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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 10 



mourners are scarified (by near relatives) on the 

 upper and lower legs with an eye tooth of a rat or 

 squirrel, and they rub their legs and faces with 

 uruku. On the second day, they are decorated 

 with the feathers of the harpy eagle, the curassow, 

 and the toucan. With this protection they may 

 resume normal life on the third day. 



Although grief-stricken parents and widows 

 often do not eat for a day or two following the 

 death of a beloved one, there are no food taboos 

 that apply specifically to the period of mourning. 

 Widows usually cry ceremonially about an hour a 

 day for about 3 days during mourning, but apart 

 from this they undergo no more strenuous rites 

 than other relatives of the deceased. 



A widow or widower may remarry within a few 

 days after the death of a spouse. In three deaths 

 which I observed, the widows were married by 

 levirate husbands on the third day after the 

 mortuary rites. In two of these the widows passed 

 to the deceased's oldest brother; in the third, to 

 his parallel cousin (classificatory brother). 



While living with the Siriono, I never had an 

 opportunity to observe a funeral under strictly 

 aboriginal conditions. However, I was present 

 at a number of deaths at Tibaera where, according 

 to informants, the mortuary rites were essentially 

 the same as those which take place in the forest, 

 except that the corpse was interred and that the 

 house was not abandoned. Some details of these 

 will best serve to illustrate the treatment of the 

 dead in Siriono society. 



Eresa-coko (Long-eyes), a bearded man of 

 about 40 years of age, died in October 1941. 

 About 10 days before his death, he was stricken 

 with sharp pains in his stomach, accompanied by 

 constant diarrhea. He told me that an abacikwaia 

 (evil spirit) was responsible for his illness. During 

 the 10 days that he lay sick, he was attended 

 solely by his wife. Although she gave him no 

 medicines of any kind, she stood by his hammock 

 and hummed chants for an hour or so each day 

 to drive out the evil spirits. This treatment 

 being unsuccessful, she took six of Eresa-eoko's 

 arrows and stuck them into the ground near the 

 head of his hammock — also to drive out the evil 

 spirits. But to no avail, for Eresa-eoko got worse 

 and died shortly thereafter. 



In the morning of the day of Eresa-eoko's 

 death, his wife wove two mats of motaeu palm. 

 Eresa-c6ko was lifted from his hammock while 



still alive and placed on onefof these mats, where 

 he lay groaning most of the morning. He vomited 

 and defecated frequently. The vomit and excreta 

 were cleaned up by his wife, who wrapped them 

 in leaves and placed them in a special basket 

 hanging nearby. She sat watch over him, open- 

 ing his eyes and mouth, and pinching his testicles, 

 from time to time, until he finally died at about 2 

 o'clock in the afternoon. 



As soon as it was certain that Er£sa-e6ko was 

 dead, his corpse was covered with a mat of 

 motaeu and, within an hour's time, carried by 

 several of his cousins about a quarter of a mile into 

 the forest for interment. The funeral party con- 

 sisted of five men — all cousins of the deceased — 

 and the widow. Besides the corpse, they carried 

 with them various possessions of the deceased: 

 his drinking vessels full of water, his pipes, fire, 

 and the basket containing his vomit and excreta 

 of the previous 10 days. Upon arriving at the 

 burial site, they dropped the corpse and these 

 possessions to the ground, and a shallow grave 

 was hastily dug with a digging stick by one of the 

 men. This was lined with green boughs of the 

 motaeu palm, and the deceased was rolled into it 

 and buried. His calabashes and pipes were 

 placed on top of the grave, and a small fire was 

 built on either side. The vomit and excreta were 

 then thrown away near the. grave, and the party 

 returned to the house. Although the widow 

 wept silently during the proceedings, not a word 

 was said by a single member of the funeral party. 

 After returning to the house, the men went to the 

 river and bathed. 



On the day after the burial of Eresa-e6ko, his 

 widow was scarified on the upper and lower legs 

 by a cowife. Uruku was then applied to her legs 

 and face, and she was decorated with feathers. 

 She ate nothing for 2 days although she smoked 

 her pipe almost continuously. She cried cere- 

 monially for about an hour each morning for 3 

 days, after which she moved her hammock next 

 to that of one of the wives of Eresa-eanta, her 

 husband's parallel cousin, to whom she passed 

 under the levirate. Other members of the funeral 

 party were also scarified and decorated with 

 feathers. 



While I was living at Tibaera, an infant of about 

 6 months of age died one morning about 1 1 o'clock. 

 It had been ill for about 3 days with a stomach 

 ailment, caused, according to the mother, by an 



