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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 10 



and on the women. Each person is punctured 

 about a half dozen times, the men on the lower 

 arms from the wrist to the elbow and the women 

 on the upper arms from the elbow to the shoulder. 

 On the morning following bloodletting, the men 

 depart for the hunt at the break of day, the 

 women following (with baskets of ashes which 

 they spread along the trail) to gather palm cab- 

 bage. They return from the forest about noon, 

 and drinking begins again. By the end of the 

 second day the supply of mead has usually been 

 exhausted, and the celebration ends. 



A general feast is not held during the ceremony, 

 but people eat at their own fires. Old pots must 

 be thrown away, and cooking is done in new ones. 

 According to informants, the participants are 

 not allowed to eat the following foods for about 

 3 days after bloodletting: guan, coati, anteater, 

 jaguar, deer, squirrel, otter, monkey, tortoise, 

 fox, armadillo, paca, porcupine, agouti, and palm 

 cabbage. If they violate these food taboos, it is 

 believed that the wounds caused by bloodletting 

 will become infected. Consequently, the game 

 hunted by the participants is distributed to 

 members of the extended family not taking part in 

 the rites. According to Edko, the diet of the 

 ceremonial party is limited to peccary, tapir, fish, 

 and vegetable foods (except palm cabbage). 



No one is obligated to undergo hidai-iddkwa, 

 but the scars left on the arms by bloodletting are 

 always pointed to with pride. Every child as- 

 pires to such a series of tribal marks, for they are 

 visible evidence of maturity. 



Besides being a rejuvenation ceremony and a 

 mark of adulthood, hidai-iddkwa is also believed 

 to insure the supply of food. Kenda told me 

 that during the ceremony the animals all come 

 near the house to see the men gaily attired with 

 feathers and uruku, and to hear them sing. 

 Therefore, when the men go out to hunt after 

 hidai-iddkwa, they always encounter game. 



The adult Siriono spends about half of his wak- 

 ing time wandering around the forest in search of 

 game and food. About one-third of this is spent 

 alone, one-third with fellow hunters, and one- 

 third on expeditions with his family. On the 

 average hunting day he covers approximately 15 

 miles. Uidess he is accompanied by his wife or 

 fellow hunters, he alone carries in the game that 

 he bags. He spends little time in his gardens 

 except at sowing and harvest. His working day 



consists largely in hunting, fishing, and gathering . 



The adult female, on the other hand, spends 

 much more of her time in the house. When the 

 band or family is not on the march, she devotes a 

 large part of each day to cooking, eating, attending 

 children, quarreling with her neighbors, spinning 

 cotton thread, twining bark-fiber string, weaving 

 mats or baskets, coiling pots or pipes, repairing 

 hammocks, preparing feather ornaments, carrying 

 water, bringing in firewood, or collecting motacu 

 fruits and palm cabbage, which are found in 

 abundance just outside of every hut. She seldom 

 goes any distance into the forest alone or in com- 

 pany with other women. During the rainy season, 

 however, she frequently makes excursions of a day 

 or two with her husband to collect wild fruits, and 

 during the dry season, she may be more or less 

 continually on the march with the entire extended 

 family in quest of food. Like her husband, she 

 does little agricultural work, this being a relatively 

 unimportant activity. 



When not wandering around the forest, the 

 adult male is most frequently found in his ham- 

 mock: resting, eating, smoking, playing with his 

 children, arguing with his wife, cursing the weather, 

 slapping insects, repairing or making arrows. 

 Apart from these activities, he has little recreation. 

 He has few friends but his immediate relatives; he 

 plays no games; he indulges in no sports except 

 occasional wrestling; he does not gamble; he rarely 

 gets drunk, not more than six or eight times a year; 

 he has no hobbies but sex, which he indulges in 

 whenever the spirit moves him; he belongs to no 

 clubs or associations; he has few magical or reli- 

 gious obligations; he sometimes takes part in 

 singing and dancing with his tribesmen on nights 

 of the full moon, but only rarely (about once a 

 year) joins them in drinking and bloodletting to 

 restore his fading youth. All and all, his activi- 

 ties remain on the same monotonous level day 

 after day and year after year, and they are 

 centered largely around the satisfaction of the 

 basic needs of hunger, sex, and avoidance of 

 fatigue and pain. 



The life of a woman is equally harsh, drab, and 

 concerned with basic necessities of life. While a 

 woman's position is little inferior to that of a man, 

 the obligation of bringing her children to maturity 

 leaves little time for rest. She enjoys even less 

 respite from labor than her husband. Her recrea- 

 tion is derived principally from the gossip and 



