22 



INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 1 2 



(literally, "pepper snake"), caninana*^ {Spilotes 

 puUatus pidlatus), and cobra cipo {Chlronius 

 cannatvs or Philodryas serra), a tree snake, 

 named for its close resemblance to cipo. 



Poisonous snakes include the viper,*' rattle- 

 snake, one species of coral called locally the 

 ioicard-de-tres-cores {Micrurus coraUimus), jara- 

 rdca^ and urutu. The jarardca and the urutu are 

 of the same genus. Of the jarardca, three species 

 are known in the community: the common jara- 

 rdca {Bothrops jararaca), jararacussu (B. jarara- 

 cussu), and jaiamca-do-rabo-hranco (B. neu- 

 wiedii). The wrutu {B. altematim) is sometimes 

 called locally the urutu cruzeiro and sometimes the 

 urutu dourado. The former term seems originally 

 to have been used in the States of Sao Paulo and 

 Rio de Janeiro and the latter term in Rio Grande 

 do Sul. The two expressions have met and now 

 exist side by side in this community. The quebra- 

 quehra or cobra-de-vidro^" although referred to 

 locally as a snake, is instead a species of lizard 

 {Ophiodes striafus). The cobra cega, or literally 

 "blind snake," also thought locally to be a snake 

 and a poisonous species at that, is in fact an am- 

 phibian {Siphonops) . The sucuri to be found else- 

 where in the State of Sao Paulo is unknown in this 

 community. 



Cases of men and animals being bitten are rela- 

 tively frequent. During the period in which field 

 work was being carried on in the community, for 

 instance, a 19-year-old girl was bitten one evening 

 while walking in a street of the village. Many 

 women do not leave the house at night for fear 

 of them. Local residents commonly say, "I am 

 scared to death of those beasts." A flat-headed 

 snake with a slender neck is avoided or killed at all 

 cost. Neutralizing injections, prepared and dis- 

 tributed by the Government institution at Butan- 

 tan, are available in the village and neighboring 

 towns. Distance and the difficulties of terrain and 

 ti-ansport, however, often make treatment in time 

 difficult. 



The habitat, then, furnishes fish, animals, and 

 game birds available for the taking. Especially 

 important are the fats these afford, since the local 



supply ordinarily is quite deficient. On the other 

 hand, the principal opposition to the inhabitants, 

 in their struggle for existence in this habitat, is the 

 action of a number of different kinds of noxious 

 insects. Especially prejudicial are the sauva ant 

 and the berneira lly, the former to the farmer's 

 plants, the latter to his livestock. To reduce the 

 effect of the berneira and other flies, an especially 

 hardy breed of cattle from India, the zebu, was 

 introduced into Brazil many years ago and is now 

 being raised in the community. (See pi. 20, g.) 

 To reduce the effects of the sauva and other ants, 

 insecticides are employed when the farmer can 

 afford them. Snakes, scorpions, and a poisonous 

 species of spider must also be dealt with. 



POPULATION 



In the distrito ^^ of which the village is a part 

 and which roughly defines the local community, 

 there lived in 1940, according to the Federal census 

 of that year, 2,723 persons. Since there are 190 

 sq. km. in the distrito, this rei^resents a density of 

 37.1 inhabitants per square mile. Of the total 

 population, 9.1 percent lived in the village,^^ while 

 90.9 percent lived on farms. 



SEX, AGE, AND RACIAL DISTRIBUTION 



Of this population, 1,406, or 51.6 percent, were 

 men and boys; 1,317, or 48.4 percent, were women 

 and girls. Outside the village, the distribution by 

 sex favored the masculine portion of the popula- 

 tion, by 52.1 percent to 47.9 percent; in the village 

 itself, the feminine portion was larger, being 53.2 

 percent to 46.8 percent for the men and boys. No 

 other data for the distrito are available from the 

 1940 census." 



In the course of this study, however, popula- 

 tion data were collected for the village and for 

 15 sitios, which were visited to obtain various 

 kinds of systematic data. In the 73 houses of the 

 village there are living at present (1948) 331 per- 

 sons, of whom 169, or 51.1 percent, are men and 

 boys; while 162, or 48.9 percent, are women and 



*^ Two groups are distinguished in the community: caninana- 

 U8SU and canhiaua verde. 



40 Referred to locally as both vibora and hUbitla. 



^ Literally, "break-break" and "glass-snake," respectively ; so- 

 called, local inhabitants insist, 'because upon being struck, it 

 flies to pieces.'* 



^' A political division similar in part to a township. 



^- The categories "urban" and "suburban," given in the census, 

 have here been combined since the distinction is unrealistic from 

 an ecological point of view. 



" Census data are published only by the larger political units, 

 the viiiiUcipios. For the information given here, the author is 

 indebted to Carneiro Felipe, director of the Brazilian Servi^o de 

 Rccrnseamento and Professor Hilgard O'Reilley Sternberg of 

 the Unii^ersidade do Brasil. 



