SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

BULLETIN 143

HANDBOOK
OF
SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS
Julian H. Steward, Editor

Volume 3

THE TROPICAL FOREST TRIBES

Prepared in Cooperation With the United States Department of State as a Project

of the Interdepartmental Committee on Scientific and Cultural Cooperation
Handbook of South American Indians.

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TRIBES OF THE RIGHT BANK OF THE GUAPORE RIVER

By Claude Levi-Strauss

INTRODUCTION
The native culture of the region drained by the right tributaries of
the Guapore River is one of the least known in Brazil. Since the
18th century, explorers, and missionaries have used the
travelers,
Guapore River as a thoroughfare, and in more recent times hundreds
of rubber tappers have worked along its banks and along the lower course
of its tributaries. It is likely, therefore, that a thorough study of the
tribes of the Guapore River will show them to have suffered severely
from the effects of that continuous traffic, perhaps almost to the point
of extinction.
Unlike most South American rivers, the Guapore River is not the
axis of a homogeneous culture area; it is a frontier rather than a link.
The Mojo-Chiquito culture area extends from the bank toward the
left

Andes; the heterogeneous tribes on the right bank have a definitely

Amazonian culture (map 1, No. 2; map 2; map 4). Geographic factors
may partly account for this lack of symmetry. The flat landscape of
the llanos merges into the marshy lands of the left bank; whereas the
right bank, alternately marshy and steep, marks the farthest extension
of the highlands of western Brazil. The highlands and the right bank
of the Guapore River define the limits of the culture area to which probably
belong the tribes of the southern part of the upper Madeira River Basin,
such as the Kepikiriwat, discovered in 1914 by the Rondon expedition
(Missao Rondon, 1916).

TRIBAL DIVISIONS
Two areas must be distinguished. One is the right bank of the lower
Guapore River between the Rio Branco and the Mamore River, which
is occupied by the Chapacuran tribes (p. 397). The basins of the Rio
Branco and of the Mequenes and Corumbiara Rivers comprise the sec-
ond area, where some of the languages seem to be Tupian, The Arua
(not to be confused with the Arua at the mouth of the Amazon) and
Macurap live along the Rio Branco (lat. 13° S., long. 62° W.) the ;

Wayoro on the Colorado River (lat. 12° 30' S., long. 62° W.) the ;

371
372 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143

Amniap'd, Guarat'dgaja (Snethlage, 1937 a), and Cabishinana (Levi-

Strauss, ms.) on the Mequenes River (lat. 13° S., long. 62° W.) and ;

the Tupari (lat. 12° S., long. 62° W.), and Kepikirkvat (lat. 11° S., long.
63° W.) on the headwaters of the southern tributaries of the Machado
(Gi-Parana) River. from both Chapacuran and
Linguistically distinct
Tupian are: (1) The Yabuti {Japuti) and Aricapu, on the headwaters of
the Rio Branco (lat. 12° 30' S., long. 62° W.), whose language shows
affinities with the Ge dialects (Snethlage, 1937 a) but who are strongly
influenced culturally by their neighbors; (2) the Huari (Massaca) on
the Corumbiara River, lat. 14° S., long. 61° W., (Nordenskiold, 1924 a),
who are linguistically linked to the Purubord (Burubora) of the head-
waters of the Sao Miguel River on the boundary between the two areas,
but who, culturally, display strong similarities to their northern and
northwestern neighbors, the Kepikirkvat (Levi-Strauss, ms), Amniapd,
Guaratdgaja, and Tupari (Snethlage, E. H., 1937 a) and (3) the Palm- ;

ella,on the right bank of the Guapore River between the mouths of the
Rio Branco and the Mequenes River (lat. 13° S., long. 63° W.), who,
until the late 19th century, were the southernmost representatives of the
Cariban linguistic family in South America (Severiano da Fonseca,
1895). The unknown Indians who live on the right bank of the upper
Guapore River in the region of Villa Bella, probably belong to the South-
ern Nambicuara (Cabishi).

