NOMADS OF THE LONG BOW — HOLMBERG 



49 



SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATION 



THE FAMILY 



The nuclear family, consisting of a married 

 man, his spouse or spouses, and their children, is 

 the fundamental social and economic unit among 

 the Siriono. Most of the activities of the culture, 

 in fact, revolve around the nuclear family. 

 Hunting is largely a family afl'air, as are fishing, 

 collecting, and agriculture. Siriono society, more- 

 over, contains no specialists; the only occupational 

 differences are those based on sex and age. Hence 

 all work such as basket making, tool making, 

 weapon making, and pot making must be done 

 within the family. So important is the nuclear 

 family that the culture contains few activities 

 and the society performs few functions that are 

 not embodied in or performed by individual 

 family groups. 



Family life centers not in a separate dwelling 

 but around the hammocks of the husband and 

 wife, which are hung in the communal dwelling 

 of the band. Each monogamous family generally 

 occupies two hammocks; one is for the man and 

 the other for his wife and children. In polygynous 

 families the wives occupy separate hammocks, 

 which are placed with reference to the hammock 

 of the husband according to their status in the 

 family hierarchy. The first wife usually occupies 

 the position to the right of the husband; the 

 second, to the left; the third, at his head; the 

 fourth, at his feet. Between these hammocks 

 lie the family hearths or fires upon which the 

 cooking is done. Since the distance between the 

 hammocks is seldom greater than 3 feet, a nuclear 

 family, if monogamous, rarely occupies a space 

 greater than 8 feet square. Within this hang the 

 calabashes of water, the baskets of food, and all 

 other family possessions. 



While one usually enters a family group by birth 

 or by marriage, it is also possible to enter by 

 adoption. Among the Su'iono, however, there are 

 no formal ceremonies of adoption, nor are any 

 specific relatives designated to take care of orphan 

 children. One orphan whom I knew was being 

 raised by his maternal grandmother; a second, by 

 her mother's sister; still a third, by his mother's 

 parallel cousin (a classificatory sister), who also 

 happened to be his father's second wife. In- 

 formants told me, however, that a mother's sister 

 of an orphan child was most frequently designated 



to assume the mother's role. Insofar as I was 

 able to determine, adopted children are treated 

 in about the same way and are considered as 

 much a part of the family as natural children. 



Adults are never adopted. After living about 

 8 months with the Siriono, during which time I 

 was on senoNge (my brother) terms with the chief 

 and often hung my hammock next to his, I was 

 never regarded as a member of the family except 

 in a joking way. While I was respected and 

 generally liked, I was always looked upon as 

 an outsider. 



Within the nuclear family authority is patri- 

 potestal. A woman is subservient to her husband, 

 while children are subservient to both parents. 

 In polygynous families the first wife — generally 

 the one to whom the man has been married the 

 longest — is dominant over all other wives. While 

 considerable economic cooperation takes place 

 between cowives in a polygynous family, more 

 work is done by the secondary wives than by the 

 first wife. The former, for instance, are always 

 required to do the menial tasks, such as bringing 

 in firewood and water. The first wife, moreover, 

 is privileged to distribute her husband's game, 

 she usually gets the fii'st choice (after the husband) 

 of food, and it is usually her son who succeeds his 

 deceased father if the latter was a chief. Further- 

 more, it is at the hearth of the first wife that the 

 husband generally eats. The secondary wives 

 maintain hearths of their own where they cook for 

 themselves and their children. 



A man enjoys sex rights with all of his wives, 

 but they are not necessarily exercised in any 

 prescribed manner such as by rotating from one 

 wife to another or by concentrating principally on 

 the first M'ife. In sororal unions the kinship tie 

 between cowives doubtless does much to mitigate 

 friction that might otherwise arise between them, 

 but in nonsororal plural marriages sexual jealousy 

 between cowives is sometimes intense. Since food 

 and sex go hand in hand in Siriono society — and 

 there is a scarcity of the former — the wives with 

 whom the husband most frequently has sex 

 relations are also the ones who generally get the 

 most to eat. Consequently, cowives frequently 

 vie with one another for the sexual favors of their 

 husband. This sometimes leads to bitter fights 

 and quarrels. If, for instance, a first wife is 



