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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 10 



or bark -fiber string by the women. The penis 

 bone of the coati or the gristle from the back of 

 the ankle of the harpy eagle is sometimes added as 

 a charm to these necklaces, which are worn es- 

 pecially by parents during the couvade period 

 following birth. 



Less often employed for making necklaces are 

 the eye teeth of the spider monkey, which are 

 drilled in the manner described above. Necklaces 

 are sometimes made from the molar teeth of the 

 peccary and the coati, but in such cases holes are 

 not drilled in the teeth; they are merely tied to 

 string which is placed around the teeth between 

 the roots. 



The hard black seeds of the chonta palm and 

 toenails of the tortoise are sometimes drilled in 

 the manner described above and are used for mak- 

 ing necklaces. The base of the quill feathers of 

 various birds, especially the parrot, the macaw, 

 the harpy eagle, and the toucan, are also similarly 

 employed. In the case of the toucan the wind- 

 pipe may be dried, cut into sections, and strung 

 into necklaces. Other products employed for 

 making necklaces include small sections of young 

 chuchio (the reed employed in arrow making), 

 old hair wrapped in cotton string, sections of 

 umbilical cord (also wrapped in cotton string and 

 covered with beeswax), and even parts of dis- 

 carded pipe stems. 



Age, sex, and status differences do not affect the 

 wearing of necklaces, although, as we shall later 

 see, certain ones seem to be worn only on specific, 

 occasions. 



Some mention should also be made of the wide- 

 spread use of cotton string covered with uruku 

 for magical and decorative purposes. This is 

 wound around the wrists, the arms (above the 

 elbows), the ankles, the legs (below the knees), 

 and the neck of the father and mother after the 

 birth of a child, and is worn for approximately a 

 month thereafter. No rings, ear, nose, or lip 

 ornaments are ever worn. 



The only type of body mutilation found among 

 the Siriono results from the practice of ceremonial 

 bloodletting, which will be discussed more fully 

 later. Suffice it to say here that the adult men 

 and women are stabbed in the arms (the men on 

 the inside of the arms from the wrist to the elbow 

 and the women on the outside of the arms from 

 the elbow to the shoulder) with the dorsal spine 

 of the sting ray. When the wounds from these 



stabbings heal, there remain a series of decorative 

 scars, which are both tribal marks and signs of 

 adulthood. Although bloodletting occurs on other 

 occasions, the scratches made in the skin then are 

 usually so superficial as to leave no scars. 



No age, sex, or status differences are manifested 

 in hair styles. The only exception occurs in the 

 case of young girls (yukwdki), who have their 

 heads entirely shaved before undergoing the rites 

 to make them eligible for sexual intercourse and 

 marriage. Young children receive then 1 first 

 haircut in the tribal style the day after they are 

 born. 



Hair is cut by the women with a piece of 

 bamboo. There are no specialists who perform 

 this task. A woman usually cuts her husband's 

 and her children's hair, and her own is cut by a 

 sister or a cowife. The hair is cut to a length of 

 about a quarter of an inch all over the head. 

 That over the forehead is pulled out, or shaved 

 with a bamboo knife, to a very high semicircle. 

 The ears are left exposed. In the back, the hair 

 is cut straight across at about the level of the 

 lobe of the ear. Haircuts are given about once 

 a month, although the forehead and eyebrows 

 may be depilated as often as every 10 days. 

 For depilation the woman covers the tip of her 

 index finger with beeswax and grasps the hairs 

 between her thumb and index finger. After the 

 hair has been removed, the entire forehead is 

 covered with uruku, which acts as a healing balm. 

 In the case of young children, to promote the 

 future growth of the child's hair, a few feathers 

 of the harpy eagle or the curassow may be glued 

 to the back of the hair after it has been cut. 



The disposition of hair clippings varies with age. 

 In the case of young children the hair is saved, 

 wrapped in cotton string, covered with hot bees- 

 wax, and tied around the neck of the child or his 

 mother. The purpose of this is to promote the 

 future growth of the child's hair and also to 

 prevent the child from becoming sick in the head. 

 In the case of adults the hair is thrown away 

 deep in the bush, although I also observed in 

 Casarabe that it was sometimes buried in the 

 ground just outside of the house. Informants 

 told me that leaving old hair around was apt to 

 cause headache. Nail clippings receive no special 

 treatment. 



Beards are more rarely cut than the hair, but 

 occasionally they are shaved off completely to 



