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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 9 



madic life based on the horse. Class structure 

 among the horse-using Indians of the Chaco was 

 intimately associated with raiding the livestock 

 and children of their settled neighbors. Indi- 

 viduals who were successful raiders accumulated 

 wealth and honor and became a class apart. One 

 form of wealth consisted of human beings, or 

 slaves. When the Terena entered Brazil and 

 settled down as farmers and wage workers this 

 pattern of life was abandoned and along with it 

 the class structure. 



The unity of the extended family and the kin- 

 dred was weakened in much the same way. The 

 economic and political bands which drew Terena 

 kinsfolk together in the Chaco gradually fell into 

 disuse in Brazil. During the dispersion when fam- 

 ilies had to scatter far and wide to gain a liveli- 

 hood on the fazendas, in towns, and in railroad 

 camps the dependence of kinsmen upon one an- 

 other for economic assistance was not possible. 

 Each family tended to become a self-sustaining 

 unit, dependent upon its own etforts to maintain 

 itself through labor or beggary when work was not 

 available. This condition of family independence 

 was not changed with the settlement of the Terena 

 on Government lands. The Post was the new pro- 

 tector and provider. In sickness and in want the 

 family could call on the manager of the Post for 

 assistance. The Post provided land, tools, and 

 building materials to families who wished to es- 

 tablish themselves on reservation lands. Work 

 was available if the crops failed. Medical assist- 

 ance was also given free of charge. In those 

 Terena villages where missionaries, both Protes- 

 tant and Catholic, were active, additional economic 

 and medical assistance was available. The Terena 

 no longer live in large houses occupied by an ex- 

 tended family, the members of which cooperate in 

 economic activities and provide mutual assistance, 

 but in smaller family homes, each family depend- 

 ing upon agriculture and wage work and, if these 

 sources fail, upon the help of the Post and the 

 mission station. 



The extended family lost its political functions 

 also. In the past, members of an extended family 

 banded together to protect the life, property, and 

 honor of each other. Today, any individual can 

 seek this protection from the manager of the Post 

 and his police force. The Terena now live under 

 Brazilian law as represented by the Post manager. 



Tribal law and the mechanisms of its enforce- 

 ment have disappeared, and as the extended family 

 was the primary unit for political protection it, 

 too, has disappeared. The Terena family, today, 

 is an individual family unit after the Brazilian 

 pattern. 



Enough has been said to account for the break- 

 down of the old class structure and kinship or- 

 ganization of the Terena and the gradual appear- 

 ance of a new pattern of social organization. One 

 expressioji of this break-down is the disuse into 

 which the kinship terminology has fallen. As 

 compared with a half dozen other kinship systems 

 studied in Mato Grosso by the writer, the kin- 

 ship termmology of the Terena was the most diffi- 

 cult to record. The younger people have only a 

 confused knowledge of their kinship terminology. 

 As the Terena are bilingual and as the family 

 organization is now practically similar to that of 

 their Brazilian neighbors, the young people use 

 Portuguese terms in referring to their relatives. 

 Even the older people remember the traditional 

 terms with difficulty and a great deal of checking 

 was necessary in order to bring about an under- 

 standing of the traditional kinship system. 



The break-down of the moieties as mechanisms 

 for the organization of ceremonial opposition has 

 already been mentioned. The fact that the young 

 Terena ignore the moieties and have nothing to 

 say about them is significant. The older Terena 

 will speak about the moieties only when directly 

 questioned, and many of them have only vague 

 notions about the details of moiety activity in the 

 past. The fact that the moieties no longer regu- 

 late marriage is the best evidence of their break- 

 down. The Terena state that in the past indi- 

 viduals could marry only members of their own 

 moiety. Today this no longer holds true. The 

 present chief of Bananal, Marcolino Lili, is mar- 

 ried to his opposite, and marriages between oppo- 

 sites are now common with no stigma attached to 

 the married couple. That the moieties no longer 

 regulate marriage nor organize ceremonial activi- 

 ties appears to indicate their disappearance as 

 active units of social organization. Like the class 

 structure, the moieties live only in the memories of 

 the old people. 



We might well ask, what then is the present 

 social organization of the Terena? The Terena 

 do not consider themselves Brazilians nor do the 



