INDIAN TRIBES OF NORTHERN MATO GROSSO, BRAZIL — OBERG 



37 



cord within the fold. She then ties the folded 

 bast firmly with twine and allows it to dry. 

 When dry, the twine is removed and the bast 

 holds its form. To each end of the string which 

 passes through the uluri, the woman attaches the 

 belt, which is made up of a coil of 10 fine two-ply 

 strings of buriti. The string which passes be- 

 tween the legs is made from fine strands of buriti 

 fiber, but instead of being rolled the strands run 

 parallel and are held together by using one or the 

 other of the strands to make a knot around the 

 string at %-inch intervals. The strands are thinned 

 out as the woman proceeds from the uluri, the cord 

 being heavy at the attached end and tapering to 

 a fine point at the loose end. 



The men claim that misfortune will follow if 

 they come in contact with an uluri. An amusing 

 incident will illustrate this attitude. One day I 

 was busy talking to a number of Camayura 

 women and wished to know something about the 

 manufacture of the uluri. As it happened, there 

 were some half dozen, which had been made to 

 order, lying on a table some feet away. I asked 

 one of the young men standing near to hand me 

 an uluri. The man first appeared not to have 

 heard but when the request was repeated the man 

 after a moment of indecision, took a stick and a 

 piece of paper and sweeping the uluri onto the 

 paper handed it to me at arm's length, to the 

 great amusement of the women. 



THE SCRAPER 



The scraper or scratcher (yaydp) which the 

 Camayura use for scarifying, is a triangular piece 

 of gourd about 4 inches in length and 3 inches 

 across the side into which the teeth are embedded. 

 A row of small holes are drilled with a fish tooth 

 one-fourth of an inch back of the edge and small 

 teeth from the "cachorro" fish are tightly driven 

 through the holes so that they project about one- 

 eighth of an inch on the convex side of the scraper. 

 The teeth are one-eighth of an inch apart and cut 

 a strip about 2}i inches wide when drawn over 

 the skin. 



THE TECHNOLOGY OF THE CAMAYURA 



After one remains among the Camayura for a 

 while and observes them at work and analyzes 

 the techniques of production, one grows to appre- 



ciate the skill and precision of their workmanship 

 and the quality of their products. The technol- 

 ogy of these people is simple — simple in the sense 

 that it consists of a limited number of artifacts, 

 tools, raw materials, and sources of power, and 

 the absence of a technical division of labor. Yet 

 when one carefully examines a single artifact, 

 such as a house, an arrow, or a piece of feather 

 work, and judges it in terms of the total techno- 

 logical resources and the demands its production 

 places upon the individual, it is anything but 

 simple. 



The manual dexterity of the individual worker 

 is even more impressive than the complexity of 

 the object. For many hours I watched a man at 

 work making an arrow. Surrounded by lengths 

 of cane, sticks for foreshafts, pieces of bone, rosin, 

 feathers, twine, and coils of sipo vine, the man 

 will carefully select the materials that are to be 

 used for a special arrow in order that each piece 

 matches the slight variations in size and length 

 of the stem. Then with no other tools than a 

 shell knife, a fish-tooth drill, sandstone, and leaf 

 polishers he will go to work fitting the parts to- 

 gether, his display of craftsmanship being particu- 

 larly striking in the sewing of the feathers to the 

 shaft, the completed arrow being, not only an 

 efficient implement, but a work of art. 



All this, one might say, is a value judgment 

 requiring comparative evidence for support. In 

 comparing the bow and arrow of the Camayura 

 with the heavy crude bow and rough bone-tipped 

 arrow of the Guat6 or the symmetry and excellent 

 straw thatching of the Camayura house with the 

 palm-thatched shed of the Guato, one cannot 

 avoid giving the award of excellence to the Ca- 

 mayura. The contrast between the workmanship 

 of the Camayura with that of such highly accul- 

 turated tribes as the Terena and Caduveo is even 

 more striking. These people have adopted the 

 material equipment and techniques of the white 

 man, but this equipment is of the poorest quality 

 and is used carelessly and with little or no consid- 

 eration for proper maintenance and care. Pov- 

 erty may explain why acculturated tribes have 

 low-grade equipment but it does not explain 

 inefficient use and neglect. 



The Camayura, too, have material equipment 

 like hoes, axes, knives, and a few rifles, which they 

 have adopted. But it was noted with some 