CULTURE
SUBSISTENCE AND FOOD PREPARATION

The tribes of the upper Guapore River, especially those upstream,

rely for food mainly upon maize and peanuts. Manioc is of secondary
importance to the natives living between the Guapore and Machado Rivers.
Hualusa, peppers, papaws, gourds, urucu, cotton, and tobacco are widely
cultivated. Black beans are grown by the Guaratdgaja and Wayoro.
Gardens are tilled with digging sticks and weeded with chonta knives.
An exceptional feature of the area is the raising of grubs in the dregs
of maize beer, which is kept in long bamboo containers (Snethlage,
1937 a). On the Guapore River, as on the Pimenta Bueno River, grubs
are allowed to breed freely in the trunks of wild palm trees which are
left standing for that purpose when forests are cleared for gardens
(Levi-Strauss, n.d. b). Clearing and tilling gardens are cooperative enter-
prises; helpers are entertained with beer, snufif, and dances. Crops are
sometimes stored on large covered platforms. Certain tribes keep pea-
nuts in large bamboo tubes.
Fish are shot with multipointed arrows or are drugged. The natives
blow whistles to attract birds and then shoot them from small watch-
posts. Throughout the area, they either trap game in pitfalls or shoot
Vol. 3] TRIBES OF RIGHT BANK OF GUAPORE—LEVI-STRAUSS 373

them with plain arrows. The Amniapd, Kepikiriwat, and Pawumwa, also
use poisoned arrows and the Pawumwa, blowguns.
Flat cakes of maize and manioc are grilled on clay plates. Instead of
grating manioc tubers, the Giiaratdgaja mash them with a small stone
pounder. Wayoro mortars are pieces of bark. The Amniapd consider
boiled mushrooms a special delicacy, a culinary dish noticed elsewhere
only among the Nambicuara. Game is roasted in the skin on pyramidal
babracots.

DOMESTICATED ANIMALS

The Guapore River tribes keep dogs, hens, and ducks.

HOUSES

The beehive hut, built around a high central post, seems to be common
to the area. Each house is divided by mats into several family com-
partments. Tupari houses shelter up to 35 families those of the Wayoro
;

may contain more than 100 occupants. Houses along the Pimenta Bueno
River are smaller. In some villages, Snethlage (1937 a) saw a painted
woven screen setup in the middle of the hut as a kind of altar. These
tribes sleep in hammocks, those of the Wayoro and Makurap being un-
usually large. Amniapd and Kepikiriwat men use small, concave wooden
benches.

DRESS AND ADORNMENT

Among the Huari, Kepikiriwat, and probably all the southeastern
tribes, both men and women and
cut their hair high above the forehead
depilate the temples and eyebrows (pi. 38, top). They wear wooden or
rosin labrets in the upper and lower lips and pins of various types in the
nasal septum. Women go completely naked except for these and other
—
ornaments shell beads, cotton necklaces, belts, bracelets, and tight cotton
armlets and anklets. Kepikiriwat, Huari, and Guaratdgaja men use a
small conical penis sheath of leaves. Men of other tribes, except the
Tupari, wear a short skirt (pi. 38, bottom, left) of buriti fiber. Ear
ornaments of tucuma-nut rings strung together like a chain are used by
the Huari and Kepikiriwat. Skin caps (Wayoro), feathered circlets
(Huari), and strips of fiber (Amniapd) are worn on festive occasions.
Shell disk necklaces (pi. 38) are used by all tribes except the Tupari.
Body painting with genipa juice is especially well developed among the
Amniapd, who, by means of maize cobs, apply elaborate patterns, such
as crosses, dots, circles, and hatchings.

TRANSPORTATION

Carrying nets of tucum fiber are used instead of baskets. All the
tribes, except, perhaps, the Huari, have canoes.
 — .

374 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143

MANUFACTURES
Spinning and weaving. —Both
rolled {"Bororo") and drop ("An-
dean") spindles are known. Fringed bands are woven on looms similar
to those of the Itene {More) (p. 402). Hammocks, which seem to reach
a record length among some of the upper Guapore River tribes, are made
by extending a single warp between two perpendicular posts and twining
it with a double weft. Arm bands are knitted around a circular piece
of wood with a bone or wooden needle {Macurap and Aricapu)
— Pottery generally crude and the clay used for manu-
Pottery. is its

facture is Calabash containers are

not tempered. common. especially
Weapons.—To make an ax, the VVayoro a stone blade ainsert into
wooden handle, lash the head, and smear it with wax; the Huari use a
vine or split branch bent double over the butt and tightened with bast
and wax (fig. 45).

Figure 45. Huari ax. (Redrawn from Nordenskiold, 1924 b, fig. 26.)

