NOMADS OF THE LONG BOW HOLMBEKG 



61 



and other offenses against life, such as abortion 

 and infanticide, seem to be unknown. 



Minor assaults, resulting from quarrels that 

 take place over food and sex or from those that 

 arise during drinking feasts, are relatively common. 

 Wliile physical aggression against one another 

 during quarrels meets with a certain amount of 

 public disapproval, it usually goes unpunished. 

 Assaults, however, often result in strained rela- 

 tions between the parties involved for some time 

 after they happen. 



The absence of rigidity in standards of morality 

 makes for relatively few offenses in the realm of 

 sex. Such crimes as incest and rape are rare. 

 When they do occur, they are believed to be 

 followed by an automatic supernatural sanction: 

 the offender becomes sick or dies. Adultery, on 

 the other hand, is common, and if committed 

 discreetly frequently goes unpunished. If adul- 

 tery occurs too often, however, an irate husband 

 casts out his wife and she becomes subject to 

 public ridicule. She is accused of being ecimbdsi, 

 i. e., of having too strong sex desires. 



Theft is unknown, except in the realm of food. 

 Even the stealing of food rarely occurs because the 

 conditions giving rise to the crime seldom exist: 

 food is not plentiful, and one's immediate supply 

 is hastily eaten. Some theft of food takes place 

 at night, especially by the aged, but in instances 

 of this kind the guilty parties receive no other 

 punishment than that of being publicly accused 

 of the crime, which they always emphatically 

 deny. 



Justice is an informal and private matter. 

 Grievances are settled between the individuals 

 involved, or among the members of the family 

 in which they occur. Generally speaking, it 

 would seem that the maintenance of law and order 

 rests largely on the principal of reciprocity (how- 

 ever forced), the fear of supernatural sanctions 

 and retaliation, and the desire for public approval. 



INGROUP CONFLICT 



One cannot remain long with the Siriono without 

 noting that quarreling and wrangling are ubiqui- 

 tous. Hardly a day passes among them when a 

 dispute of some kind does not break out. Quarrels 

 are especially common between husband and wife, 

 between cowives, between sons-in-law and parents- 

 in-law, and between children of an extended 

 family, but they occur between all types of people, 



794440 — 50 5 



relatives and nonrelatives. Quarrels are usually 

 settled between the disputants who start them. 

 This is especially true of those which take place in 

 the nuclear and extended families. If a man is 

 quarreling with his wife or mother-in-law, for in- 

 stance, other people seldom intervene. If two 

 members of different extended families become in- 

 volved in a quarrel, however, relatives of the dis- 

 putants may come to their aid. Children, for 

 example, are frequently observed striking women 

 with whom their mothers are quarreling, and 

 brothers often come to each other's aid if they 

 get involved in a quarrel outside of the family. 

 The Siriono, however, maintain no arbiter of 

 disputes. The chief, for instance, seldom takes 

 part in settling differences that occur outside of his 

 family. 



Data were recorded on 75 disputes that came to 

 my attention, apart from those that took place at 

 drinking feasts. It is significant to note that 44 

 of them arose directly over questions of food 

 (mostly between women or between husband and 

 wife); 19 broke out over questions of sex (between 

 husband and wife, cowives, and women); only 12 

 were assignable to various other causes. Here we 

 have overwhelming evidence of the important role 

 played by food in Siriono society. It is the most 

 prominent cause of ingroup strife. 



People constantly complain and quarrel about 

 the distribution of food. They accuse each other 

 of not sharing food, of hoarding food, of eating at 

 night, and of stealing off into the forest to eat. 

 This was particularly noticeable at Tibaera, 

 where Silva and I made considerable effort to 

 initiate cooperative planting of gardens — a custom 

 foreign to the Siriono under aboriginal conditions. 

 Several acres of land were cooperatively cleared 

 and planted with maize. While the maize was 

 ripening, bitter complaints were registered, and 

 quarrels took place over its distribution, although 

 there was plenty of maize for everyone. People 

 accused each other of stealing maize before it was 

 ripe, of harvesting more than they had a right to, 

 of transporting it into the forest and eating it on 

 the sly. Men complained that they had done 

 most of the work, while the women were eating 

 most of the crop. In fact, few men ventured on 

 the hunt at this time for fear of returning to find 

 that others had eaten most of the crop of maize. 



Quarreling over the allotment of meat is equally 

 common. While the distribution of meat is ordi- 



