NOMADS OF THE LONG BOW — HOLMBERG 



93 



Malinowski I0 was perhaps the first notable 

 modern anthropologist to pay much heed to the 

 impact of basic drives on culture. He founded 

 his functional system on a series of drives which 

 he called the "basic needs of man." In the socio- 

 logical field a similar point of view was expressed 

 by Sumner and Keller (1927), who founded their 

 sociological system on a number of universal 

 drives. More recently, largely from the stimulus 

 of psychoanalysis and behavioristic psychology, 

 the study of culture from the point of view of 

 drives (primary and secondary) has received 

 notable expression in the works of — to mention a 

 few— Miller and Dollard (1941), Ford (1945), 

 Whiting (1941), Murdoch (1945), Mead (1935), 

 Benedict (1934), Linton (1945), Gorer (1938), 

 and DuBois (1944). None of these, or other 

 workers, however, has dealt with a society in 

 which the drive of hunger is so constantly frus- 

 trated as to have become the dominant motivating 

 force in shaping habit and custom. Siriono 

 society seems, clearly, to be such a society. 



From the data that have already been presented, 

 especially those relating to food, it would seem, 

 indeed, that the most crucial problem with which 

 the Siriono have to deal is that of securing enough 

 to eat, and the fact that they have been much 

 less successful than most societies in solving their 

 economic problems has doubtless elevated hunger 

 to its preeminent role as a motivating force in 

 the society. The reasons for this are numerous 

 and varied: physiological, environmental, and 

 cultural. An analysis of the data suggests that 

 the following are the principal factors that affect 

 the quest for food and that result in the dominant 

 motivating force of hunger. 



I. Physiological factors. 



A. Hunger drive. 



B. Secondary drives based on hunger drive. 11 



1. Strong secondary drive or appetite for 



eating. 



2. Satisfaction of prestige based primarily 



on hunger. 



3. Sexual appetites to some extent based 



on hunger. 



4. Aggression expressed in terms of food. 



5. Anxieties center largely around satis- 



faction of hunger. 



C. Sex drive mobilized principally through 



hunger. 



1. Family founded on economic basis. 



2. Extramarital sex partners seduced 



through rewards of food. 



D. Fatigue drive. 



1. Long forced marches in quest of 



food. 



2. Tree climbing to harvest fruits, to 



retrieve game. 



3. Running through swamp and jungle 



in chase of quarry. 



4. Burden carrying. 



E. Pain drive. 



1. Spines and thorns in body. 



2. Accidents (falling from trees, etc.). 



3. Attacks by animals (jaguars, snakes, 



alligators, etc.). 



4. Suffering from heat, cold, and rain. 

 II. Environmental factors. 



A. Sparse supply of food. 



B. Aleatory factors. ,a 



1. High probability of nonsuccess in 

 food quest. 



C. Climate unfavorable for preservation and 



storage of food. 

 III. Cultural factors. 



A. Technological insufficiency. 



1. Cumbersome weapons. 



2. Lack of tools, traps, etc. 



3. Sparse development of agriculture. 



4. No methods of preserving and stor- 



ing food. 



A more detailed examination of some of these 

 factors will perhaps better explain why it is that 

 hunger becomes such a potent motivating force in 

 Siriono society. In the first place, the supply of 

 food, while sufficient for survival, is seldom abund- 

 ant. People actually suffer frequently from food 

 deprivation. As well as being sparse, the food sup- 

 ply is highly insecure; chance factors with respect 

 to the food quest here play a much more significant 

 role in affecting culture and behavior than in most 

 other societies. When a hunter sets out in search 

 of game, there is a high probability that his hunt 

 will be unsuccessful or at least only partially re- 

 warding. True, the forest contains some foods, 

 such as palm cabbage and nuts, that are available 

 and abundant the year around and others, such as 

 certain wild fruits, that are relatively plentiful for 

 about 4 months of the year, but these in themselves 

 are not nutritive enough to sustain life for Ions; 



•° See, for example, Malinowski, 1939. 



11 These factors, of course, are also cultural. 



" These factors, like secondary drives, are also cultural. 



794440—50 



