90 



INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY PUBLICATION NO. 10 



RELIGION AND MAGIC 



RELIGION 



Native religion has not reached a high degree of 

 elaboration among the Siriono. One of the 

 reasons for this may be that the Indians are 

 forced to devote most of their time and energj^ to 

 the immediate struggle for survival. Both sha- 

 mans and priests are lacking in this unprofessional 

 society, and the confused beliefs and practices that 

 are adhered to with respect to the supernatural 

 world have not been integrated into a comple.x 

 religious system. As in aU societies, however, a 

 distinction between the sacred and profane, the 

 holy and unholy, is clearly drawn by the Siriono. 

 The existence of taboos, of ceremony, of belief in 

 evil spirits, etc., all bear witness to a concern with 

 religious matters. 



In this simple society, however, there is no 

 belief in a hierarchy of gods who control the 

 destiny of man. Ydsi (Moon) is the only super- 

 natm-al being which the Shiono believe in. As 

 has already been mentioned, mythology imparts 

 considerable power to this culture hero who was 

 responsible for the creation of the world and all 

 that is in it, and attesting to the fact that the 

 moon still plays some role in the affairs of men are 

 such beliefs as that the moon causes thunder and 

 lightning by hurhng peccaries and jaguars down 

 to earth and that to sleep under the rays of the 

 moon causes blindness. But the moon can 

 scarcely be regarded as a supernatural being in the 

 usual religious sense. It exerts little or no influ- 

 ence on the affau-s of men, and no cult has grown 

 up around it. 



The core of Siriono religious belief is centered 

 m the fear of animistic spirits. The imiverse is 

 thought to be peopled with detached evil spirits 

 called abacikwaia, which are responsible for most 

 of the misfortunes that befall the human race. 

 Thus cold south winds, accidents, illnesses, bad 

 luck, deaths, etc., are ascribed to the intervention 

 of abacikwaia. These sphits are invisible and 

 formless, little can be done to control them, and 

 they are neither worshiped nor propitiated in any 

 way. They can best be avoided by adhering to 

 the traditional customs of the band. 



The Shiono also believe in monsters, of whom 

 they have great fear. These are called kurukwa. 



Unlike the abacikwaia, which are invisible anP 

 formless, the kurukwa are visible and somewhat 

 resemble human beings. But they are large, 

 ugly, black, and haii-y. These monsters lurk 

 outside of the house at night, where they await 

 their victims, carry them off into the forest, and 

 strangle them. Sometimes the kurukvM even 

 come into the house and snatch people from their 

 hammocks while they are sleeping. Diu-ing the 

 day, however, there is little danger of the kurukwa. 

 They have great fear of the bow and arrow. 

 Consequently hunters are never assaidted. 



Informants told me that the kurukwa are 

 especially fond of waiting outside of the house 

 on nights of drinking feasts. Wlien the men are 

 drunk, they often go outside of the house to 

 urinate or defecate. The kurukwa await them 

 at the edge of the forest and say, "Man yen 

 ererekwa heri" ("What is the name of your 

 chief?"). (The kurukwa are especially fond of 

 killing chiefs.) If the men impart the name of 

 the chief to the kurukwa, they will not be harmed; 

 if not, they may be carried off into the forest and 

 strangled. 



The kurukwa are believed to have companions 

 like men. When they are unable to find human 

 victims, they hunt tapir, peccary, and other 

 animals. Kenda, who was one of my best 

 informants at Casarabe, told me that it was 

 dangerous to let my horse run loose at night 

 because a kurukwa might strangle him. 



Many mformants identified both abacikwaia 

 and kurukwa with ghosts of the dead. Some time 

 after the death of Teko, an Indian of Casarabe, 

 Kenda told me that he had become a kurukwa and 

 that he had been seen in the forest by other men. 

 At Casarabe one night an old woman was attacked 

 by a kurukwa while alseep in her hammock — 

 just 3 days after the death of her husband. I 

 fired a pistol to drive the kurukwa away, but for 

 several nights thereafter the woman slept with 

 an airow by her side so as to be able to resist 

 attack. In another instance a widow at Casarabe 

 remarried without undergoing the usual 3-day 

 period of mourning. She was severely criticized 

 by her tribesmen, who thought that her dead 

 husband woidd retm-n as a kurukwa to wreak 

 vengeance on the group. 



