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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY PUBLICATION NO. 10 



lasting several years with the roughest treatment. 

 In making a hammock a woman first digs two 

 holes in the ground with her digging stick, as 

 far apart as the length of the hammock is to be. 

 Two posts about 5 or 6 feet long are then planted 

 in the holes. The woman ties one end of her ball 

 of string, previously twined, to the bottom of the 

 post on her right, passes the string around the 

 post to her left and back on the far side around 

 the post on her right, and so on, continuing these 

 winds, which are about one-fourth of an inch apart, 

 up the poles until she calculates that the desired 

 width of the hammock has been reached. The 

 resulting warp strings form two series of parallel 

 lines, one at the front and the other at the back 

 of the posts. 



The weft strings are made of the same material 

 as the warp strings, but are finer twined than the 

 latter. They are applied from bottom to top. 

 The weaver places a weft string around the bottom 

 warp string at the front of the posts and midway 

 between them. She holds the warp string with 

 her left hand and pulls both ends of the weft 

 string tightly with the other hand to form two 

 weft strands of equal length. She then takes the 

 under strand in her left hand, crosses it over the 

 upper strand which is held in her right hand, and 

 then transfers each strand to the opposite hand, 

 after which she pulls the twist tightly around the 

 warp string. She then takes the first back warp 

 string, pulls it over until it rests on the twist 

 formed around the first front warp string, and 

 gives the weft strands a second twist. She con- 

 tinues alternately to gather up the warp strings 

 from front to back until all of them are held in 

 place by a weft string, the ends of which are 

 finally tied into a square knot at the top of the 

 hammock. Usually about a dozen weft strings, 

 placed about 6 inches apart, suffice for a hammock. 

 After they have been applied, ambaibo bark fiber 

 is bound around the hammock about 4 inches 

 from each end, and it is then ready for hanging. 



Hammocks vary in size, but one shared by hus- 

 band and wife will be about 6 feet in length and 

 about 4 feet in width. It usually takes a woman 

 a full day to make a hammock, once the string 

 has been prepared. Hammocks are almost al- 

 ways carried along on expeditions or hunting trips, 

 but in case a person gets caught overnight in the 

 forest without his hammock, a rude one is some- 



times fashioned of liana in the manner described 

 above. 



Baby slings (erenda) are twined by the women 

 in exactly the same way as hammocks, the only 

 difference being that they are more often made 

 of cotton than of bark-fiber string and that all the 

 front warp strings are held together by one series 

 of weft strings while those at the back are held 

 together by another. During pregnancy a woman 

 usually twines a new sling so as to have it ready 

 when her infant is born, for a new sling is made 

 for every child. Slings are about 3 feet long and 

 2 feet wide. 



Baskets (indku) are plain and are made by the 

 techniques of checkerwork and twilling. They 

 may be classified into two types: those hastily 

 constructed in the forest for carrying in game, 

 wild fruits, or other products, and somewhat 

 better ones woven for the storing of articles in the 

 house. The former are always made of the green 

 leaves of the motacii palm (by either the men or 

 the women) and are thrown away as soon as their 

 purpose has been served; the latter are more 

 carefully woven (almost always by the women) of 

 the ripe leaves of the heart of the motacii palm, 

 and are a more or less permanent feature of every 

 Siriono hut. Special baskets are made for stor- 

 ing such things as feather ornaments, pipes, 

 cotton and bark-fiber string, necklaces, calabashes, 

 beeswax, and feathers for arrows and ornaments. 

 When the band is on the march, the various small 

 baskets are placed in one large basket and are thus 

 transported to the next camping spot. 



In addition to baskets, women occasionally 

 weave mats from the heart leaves of the motacii 

 palm. These are used to sit on, to roll out, coils 

 of clay for pot making, and to wrap the bodies of 

 the dead. Fire fans are also woven by the women. 

 The Siriono do not manufacture any type of 

 barkcloth, nor do they use hides for anything but 

 food. Feathers are applied to arrows and are used 

 to make ornaments for decorating the hair, but 

 featherwork as an art is not practiced. 



CERAMICS 



The pottery industry is poorly developed, but 

 rude, plain pots (nio) are occasionally made by the 

 women. Since more food is broiled or roasted 

 than boiled or steamed, a family rarely possesses 

 more than one pot. 



