NOMADS OF THE LONG BOW — HOLMBERG 



95 



possible, because of the painful, fatiguing, and 

 otherwise punishing aspects of the food quest. 

 Before a Siriono picks up his bows and arrows to 

 go on a hunt he doubtless asks himself: "Should 

 I or should I not go?" His stomach stimulates 

 him to go; his relatives tell him to go; he may be 

 motivated to leave by a desire to eat tapir, to 

 seduce a potential wife, to acquire or maintain 

 status, or for any number of other reasons. But 

 when he recalls his last or earlier hunt — an oc- 

 casion when he came back empty-handed after 

 having tramped all day through jungle and swamp, 

 when he was chided by his relatives for his lack of 

 success or skill, and when he returned with his 

 feet full of spines and thorns and his body covered 

 with wood ticks and insect bites — his ardor to 

 leave is likely to be considerably dampened. Under 

 these conditions he is apt to try to get food first 

 by some other means, and if unsuccessful, even to 

 lie down in his hammock for a while until the 

 hunger drive, or the social pressure to go hunting, 

 becomes unbearable. In any case, if there is food 

 around, he is not likely to expose himself to the 

 rigors of the jungle before it is all consumed, for 

 if he departs under these conditions he is certain 

 to find when he returns that the food has already 

 been eaten by someone else. These conflicting 

 factors are doubtless responsible for much of the 

 behavior toward food. 14 



The evidence for strong appetitive and anxiety 

 responses toward food in Siriono society is over- 

 whelming. Hasty preparation of food, lack of 

 complex recipes, absence of standardized routines 

 of eating, stealing off into the forest to eat, wolf- 

 ing food, overeating, reluctance to share food, lack 

 of food preferences except on a quantitative basis, 

 absence of etiquette and ritual with respect to food, 

 eating when sick, eating when not hungry, exces- 

 sive quarreling over food, fantasies and dreams 

 about food, insults in terms of food, etc., may all 

 be regarded as direct manifestations of the 

 strength of the secondary drive of eating and of 

 the anxiety that centers around the satisfaction 

 of the hunger drive. 



How do such attitudes and behavior toward food 

 arise and develop in the Siriono child? A glance 

 at the data from the life cycle clearly indicates 

 that adult behavior toward food cannot be ac- 

 counted for on the basis of the experiences of in- 



«* For an excellent discussion of anxiety and conflict, see Mowrer. 1940, 

 pp. 126-128. 



fancy and early childhood. The nursing infant 

 is almost never deprived of food ; whenever he cries 

 his mother offers him the breast. He is greatly 

 loved. He is exposed to almost no punishment 

 except what he indirectly suffers from the rigors of 

 the environment, but his parents do everything 

 they can to protect him from cold south winds, 

 from rain, and from insect pests. He can express 

 aggression freely; he is not forced to walk or talk 

 early; weaning is not a traumatic experience. In 

 short, the infant is rarely punished or frustrated. 

 Hence the conditions existing in infancy are not 

 favorable for giving rise to the food anxiety 

 manifested in adulthood. 



After weaning, however, conditions change, and 

 somewhat abruptly. However gradual parents 

 try to make the transition from infancy to child- 

 hood, it is not always possible. Once the child 

 has ceased to nurse, his food supply becomes 

 uncertain; he begins to feel his first serious 

 hunger pangs. His father may have obtained 

 nothing on the himt; he may have brought home 

 only varieties of game which are taboo for a child 

 to eat; he may have secured only a small amount 

 of game, not sufficient to completely nourish his 

 family; rain or flood may have prevented him 

 from making an expedition in quest of food. 

 Consequently, after the child is weaned, the 

 response of crying which formerly always resulted 

 in food is no longer always rewarded because 

 there may be no food present at the moment. As 

 the child grows older and more independent of his 

 parents, the periods of actual food deprivation 

 become more frequent and more intense. Younger 

 siblings appear in the family and receive preferen- 

 tial treatment. Accompanying the pangs of 

 hunger are the sufferings of fatigue and pain. The 

 child is no longer carried, but must walk long 

 distances with his parents in quest of food. No 

 longer does he receive protection from cold south 

 winds, from rain, and from insect pests. His feet 

 become filled with spines. He suffers from skin 

 worms, scorpion bites, and lack of sleep. 



These are the conditions which provide the 

 learning situation out of which a strong appetite 

 for eating and an intense realistic anxiety about 

 food arise in the Siriono child. These secondary 

 drives develop soon after weaning and rise in in- 

 tensity as the child grows older and more inde- 

 pendent of his parents. By the time a youth 

 reaches the age of 10, he is already manifesting 



