NOMADS OF THE LONG BOW HOLMBERG 



79 



an early exposure to some of the household tasks 

 which they have to perform when they are adults. 

 As the bow symbolizes the hunting role of the boy, 

 so the spindle symbolizes the spinning role of the 

 girl. Before a girl is 3 years of age her father lias 

 made her a miniature spindle with which she 

 practices the art of spinning as she matures. 



Strikingly enough, miniature bows and arrows 

 for boys and spindles for girls are the only toys 

 which the Siriono make for their children. There 

 is a conspicuous lack of dolls, animal figures, 

 puzzles, cradles, stilts, balls, string figures, etc., 

 so commonly found in other primitive societies. 

 Occasionally a baby tortoise or the young of some 

 animal is brought in from the forest for a child to 

 play with, but such pets are usually treated so 

 roughly that they die within a few days' time- 

 Moreover, such common amusements for children 

 as games of tag, of hide-and-seek, and racing are 

 unknown in Siriono society. Organized games 

 and contests for children (except wrestling for 

 boys) seem to be entirely lacking. 



Besides playing with their bows and arrows, 

 boys amuse themselves in other ways: climbing 

 trees, playing in the water, fishing, learning to 

 swim, chasing one another around camp, and 

 wrestling. They also spend a great deal of time 

 lying in their hammocks, a custom they seem 

 readily to learn from their parents. 



Girls play especially at house: making baskets 

 and pots, spinning cotton thread, and twining 

 bark-fiber string. They also frequently assist 

 their mothers in performing such simple house- 

 hold tasks as shelling maize, roasting wild fruits, 

 and carrying water. Young girls also spend a 

 great deal of time grooming each other, depilating 

 the han from their foreheads and picking out and 

 eating the lice from their heads. In general, by 

 the time they have reached the age of S, girls 

 have learned to weave baskets, to twine bark- 

 fiber string, to spin cotton thread, and to perform 

 most of the tasks which the society assigns to the 

 adult female. 



Within play groups aggression is freely ex- 

 pressed. When boys are playing with their bows 

 and arrows (boys' arrows always have blunt ends, 

 and their bows shoot with little force), accidents 

 sometimes occur, and occasionally one child 

 shoots another intentionally, even though boys 

 are admonished not to point their weapons at 

 any human target. When such accidents or 



shootings occur (children are seldom wounded as 

 a result of them), a fight usually breaks out, and 

 the child who has been hit often strikes back at 

 the boy who shot him. Adults generally take no 

 part in these fights (they usually laugh at them), 

 but the loser almost always runs crying to his 

 parents for protection. 



Considerable teasing and torturing — such things 

 as pinching of the genitals, poking fingers in the 

 eyes, and scratching — of young children by 

 older children take place. A young child most 

 often protects himself from such attacks with a 

 brand of fire or a digging stick, and if he catches 

 off guard the older child who molested him, he 

 may burn him rather severely or give him a sharp 

 rap on the head. Under such circumstances, 

 older children are not allowed to express counter 

 aggression. 



Sibling rivalry does not seem to be intense. 

 If a quarrel breaks out between siblings, parents 

 almost always take the part of the younger child. 

 There seems, in fact, to be a clear recognition by 

 the Siriono that the younger a child the less 

 responsible he is for his acts. As between sisters 

 and brothers, there seems to be a slight preference 

 in the treatment of boys, though this is scarcely 

 noticeable until puberty. Generally speaking, 

 however, boys receive more food and less disci- 

 pline than girls. 



At about the age of 8, a boy begins to accompany 

 his father on the hunt. This is really the beginning 

 of his serious education as a hunter. Until this 

 time most of his hunting has been confined to the 

 immediate environs of the hut. When a boy first 

 starts to accompany his father, he makes only 

 about one excursion per week, but as he gradually 

 becomes hardened to the jungle, his trips away 

 from camp become more frequent and of longer 

 duration. On these expeditions the boy grad- 

 ually learns when, where, and how to track and 

 stalk game. His father allows him to take easy 

 shots, so as to reinforce his interest in hunting. 

 The boy is given light loads of game to carry in 

 from the jungle, and if he kills an animal of any 

 importance, such as a peccary or coati, he is 

 decorated with feathers like a mature hunter. 

 During all this time, of course, he is also learn- 

 ing to make bows and arrows and to repair those 

 which have been broken on the hunt. Hence, by 

 the time a boy has reached the age of 12, he is 

 already a full-fledged hunter and is able to sup- 