Arrow feathering is of the "Xingii" (flush) sewn type {Tupari, Arua)

or of the "Arara" (arched) type (Huari, Kepikiriwat). Arrow points
are made of plain or indented bamboo splinters, bone points, or spikes
of sting rays. The Tupari paint arrow feathers. A tribe of the Pimenta
Bueno region, known only through some implements found in the pos-

session of the Kepikirizuat, paint red, black,and white earth between the
feathering of the arrow shaft. The Amniapd use three-pointed arrows
for birds the Kepikiriwat use similar arrows with less feathering for
;

fishing. Arrows poisoned with curare and the point protected with a
bamboo sheath are attributed to the Kepikiriwat, Amniapd, and Pawumwa.
The Paivumwa use blowguns.
Clubs are used only as dance paraphernalia, except among the Huari,
who fight with large, double-edged clubs, 4 to 5 feet (1.2 to 1.5 m.) long,
decorated with a basketry casing around the handle.

SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS

Sibs which are named after animals but which have no corresponding
food prohibitions are found among the Macurap and Yabuti (patrilineal
Vol. 3] TRIBES OP RIGHT BANK OF GUAPORE—LEVI-STRAUSS 375

and exogamous) and the Arua (matrilineal). It is doubtful whether such

clans exist among the Kepikiriwat, who have moieties that function at
ceremonial ball games and probably on other occasions. Prisoners taken
from another tribe are incorporated into the captor's clan, where they
pay a small tribute but enjoy great freedom. Nothing is known about
chieftainships, except that Guaratdgaja chiefs distribute game among the
men of the community. Intertribal commerce seems to be well developed.
A ceremony used by the Amniapd to receive a neighboring tribe includes
a mock battle, the offer of benches, and a crouched salutation accompanied
by ceremonial wailing.

LIFE CYCLE

The couvade, accompanied by abstention from fish, is attributed to

the Macurap. They also require that a girl's parents consent to her mar-
riage. Postmarital residence during the first weeks is matrilocal ; later
it is patrilocal. A widow remarries only with the permission of the clan's
head.
The Tupari bury their dead outside the village in a prone position
the Amniapd bury their dead inside their huts in a crouched position.
Burial among the Macurap is similar to that among the Amniapd, but a
pottery vessel is placed on top of the grave. The Wayoro practice urn
burial, at least for children, and paint their corpses red. The Guaratdgaja
burn the house of the deceased; the Cabishiana burn the possessions of
the deceased.

CANNIBALISM

According to Snethlage (1937 a), the Amniapd and Guaratdgaja admit

cannibalism and eat not only the barbecued bodies of their enemies but
even their own tribesmen and women who are put to death for a crime.

ESTHETIC AND RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES

Art. —Among many tribes, especially among the Kepikiriwat each

family possesses many calabashes which are used as beer cups during
feasts. Women decorate the calabashes with incised or pyrograved
geometric designs.
Games. —Games, in which a ball is propelled with the head, are played
between moieties {Kepikiriwat) and between villages or tribes
{Amniapd). The Amniapd keep score with maize grains the Kepikiriwat ;

play to win arrows.

—
Dances and masks. Dancing and singing are generally practiced by
bothmen and women, sometimes, as for instance among the Arua, in the
form of patterned amorous challenges. The Macurap and the Amniapd
dance in front of an altar, or round an especially erected ceremonial tree.

The Amniapd use calabash masks with features attached or painted on.
376 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143

Masks are kept in the dome of the hut, but they do not seem to be the
object of worship or prohibition. Masked dancers costume themselves
with a drapery of fibers and hold a stick topped with the wax image of

a bird.

Figure 46.— Guaporc musical instruments. Left: Amniapd trumpet. Top, right:
Guaratdgaja bird imitator's whistle. Bottom, right: Arm double panpies. (All }4
actual size.) (Redrawn from Snethlage, 1939.)
Vol. 3] TRIBES OF RIGHT BANK OF GUAPORE— LEVI-STRAUSS 377

