NOMADS OF THE LONG BOW — HOLMBERG 



41 



can be cooked. If darkness has not descended, a 

 bath and sexual intercourse frequently follow the 

 dinner, after which the Indians retire to their 

 hammocks to smoke, play with the children, and 

 talk until sleep overtakes them. Fatigued by a 

 day of work or of walking in the forest, most 

 members of the camp are asleep by 8 o'clock, 

 unless there is to be a dance or a drinking feast. 



WORK AND DIVISION OF LABOR 



Labor is not a virtue among the Siriono. 

 They are relatively apathetic to work (tdba tdba), 

 which includes such distasteful tasks as house 

 building, gathering firewood, clearing, planting, 

 and tilling of fields. In quite a different class, 

 however, are such pleasant occupations as hunting 

 (gwdta gwdta) and collecting (dtka deka, "to look 

 for"), which are regarded more as diversions than 

 as work. This is not to be wondered at, since 

 these latter pursuits are more directly and immedi- 

 ately connected with the urge for food than are 

 the more distantly rewarding labors of agriculture. 

 What seems to be true, to put it psychologically, 

 is that the responses of hunting, fishing, and col- 

 lecting have been and are more immediately 

 reinforced than those of agriculture. 



When food, especially meat, is plentiful, little 

 work is performed. What people like best to do 

 at this time is to lie in their hammocks, rest, eat, 

 indulge in sexual intercourse, sleep, play with their 

 children, be groomed, sing, dance, or drink. Free 

 time is rarely employed in improving the house, 

 although rain is expected, or in enlarging a garden 

 plot, although the supply of food is insecure. 

 When the immediate needs for food have been 

 supplied, a person is neither much criticized for 

 doing nothing, nor much praised for occupying 

 his time in constructive labor. 



Besides the immediate desire and necessity for 

 food, the incentives to labor are few. No prestige 

 is gained by building a better house or a larger 

 garden, both of which may have to be abandoned 

 on the next move. It would seem, in fact, that 

 the nomadic character of the band is the principal 

 reason for not working, because the results of 

 one's labor can rarely be carried with one. 



The nuclear family is the basic work group. 

 Although considerable cooperation in the per- 

 formance of duties takes place between members 

 of an extended family, there are few tasks whose 



performance necessitates the cooperation of all 

 members of the band. The nearest approach 

 to such cooperation occurs when the band is 

 on the march — when a new camp site has to be 

 cleared or when a new house has to be built. 

 But even in carrying out these tasks, members of 

 an extended family join together to clear the part 

 of the site which they will occupy or to build that 

 section of the house where they will live. In this 

 simple society the ties of kinship are strong. 



Within the family, the division of labor follows 

 normal lines of age and sex, except that the duties 

 performed are neither as highly differentiated nor 

 as sharply defined as in many preliterate societies. 

 The peculiar circumstances prevailing in this 

 environment and culture sometimes demand that 

 a person perform temporarily, at least, tasks that 

 might otherwise be delegated to the opposite sex. 

 Thus, although cooking is normally the role of a 



Table 2. — Distribution of labor according to sex 



Activities 



Collecting 



Clearing 



Planting., 



Tilling .--. 



Harvesting 



Dressing game... 

 Burden carrying. 



Cooking 



Caring tor children 



Spinning thread - . 



Twining string 



Twining bowstring 



Twining hammocks 



Twining baby slings 



Carrying water 



Collecting firewood 



Extracting clay 



Pot making . 



Pipe making 



Weaving mats 



Weaving fire fans 



Weaving baskets 



Making mead 



Preparing feather ornaments.. 



Stringing necklaces 



Cutting and depilating hair... 



Hunting 



Fishing . 



Felling trees 



Extracting honey . 



Weapon making 



Tool making (spindle, digging stick, etc.).. . 



Housebuilding- 



Bridge making. 



Refining beeswax - 



Preparing utensils (calabashes, mortar and 

 pestle, etc.) 



Men and 

 women 



X 

 X 

 X 

 X 

 X 

 X 

 X 



Women 



X 

 X 

 X 

 X 

 X 

 X 

 X 

 X 

 X 

 X 

 X 

 X 

 X 

 X 

 X 

 X 

 X 

 X 

 X 



Men 



