NOMADS OF THE LONG BOW— HOLMBERG 



97 



from hunger frustration, and while food often 

 compensates for sex deprivation in our own 

 society, among the Siriono love appears frequently 

 to serve as a compensation for hunger. Hence it 

 would seem unsafe to generalize the findings of 

 psychoanalysis, based on data from our own 

 society, to other societies where drive conditions 

 are not comparable. 



The treatment of the sick and the aged in 

 Siriono society appears indirectly to reflect hunger 

 frustration. When a person becomes too old or 

 too sick to hunt, to gather food, to bear children, 

 or otherwise to take an active role in the society, 

 he becomes a liability. If treated indulgently, 

 the sick and aged might prove such a burden as 

 actually to threaten the survival of the group. 

 Consequently, people who are extremely ill or 

 decrepit and whose period of usefulness is over 

 are abandoned to die. 



It might seem strange that the Siriono do not 

 follow a similar practice toward deformed infants. 

 Attention has already been called to the fact that 

 some 15 percent of native infants are born with 

 clubfeet. Considering that only about one hi five 

 such infants reaches adulthood, marries, and raises 

 a family, it is rather surprising that the Siriono do 

 not kill or abandon them when they are born. 

 But such is not the case. During infancy club- 

 footed children are treated with as much love and 

 respect as normal children. There are doubtless 

 several reasons for this. In the first place, chil- 

 dren enjoy a favored status in Siriono society. 

 They are loved to excess and overindulgently 

 treated. While a Siriono thinks nothing of 

 abandoning the aged or sick adult, he would look 

 with horror and disgust at anyone who abandoned 

 or killed a child. In the second place, deformed 

 infants, unlike the dependent aged, do not 

 threaten the food supply of others. They nurse 

 until they are about 3 years of age, and even as 

 young children they eat much less than an aged 

 adult. Finally, there is at least a 20 percent 

 chance that a deformed infant will grow up to be 

 a useful member of society, while it is a certainty 

 that an aged dependent will always remain a 

 burden. 



It is probably true that magical practice in 

 Siriono society is likewise largely a function of 

 hunger frustration. While the data from this 

 aspect of culture are sparse, they relate principally 

 to the quest for food. Attention has already been 



called to the fact that hunters do not eat the flesh 

 of certain animals that they themselves kill for 

 fear that these animals will not return to be hunted 

 by them. They also hang up the skulls of the 

 animals and the feathers of the birds which they 

 bag for the same reason. They smear themselves 

 and their arrows with uruku, glue feathers into 

 their hah, etc., to attract game. Men let blood 

 to make themselves more valiant hunters; women, 

 to make themselves more valiant collectors. Such 

 magical behavior seems largely to be a reflection 

 of the disparity between the constantly recurring 

 hunger drive and the means of satisfying that 

 drive. Lacking realistic techniques for insuring 

 his food supply, the native resorts to magical 

 practices to secure it. Given the conditions that 

 exist, it is surprising that food and hunting magic 

 have not become even more highly elaborated. 



It is significant to note that there appears to be 

 an almost complete lack of sex magic among the 

 Siriono. The reason for this may be that the sex 

 drive, unlike the hunger drive, is seldom frustrated 

 to any great extent. The Indians rarely lack 

 partners. Hence the native feels no need to rely 

 on magical practice to lessen his sexual tensions. 

 In fact, this type of anxiety seems to be remark- 

 ably low in Siriono society. Such manifestations 

 as excessive indulgence, continence, or sex dreams 

 and fantasies are rarely encountered except when 

 motivated by a condition of hunger frustration. 



The relative cohesiveness of the Siriono kin 

 groups, the nuclear and extended families, as 

 compared with the local group or band, seems also 

 to stem principally from the condition of hunger 

 frustration. While it is true that in most primitive 

 societies kin groups are more closely knit than 

 other social groups, the reasons for this may vary 

 widely from one society to another. The im- 

 portant fact to consider here is that among the 

 Siriono family solidarity seems to spring primarily 

 from a lack of economic security. The supply of 

 food is often not sufficient for distribution outside of 

 the nuclear family and almost never sufficient for 

 distribution outside of the extended family. 

 Under conditions of this kind the local group or 

 band becomes relatively unimportant as a social 

 group. Except for supplying sex and marital 

 partners, it has few functions. Practically all 

 other functions are performed by or within the 

 family. In short, the family embodies almost the 

 totality of culture. 