Musical instruments. — Sacred gourd rattles are used only by Arua,

Yahuti, and Aricapu shamans, and are unknown among the Tupari and
Guaratdgaja, who use jingling belts garnished with fruit shells. The
Yahuti, Amniapd, and Guaratdgaja use rhythm trumpets with a gourd or
bamboo resonator (fig. 46, left). The Amnaipd, and Guaratdgaia call the

trumpets and also their masks, "gods." Clarinets are played in pairs by
a single musician {Macurap, Arua). True panpipes are made of four
closed and four open tubes placed in two rows {Arua) (fig. 46, bottom,
right). A unique type of pseudo-panpipe consisting of a series of two to
eight whistles (the latter in two rows), each with a sound orifice and a
wax deflector, is used ceremonially among the other tribes (fig. 47)

b c
Figure 47. Macurap pseudo- panpipes. (Redrawn from Snethlage, 1939.)

two notes may be played at the same time on these instruments. End
flutes (fig. 48) of the Mataco type with four stops and whistles are used
by the Tupari, Guaratdgaja, and Amniapd. Snethlage (1939) mentions
instrument playing of "disciplined orchestras."
 —

378 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS [B.A.E. Bull. 143

b
Figure 48. Huari bone flutes. (Redrawn from Nordenskiold, 1924 b. fig. 43.)

—
Narcotics and beverages. A narcotic snuff of crushed angico, tobacco
leaves, and the ashes of a certain bark is blown by the shaman during
feasts. For healing purposes he blows it into the nose of the patient,
through one or two tubes that terminate in a hollow nut, often shaped
like a bird's head. Snuff is carefully prepared with small mortars, pestles,
and mixing brushes, and is kept in bamboo tubes.
Beer is made from manioc, maize, and sweet potatoes. The Guara-
t'dgaja use a special leaf to cause fermentation.

RELIGION, FOLKLORE, AND MYTHOLOGY

Indians of the Guapore River region seem to believe in the existence
of an invisible which may be good or evil. By appropriate gesticula-
fluid
tions the shaman and incorporates it into food, into
captures, manipulates,
the sick, or into the bodies of enemies. On the Rio Branco, the shaman's
outfit includes a snuffing tube, a magic board with a handle, and a feathered

stick. The board is used as a tablet upon which to mix the snuff; the
feathered stick seems to acquire a mystic weight when filled with the
magic fluid, which makes it toward the altar. The
difficult to carry
shaman kneels in front of a plaited screen which forms the altar and is
the center of most ceremonies he speaks to the screen
; and leaves food
and beer near by. The Wayoro ceremonies are forbidden to women and
children.
Shamanistic cures follow the widespread pattern of sucking, blowing,
and spitting on the patient.
Ghosts play a considerable role in the beliefs of the Guapore River
Indians. According to the Arua, ghosts are the souls of the dead return-
ing from the Kingdom of Minoiri to harm their enemies and to protect
their friends, chiefly shamans. Snethlage (1937 a, p. 141) stated that
he distinctly heard the noise which the ghosts are supposed to produce.
The Amnlap'd and Guaratagaja attribute the creation of the world to
Arikuagnon, who married Pananmakoza and was the father of the cul-
Plate 38. Indians of the Pimenta Bueno River. (Courtesy Claude Levi-
Strauss.)
Vol. 3] TRIBES OF RIGHT BANK OF GUAPORE—LBVI-STRAUSS 379

ture hero, Arikapua. Another culture hero was Konanopo, the teacher
of agriculture. The mythical being, Barabassa, is held responsible for
the great flood from which only one couple survived to repopulate the
world. Other mythical beings are Ssuawakwak, Lord of the Winds that
cause thunder, and Kipapua, Master of the Spirits who play super-
natural musical instruments. Sun and Moon were the first men; to-
gether they tilled a garden; Sun burnt his brother and as a punishment
was sent to the sky by his father, Sahi. Two mythical brothers were
regarded by the Arua as creators of the world and bringers of darkness
and of fire. Disguised as birds, they stole fire from the old man who was
its keeper. When the brothers were old, a flood threatened to destroy
mankind, but their sister saved two pairs of children from the best fam-
ilies by putting the children afloat in wooden troughs.
In three tales from the Arua, recorded by Snethlage (1937 a), a
mother-in-law falls in love with her daughter's husband, a married couple
live alternately as toads and as human beings, and a deer brings agricul-
ture (also from the Bacdiri of the upper Xingu River).

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Courteville, 1938; Fawcett, 1915; Gongalves da Fonseca, 1826; Haseman, 1912;
Levi-Strauss, n.d. b; Rondon, 1916; Missao Rondon, 1916; Nordenskiold, 1924 a;
Severiano da Fonseca, 1895 Snethlage, E. H., 1937 a, 1939.
;

653333—47—27