NOMADS OF THE LONG BOW — HOLMBERG 



29 



mous, as all labor of this kind is done with the 

 digging stick and fire. Hence the Siriono have 

 doubtless experienced greater rewards from the 

 collecting of wild vegetable products and fruits, 

 some of which, as we have seen, are available and 

 abundant the year around, than they have from 

 the practice of agriculture, whose yields are 

 sporadic and uncertain. 



At the time of my stay, the Siriono with whom 

 I lived under aboriginal conditions were planting 

 the following crops on a limited scale: maize (a 

 soft red variety, unique in the area), sweet 

 manioc, camotes, papaya, cotton, and tobacco. 

 Here and there throughout the area of their 

 wanderings, they have also planted calabash and 

 uruku trees. According to one of my oldest and 

 best informants, Embuta (Beard), both cala- 

 bashes and tobacco had been introduced in his 

 lifetime, which would be within the last 50 years. 

 Of the other plants, however, he emphatically 

 stated that his father had told him that they had 

 been given to the tribe by Moon (the mythological 

 hero) and were thus very old in Siriono culture. 



No magical practice accompanies either the 

 sowing or the harvesting of crops, and what plant- 

 ing is done is largely a family affair and not an 

 activity in which all members of the band coopera- 

 tively participate. Both man and wife work 

 jointly in clearing and burning over a small plot, 

 frequently just outside of the house, in which 

 they sow, also cooperatively, a few plants or seeds 

 of maize, manioc, papaya, camotes, cotton, and 

 tobacco. These plots are seldom over 50 feet 

 square, and most of the work in them is done with 

 the digging stick, the only agricultural tool. 

 Today, of course, machetes are commonly em- 

 ployed in clearing a plot, but the digging stick is 

 still extensively used in planting. 



Little attention is paid to the time of year in 

 sowing, although more sowing is done at the begin- 

 ning of the rainy season than during the dry 

 season, probably because the group is less mobile 

 during wet weather. However, I saw maize, 

 manioc, papaya, and tobacco planted the year 

 around. Camotes, on the other hand, I saw 

 planted only during March and April, these being 

 harvested in July and August. Once plants are 

 sown little attention is paid to them until harvest. 



Although a more or less permanent Siriono 

 hut is encircled by familial garden plots, by no 

 means are all gardens planted just outside of the 



794440—50 3 



hut. A hunter who is accustomed to going 

 periodically to a certain lagoon, for example, to 

 hunt or shoot fish, may plant a small garden there 

 so as to have vegetable foods available when he 

 returns on subsequent trips. I used to make 

 hunting trips with my friend and informant, 

 Eresa-e&nta (Strong-eyes), and his five wives and 

 children to a lagoon about 2 days' journey on 

 foot south of Tibaera, where he had maintained 

 garden plots for many years. These hunting 

 parties, which frequently included his two brothers 

 and his fathers-in-law and mothers-in-law and 

 their families, would often last 2 weeks, during 

 which time we would make our headquarters at 

 his gardens. While the men hunted around the 

 lake, the women would tend the few plants and 

 gather what produce they had yielded. Other 

 hunters maintained similar plots on other lakes 

 and would frequently repair to them with their 

 families to hunt, tend then - gardens, and eat. 

 Excess produce, such as a harvest of maize, is 

 sometimes stored at the site in rude motacu 

 baskets, so as to have a supply available on the 

 next trip. Generally, however, little movement 

 takes place until most of the crop has been eaten 

 because of the difficulty of carrying it any great 

 distance or the uncertainty of returning to the 

 same spot for some time afterward. 



ANIMAL HUSBANDRY 



The Siriono possess no domesticated animals. 

 Even the dog has not been introduced to the 

 groups still wandering in the forest, although its 

 existence is known through some individuals who 

 have had contact with the outside. The general 

 reaction to the dog, by those Indians who had had 

 no contact with it, was one of extreme fear. This 

 is not to be wondered at since the dog and the 

 jaguar are called by the same term, ydkwa. When 

 I asked informants why the two were called by 

 the same name, they invariably called my atten- 

 tion to the similarity between the footprint of a 

 jaguar and that of the dog. 



Although domestication is an art foreign to the 

 Siriono, the young of various animals are some- 

 times captured alive and brought home as pets; 

 under such conditions, however, I have rarely 

 seen them live for more than a day or two, as they 

 are very roughly handled by the children and are 

 given no food. Consequently, they serve as 

 morsels for some old man or woman for whom 



