NOMADS OF THE LONG BOW — ^HOLMBERG 



65 



such an extent that one is tempted to commit 

 incest. 



Atypical sex behavior is also rare. Insofar as 

 I could tell, only one man showed any tendency 

 toward homosexuality, but this never reached the 

 point of overt expression. He had never had a 

 wife, and spent most of his time with the women. 

 He lived next to his only brother, was regarded 

 as harmless, and made his living largely by collect- 

 ing and trading some of his products for meat. 

 Another man was accused by the women of being 

 sadistic and for this reason had no wife. His 

 nickname was Etoni (Lazy), one which he had 

 received because of the following ingenious device. 

 He was an expert at tracking tortoises. He would 

 gather as many as 10 of them at a time and hang 

 them up alive on a beam in the house. He would 

 then butcher one or two each day, meanwhile 

 resting in his hammock, until the supply w"as gone. 

 He spent long periods of time alone in the forest, 

 and was one of the few Siriono out of whom I 

 could worm no information whatsoever. 



Chastity not being a virtue, there are few occa- 

 sions when sex is taboo among the Siriono. Dur- 

 ing menstruation sex relations are forbidden, but 

 during pregnancy they are recommended and 

 indulged in up until shortl.y before delivery. 

 Following childbirth, a woman refrains from inter- 

 course for about a month, but there is no pre- 

 scribed period after delivery that she must abstain. 

 Following the death of a spouse, a widow or 

 widower may resume sex relations within a matter 

 of 3 days. There are, moreover, no other ritual 

 or ceremonial occasions when adults are restricted 

 from participation in sexual activity. 



REPRODUCTION 



With respect to conception, there is no lack of 

 knowledge that it is caused by sexual intercourse. 

 All informants agreed that a woman could have a 

 child by no other means. But no crystallized 

 theories of how the process takes place have been 

 formulated. Constant interviewing on this sub- 

 ject yielded nothing but negative results. 



The relationship between menstruation and 

 pregnancy is also clearly recognized by the 

 Siriono, but again their ideas on these matters 

 have not attained crystallized form. Informants 

 were convinced that women had to menstruate 

 before they could have children, but they were 

 unable to supply any of the reasons why. My 



investigation on these questions, moreover, led me 

 to the conclusion that the Siriono do not correlate 

 the menstrual cycle with the lunar cycle in any 

 special way. 



In a certain sense a distinction is made between 

 menstrual blood and ordinary body blood. The 

 former is always designated as ereN eruki (vagina 

 blood) , while the latter is simply referred to by the 

 general term eruki or "blood." What the differ- 

 ences between them are, however, the Siriono are 

 quite unable to explain except in the vaguest sense. 

 Contact with menstrual blood, especially in 

 se.xual intercourse, is regarded as harmful, while 

 contact with ordinary body blood is considered 

 innocuous. 



Although menstrual blood is looked upon as 

 something dangerous to the Siriono, they have not 

 developed attitudes of disgust or horror toward it. 

 During menstruation women wear no tiling; they 

 are neither isolated from the rest of the group nor 

 restricted from participation in such household 

 activities as cooking that bring them into intimate 

 contact \vith other people. While menstruating 

 women bathe more often during the menstrual 

 period than at other times, they are not subject to 

 food taboos and are not even required to sleep 

 apart, although no sexual intercourse is indulged 

 in at this time. All of my male informants told me 

 that they had never had intercourse with a men- 

 struating woman and that to do so was very 

 dangerous, but there were varied opinions as to 

 what might happen to those who did. It was 

 generally thought that they would become "blood 

 sick" and die. 



One of the principal signs of pregnancy is the 

 cessation of the menses. If a woman has never 

 before been pregnant, however, some doubt may 

 be expressed as to whether she is going to have a 

 child until her breasts begin to swell. 



Few other signs of pregnancy seem to be recog- 

 nized. An extended abdomen is an unreliable 

 sign; most of the Siriono women have distended 

 stomachs from the habit of overeating when they 

 can. Morning sickness also does not seem to be 

 regarded as a pregnancy sign; at least, I was unable 

 to get any recognition of it or observe any cases 

 of it among the pregnant women whom I inter- 

 viewed. 



In some cases a woman may know that she is 

 pregnant because she has dreamed it. One morn- 

 ing Eantandu told me that his wife was with child. 



