NOMADS OF THE LONG BOW — HOLMBERG 



31 



pace for a day or two to escape pursuit, after 

 which they became so fatigued that while they 

 were sleeping heavily one night their fires became 

 extinguished. Since the Siriono have lost the 

 art of making fire, and will not eat raw game 

 under any conditions, this party was left with the 

 alternative either of returning to the school and 

 being severely punished for running away or of 

 striking out in the direction of settlements which 

 they knew to exist on the Rio Blanco and being 

 rewarded by obtaining fire and freedom. While 

 making the journey to Tibaera, they were reduced 

 to a diet of a few plants and wild fruits which 

 they found along the way, and because of the 

 young children they were considerably impeded 

 in their progress. Thus the journey, which would 

 normally take about 6 to 8 clays to complete on a 

 full diet, lengthened to a period of IS or 

 20 days because of the meager diet on which 

 they were forced to exist. One of the men told 

 me that if they had not arrived when they did they 

 might well have starved to death. 



Circumstances like those just mentioned rarely 

 occur, but it is not uncommon for the Siriono to go 

 for several days at a time without eating meat. 

 My notes are full of statements to the effect that 

 there was no meat in camp for periods of 2 or 3 

 days, and when I myself was on the march with 

 the Indians, I passed, in common with my com- 

 panions, many meatless days. The longest of 

 such periods that I recall endured for 4 days, dur- 

 ing which time we were reduced to a diet of cusi 

 nuts, palm cabbage, and motacu fruits. At this 

 time we were wandering through a particularly 

 sterile piece of high ground on which no game was 

 sighted. When we finally did run across a band 

 of wild peccary late one afternoon, we were all so 

 fatigued that we were unable to give adequate 

 chase and thus bagged only about half as many 

 animals as we might have killed under more favor- 

 able conditions. 



While first living at Tibaera, I kept records of 

 the amount of game hunted and consumed by the 

 band for a period of 3 months — during August, 

 September, and October, 1941. At this time 

 there were about 50 adults living there, and no 

 meat was being introduced from the outside. 

 During August and most of October I kept the 

 records myself, but during September and the 

 first 8 days of October I was wandering with 

 another group of Indians in the forest, and the 



records were kept by a Bolivian employee of mine 

 who stayed at Tibaera. The daily amount of 

 meat hunted, by whom secured, and the approxi- 

 mate quantity, i. e., estimated gross weight, were 

 noted. The exact distribution of the meat to each 

 individual was impossible to record, but the dis- 

 tribution outside of the extended family was noted 

 when it occurred. On the basis of the total popu- 

 lation, the approximate consumption of meat per 

 individual per day is shown in the following 

 tabulation: 



Month (1941): (in pounds) 



August 0. 56 



September . 53 



October . 36 



After my return from the forest in early October 



I was accompanied by 94 more Indians, so that 

 keeping records of the amount of meat hunted and 

 consumed by the entire group became so compli- 

 cated and time-consuming that I was forced to 

 abandon it. However, the figures above give a 

 rough estimate of the quantities of meat consumed 

 daily by the average Siriono. The noticeable 

 decrease for the month of October was probably 

 due to the fact that the Indians were more active 

 in clearing land — to be planted in the month of 

 November — than in hunting. Although I have 

 no reliable data on meat consumption for the other 

 months of the year, it is probably less during 

 January, February, March, and April than at 

 other times, because of the difficulty of travel 

 during the rainy season. 



The figures above represent the amount of meat 

 hunted by the Indians with bows and arrows. 

 The data, of course, are not strictly accurate, 

 because the weight of the meat had to be estimated 

 and the number of people present in camp was 

 not always the same. During this period some 

 hunters would be gone for 3 or 4 days at a time, 

 when it was impossible to keep records of their 

 catch, and on some days perhaps not all of the 

 catch was recorded. But even allowing for a large 

 margin of error, the average Indian probably eats 

 less than a pound of meat per day. 



During August there was no meat in camp for 



II days; in September for 9 days; in October for 

 12 days. The most persistent hunter was out for 

 16 of the 31 days in August, 12 of the 30 days in 

 September, and 19 of the 31 days in October. 

 The majority of hunters averaged from 10 to 12 



