CULTURAL DETERMINANTS OF BEHAVIOR 



1445 



cept the moving of the young husband's 

 hammock from his parents' hammock space 

 to that of his parents-in-law. 



Some time later, after the wife has borne 

 a child, both partners are eligible to partici- 

 pate in a ceremony of mutual ritual blood- 

 letting, believed to have a rejuvenative ef- 

 fect. At this ceremony the old blood is let 

 out through a series of punctures made in 

 the flesh of the arms; there is much drink- 

 ing, old pots are thrown away, ritual food 

 taboos are observed, and hunting is facili- 

 tated, it is said, because the animals come 

 near the house to watch the men decked out 

 in feathers and red paint and to hear them 

 sing. This is the only important ceremony 

 in the lives of the Siriono. 



During menstruation, women go about 

 the house as usual and can cook, but inter- 

 course is not practiced. Cessation of the 

 menses is recognized as a sign of pregnancy, 

 although swelling of the breasts is believed 

 to be a more reliable sign ; morning sickness 

 is not recognized. The relationship between 

 intercourse and pregnancy is recognized, 

 and in the postbirth ceremonial the poten- 

 tial husbands with whom the mother has 

 had relations are decorated together with 

 the husband who will acknowledge his social 

 paternity by cutting the umbilical cord of 

 the child. During pregnancy, the mother ob- 

 serves a number of food taboos, and the 

 father is more strict in tabooing foods re- 

 served for the aged. Intercourse, continued 

 right up to delivery, is believed to stimulate 

 the growth of the child, which is said from 

 the time of conception to be a miniature 

 replica of an infant. When labor begins, the 

 father goes hunting to discover the name of 

 the child, which is named after his first 

 quarry. The mother gives birth alone, in a 

 hammock beneath which she has placed 

 ashes and soft earth onto which the child 

 can fall. Inmates of the house of all ages, 

 but mostly women, gather about and gossip 

 but give no help. The cutting of the cord 

 awaits the father's return. The mother gath- 

 ers up blood and afterbirth, bathes the 

 baby, gives it the breast, and sits for some 

 hours on the ground before re-entering the 

 hammock. Both father and mother then 

 observe various ritual taboos for three 

 days. On the day after birth each parent in 



turn stands wearing a newly woven baby 

 sling and is scarified and painted. On this 

 day the infant's forehead is depilated and 

 its eyebrows are removed, an excruciatingly 

 painful event which will be repeated at 

 intervals all its life. On the second day, the 

 parents are decorated with feathers. The 

 couvade is ended when the family (includ- 

 ing other children and co-wives) takes a 

 short ceremonial journey into the forest to 

 gather firewood and on the return trip 

 sprinkles ashes and water on the trail. 



Infancy is said to be the only secure, un- 

 hungry period through which a Siriono 

 passes. With their inadequate techniques, it 

 is only the breast-fed infant, supported in a 

 sling, small enough to be protected from the 

 forest, which can be given any sort of se- 

 curity or freedom from hunger. No fuss is 

 made about toilet training. Small children 

 are permitted to urinate in the house; not 

 until they are about three do they learn to 

 go outside the house by themselves, and 

 then the mother accompanies them and 

 wipes them until they are five or six. (Adults 

 retire to some distance in the daytime, but 

 excrete just outside the shelter at night, 

 avoiding the frightening, insect-ridden, dan- 

 gerous forest.) 



Darkness draws a dividing line between 

 public and private behavior in other respects 

 as well. Except in the dark of night, inter- 

 course takes place in the forest. People eat 

 at night so as to prevent others from seeing 

 them and so as to avoid the hungry im- 

 portunities of the group which forms around 

 anyone who has food, composed of the con- 

 tinuously hungry children who beg for tid- 

 bits and of the old begging for enough food 

 to sustain a few more days of life. Food is 

 a continual preoccupation. People quarrel 

 over food and dream about food, women are 

 seduced by food and rewarded by presents 

 of food, and wives object to their husbands' 

 amours because they divert food from the 

 family larder. A man leaves the shelter 

 pursued by admonitions to bring back food, 

 and returns successful to be greeted warmly 

 and after eating to enjoy a bath and sex 

 intercourse or, if unsuccessful, to be scolded 

 for his failure. 



All close relationships except those of 

 parents toward a young infant are heavily 



