SOCIAL POWER THROUGH RITUAL POWER
IN MAXAKALÍ SOCIETY
By
Frances Blok Popovich
A Dissertation Presented to the
Faculty of the School of World Mission
FULLER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
Doctor of Philosophy in Intercultural Studies
June 1988
2
ABSTRACT
Popovich, Frances.
1988 Social Power Through Ritual Power in Maxakalí Society
Fuller Theological Seminary School of World Mission, Ph D in ICS
Based on Richard Newbold Adams’ theory of social power (1975), this research focuses on
the high moral value attributed to the performance of traditional rituals. Ritual
performance is the primary duty of every adult, and an important part of what it means to
be a Maxakalí. The performances reinforce the power of the patriarch-leader of the social
unit sponsoring the rituals. The social pressure to perform the rituals threatens to produce
a syncretistic form of Christianity in those Maxakalí who have embraced the gospel.
In this study the author drew on her thirty-year association with the Maxakalí (1958-1987)
as a linguist- Bible translator, her journals that span over fifteen years, and her fluency in
the vernacular language. She analyzed Maxakalí social units structurally, and did an
ethnosemantic analysis of categories of beings in the Maxakalí universe.
She worked with five individuals of the society, who ranked the beings as to power. She
used ethnographic interviews with some seventy Maxakalí, using both open-ended and
direct questions. Some of the questions triggered responses that indicate a strong trend
toward syncretism among those Maxakalí who profess to be Christians.
In the final chapter the author recommends that Bible translators place more emphasis on
translating the Old Testament as a way to teach the character of God. She also urges
translators to encourage ex-animists to develop Christian rituals through which they can
express their worship and needs to God. The final recommendation is to present
Christianity in a way that is congruent with the communal perspective of tribal peoples.
Mentor: Dr. Paul G. Hiebert
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Because many, many people have been helpful and supportive, I will only mention a few
who have been directly involved with this project.
1 My committee, in particular my mentor, Dr. Hiebert, and my very good friend, Dr.
Sherwood Lingenfelter.
2. My husband, who shared the agony of revision and whose profound knowledge
of and love for the Maxakalí make him an invaluable source of information.
3. The Fuller Theological Seminary’s School of World Mission, who have become a
family during this period of study and the frustration of revisions. In particular,
Mrs. Marilyn Clinton, who kept me everlastingly at it.
4. To the Summer Institute of Linguistics who assisted me with grants and who
allowed me the time to work on this research.
5. To the Brazil Branch, for their support and understanding, for producing the
right climate for solid academic study.
6. To my children: David, Jim and Brenda, Annette and Todd, and Philip. Also to my
two darling grandsons.
7. To the Maxakalí for the profound lessons about life that they never tired of
teaching me.
8. To the churches and organizations whose financial support made the work as
well as the research possible.
In closing, I offer this to God in gratitude.
4
CONTENTS
SOCIAL POWER THROUGH RITUAL POWER IN MAXAKALÍ SOCIETY ............................................. 1
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................................... 2
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ........................................................................................................................................ 3
CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................................................... 4
List of Figures ......................................................................................................................................................... 8
INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................................... 9
Historical Overview ......................................................................................................................................... 9
Demographic Records............................................................................................................................. 11
Foraging in Marginal Tribes ................................................................................................................. 12
The Maxakalí as Foragers ................................................................................................................. 12
The Maxakalí as Farmers .................................................................................................................. 13
Maxakalí Social Units.......................................................................................................................... 14
Literacy and the Vernacular New Testament ................................................................................ 14
The Problem .................................................................................................................................................... 15
Methodology ............................................................................................................................................... 16
CHAPTER I POWER IN DOMESTIC RELATIONS ..................................................................................... 17
Social Power .................................................................................................................................................... 17
Basis of Social Power............................................................................................................................... 17
Description of Maxakalí Social Units ..................................................................................................... 18
Água Boa vs. Pradinho ............................................................................................................................ 18
Água Boa Domestic Groups .............................................................................................................. 22
Pradinho Social Units ......................................................................................................................... 23
Analysis of Maxakalí Social Units ............................................................................................................ 25
The Domestic Group: a Coordinated Unit ....................................................................................... 25
The Band: a Consensus Unit ................................................................................................................. 26
Membership and Residence in Social Units.................................................................................... 27
Power Relations in the Social Units ................................................................................................... 27
The Developmental Cycle and Power .................................................................................................... 28
Competition for Power ........................................................................................................................... 29
Leadership Transition ............................................................................................................................ 30
Social Control ............................................................................................................................................. 30
Drinking: Socially-Tolerated Violence .............................................................................................. 31
Leadership in the Social Units .................................................................................................................. 32
Sources of Power ...................................................................................................................................... 33
