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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 10 



Since she showed no outward signs of her condi- 

 tion, I asked her how she knew that this was true. 

 She replied that she was certain of it because the 

 night before she had had a dream that she had a 

 very small child inside of her. Upon interviewing 

 her further, however, I found that this dream 

 merely corroborated excellent physiological evi- 

 dence for her pregnancy, namely, that she had 

 not menstruated for some time. 



Once a woman is pregnant, the Siriono have no 

 methods of divining the sex of the child or of 

 forecasting the time of its delivery. ^Vhen first 

 conceived, the child is believed to be a miniature 

 replica of the infant at the time it is born, and 

 intercourse is thought to stimulate the growth 

 of the infant in the mother's womb. Thus inter- 

 course is desirable throughout pregnancy. 



Except for being subject to certain food taboos, 

 the normal life of a woman is little upset during 

 pregnancy. She goes about her regular work 

 unto shortly before the time of her delivery. She 

 may not eat coati lest the infant be born with 

 sores and a very long head. The guan, the howler 

 monkey, the macaw, and the toucan are taboo 

 on the grounds that if they are eaten the infant 

 will cry a great deal when it is born. Likewise 

 forbidden is the meat of the armadillo. A viola- 

 tion of this taboo wUl cause the infant to have 

 great fear like the armadillo, which crosses its 

 arms in its hole when it is caught. Other for- 

 bidden foods include the owl monkey, whose 

 meat cannot be eaten lest the infant ioherit its 

 tendency not to sleep at night; the anteater, 

 porcupine, and honey bear, lest the infant be born 

 clubfooted; the jaguar, lest the infant be still- 

 born; turtle eggs, lest the mother have a mis- 

 carriage or be unable to deliver the infant and die; 

 and the harpy eagle, because it is taboo for all 

 people except the aged. 



Some of these food taboos are generalized 

 to the father, but not all of them. The only ones 

 which he usually observes are the restrictions on 

 eating harpy eagle, anteater, and howler monkey, 

 which in a strict sense are not pregnancy taboos, 

 since these animals are never supposed to be eaten 

 by anyone but an old person. However, these 

 food taboos seem to be more carefully observed 

 by the men when then- wives are pregnant. 



Both the pregnant woman and her husband are 

 also careful not to eat a double ear of corn or a 

 double root of manioc lest twins be born. They 



likewise avoid eating twisted or deformed plants 

 of any kind lest this characteristic be transferred 

 to their offspring in the form of clubfeet. 



A woman's diet during pregnancy, however, is 

 not much reduced by the above-mentioned food 

 taboos. She is allowed to eat all vegetable foods, 

 fruits, and fish. In addition, she still has a wide 

 selection among meat foods, of which the follow- 

 ing are the principal ones: tortoise, turtle, curas- 

 sow, duck, cormorant, spider monkey, capuchin 

 monkey, squirrel, peccary, tapir, agouti, capybara, 

 paca, alligator, hawk, vulture, and marsh deer. 

 Such animals as the tapn and peccary are espe- 

 cially favored because they are regarded as valiant 

 and industrious, and if their flesh is eaten one's 

 children will grow up to be like them. 



Neither abortion nor infanticide is practiced, 

 and miscarriages seem rarely to occur imder 

 aboriginal conditions. During my residence in 

 Casarabe, however, where the Indians were living 

 under rather brutal conditions of forced labor, 

 three instances of miscarriage came to my atten- 

 tion. These were caused, according to my native 

 informants, by the fact that the pregnant women 

 were compelled to work beyond their endurance. 

 Under aboriginal conditions, however, miscar- 

 riages are generally attributed to the breaking of 

 food taboos, such as the eating of turtle or tortoise 

 eggs. In the case of a miscarriage, the infant and 

 all remains of the birth are thro\vn away into the 

 bush without ceremony, but the mother and 

 father must undergo a 3-day period of mourning, 

 in which they are scarified on the legs and feathers 

 are put in their hair. 



To prevent the occurrence of miscarriage a 

 woman must be careful not to eat the flesh of an 

 animal to which some parallel experience has 

 happened. One day Ndekai, one of my male 

 informants, had several tortoises hanging by lianas 

 from a beam in the house. Early m the morning 

 of the following day it was found that one of these 

 tortoises had "dropped" her eggs on the floor 

 during the night, and that they were broken. 

 The tortoise was cooked and eaten immediately, 

 but Ndekai's wife would have no part of the flesh. 

 She told me that if she partook of any of this 

 tortoise she would have a miscarriage — that she 

 would "drop" her child in the same manner as 

 the tortoise had "dropped" its eggs. 



The Siriono also recognize that under extreme 

 conditions of fright miscarriages are more likely 



