8 or 9 years of age to take medicines these children did not want to take. Consequently, while most forms of socialization were growing less harsh, giving medicine was becoming more direct and compulsory, especially when the Indian agent (Sr. Sebastião) insisted and the parent was convinced he was correct [II.B.2.i.(4).(a)].
[III.A.3.a.(2).(i)]
Parents carry out the major socialization of their children, but call upon the aunts and uncles when traditionally more severe authorities are needed. I often heard a mother making the threat: "if you do not do this, your uncle will come." The uncles held positions of great authority and respect in the judicial hearings [III.D.3.b], which the little nieces and nephews could observe probably several times a month. Nevertheless, with all of their potential and attributed power, the uncle could speak harshly, or use physical punishment, only once or twice against a niece or nephew. If he were not obeyed, he had to let the matter return to the responsibility of the parents. This trend has been particularly true since the diminishing of power of the older generations during the late 1930s and early 1940s [II.B.1.e].
Canela research assistants made it clear that whereas parents could slap a child or pull its ear as an ultimate act of discipline, aunts and uncles could not touch their nieces and nephews except for the most extreme offenses; the Canela feel that the aunts and uncles do not have sufficient feeling for the child to be able to apply such discipline at the right time.
One of the ordinary occasions during which an uncle could actually strike a nephew was in the plaza before the female line of dancers in the late afternoon when he was performing his wild warrior act [II.D.3.c.(4)] [III.A.2.r.(1)]. The only other time that an aunt or uncle could conceivably strike a child is when it is older than 6 or 7 and involved in cases of sex play or in serious fighting between boys. This avuncular discipline is only resorted to when parents cannot manage the child. Such behavior would have to be extremely unusual for uncles to actually strike a child. Research assistants said such discipline was conceivable but almost unheard of either for current or earlier times. If a girl refused to tell who had taken her virginity [III.A.2.j.(6).(a)]—then the uncle slapped or hit her a few times.
[III.A.3.b] FORCES OF SOCIALIZATION FOR ADOLESCENTS
Because restraining forces assume so much importance after puberty, I discuss them first. Then enabling forces, which are scarcely discernible for children but are quite apparent for adolescents, are presented. Finally, rewarding forces, which are more formalized for adolescents than for children, are described.
III.A.3.b.(1)] Restraining Forces
Parents in the late 1950s became less significant in their children's adolescent socialization, although they remained very close to their children. Aunts and uncles took more initiatives in the adolescent socialization of their nieces and nephews because of the nature of the required discipline.
[III.A.3.b.(1).(a)]
Parents do not like to engage the sexual problems of their children. Considered embarrassing, such topics are not discussed between parents and children (or between siblings, or between Formal Friends), unless absolutely necessary. For instance, when a mother has no relatives to call upon while living away from the tribe, she may have to communicate with her children about their sexual concerns.
Parents also do not like to manage the food and sex restrictions (Glossary) that are imposed on their children, especially the serious and extreme restrictions their sons have to endure just after puberty [II.D.3.c.(1)] [III.A.2.p]. A mother is considered to have too much feeling (hapê) for her children to be firm or strong enough to manage the matters of food and sex restrictions. The father is considered only slightly less soft than the mother. An aunt, however, would have no problem talking about sexual questions with either her niece or nephew within the context of the joking relationships [II.D.1.b.(3)]. Carrying on from this joking role, she could easily manage the actual affairs of a young man with mental agility, humor, and little or no shame.
Besides teaching about restrictions against food and sexual relations, the uncle (Glossary) teaches the youth about various medicines that can remove pollutants from the body. These pollutants could enter the body in the polluted juices of "rich" meats [IV.D.3.a].
Uncles [In.4.i], unless they are the naming- or advising-uncle, have a joking relationship with their nephews; so any of these uncles could manage their nephews' sexual relations and affairs. The naming-uncle and the disciplinary-uncle [II.D.1.b.(1),(2)] are expected to be more formal than the other uncles; nevertheless, they too could manage such matters if necessary. Because the aunts and uncles in their various roles are two or more genealogical links away (Glossary: Further-link kin) from their nieces and nephews (Figure 20) [III.E.2.b], they are expected to take care of their matters more dispassionately.
[III.A.3.b.(1).(b)]
The very special and characteristic message of the advising-uncle for his niece, and to a much greater extent for his nephew, is that she or he must learn to endure hardships and suffering (both physical and emotional) particularly with respect to family life: awkanã: agüenta (endure!: the imperative form). Although young people surely hear about such harsh values as they are growing up, they are not confronted with self-denial and endurance before puberty [II.D.1.b] [II.D.3.c.(1)].
The permissive socialization of a boy up to the time of puberty takes a sharp turn toward moderate confrontation, so that the youth will be hard on himself and learn to endure the difficulties of war, sports, hunting, and marriage. Thus, potentially, through this externally imposed device for learning moment-to-moment self-denial, he develops a high degree of self-control and may also learn shamanic abilities [IV.D.1.c.(2)]. (However, compare the confrontation above with the general value for adults of avoidance rather than conflict [III.B.1.h].)
[III.A.3.b.(1).(c)]
Quite pertinent here is the story of strength through virginity of a youth called Pààtsêt. He lived during the last century in one of the earlier village sites of today's Canela area-the village of the first Canela chief, Kawkhre, just a few kilometers south of the old Ponto village near the headwaters of the Santo Estévao stream (Map 3). For some unexplained reason, Pààtsêt lived away from the tribe with his grandmother. Apparently, he maintained an excellent post-pubertal period of restrictions against polluting foods and sexual relations, so that when he returned to the tribe he was strong enough to outrun any of the other young men. He could also race with the heaviest logs, passing all of his competitors.