Água Boa Leaders ................................................................................................................................ 33
Pradinho Leaders ................................................................................................................................. 34
Decision-Making ....................................................................................................................................... 35
CHAPTER II FOOD, LABOR, AND SOCIAL POWER................................................................................. 37
Food Production and Sharing ................................................................................................................... 37
Maxakalí Subsistence Activities .......................................................................................................... 37
An Ideology of Sharing ........................................................................................................................... 39
Strategies for Sharing Food in the Social Units ............................................................................. 39
Sharing by Storing or by Celebrations.............................................................................................. 40
5
Storing: a New Sharing Strategy .................................................................................................... 41
Celebrations: a Traditional Sharing Strategy ............................................................................ 42
Compulsory Sharing ........................................................................................................................... 42
Sexual Division of Labor: Control of Food ........................................................................................... 43
Division of Labor....................................................................................................................................... 43
Control of Food .......................................................................................................................................... 43
Food and Sexual Obligations ........................................................................................................... 44
Widows as Marginalized Women .................................................................................................. 44
Marriage and Food Production ........................................................................................................... 44
Food, Control, and Social Ranking .......................................................................................................... 45
Ranking According to Sex ...................................................................................................................... 45
Ranking According to Age and Prestige ........................................................................................... 47
An Ideology of Equality ............................................................................................................................... 48
Equality and Hierarchy .......................................................................................................................... 48
CHAPTER III POWER IN MAXAKALÍ COSMOLOGY ............................................................................... 50
Maxakalí Cosmology..................................................................................................................................... 50
Transcendent Beings............................................................................................................................... 50
Rain Child ................................................................................................................................................ 50
Topa .......................................................................................................................................................... 51
The Maxakalí Spirit World .................................................................................................................... 53
The Souls-of-the-Dead ............................................................................................................................ 54
At Death ................................................................................................................................................... 55
After Burial ............................................................................................................................................. 56
As a Soul-of-the-Dead ......................................................................................................................... 56
Human/Supernatural Transactions ....................................................................................................... 57
Topa and the Maxakalí............................................................................................................................ 57
Cleverness and Unity Confront Supernatural Power ............................................................. 58
Private Ritual Practitioner: Black Magic .......................................................................................... 59
Disease and Death ............................................................................................................................... 60
Rituals and Shrines ............................................................................................................................. 60
Analysis and Ranking of Beings ............................................................................................................... 61
Ranking as to Power ................................................................................................................................ 62
Analysis of Power and Ranking ............................................................................................................... 63
CHAPTER IV RITUAL POWER AND MAXAKALÍ SOCIAL INTEGRATION ...................................... 65
Ritual Power and Cosmology .................................................................................................................... 65
Ritual and Ideology .................................................................................................................................. 65
The ‘Good’ Maxakalí ............................................................................................................................ 67
The Hawk Spirit Ritual ........................................................................................................................... 69
The Element of Secrecy in Rituals ...................................................................................................... 70
The Use of Disguises ........................................................................................................................... 70
Drinking and Rituals ........................................................................................................................... 71
The Ritual Importance of Women’s Role .................................................................................... 72
Ritual and Social Integration .................................................................................................................... 72
Women and Religious Change ............................................................................................................. 74
Male Roles............................................................................................................................................... 74
Theoretical Debate on Sex Roles in Rituals ............................................................................... 75
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Children and Ritual Power .................................................................................................................... 76
Religion, Social Power, and Sectarianism ............................................................................................ 77
