INDIAN TRIBES OF NORTHERN MATO GROSSO, BRAZIL OBERG 



57 



emits a dull booming sound. The other man 

 stands just behind him shaking a rattle. Around 

 all the men dance a number of women. On the 

 following day women with long-tailed uluri dance 

 in circles. On the third day a woman comes out 

 of a house and is followed by a number of men 

 in skirts and headdresses; they dance around the 

 plaza stopping before each house. 



The Camayura explain that this dance is given 

 to make trees and plants grow, particularly the 

 piqui and mangabeira. The beating of the gourd 

 may represent thunder and the swaying bough- 

 covered dancers may represent growing plants. 

 Support for this interpretation is given by the fact 

 that if rain is slow in coming the dance can be 

 repeated with the use of the urivuri, bull-roarer, 

 which is specifically used to induce rain. 



Then comes the turuwd, which is the dance of 

 the jatoba tree spirit. A man impersonates the 

 spirit dressed in ceremonial attire. As Von den 

 Steinen saw one of these dancers fully dressed we 

 shall use his description of the turuwd dancer: 



Besides the masks for the hiivdt, we observed among the 

 Camayura an enormous web that looked like the hualdq of 

 the Bakairf, having more or less the form of a mushroom 

 with cap and stem. The upper part of the body of the 

 dancer was covered by the cap more or less to the umbilicus 

 and the stem of the mushroom was formed by the hanging 

 fibers. One could see painted with the "mereschu" 

 pattern a quarter of the surface of the cap limited by pieces 

 of sip6 resembling antennae; on the top of the cap rested 

 another stem more or less like the imeo of the Bakairf but 

 covered with thick woven material painted with the same 

 designs and finishing in a grass edge. The object is called 

 turua; in Guaranf turil means "various creatures that live 

 in water," which in Tupi according to Martins its meaning 

 is Tentheredo, a kind of wasp [Von den Steinen, 1894, 

 ch. xi, p. 317]. 



The turuwd is followed by the kinemeu or the 

 dance of the piqui tree spirit. The kinemeu 

 headdress with its antennae represents an insect, as 

 we have seen. The dancer, in addition, wears a 

 buriti fiber skirt and cape so that he is covered 

 from head to foot. He dances to the accompani- 

 ment of singing and the shaking of rattles. 



In the kwarurp cycle, there is at least one more 

 dance called the kuhahd, about which, however, we 

 were not able to gather any information. 



In December when the piqui fruit ripens the 

 Camayura go to the old village of Ipavti to 

 perform the mavurawd dance in honor of another 

 piqui spirit. During the dance a man impcrson- 



954080—53 5 



ates the spirit, dressed in a costume very much 

 like the kinemeu but with longer antennae. He 

 is offered boiled piqui fruit and eats with the 

 people while they sing. Men, women, and 

 children participate in the ceremony. At night 

 the men play the jakui flute in the flute house. 

 Following the mavurawd there are no more tribal 

 ceremonies until the beginning of the dry season 

 in April when the cycle of jakui dances begins 

 along with the secular dance, the jawari. 



THE JAKUI 



At the beginning of the dry season in April when 

 the rivers begin to go down and the products of the 

 field and forest diminish, the Camayura begin 

 increasingly to depend upon fish for their daily 

 food. Associated with the change in the season 

 and in economic pursuits they hold a series of rites 

 connected with the mama'e of fish, known collec- 

 tively as jakuyeep. These masked jakui dances 

 are performed by men only, either in the flute 

 house or in the plaza. During the performances 

 women and children must remain secluded in the 

 houses. In addition to the masks, the dancers 

 wear headdresses representing birds and animals. 

 Although a number of these headdresses were seen, 

 the Camayura were reluctant to say much about 

 them so that no detailed information about the 

 performances were obtained. They admitted, 

 however, that one of the most important of these 

 masked dances was the jakui ikatu (the good or 

 great jakui) . In most of these dances rattles are 

 used and, in some cases, as in the jakui ikatu, the 

 flute jakui is played. About the purpose of these 

 dances the Camayura say little except that they 

 help "to bring the fish." 



The sacred jakui rituals are followed by the 

 great public ceremonial known as the yawari. 

 For this game or contest the Camayura always 

 invite one of the neighboring tribes, such as the 

 Waura, Aueti, or the Trumai. The yawari was 

 obtained by kuat, the sun, from a mythical tribe 

 known as the Panyetan, who later presented it to 

 the Camayura. Another version is that it orig- 

 inally belonged to the Trumai who taught it to 

 the other tribes in the Upper Xingu. 



The yawari is essentially a contest in which 

 representatives of two tribes try to strike each 

 other by throwing an arrow with the spear throwor 



