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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 9 



family, as he was supposed to be able to success- 

 fully defend himself and the honor of his family. 



If an unmarried girl acted immorally and was 

 caught by her father, she was tied and dragged 

 around the village for everyone to see. If she 

 persisted in misbehaving she would be exiled by 

 her relatives. 



Incest does not seem to have been a capital crime. 

 If sons and daughters committed incest they were 

 beaten by their parents. 



Theft was not common but if it occurred the two 

 extended families usually settled the matter by 

 returning the .stolen goods or by compensation in 

 the form of property. 



If it was generallj' believed that a sorcerer had 

 made one ill or had killed a relative by means of 

 black magic, the sorcerer would be killed. The 

 killing of the sorcerer had to be performed outside 

 the village because if anyone killed a .shaman in 

 the village it was considered murder. Under these 

 circumstances a man would wait until the sorcerer 

 went hunting or went to cultivate his garden out- 

 side the village. If he succeeded in killing him 

 the matter would end there. On the other hand, 

 people feared shamans, for their relatives or other 

 shamans would try to revenge the death. 



The Terena stress the fact that there was little 

 crime in the villages in the old days, the social 

 unity of the village being sti-engthened by constant 

 external danger and the moral authority of the war 

 chief and the two moiety chiefs. The treatment of 

 murder shows that the villagers did not leave pun- 

 ishment entirely to the extended families, but at- 

 tempted to avoid feuds through the enforcement 

 of the village law of death in battle. 



The bonds which held the members of the vil- 

 lage together and which gave cohesion to the classes 

 were those of kinship. There were no clans. The 

 moieties functioned primarily as ceremonial units. 

 For general economic and political security an 

 individual depended upon his kmsmen, both on 

 his father's and mother's side. 



KINSHIP TERMINOLOGY 



In the grandparents' generation there are two 

 terms which are extended to siblings of gi-and- 

 parents, both maternal and paternal, and to their 

 spouses. These two terms are 0)}jii for grand- 

 father, and onje for grandmother. 



In the paternal generation there are two terms 

 for ego's father — the refei-ential term sa'a and the 

 vocative term ta'ata. There are two terms for 

 mother — the referential term eno and the vocative 

 term meme. Father's brother is termed poiza'a 

 (literally, other father). Father's sister is desig- 

 nated by the descriptive term inokechanza'a. 

 Mother's sister is called poieno (literally other 

 mother) and mother's brother is designated by the 

 descriptive term ayoeno. In addition to these 

 terms for the siblings of parents, the Terena ap- 

 pear to have terms corresponding to uncle and 

 aunt, for father's brother and mother's brother 

 can be termed eungo and lulu, and father's sister 

 and mother's sister can be termed ongo. A com- 

 pletely satisfactory explanation of these uncle and 

 aunt terms cannot be made until more is known 

 about the language and culture of the Terena. 

 They may be resjiect terms for mother's brother 

 and father's sister which are extended to male 

 and female relatives of the parental generation 

 in the manner in which ta'ata and meme are ex- 

 tended to all older people in the father's and 

 mother's generation. 



In ego's generation, male speaking, there are 

 two specific classificatory terms for brother — 

 enjovi, older brother, and audi, younger brother. 

 Both these terms are extended to male parallel and 

 cross cousins on both the father's and mother's 

 side. A man calls his sisters and female parallel 

 and cross cousins mongecha. These terms are re- 

 versed when a woman is speaking. In addition, 

 there is a more general term for brother, leJe, 

 which can be used to designate men of one's own 

 generation of more distant relationship. The term 

 cucund is used for designating a middle brother. 



In the children's generation there are terms for 

 son, djed, and daughter, imine, which are extended, 

 male speaking, to the sons and daughters of 

 brothers. Sisters' children are termed nevonge, 

 sex being shown by the addition of hoyeno (male) 

 and seno (female). Wlien a woman speaks the 

 terms are reversed. 



There is just one term, amori, for grandchildren. 

 Hoyeno and seno may be added if necessary. 



In the parent's generation both classificatory 

 and descriptive tenns can be used for aflinal rela- 

 tives. Father's brother's wife may be called meme 

 or yenolulu (uncle's wife), and mother's sister's 

 husband may be called ta'ata or imaongo (aunt's 



