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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 15 



formed for it during the piqui harvest. Mavu- 

 rawd is represented by an insect with long antennae. 

 Kinemeti also has the form of an insect but differs 

 from mavurawd in having short antennae. Besides 

 these two insectlike mama'e, the piqui tree has the 

 bull-roarer, urivuri. The bull-roarer has an inter- 

 esting legend. Yanamd, one of the first Camayura 

 created by Mavutsine, obtained the bull-roarer 

 from aikq, the mythical dogfish, in exchange for 

 red toucan feathers. Later, yanamd gave the bull- 

 roarer to the piqui tree in return for the knowledge 

 of making piqui oil. The bull-roarer is shaped 

 like a fish and is painted with red, white, and 

 black bands. 



These mama'e are intimately connected with 

 the growth of piqui. If a tree bears badly the 

 old men gather around it, smoke tobacco, and ask 

 the mama'e to cure the tree and make it bear well. 

 At the beginning of the piqui harvest, the Cama- 

 yura perform the mavurawd ceremony. The men 

 and women paint themselves with urucii and 

 genipapo and sing and dance in praise of the piqui 

 tree. At one stage in the ceremony, processed 

 piqui is eaten and mavurawd is said to come down 

 from the tree and eat piqui with the people. 

 Kinemeu and urivuri are also said to be present 

 at the ceremony. When darkness falls the sacred 

 flutes, jakui, are played and piqui is offered to 

 them. Every effort is made to keep a small 

 quantity of last season's piqui so that some of it 

 can be offered to the flutes. 



COTTON (AMANAYtf) 



In addition to the food crops just described, the 

 Camayura cultivate such plants as cotton, urucii, 

 and tobacco. The native cotton which the Cama- 

 yura cultivate is a perennial, growing to a height 

 of from 5 to 7 feet. Everything connected with 

 cotton, from planting to processing, is women's 

 work. Women plant cotton near the houses at 

 the beginning of the rainy season, placing the 

 seeds about 2 meters apart. The next May the 

 bolls are ready to pick. Cotton is, however, 

 picked only when required. Even as late as 

 August women were seen picking cotton into small 

 circular baskets. No mention was made of an 

 origin myth or of guardian spirits associated with 

 cotton. 



URUCU i 



Urucu is usually planted near the village on 

 lands that have formerly been used for garden 

 crops. This plant, which on the dry plateaus is 

 a low bush, grows in the moister bottom lands to 

 a height of 20 feet or more. The prickly, heart- 

 shaped pods turn to a rich brown color when ripe, 

 the interior being filled with red seeds. The seeds 

 are removed from the pod and boiled in a pot 

 until the hulls separate from the kernels. The 

 fine soft kernels are then boiled until a thick red 

 paste is formed. The paste is kneaded into a 

 cake about 4 inches in diameter and allowed to 

 dry. When required for use, a piece of the cake 

 is broken off and mixed with water or piqui oil 

 and applied to the skin or to objects which the 

 people wish to paint. When mixed with water 

 the painted surface is a dull red but when mixed 

 with oil the surface is bright red. Boiled urucii 

 seeds can also be mixed with food and eaten. 

 Although urucii is used on all ceremonial occasions, 

 it is also used almost daily by the young people 

 for purely decorative purposes. Urucii has a spe- 

 cial mama'e but the Camayura offered no stories 

 connected with its mythical origin. 



TOBACCO (PETlM) 



One does not have to be among the Camayura 

 long to realize that tobacco plays a special role in 

 their lives. Following the universal custom of 

 offering tobacco in the form of cigarettes or Brazil- 

 ian twist in order to enhance social interaction, 

 we observed that only the old men would light up. 

 The young men and women would take tobacco 

 but would later pass it on to their fathers, uncles, 

 or husbands. It was later learned that although 

 shamans could smoke tobacco for pleasure, its 

 primary use was in shamanistic rituals. 



Manioc and piqui, for instance, have guardian 

 spirits or mama'e which are represented by 

 symbols. Tobacco, on the other hand, is itself 

 the living representative of the mama'e. Tobacco 

 is called petim, and petim is also the mama'e. 

 Although no exhaustive analysis of native ideas 

 about tobacco and attitudes toward it could be 

 made, owing to linguistic difficulties, the general 

 notions concerning it appear to be as follows: 

 (1) Tobacco when smoked has the power to bring 



1 The same word is used in Camayura. 