Sectarianism ............................................................................................................................................... 77
Conclusions ...................................................................................................................................................... 77
CHAPTER V SOCIAL POWER AND RELIGIOUS CHANGE..................................................................... 78
The Coming of Christianity ........................................................................................................................ 78
Conversion as a Power Transaction....................................................................................................... 79
Conversion, Consensus and Leadership .......................................................................................... 80
Christianity in Água Boa.................................................................................................................... 81
Christianity in Pradinho .................................................................................................................... 82
Christians as ‘Good’ Maxakalí ................................................................................................................... 82
Christian Participation ........................................................................................................................... 83
Evaluation of Christian Participation in Rituals ...................................................................... 83
Analysis of Maxakalí Syncretism ............................................................................................................. 84
The Problem of Ideological Dissonance ........................................................................................... 84
The Problem of the Excluded Middle ................................................................................................ 85
Theological Issues in Syncretism ....................................................................................................... 89
A Theology of God the Father.......................................................................................................... 89
A Theology of Christ ........................................................................................................................... 89
A Theology of Spirits and the Holy Spirit ................................................................................... 90
A Theology of the Church ................................................................................................................. 90
Sacramental Expressions of Faith ...................................................................................................... 90
Hymns in a Foreign Vehicle ............................................................................................................. 90
Hymns in a Traditional Vehicle ...................................................................................................... 91
Developing Ritual Expressions of Faith ...................................................................................... 91
Social Issues in Conversion................................................................................................................... 93
Corporate Decision-Making ............................................................................................................. 93
Leadership Roles .................................................................................................................................. 94
Energetic Effects of Mentalistic Change ........................................................................................... 94
Conversion and Change .............................................................................................................................. 94
Implications for Understanding Syncretism .................................................................................. 95
Dealing with the Old ........................................................................................................................... 95
Recommendations for Translation Strategy .................................................................................. 96
Spiritual Power in Old Testament Scriptures ........................................................................... 96
Spiritual Power in Teaching ............................................................................................................ 96
Spiritual Power in Christian Rituals ............................................................................................. 97
Social Power in Church Structure.................................................................................................. 97
Conclusions ...................................................................................................................................................... 98
Further Research ...................................................................................................................................... 98
APPENDIX A MYTHS ABOUT TOPA ........................................................................................................... 100
M’s Complaint about Topa ....................................................................................................................... 100
CO’s Topa Tales ............................................................................................................................................ 100
Tale Two: Topa Gives the Otter.............................................................................................................. 101
Tale Three: Topa Decrees Ethnic Distinctions ................................................................................. 101
Tale Four: Topa Rewards Hospitality .................................................................................................. 101
Tale Five: Topa Tricks the Stupid Outsider ....................................................................................... 101
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Tale Six: Topa Punishes Greedy Monkeys.......................................................................................... 101
Tale Seven: The Rain Child ...................................................................................................................... 102
Tale Eight: Topa and His Mother’s Corpse......................................................................................... 102
Tale Nine: Topa and the Coffee Harvest ............................................................................................. 102
Tale Ten: Topa and the Rice Crop ......................................................................................................... 103
Tale Eleven: Topa and the Pigs’ Tails................................................................................................... 103
Topa Animal Tales....................................................................................................................................... 103
Tale Twelve: Topa, the Jaguar, and the Rabbit................................................................................. 103
Tale Thirteen: The Jaguar and the Wasp ............................................................................................ 104
Tale Fourteen: The Jaguar and the Rabbit Again ............................................................................ 104
The Maxakalí Origin Myth ........................................................................................................................ 105
The Otter Tale ............................................................................................................................................... 105
The Flood and the Sole Survivor ........................................................................................................... 105
The Ancestors Fight with Topa .............................................................................................................. 107
