24 



INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY PUBLICATION NO. 10 



not likely to move, such as a female howler 

 monkey whose male companion has been killed. 

 However, I witnessed it several times while I was 

 living with the Siriono, and in each instance the 

 game was bagged. 



The animals most frequently bagged are 

 monkeys, of which there are several kinds in the 

 area. Most abundant is a species of capuchin 

 monkey, called keN. If a hunter comes back 

 from the chase with anything, he is most likely 

 to have one or two keN in his catch. These 

 monkeys travel in groups as large as a hundred, 

 and, as there are always many young ones in the 

 band, their whistling can be heard from a great 

 distance away. Upon hearing these sounds, the 

 hunter stops and whistles like the monke3 r s (I 

 was never aide to distinguish the whistle of a 

 monkey from that of a hunter), gradually bringing 

 them closer to his post. By hiding behind a tree, 

 he is usually able to shoot one or two before the 

 rest of the band sees him, becomes frightened, and 

 begins to disperse. When this occurs, he selects 

 one of the larger monkeys and gives chase, trying 

 to drive it into the open where it can be shot. 

 If in flight the monkey hides momentarily in the 

 thick foliage above, the hunter tries to rout it out 

 by tugging on one of the lianas which grow to the 

 ground from almost every tree. Getting into 

 position to shoot one of these monkeys, however, 

 is not easy, as they move from tree to tree with 

 great rapidity and stop only momentarily. More- 

 over, the underbrush below is extremely dense 

 with lianas and spines, so that a hunter's progress 

 is often impeded to such an extent that he loses 

 his prey. 



Next in abundance to the keN are the long- 

 haired, black spider monkeys called eriibaf. These 

 are more highly prized than the keN because of 

 their size (10 to 20 pounds). Spider monkeys are 

 especially valued during the rainy season, because 

 at this time they are very fat from eating the wild 

 fruits that mature in February, March, and April. 

 Sometimes these monkeys have as much as a half- 

 inch of fat on their bellies. 



Spider monkeys are chased and bagged in the 

 same manner as the above-mentioned keN but are 

 less difficult to shoot because of their greater size 

 and sluggishness. They often await their fate, 

 shaking the branches of a tree at the hunter. 

 Nevertheless, they may cause the hunter a con- 

 siderable amount of trouble, since they generally 



break his arrow between their hands when dying 

 and, once dead, they are able to hang to a branch 

 with their strong prehensile tails for as long as 24 

 hours, thus forcing the hunter to climb the tree to 

 retrieve them. 



A third type of monkey that contributes con- 

 siderably to the food supply is the howler or tendi. 

 Unlike the spider monkey, the howler does not 

 travel in large bands but in polygynous family 

 groups that vary in size from a male and two fe- 

 males to a male and six females. When hunting 

 the howler, an Indian usually tries to bag the male 

 first; the females will not then move from the 

 area, and he can hunt them down one by one. 

 After the male has been killed, the females often 

 cluster together high in a tree, from which they do 

 not move, and the aforementioned method of 

 cooperative hunting can be applied to kill them. 



In addition to the types of monkeys already 

 mentioned, there are three smaller varieties that 

 the Siriono occasionally hunt but which do not 

 contribute much to the food supply. These are 

 a small owl monkey, called yikina, and two 

 varieties of squirrel monkeys, called gineti and 

 ngi. They are hunted in the same manner as 

 the others, being chased from tree to tree until 

 they are bagged. 



Next in importance to monkeys in supplying 

 meat for the camp are the numerous land and 

 waterfowl of the area. These include, chiefly, 

 several varieties of guan (ydku), curassow (bitoN), 

 macaw {kirlnde), toucan {yisddi), parrot (yikdna), 

 duck (yei), cormorant imiNgwa), partridge 

 (ndmbu), hawk (ngkia), egret (gwarisi), and vul- 

 ture (uriibu). On the pampa there are other 

 large birds, such as the South American ostrich 

 (ngiddcibaia), but as the Siriono with whom I 

 lived were strictly a forest people, these were 

 never hunted. All birds are shot with the bow 

 and a barbed, chonta-headed arrow. They are 

 usually brought into range by careful stalking or 

 by imitating their calls. 



The pursuit of the collared peccary (tai) and 

 the white-lipped peccary (cidsu) constitutes an 

 important part of the chase and contributes much 

 to the meat supply. The former, which are 

 usually observed foraging in the forest in groups 

 of from 2 to 10, are quite abundant, and the 

 latter, which are sometimes found in bands of as 

 many as 200, are not infrequently encountered. 



Collared peccaries are usually heard rooting 



