NOMADS OF THE LONG BOW HOLMBERG 



75 



falls from a tree, for example, may be known 

 henceforth as "Falling-from-a-tree." 



Nicknames change frequently. Some of the 

 common ones coined at Tibaera were the follow- 

 ing: Eruba-erasi (Sick-face), IkaNge (Bones), 

 Kon6mbi-acikwa (Tortoise-rump) , Eresaia (Blind) , 

 Mbe-erasi (Snake-sick), Eidiia-ekwasu (Big- 

 navel), Aiiti (Close-at-kand), Etomi (Lazy), 

 EreN-ekida (Fat- vulva), and Mbiku (literally 

 "opossum," but applied to a man who steals other 

 men's women). While I was at Tibaera, the cus- 

 tum of nicknaming also extended to me. One of 

 my nicknames which persisted for some time was 

 Kiikwandusu (Big-deer), because I was known 

 to be skillful at shooting deer on the pampa. I 

 was also variously called Eresa-erasi (Sick-eyes), 

 Eaboko (Long-hair), and Embuta (Beard). By 

 those Siriono who have had contact with the out- 

 side a stranger is invariably called taita, the 

 Quechua term for father, old man, or patron. 



No sex distinctions are made in the naming of 

 children, and such things as status differences in 

 names, individual names, and taboo names do 

 not exist. Within the band various people may 

 have the same name. At Tibaera, for instance, 

 there were several people by the name of Seaci 

 (Coati), Embuta (Beard), and EicA (Clubfoot). 



INFANCY 



When the period of couvade is over, the infant, 

 who is then regarded as a definite member of the 

 nuclear and extended family, stays almost con- 

 stantly with his mother until he is about a year 

 old. Most of the duties pertaining to his care fall 

 to her. Whenever the mother is in the house, the 

 infant lies across her lap ; whenever she leaves the 

 house, he is placed in the baby sling and carried 

 astride her hip. He is freely offered the breast 

 whenever he is awake, and if he cries, his mother 

 tries her best to pacify him by this method. She 

 grooms him frequently, watching for the appear- 

 ance of wood ticks, lice, and skin worms; she care- 

 fully protects him from the bites of mosquitoes and 

 other harassing insects which cause him no end of 

 discomfort and distress. 



During this early period, infants are carefully 

 watched that they do not play with their feces. 

 The Siriono appear to have made the connection 

 between contact with feces and such ailments as 

 hookworm and dysentery. Consequently, when- 

 ever the infant defecates, the excreta are immedi- 



ately cleaned up by the mother (she generally 

 uses a hard shell of motacu fruit for this purpose), 

 wrapped in a leaf, and stored in a special deposi- 

 tory basket. When this basket becomes full, the 

 mother carries it some distance into the forest and 

 empties the contents where the child can have no 

 contact with them. 



In spite of the care with which mothers watch 

 theh young babies, I frequently observed infants 

 playing with their feces. On one occasion Aciba- 

 eoko and his family were busily engaged consum- 

 ing a batch of manioc. His first wife's baby, a 

 boy about 6 months of age, was lying on the ground 

 near the hammock. The baby defecated while 

 the mother was eating, and she did not see him. 

 After lying in the excreta for several minutes, he 

 began to smear them over himself and shortly 

 thereafter he put some of them into his mouth. 

 At this moment the mother observed what he was 

 doing. She grabbed the infant by the arm, put 

 her finger into his mouth, and cleaned out the 

 excreta, saying at the same time, "abacikwaia 

 ikwa nde" ("You are an evil spirit"). Although 

 the baby was badly soiled, he was not bathed, but 

 was wiped with a large leaf. The mother con- 

 tinued to eat without washing her hands. 



An infant receives no punishment if he urinates 

 or defecates on his parents. Almost no effort is 

 made by the mother to train an infant in the habits 

 of cleanliness until he can walk, and then they are 

 instilled very gradually. Children who are able to 

 walk, however, soon learn by imitation, and with 

 the assistance of their parents, not to defecate near 

 the hammock. When they are old enough to 

 indicate their needs, the mother gradually leads 

 them farther and farther away from the hammock 

 to urinate and defecate, so that by the time they 

 have reached the age of 3 they have learned not to 

 pollute the house. Until the age of 4 or 5, 

 however, children are still wiped by the mother, 

 who also cleans up the excreta and throws them 

 away. Not until a child has reached the age of 6 

 does he take care of his defecation needs alone. 



Little training is given a child in the matter of 

 urination. Contact with urine is not regarded as 

 harmful, and I frequently observed mothers who 

 did not even move when babies on their laps 

 urinated. Since no clothes are worn by either the 

 mother or the child, the urine soon dries or can 

 readily be washed off. Grown children frequently 

 urinate in the house without censure, and even 