APPENDIX B LIFE STORIES .......................................................................................................................... 108
J’s Story ............................................................................................................................................................ 108
JL’s Story ......................................................................................................................................................... 110
M’s Stories ...................................................................................................................................................... 111
Second Story.................................................................................................................................................. 112
Third Story ..................................................................................................................................................... 112
Fourth Story .................................................................................................................................................. 113
MK’s Story ...................................................................................................................................................... 113
D’s Story .......................................................................................................................................................... 116
AJ’s Story ......................................................................................................................................................... 117
REFERENCES CITED ....................................................................................................................................... 119
VITA ....................................................................................................................................................................... 123
8
List of Figures
Figure 1: Map of Central Brazil ..................................................................................................................... 10
Figure 2: Maxakalí Population in this Century ....................................................................................... 12
Figure 3: Map of the Two Maxakalí Reservations ................................................................................. 19
Figure 4: Households and Ritual Center at Mãkpa (Su #1) in 1980 ............................................... 20
Figure 5: Genealogical Ties of 1980 Mãkpa Social Unit ...................................................................... 21
Figure 6: Genealogical Ties of 1983 Residents of Mãkpa ................................................................... 21
Figure 7: Kinship Ties of Xaxkunut Social Unit (Su #9) In 1983 ..................................................... 22
Figure 8: Mĩkax Kaka Social Unit (Su #16) in 1983 .............................................................................. 23
Figure 9: Households and Ritual Center at Hãpxanep (Su #12) in 1987 ...................................... 24
Figure 10: Households and Ritual Center at Xatapa (Su #13).......................................................... 25
Figure 11: Maxakalí Social Units .................................................................................................................. 26
Figure 12: Social Units on the Two Maxakalí Reservations ............................................................... 34
Figure 13: Maxakalí Consensus Decision-Making ................................................................................. 36
Figure 14: Sacred Areas of Consensus Unit ............................................................................................. 61
Figure 15: Maxakalí Categories of Beings ................................................................................................. 62
Figure 16: Ranking Beings as to Power ..................................................................................................... 63
Figure 17: Characteristics of ‘Good’ Maxakalí ......................................................................................... 68
Figure 18: Liminal Phase of the Hawk Spirit Ritual .............................................................................. 72
Figure 19: Dimensions of Maxakalí Religion ........................................................................................... 86
Figure 20: Mythical Human-Divine Relationships ................................................................................ 87
Figure 21: Traditional Human-Divine Relationships ........................................................................... 87
Figure 22: Biblical Human-Divine Relationships................................................................................... 88
Figure 23: Basis of Maxakalí Social Power ............................................................................................... 88
9
INTRODUCTION
My husband and I went to live among the Maxakalí in Minas Gerais State in 1959 with two
sons: one sixteen months old and the other five months old. We set up housekeeping in
Água Boa, moving into a daub and wattle house we rented from J, a member of the Maxakalí
society. Our closest neighbors were members of the Mariano band. They were happy to
teach us their language and cooperated in the linguistic analysis and later in Bible
translation, but assured us that our God had nothing to do with them. They had Topa the
Transcendent Being and the yãmĩyxop ‘Souls-of-the-Dead.’ At that time I did not
understand that to be a Maxakalí is to participate in the traditional rituals. Any deviation is
unthinkable. The traditional religion is a major unifying structure in the Maxakalí society. I
became aware of the problem after the translated New Testament was dedicated and
distribution was begun. I noticed that I could not determine who was a Christian and who
was not, purely on the criterion of participation in the animist rituals. This led me to study
the social meanings of the Maxakalí traditional religion and its continuing influence over
those who professed to be Christians.
Historical Overview
Curt Nimuendaju (1958) tells us that the ethnic group we know today as the Maxakalí were
numerous small bands, scattered throughout a wide area in the Jequitinhonha, Mucury, and
Doce Valleys of East Central Brazil. There are few records of the early years of colonization
of this region. One reason for the scarcity of written material was the low percentage of
literates among the Portuguese settlers and their early descendants (Moog 1961:129). For
information on the Maxakalí prior to 1959 we are chiefly indebted to foreign travelers
(Wied von Nieuwied 1820, Nimuendaju 1939, Metraux 1946) and to the Brazilian historian
Theophilo Ottoni (1858) of eastern Minas Gerais State.
A glance at the map of Brazil (Figure 1) shows that the mouth of the Jequitinhonha River is
not too far from Porto Seguro, Bahia, where the Portuguese discoverers of Brazil, led by
Pedro Alvares Cabral, first touched land on April 21, 1500. The natural barriers of
mountains and forests saved the Maxakalí from the fate of the tribes who were located
along the coast and exposed to the avaricious invaders.
The first mention of the Maxakalí was in a letter written by João da Silva Guimarães, dated
May 26, 1734 (Nimuendaju 1958). He reported that his attempts to reach the headwaters
of the São Mateus River were frustrated by a group of Maxakalí warriors located at the
tributaries of the Mucury River (see area map, Figure 1). Wied von Nieuwied (1958,
written in 1820) saw the Maxakalí at the Prado River in 1816. In 1810-1814 they were in
the Lower Jequitinhonha Valley, and Johann Emanuel Pohl met them in 1818 at Ribeirão
Prates. A later traveler, Wilhelm Christian Gottfeld von Feldner stayed with the Maxakalí
sometime during the first half of the nineteenth century, witnessing attacks on the village
by the feared Botocudos in which a number of Maxakalí were killed (Nascimento 1984:23).