Research assistants thought he was about 16 but had not had his first sexual experience. However, when he experienced his first sex with a young girl, he lost his physical advantage over the other runners and racers of his tribe and became like any other youth.
[III.A.3.b.(1).(d)]
In earlier times, the principal confrontation between uncles and post-pubertal nephews occurred when the uncle commanded his nephew to live in the plaza and (1) to visit his female kin only for food, (2) to eat very little food and no "bad" foods, and (3) to not have sexual relations with the young women in the plaza. However, living in the plaza at night, the youth came into contact with childless older women [III.F.4.e.(2).(a)] with whom sex would be possible if it were not for the post-pubertal restrictions against frequent sexual relations just imposed on him by his advising-uncle. The young man has moved from the protection of his mother's house into the permitted-but-restricted sexual life of adolescence. The nearly complete proscription on intercourse with young girls his own age was to avoid acquiring the girls characteristic weaknesses through sexual relations, whereas he could obtain the characteristic strength from an older woman in the plaza [II.B.1.e.(2)]. Even so, he was enjoined to have sexual relations only rarely, and then mostly with the same woman.
His uncles also ordered him to eat sparingly so as to grow large and strong and be able to chase down and kill deer in the noon-day sun. They also told him to avoid certain "bad" foods that have polluting effects [IV.D.3.d.(1)], such as most meats and certain vegetables. If the advising-uncle caught or heard that his nephew was violating these food or sex proscriptions, he would respectively confiscate the food or shame him before the late afternoon sing-dance line of women (Figures 14,15) [lI.D.3.c.(3)] [II.E.7.b] [III.A.2.r.(1)].
[III.A.3.b.(1).(e)]
After the age of puberty young adolescents begin to rely on, and to have respect for, their Formal Friends [III.E.5]. If a young person commits a wrong upon someone, the Formal Friend of the wronged person may carry out a "game" (hààkrun-tsà: play-thing) against the injurer. Thus a ceremony is performed in which the injurer must repeat his offense against the injured person's Formal Friend. (For more about Formal Friendship games, see [II.F.4].) Fear of exposure through such games helps to restrain improper behavior against another.
[lII.A.3.b.(2)] Enabling Forces
Enabling forces become apparent to young people by the time they begin to do things for themselves, instead of having matters arranged for them by their parents or aunts and uncles. These forces are referred to by the Canela as "their leg-supporting devices" (më ?te-?kaypal tsà), which I have termed alternatively in English as "helping hands" (W. Crocker, 1982:154). The principal facilitating devices of people's roles of this kind are food and sex restrictions, "medicines" (certain herbal infusions), Formal Friends, and opposite-sex siblings.
[III.A.3.b.(2).(a)]
The inculcation of self-control through food and sex restrictions (Glossary) provides a means [IV.D.3] by which the youth and young woman gain strength to succeed in any of their chosen life roles, except for sing-dancing and agriculture. They may become better runners, hunters, athletes, and log racers, and better at anything for which endurance is important, including marriage. The Canela refer to the food and sex restrictions as i?-te ?-kaypal tsà (his-leg its-supporting instrument: his supporting thing), one of the tools for achievement in life, which is figuratively equivalent to "his helping hand" (W. Crocker, 1982:154).
[III.A.3.b.(2).(b)]
"Medicines," Formal Friends, and appropriate relatives may also be considered as categories of "enabling forces" to the adolescent. The purpose of some medicines [IV.D.4] is to rid the body of pollutants, and one of the purposes of a Formal Friend is to defend a person from her or his wrong-doer. To a considerable extent, siblings (i?khyê: sibling, leg: includes thigh, calf, and foot) also strongly support each other, especially in consanguineal and classificatory opposite-sex sibling relationships, as emphasized by teknonymy [III.E.8.a].
[III.A.3.b.(3)] Rewarding Forces
For both sexes, achievement in their chosen roles is a rewarding force because members of the tribe, and particularly individuals of the opposite sex, reward the achiever with high consideration and good opinion. The approval by the opposite sex becomes very important to post-pubescent individuals. As in any society, young men and women do many things to attract the interest and the high esteem of the opposite sex [II.F.1.c.(5)]. If a person's role is being carried out well, a person of the opposite sex in Canela society may reward the individual with sexual intercourse [IV.A.3.f]. Public recognition by the community at large and various relatives is also awarded both girls and boys in the form of belts, sashes, bracelets, etc. (Table 8, items 1-8) that they may wear on their persons for all to see.
[III.A.3.b.(3).(a)]
A girl who performs unusually well in sing-dancing and general good citizenship may be awarded a ceremonial sing-dancing sash of honor (hahï) by her naming-aunt (Plate 58e,f) [II.G.3.a.(8)]. The girl has to continue to sing-dance and do well (Plate 32a) and be the first woman out in the early morning to start the female sing-dancing line and encourage others to come after her. Another award may be earned just after the Waytikpo ceremony [IV.A.3.b.(3)], which is the climax of any of the internment festivals. The Pró-khãmmã may award a girl who performed well a little gourd back pendant (krat-re) of high honor (Plate 59f] [II.G.3.a.(6)]. In other circumstances the Pró-khãmmã may award her a comb back pendant (khoykhe-re) of high honor (Plate 59b,g).[II.G.3.a.(7)]. Girls may wear these awards whenever they go out to sing-dance in the female line or in festivals.<