36 



INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 10 



EATING 



It is difficult to establish a schedule of meal hours 

 among the Siriono because of the insecure nature 

 of the food supply and the nomadic character of 

 life. People eat when they have food, and under 

 these conditions they are just as apt to eat during 

 the night as during the day. In fact, more food 

 is consumed at night than at any other time be- 

 cause hunters and collectors are away from camp 

 most of the day and for reasons which we shall 

 examine in a moment. 



The principal meal is always taken in the late 

 afternoon or early evening. Other eating is 

 mainly of the between-meal type, and occurs at all 

 hours of the day or night. I was constantly 

 surprised to find, throughout my residence among 

 the Siriono, that food which had been left over 

 from an evening meal was invariably gone by 

 morning. Frequently, moreover, after the eve- 

 ning meal has been eaten, a pot of food is put on 

 the fire to cook during the night, and this, too, 

 has usually disappeared by morning. 



The habit of eating during the night grows not 

 only out of the necessity of hunting and collecting 

 during most of the day but also out of a reluctance 

 to share food with others. When meals are taken 

 during the day, a crowd of nonfamily members 

 always gathers to beg for morsels, and though 

 little attention is usually paid to them, they do, 

 nevertheless, constitute an annoyance. By eating 

 at odd hours during the night, when nearly every- 

 one else is asleep, an Indian not only gets more 

 food but also avoids the nuisance of having others 

 around to beg it from him. While I was on the 

 march with the Siriono, my Bolivian companion 

 and I were forced to follow the same practice. 

 We found that it was impossible to eat in peace 

 during the day, because we were constantly 

 hounded by children and adults who claimed that 

 they were hungry. The fact that we, too, had 

 not eaten made no impression on them. Con- 

 sequently we ate the greatest portion of our food 

 at about midnight, when almost everyone else was 

 asleep. A few of my loyal Indian companions, 

 who developed a certain interest in my welfare, 

 used frequently to wake me in the middle of the 

 night to share food which they hated to display 

 during the daytime because of the possibility of 

 their having to divide it with someone else. When 

 we were settled — I then sometimes had a supply 



of certain foods — it used to amuse me to note how 

 my Indian friends would suggest that they come 

 to my house and eat at night when the others 

 would be fast asleep. 



Strictly speaking, the Siriono possess no eating 

 utensils. A broken calabash may sometimes be 

 used to scoop food from a pot or even to eat from, 

 but such utensils as plates and spoons are not 

 manufactured. Generally speaking, everyone 

 participating in a meal eats from a common pot. 

 Chunks of meat, pieces of manioc, and the like 

 are picked out of the pot with the hands, but 

 when the meal consists of gruel or a soup the food 

 is generally scooped out of the pot by using 

 half-shells of motacu fruits as spoons. Food is 

 also sometimes distributed for consumption by 

 pouring it out on leaves of patuju, a plant resem- 

 bling the banana. The distribution of food rarely 

 goes outside of the extended family. Within the 

 extended family, however, the distribution of food 

 does not follow any strict pattern. Each nuclear 

 family cooks its own food and the head of the 

 house usually gets the back of an animal; his 

 first wife the two hind legs. Other parts of an 

 animal are usually distributed without reference 

 to status within the family. 



Eating takes place without benefit of etiquette 

 or ceremony. Food is bolted as rapidly as possible, 

 and when a person is eating he never looks up 

 from his food until he has finished, so as to avoid 

 the stares of begging onlookers. The principal 

 goal of eating seems thus to be the swallowing 

 of the greatest quantity of food in the shortest 

 possible time. 



Appetites for particular foods are few. There is 

 a preference for meat over all other foods and a 

 preference for fat meat over lean meat, but the 

 cook book of the Siriono is almost devoid of 

 recipes. I have seen a man eat hawk with as 

 much gusto as partridge, and I never heard an 

 informant speak disparagingly about any food 

 regarded as edible by the Siriono. 



The quantities of food eaten on occasions are 

 formidable. It is not uncommon for four people 

 to eat a peccary of 60 pounds at a single sitting. 

 When meat is abundant, a man may consume as 

 much as 30 pounds within 24 horns. On one 

 occasion, when I was present, two men ate six 

 spider monkeys, weighing from 10 to 15 pounds 

 apiece, in a single day, and complained of being 

 hungry that night. 



