INDIAN TRIBES OF NORTHERN MATO GROSSO, BRAZIL OBERG 



43 



vidual fancies, neither party fully understanding 

 the other's scale of values. 



Money, of course, has not entered the Upper 

 Xingu. One of the most interesting discussions 

 the writer heard took place at an evening session 

 around the village campfire during which a 

 member of the Roncador-Xingu Expedition tried 

 to explain money and its uses to the Camayura 

 in his halting Tupi. Some coins were passed 

 around and the speaker explained that for various 

 pieces of clothing, food, houses, services, etc., 

 varying piles of money had to be paid. The 

 Camayura listened with great attention. One 

 Indian eventually asked, "Who makes the money?" 

 This question was not satisfactorily explained to 

 the Indians. 



Of the tribal groups seen, the Waura appeared 

 to be the most wealthy. The people were well 

 fed and the numerous children appeared healthier 

 and more energetic. The fact that the Waura 

 are the pot makers for the whole region may 

 account in part for this wealth and well-being, for 

 there is a lively trade in pots which break easily 

 and must be replaced. 



SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 



Just as the technology of the Camayura specifies 

 the resources to be exploited and the tools and 

 processes to be used in the task of making a living, 

 so the social organization or social structure 

 defines the relationships between individuals in 

 the manifold activities which constitutes their 

 social life. The rules and regulations that govern 

 cooperation in the activities of production, the 

 division of labor, exchange, ownership, inheritance, 

 and intertribal trade have already been discussed 

 as part of Camayura economics. But there are 

 numerous other activities concerned, for instance, 

 with procreation, protection, and security, in 

 which the relationship between individuals needs 

 to be defined. As these relationships grow out of 

 blood ties and are expressed in kinship terms, our 

 study of social structure must begin with a dis- 

 cussion of the kinship terms and their behavioral 

 implications. 



KINSHIP TERMINOLOGY 



The kinship terminology of the Camayura is of 

 the bifurcate merging type. (See chart 1.) In 



the grandparents' generation there are terms for 

 grandfather, tamu{, and grandmother, utu, which 

 are used to designate both paternal and maternal 

 grandparents and their siblings. 



In the parental generation the term hapd, 

 father, is extended to father's brothers although 

 specifically a father's brother is called pal, little 

 father. The term amd, mother, is extended to 

 mother's sisters although the derivative term 

 aikarad is also used. The more general terms 

 yerup, fathers or elders, and hiei, mothers, are 

 applied to all old people and to ancestors. The 

 term api is applied to mother's brother and any 

 man he calls brother, and the term yai]£ is applied 

 to father's sister and any woman she calls sister. 

 All these terms are used by both men and women. 



In his own generation a man distinguishes his 

 older brother, awa\, from his younger brother, 

 irawi', and extends these terms to his father's 

 brother's and mother's sister's sons. To desig- 

 nate sisters he has only one term, iran'i, which he 

 extends to his father's brother's and mother's 

 sister's daughters. For cross cousins, both male 

 and female, there is only one term, yatuhdp. The 

 terms employed by a woman in designating her 

 relatives in her own generation are somewhat 

 different from those used by a man. A woman 

 calls her older brother awa%, her younger brother 

 yekewl' or pid; her older sister, pipi, and her 

 younger sister, yekepei'. These terms she extends 

 to her father's brother's and mother's sister's 

 children. Like a man she has only one term for 

 cross cousins, yatuhdp. 



In the children's generation a man calls his son 

 ira'i' (same stem as male sperm) and his daughter 

 iraiE' and extends these terms to the children of 

 all men whom he calls brother. His sister's 

 children he calls niwq (nephew) and niwal' (niece) 

 and extends these terms to the children of all 

 women whom he calls sister. If a man or anyone 

 he calls brother marries a cross cousin the children 

 will be sons and daughters or if a sister marries a 

 cross cousin the children will be called nephew 

 and niece. But if a cross cousin marries someone 

 from another tribe, then the children of a cross 

 cousin are called timd, male, and katsivd, female. 



A woman, on the other hand, calls her son 

 yememurakE and her daughter yememukunyq and 

 extends these terms to the children of any woman 

 whom she calls sister. To designate her brother's 



