INDIAN TRIBES OF NORTHERN MATO GROSSO, BRAZIL — OBERG 



9 



not related seemed puzzling. His perplexity was 

 increased further when he observed that Kaoro, 

 who is a Japanese-Brazilian, was different in ap- 

 pearance from the rest of us. The question of 

 Kaoro 's kinship status was cleared up to some ex- 

 tent weeks later when an Indian, leisurely turning 

 the pages of Time magazine, came to a picture of 

 a Japanese. He jumped up shouting, "Kaoro 

 irmao, Kaoro irmao (Kaoro's brother)" and went 

 about the camp showing the picture to the whites 

 and Indians alike. No doubt the Indians felt 

 better now that it was known that Kaoro had a 

 brother; that he was a member of a kinship group. 



Thus, on the first day, we were made aware in 

 a very intimate way of a basic characteristic of 

 the people we were going to study — social rela- 

 tionships were kinship relationships. To know 

 a man you must know his kinship ties. Through- 

 out our entire stay in the Upper Xingu this ques- 

 tion of a person's relationships kept constantly 

 coming up. Every time an Indian saw a picture 

 of a person in a newspaper or magazine he insisted 

 upon knowing his or her name and the relation- 

 ship to us. One woman eventually suggested 

 that the pictures in newspapers might be mama'e, 

 or spirits, similar in some way to the symbols of 

 spirits which they themselves carve or paint on 

 masks, posts, and other objects. 



The buildings of the Expedition were located 

 on the edge of the south end of the airfield. In 

 the center of the camp was a huge old piqui tree. 

 On one side of the tree was the main house, occu- 

 pied by the Villas Boas and officials or visitors 

 who happened to be in camp. On the other side 

 of the piqui tree was a house occupied by the 

 half-dozen "camaradas" or workmen who kept the 

 airfield clean and were busy making preparations 

 for the next move down the Xingu River. On 

 both sides of these principal buildings were the 

 storehouses, the dispensary, and the radio sta- 

 tion. The cookhouse was about a hundred yards 

 away near the bank of the Jacarei Creek. Back of 

 these central buildings, forming a semicircular 

 arc, were some half-dozen sheds put up by the 

 Expedition to accommodate the Indians who 

 visited the camp. 



As Orlando led us to the main house he explained 

 that the airfield and the camp were located on an 

 old Indian village site. A group of Trumai were 

 said to have been living here in the eighties of 



the last century when Von den Steinen made his 

 two voyages down the Xingu River. As the area 

 was thickly covered with piqui and mangabeira 

 trees, many of which had to be cut down to make 

 the airfield, it became clear that Indians had lived 

 in the general area for a very long time. Later we 

 examined a clearing some 300 yards from the 

 camp. A pit dug into the ground revealed heavy 

 and light-reddish potsherds to a depth of 2 or 

 3 feet. Some of the sherds appeared similar to 

 the large heavy-rimmed pots now made by the 

 Waura. A curious phenomenon was a ditch lead- 

 ing from the village site to the Jacarei Creek. 

 This ditch varied from 6 to 10 feet in width and 

 from 4 to 6 feet in depth and was about 500 

 yards in length. Its badly eroded condition ap- 

 peared to indicate considerable age. None of the 

 Indians could remember anything about it or 

 had any explanation of its use. As the ditch was 

 well above flood level its possible use as a canal did 

 not seem fit. It may possibly have been used by 

 the former occupants of the village as a protection 

 against enemies in their trips to the creek to fetch 

 water and to carry their canoes back and forth. 

 This site and others in the region should reveal, 

 through archeological investigation, interesting 

 facts about the early history of the Upper Xingu. 



After we had put up our camp beds in the main 

 house, the Indians trouped in to look us over in 

 detail. At first it was a little embarrassing to be 

 completely surrounded by about 30 naked men, 

 women, and children, each of whom insisted upon 

 opening our shirt fronts, putting their hands in 

 our pockets, pulling out and examining each item, 

 pulling up our trousers to feel the hair on our 

 legs, or repeatedly untying and tying our shoe- 

 laces. After trying on my glasses and sun helmet 

 one Indian put his fingers to my mouth, wanting 

 to know whether I could pull my teeth out. 

 False teeth evidently are one of the great wonders 

 of the Caraiba, or white man. 



This personal intimacy we found to be another 

 characteristic of the Indians. As far as white men 

 were concerned we were accepted as brothers, with 

 everything this relationship implied. We were 

 expected to share our food and clothing and to give 

 the Indians whatever they wanted in the way of 

 twine, nails, knives, axes, or other articles that 

 took their fancy. On the other hand, the Indians 

 were quite willing to share with us. If they were 



