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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 15 



(aravu), the man serving as a target trying to 

 avoid the arrow by shielding himself behind a 

 bundle of sticks which he holds upright in his 

 hand. 



The word yawart in Camayura means a species of 

 wildcat (Felis pardalis). The performers cover 

 themselves with white clay over which they paint 

 red or black spots resembling those of the jaguar, 

 which often covers the face, chest, arms, and 

 thighs. Some also paint themselves with designs 

 which look snakelike in appearance. The ankles 

 and knees are wrapped with embira lacings and 

 the performer wears the customary belt of cotton 

 string. The arrows or spears are from 5 to 6 

 feet in length, tipped with a round tucum nut 

 in order to avoid puncturing the skin if a performer 

 is hit. The shield consists of a number of sticks 

 about 7 feet long tied together to form a round 

 bundle about 10 inches in diameter. While the 

 lower end of the bundle rests on the ground the 

 player moves the bundle from right to left in 

 front of him so as to meet the flying arrow or to 

 cause it to glance aside. The object of the contest 

 is for the thrower of the arrow to strike the de- 

 fendant in the legs. The side which gets the great- 

 est number of strikes is the winner. Although 

 blunted arrows are used, many severe bruises are 

 sustained by the players. 



Galvao, who saw the yawart at the Camayura 

 village, describes it as follows : 



When we arrived at the Camayura village, a group of 

 young men were being trained to dispute the iawari with 

 the Waura or the Auety. The target was a straw doll. 

 They decided to meet the Auety whose village was nearer 

 than that of the Waura. To this village, after intensive 

 training, were sent three messengers who, on their return, 

 brought a piece of emvira (bark) in which were five nuts 

 to indicate the number of days it would take for the Auety 

 to arrive. The visitors were presented with large quanti- 

 ties of food for they camped outside the village. On the 

 night of their arrival the Kamaiura lit fires in the plaza 

 and practiced shooting at a straw doll. The Auety did 

 the same, retiring to their camp after their chiefs had 

 talked for some time with the Kamaiura chiefs. On the 

 following day the iawari contest took place, lasting for 

 two hours. The Kamaiura came out the winners. The 

 two groups of men lined up — each facing one another, 

 dancing and singing, while in the space between a player 

 was trying to spear his antagonist. When the contest 

 was over the Auety retired to one corner of the plaza where 

 one of the Kamaiura chiefs armed with a bow and arrow 

 knelt in front of the Auety and made a speech and wept. 

 Women accompanied the speech wailing in a loud voice. 



Over a pot of manioc porridge were placed two spear 

 throwers with their respective arrows which were later 

 burnt. The Auety then left being again presented with 

 gifts of meal, sweetpotatoes and beijus [Carvalho, 1949 

 pp. 44-45]. 



CEREMONIAL DRESS 



The standard dress of a man is a fine buriti fiber 

 string around the waist, called yakualdp; that of 

 the women, the uluri, or tameohdp as it is called 

 in Camayura. Better dressed men and women 

 add to this the moit, a string of small flat snafl 

 shell disks. Women wear the moit around their 

 necks while the men wear it around their waist. 

 Today blue or red "store" beads are often sub- 

 stituted for the snail shell disks. A more highly 

 prized necklace, made from rectangular pieces of 

 snail shell, called yepoit is worn on ceremonial 

 occasions. On special occasions the men also 

 wear a narrow cotton band (ininobutiko) tightly 

 bound above the biceps on both arms. When 

 yellow feathers are glued to the arm band it is 

 known as the ariwari. Both men and women also 

 wear a narrow cotton band just below the knee 

 known as the yeiwikwdp, and on all festive occa- 

 sions the men wrap their ankles with many yards of 

 embira bark lashing to the width of about 8 inches. 

 This binding is known as yepitawdp. As urucu 

 is used almost daily all materials take on a reddish- 

 brown color. When participating in dances the 

 women wear a special ulurf, the tail of which sticks 

 out stiffly behind their buttocks to about 8 inches. 

 Diadems made from red and yellow macaw 

 feathers with three long feathers standing upright 

 over the forehead are worn by men in many of 

 the dances. In addition to buriti skirts and capes, 

 featherwork capes are reported but were not seen. 

 Small earplugs and long feather pendants are 

 common among men. 



In addition to the seasonal rituals associated 

 with the mama'e, the Camayura have a secular 

 dance called the urud which can be performed at 

 any time. The word urud is applied both to the 

 flute and to the dance. The urud is a double 

 flute made by fastening together two long tubes 

 of bamboo, the long tube being 7 feet in length, 

 the shorter tube about 5 feet. Each tube is 

 made by joining two halves of bamboo cane to- 

 gether with pitch and lacing. Although the tubes 

 are about 2 inches in diameter and long, they are, 

 however, quite light. The urud flutes are played 



