INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 10 



under less trying conditions. However, if I have 

 contributed something to an understanding of 

 these elusive but rapidly disappearing Indians, I 

 shall feel more than satisfied. 



This study would have been impossible without 

 the help of many friends and various institutions. 

 I am deeply indebted to the Social Science Re- 

 search Council for providing the funds to carry out 

 the field work; to Yale University (through the 

 efforts of Dr. Cornelius Osgood) for granting me 

 a Sterling Fellowship to write up the field data; 

 and to the Smithsonian Institution for publica- 

 tion of the manuscript. 



To my teachers at Yale University I owe a pro- 

 found debt of gratitude, especially to Dr. G. P. 

 Murdoch, who has been a friendly adviser since 

 the beginning of the study. Dr. Murdoch spent 

 many hours patiently reading, criticizing, and 

 editing much of the original manuscript. While 

 living with the Siriono, I also had the benefit of 

 his counsel, together with that of the late Dr. 

 Bronislaw Malinowski, Dr. Clark Hull, and Dr. 

 John Dollard, all of whom formed an advisory 

 committee at Yale. These gentlemen were largely 

 responsible for developing my interest in certain 

 problems of this research, and all of them sent me 

 many stimulating letters of advice and criticism 

 while I was in the field. None of them is responsi- 

 ble for any of its defects. 



I wish to express my deepest appreciation to Dr. 

 Alfred Metraux. It was he who was largely 

 responsible for crystallizing my interest in the 

 South American Indian and for my selection of the 

 Siriono among whom to work. Dr. Metraux 

 took a keen interest in this study from its incep- 

 tion and gave me constant encouragement while 

 I was in the field. An invaluable service was 

 also rendered by Dr. Wendell C. Bennett, who 

 acted in an advisory capacity when I started 

 to write up my field notes, and by Dr. Clellan S. 



Ford and Dr. John W. M. Whiting, who made 

 many helpful suggestions and criticisms while 

 I was preparing the manuscript. To my wife, 

 Laura, goes the credit for patiently typing and 

 retyping the manuscript. 



While I was in Bolivia, many people helped me 

 in the pursuit of my studies. I wish to express 

 my thanks especially to Dr. Gustav Otero, of La 

 Paz, then Minister of Education, for providing 

 me with a letter of introduction to the Director 

 of the Niicleo Indigenal de Casarabe; to Don 

 Carlos Loayza Beltran, then Director of the 

 Niicleo, and Horacio Salas, then Secretary of the 

 Niicleo, for several months of friendly hospitality; 

 to Senator Napole6n Solares A., of La Paz, and 

 Don Adolfo Lcigue, of Trinidad, for comfortably 

 sheltering me in the Casa Suarez in Trinidad, 

 Beni. 



My life with the Indians at Tibaera was made 

 possible through the valiant cooperation of Don 

 Luis Silva Sanchez, of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. 

 Nothing I can say will express the gratitude I 

 feel for this fearless Cruzeno who accompanied 

 me for more than 6 months in the field under the 

 most trying conditions. Had it not been for 

 Silva, in fact, my life with the Siriono under 

 aboriginal conditions would have been unbearable. 



I am deeply grateful to the late Frederick Park 

 Richards of El Carmen for his bounteous hos- 

 pitality and for generously providing me with the 

 food and the mobility without which it would 

 have been impossible to carry out my studies. I 

 also wish to express my thanks to Don Ren6 

 Rousseau of Baures and Dr. and Mrs. Lothar 

 Hepner, then of Magdalena, for many days of 

 friendly hospitality and cordial companionship. 



Finally, I sbould like to express my appreciation 

 to the Siriono who, for the first time in their 

 history, tolerated a naive but inquisitive anthro- 

 pologist on his first extended stay in the field. 



SETTING AND PEOPLE 



The Siriono are a group of seminomadic aborig- 

 ines inhabiting an extensive tropical forest area, 

 of about 200 miles square, between latitudes 13° 

 and 17° S. and longitudes 63° and 65° W., in 

 northern and eastern Bolivia. The name applied 

 to these Indians is not of their own origin. 2 They 



' The origin of the name Siriono is unknown. Wegner (1934 b) has suggested 

 that it came from the Siriono word siri, meaning "chonta palm," but there is 

 no such suffix as ono in the Siriono language and the Indians are unacquainted 

 with the name applied to them. 



refer to themselves simply as mbia or "people." 

 But as they have been called Siriono since first 

 contact, and have been thus designated in the lit- 

 erature, I shall adopt the term. 



The area of Bolivia inhabited by the Siriono is 

 situated in the Departments of the Beni and 

 Santa Cruz. It is roughly bounded on the north 

 by the island forests, lying just south of the vil- 

 lages of Magdalena, Huacaraje, and Baures; on 



