THE TERENA AND THE CADUVEO OF SOUTHERN MATO GROSSO, BRAZIL — OBERG 



33 



did continue these functions for some time after 

 the arrival of the Terena in Brazil, but these func- 

 tions were carried out with inci-easing laxity. 

 They say tliat men began to marry women be- 

 longing to tlie opposite moiety and that the chil- 

 dren of such marriages could choose the moiety 

 to which they wished to belong. Furthermore, 

 during ceremonials one could temporarily join the 

 opposite moiety although still maintaining the 

 membership of the moiety into which one was 

 born. The gradual break-down of moiety endog- 

 amy and cei'emonial activity appears to be as- 

 sociated with the enforced dispersion of the 

 Terena. When families and individuals found 

 themselves scattered far and wide on the fazendas 

 and in the towns it was not always possible to 

 follow tribal customs, the tendency being to copy 

 the ways of the Brazilians among whom they 

 lived. The break-down of the moiety organiza- 

 tion evidently proceeded so far that when the 

 Terena again settled, this time on reservations, 

 after 1910 the old moiety customs were not rein- 

 stituted. 



Today the moieties no longer function as cere- 

 monial units. If asked to which moiety he be- 

 longs, a Terena will give an answer but he will 

 not volunteer this information. As vital function- 

 ing units, therefore, the moieties no longer exist. 

 The old dances which were oi'ganized on a moiety 

 basis have largely disappeared. The really im- 

 portant social activities today are centered around 

 the "bate-pau," a Brazilian pageant with Terena 

 elements, and football. In each of these perform- 

 ances the performers are divided into two groups 

 with different body paintings in the "bate-pau," 

 and diiferent colored sweaters in the football 

 teams. In the "bate-pau" there are two dance 

 leaders who select their followers and train them 

 for the performance. The dance, as will be de- 

 scribed later, is performed by the two groups act- 

 ing in opposition to one another. Competition is 

 keen, the winning dance team receiving the ap- 

 plause of the village. Football, likewise, is a per- 

 formance in which opposition of two groups is a 

 primary feature, each being led by its duly ap- 

 pointed captain. In addition, when we know that 

 the Terena in most villages are divided into Catho- 

 lics and Protestants, each sect having its own char- 

 acteristic leaders and social functions, it is difficult 

 to avoid the conclusion that the Terena have been 



organized on a basis of new forms of opposition 

 which have largely replaced the old dual organiza- 

 tion but which continue the underlying social mo- 

 tives for organized opposition. The Terena are 

 keenly aware of these new social activities and 

 their competitive nature, and most of their leisure 

 time is taken up in training for, carrying on, or 

 otherwise participating in these activities. 



The Terena admit that they had slaves when 

 they arrived in Brazil, yet, they are, today, at a 

 loss to explain what happened to them. As slaves 

 were captured as children it is not likely that they 

 returned to their original homes. On the other 

 hand, the Terena never mention anyone as having 

 slave blood, something which is still customary 

 among the Caduveo. The Terena also deny that 

 they married slaves. If this were strictly true the 

 only tenable hypothesis is that the slave class as a 

 social group lost its identity along with the gen- 

 eral disaj^pearance of social stratification. The 

 fact that slavery was made illegal in Brazil in 1888 

 undoubtedly had its effect, but important, too, was 

 the effect of the Protestant missionaries, who have 

 been active among the Terena since 1913. 



Another circumstance which in all probability 

 led to the disappearance of the distinction between 

 slave and free man was the dispersion of the Terena 

 during the eighties and nineties of the last century. 

 The encroachment of the '"fazendeiros" upon Te- 

 rena lands forced the Terena to seek a livelihood 

 through wage labor. This tended to put all Terena 

 on the same economic and social level. When they 

 again came together on reservation lands around 

 1910, the old class distinctions were more or less 

 effaced. A new generation had grown up in the 

 meantime which luvd not participated in the old 

 pattern of tribal life. This fact of dispersion and 

 subsequent regrouping is something which the 

 Caduveo did not experience and may account for 

 the more rapid disappearance of class distinctions 

 among the Terena than is true among the Caduveo. 

 Another contributing factor may be the fact that 

 the Terena developed a class structure later than 

 the Mbaya and that it never became so strong a 

 part of their social organization as it did among 

 the Mbaya. 



The primary cause for the disappearance, not 

 only of slavery but of the whole class structure of 

 unati, shuna-asheti, wahereshane, and kauti, was 

 the forced abandonment of warfare and the no- 



