NOMADS OF THE LONG BOW HOLMBERG 



51 



One feature of Siriono society makes it most 

 difficult for the ethnologist to determine the 

 actual constitution of the band. A very active 

 system of teknonymy operates to make the col- 

 lection of genealogies an almost impossible 

 task. Every time a Siriono is the father or the 

 mother of a child, his name is changed to that of 

 the child with an additional suffix indicating 

 father or mother. This, coupled with the fact 

 that nicknames are also frequently changed, 

 makes it possible for an Indian to have as many 

 as 15 or 20 names during the course of a lifetime. 

 One's father, for instance, will not have the same 

 name after one's own birth that he had after the 

 birth of one's elder brother. Consequently, if 

 the ethnographer asks two people, whom he 

 knows to be brothers, the name of their father, he 

 may get two entirely different names for the same 

 person. 



When I first began to work among the Siriono 

 I remained entirely ignorant of the system of 

 teknonymy until I began to collect genealogies. 

 Analysis of these proved to be useless in establish- 

 ing relationships between people whom I knew to 

 be related. A dead ancestor was almost always 

 referred to by as many names as I had informants. 

 After 4 months' study at Casarabe — made difficult, 

 of course, by the break -down of the old social 

 organization — I was unable to check my findings 

 by genealogies because of the operation of teknon- 

 ymy, even though I had acquired a fairly com- 

 plete knowledge of the kinship system and the 

 rules of marriage through face-to-face relation- 

 ships. 



By the time I got to Tibaera, of course, my 

 knowledge of the language had increased con- 

 siderably and I was well aware of the system of 

 teknonymy. Thus when I returned from the 

 forest with the band of Aciba-e6ko (Long-arm) 

 in October, 1941, I threw away my old genealogies 

 and began systematically to collect new ones from 

 almost every member of this group. Careful 

 analysis of this material, though much of it proved 

 useless, revealed that, even with the operation of 

 teknonymy, certain nicknames in particular tended 

 to persist, and I was thus able to get a number of 

 reliable instances where two men who said they 

 were brothers actually did have the same father 

 and mother. Once having a tangible basis of 

 this kind to work upon, I was able to trace out 

 rather fully, by checking back on old names, a 



number of genealogies and to work out the kinship 

 system and rules of marriage. I was never able, 

 however, to determine the actual kinship of every 

 band member to every other band member, even 

 though I could record the kinship terms by which 

 they designated each other. 



In the 5 extended families who made up the 

 entire band of A6iba-e6ko there were 17 nuclear 

 families, all of whom were monogamous except 4. 

 In the 4 extended families who made up the en- 

 tire band of Eantandu there were 14 nuclear 

 families, all of whom were monogamous except 3. 

 In both bands the chiefs maintained more than 

 one wife: Aciba-e6ko had two, while Eantandu 

 had three. The total population of the band of 

 Aciba-e6ko was 94. Of this number, 25 were 

 adult males, 30 adult females, 18 preadult males, 

 and 21 preadult females. The total population of 

 the band of Eantandu was 58; 17 were adult males, 

 19 adult females, 10 preadult males, and 12 pre- 

 adult females. The average number of children 

 per family, considering both bands as a whole, 

 was about 2; in the band of Aciba-e6ko it was 2.3, 

 while in the band of Eantandu it was 1.6. Since 

 the latter band had had considerable contact with 

 the whites, a number of their children had been 

 stolen from them. 



Each band occupies a single dwelling, within 

 which cluster the extended families. The chief 

 and his extended family always occupy the center 

 of the house, while the other extended families 

 spread out from his in both directions. During 

 the rainy season, when travel is difficult, the band 

 is a fairly cohesive unit, but during the dry season 

 it is much more loosely organized. At this time 

 nuclear and extended families are often away 

 from the band on hunting and collecting trips that 

 sometimes last 3 weeks or a month. 



The chief function of the band seems to be that 

 of supplying sex and marital partners. It per- 

 forms few economic or ceremonial functions and 

 is held together largely by ties of kinship. 



The Siriono have a very weakly developed tribal 

 sense. Whde bands occasionally come in contact 

 with each other in their wanderings, there are no 

 ceremonial occasions when they all come together. 

 When contacts between bands do occur, however, 

 relations are peaceful. 



Bands possess no prescribed territories. If one 

 band runs across hunting trails of another, how- 

 ever, they do not hunt in that area. When I was 



