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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 15 



old Paressi Indian village site on the west bank of 

 the Papagaio. It is a division point in the tele- 

 graph line, and besides the telegraph operator 

 there is a section boss and a number of Paressi 

 Indian linemen. As the Nambicuara take what- 

 ever wire they feel they need, the linemen are 

 kept busy repairing the line. There are 12 houses 

 in the settlement proper with the buildings of the 

 Protestant Mission forming one end of the town 

 and the buildings of the Jesuit Mission forming 

 the other. 



The line boss, who is also the mayor of the town, 

 gave Kaoro and me a two-room mud-and-wattle 

 house as our quarters. Our meals we took with 

 the two American missionary families. The 

 Catholic Mission was under the charge of Father 

 Eoberto, a Frenchman, and Father Joao, an 

 Austrian. In addition, there were three sisters 

 in charge of a school. The priests had developed 

 extensive fields of manioc and rice, irrigating the 

 fields by diverting water from the river. They 

 had also set up an electric-light plant, using water 

 as a source of power. There are tremendous 

 possibilities for power development, for Utiarity 

 Falls, situated some half a mile distant, has a 

 drop of about 240 feet. Unfortunately this power 

 resource is located in a practically uninhabited, 

 semiarid region. 



The Rev. L. W. Buckman, who has been in the 

 area since 1941, kindly consented to prepare a 

 pack train, using the mission oxen and mules, to 

 go in search of the nearest band of Nambicuara. 

 On the third day after our arrival when our 

 preparations were well along, however, a band of 

 Nambicuara came to Utiarity. In fact they were 

 able to get a ride on Joao Tapuya's trucks as he 

 was returning from Burity, the end of the truck 

 road. This was Julio's band of some 18 people 

 known by the Nambicuara as the Waklitisu. 

 Their purpose was to bring one of their men who 

 had running syphilis sores to the Jesuit Mission 

 for treatment. This changed our plans, for we 

 now had one of the four Eastern Nambiucara bands 

 in camp, which would give us plenty to do for the 

 limited period of our visit. Also dining the first 

 week, Father Joao returned from the Iranxe 

 village, bringing five men, and offered to assist us 

 in gathering whatever information we could get 

 from them. This we found to be very difficult, 

 as the Iranxe spoke no Portuguese and the mis- 



sionaries had not yet learned enough Iranxe to 

 make working with informants possible. 



As all of the following information, unless other- 

 wise specified, relates to the Waklitisu band, a 

 short description of this band is in order. Today 

 the band consists of 18 individuals, of which Julio 

 is the chief. About 5 years ago, before a measles 

 epidemic decimated it, the band was roughly twice 

 the size it is today. Julio is a man of middle age, 

 has three wives and two children, and probably 

 holds his leadership by being the strongest and 

 ablest man in the band. Except for one of 

 Julio's wives and her daughter who are E16tasu, 

 the members of the band, are Waklitisu and 

 related to one another. Julio took the E16tasu 

 woman from the E16tasu band by killing her 

 husband. He claims he did this because the 

 E16tasu chief stole one of his wives some years ago. 

 He claims he is going to steal another wife, for 

 every chief is supposed to have four. Only three 

 other men, Martin, Marciano, and Joaquin, are 

 married, each having one wife. The remaining 

 four are either widowers or as yet unmarried. 



Of all the Indians which I have visited in Mato 

 Grosso the members of this band of Nambicuara 

 were the most miserable. Of the eight men, one 

 had syphilis, another had some kind of infection 

 in his side, another had an injured foot, another 

 was covered with- some kind of scaly skin disease 

 from head to foot, and another was deaf and dumb. 

 The women and children, however, appeared to be 

 healthy. Owing to the fact that they use no 

 hammocks but sleep on the ground, they are 

 always covered with dirt. On cold nights they 

 remove the fires and sleep in the warm ashes. 

 The Waklitisu wear clothes only when they are 

 given by the missionaries, who ask that they be 

 worn. Then* distaste for bathing permits not only 

 a covering of dust and ashes to accumulate on 

 their skin and hair but also particles of decayed 

 meat and fish, which, combined with stale sweat, 

 makes proximity to them rather distasteful. They 

 also appear to be heavily infected with internal 

 parasites, for their stoma ches are distended and 

 they are continually passing wind. On several oc- 

 casions when a number of them had crowded 

 into the small room we used for working we had 

 to cease work in order to air the room. 



In their manners the Nambicuara also contrast 

 sharply with the other tribes I visited. The 



