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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 10 



with his family and stayed away for about a week. 

 He returned with considerable roast meat which 

 he distributed to no one else but members of his 

 immediate family. 



In general, however, chiefs fare better than 

 other members of the band. Their requests more 

 frequently bear fruit than those of others, because 

 chiefs are the best hunters and are thus in a better 

 position than most to reciprocate for any favors 

 done them. In speaking of chiefs, both past and 

 present, informants always referred to them as 

 "big men." Chiefs know the most about hunting, 

 about the habits of animals, about how best to 

 surround a band of peccaries; they are the best 

 composers of songs, the most powerful drinkers; 

 they know the most about hunting tapirs and 

 harpy eagles; they have the most wives and chil- 

 dren. In short, chiefs know more about things 

 and are able to do them better than anyone else. 

 Consequently, they command more respect than 

 the average man. 



Chieftainship is normally a hereditary office 

 and passes patrilineally from father to eldest 

 son, provided the latter is a good hunter, is mature, 

 and possesses the personal qualities of leadership. 

 In case an eligible son is lackiug, the office may 

 pass to the chief's brother. It so happens that 

 the chiefs whom I knew had both inherited the 

 office from their fathers. One of them told me, 

 however, that were he to die the office would be 

 inherited by his younger brother, because he had 

 no eligible son to whom it could pass. 



LAW AND SOCIAL CONTROL 



The legal system by means of which the rela- 

 tions between band members are governed is not 

 an elaborate one. In such a simple society as that 

 of the Siriono, most members of which are united 

 by ties of blood, only a small body of customary 

 law is needed to maintain what order does exist. 

 Moreover, the social norms that prevail are elastic 

 enough to allow for a considerable range of be- 

 havior, depending upon the immediate conditions 

 of life. Thus, although one of the important legal 

 norms is that of sharing food within the extended 

 family, such sharing rarely occurs unless the sup- 

 ply of food is abundant. Frequently, in fact, 

 food sharing does not go beyond the nuclear 

 family, even though the quantity of food may be 

 more than adequate to take care of immediate 

 needs. Under such conditions, one may be 



accused of hoarding food, but the other members 

 of the extended family can do little about it except 

 to go out and look for their own. 



Within this society, the formal agencies of social 

 control are almost entirely lacking. No such 

 thing as a police force exists, and, as we have al- 

 ready seen, chieftainship, although theoretically 

 an office of some power and distinction, is actually 

 relatively unimportant as a means of controlling 

 behavior. A chief does not interfere in the dis- 

 putes of others, and when involved in disputes of 

 his own, others pay little attention to them. 

 Sorcery, moreover, is almost unknown as a means 

 of social control. The handling of one's affairs is 

 thus largely an individual matter; everyone is 

 expected to stand up for his own rights and to 

 fulfill his own obligations. 



In spite of the extreme individualism of the 

 Siriono in this respect, there are, nevertheless, 

 certain incentives to conform to the legal norms 

 that do exist. If, for instance, a person does 

 share food with a kinsman, he has the right to 

 expect some in return, and if a man does occa- 

 sionally share his wife with a brother, he has the 

 right occasionally to share that brother's wife. 

 Reciprocity, however, is almost always forced, and 

 is sometimes even hostile. One usually has to 

 demand something in return for that which one 

 has reluctantly given. Indeed, sharing rarely 

 occurs without a certain amount of mutual dis- 

 trust and misunderstanding; a person always feels 

 that it is he who is being taken advantage of. 

 Nevertheless, this type of forced reciprocity does 

 seem to be one of the principal rewards of con- 

 formity. 



So intense is the individualism of the Siriono 

 and so elastic the legal system, that crime and 

 punishment are rare. Murder is not condoned 

 but is almost unknown. Only two cases, both 

 of which happened a number of years ago, came to 

 my attention. In one of these a man killed his 

 wife with his bow and arrow during a drinking 

 feast, and in the second a man killed his sister by 

 throwing a club at her from a tree. In both 

 instances the murderers were banished (or left) 

 the band for a considerable time, but they returned 

 later and resumed normal life. 



Cases of premeditated murder were unknown. 

 Informants told me, however, that under circum- 

 stances of this kind the lex talionis would be rigidly 

 applied. Accidental homicide is not punished, 