10
Figure 1: Map of Central Brazil
11
Early travelers to Minas Gerais, Bahia, and Espirito Santo States described the nomadic
bands as “families” (Wied von Nieuwied in 1815-1817, and Ottoni in 1858). At the turn of
the twentieth century the Maxakalí still roamed the forested country in East Central Brazil
as hunters and gatherers. They practiced a rudimentary form of horticulture, but this was
mainly women’s work and only supplemented what could be acquired through hunting, the
more prestigious and primary method of subsistence (Wied-von Nieuwied 1815-1817,
Ottoni 1858, Metraux 1946, Nimuendaju 1958. Cf. Rubinger 1963, Ribeiro 1970, Popovich
1980, and Nascimento 1984). Politically egalitarian, there were no specialists. Heads of
social units were leaders and all initiated males assumed joint responsibility to confront
the spirits (Nimuendaju 1958), mediating between the physical and spirit worlds (H.
Popovich 1976).
Intertribal wars and persecution by the Portuguese colonists eventually reduced the people
speaking a common language to two main groups: those who had remained in their home
territory in the Itanháem Valley and those who had been enticed by the military post at
Jequitinhonha to settle there and help fight the Botocudos. The second group eventually
migrated south to join the Itanháem group and thus became the Maxakalí tribe of today
(Nimuendaju 1958:55).
At the turn of the century, homesteaders began to move into the area to claim ownership to
vast tracts of land. The Maxakalí found themselves landless and decimated by Europeantype communicable diseases. They were repeatedly expelled from land on which they were
living when homesteaders seized it at gun point and massacred the Indians who would not
yield. In 1919, Joaquim Fagundes Martins, calling himself an “Indian tamer,” sold the land
on which the Indians were living and persuaded the tribal group to follow him into Bahia
for resettlement. When many Maxakalí became ill and died, the survivors returned, only to
find homesteaders in possession of the land. Extinction seemed only a matter of time.
Demographic Records
In 1939 Nimuendaju (the German ethnographer Kurt Unkel) visited the Maxakalí, who
were confined on all sides and on the verge of extinction (1958:56). The population had
dropped from the thousands down to a mere 120-140 and the Maxakalí had been initiated
into their new lifestyle of marginalization and deprivation. Nimuendaju requested the
Indian Protective Agency (SPI) to establish a reservation for them, which took place the
following year. Rubinger (1963) reports that in 1942, government records showed a
drastic decrease in population. The disparity in the official population records for 1942 and
1943 raise a question in my mind about the statistics. A population of less than sixty seems
a very low number, indeed, especially when this is compared with the number of 118 for
the following year. In 1943 the statistics showed a slow increase in population growth,
which has continued until the present (see Figure 2).
12
Year
Population
1900
1,000 + ??
1939
120
1942
59
1943
118
1959
197
1977
382
1980
448
1986
566
Figure 2: Maxakalí Population in this Century
In 1980, the population of Pradinho reserve was still larger than that of the Água Boa
reserve and the total population had increased to 448 (Nascimento 1984:28). At this time
the two areas were divided into separate administrative units, and the Pradinho reserve
received its own resident Indian agency staff. The 1986 official census of Água Boa showed
a population of 300, for the first time surpassing the Pradinho population. The 1985 census
of the Pradinho reserve showed a population of 266.
Foraging in Marginal Tribes
The Maxakalí are only mentioned twice in Steward and Faron’s listing of South American
nomadic linguistic families. They described the nonfarming Indians of South America as
“marginal.” By this they meant the societies lacked many cultural elements characteristic of
the more complex societies of hunters and gatherers. The “Mashacali” are listed as being
located “near the Brazilian coast.” They are also listed among societies that made
hammocks (Steward 1959:378, 395).
Nomadic foragers differed from other South American Indians in their economic and
technological simplicity. They were small, scattered, and undifferentiated bands that lived
in unproductive environments which only supported sparse populations. They were
nomadic bands, organized around subsistence needs. In their travels they kept to limited
territories and traveled around in circles (p. 376).
Gathering was competitive, but hunting was often cooperative (p. 377). All the bands were
cohesive units, structured on the basis of kinship, sex and age. Egalitarian in structure,
social or occupational classes were rare. There were no priesthoods or full-time
nonreligious leaders. Typically, the leaders had only advisory powers (p. 381).
The Maxakalí as Foragers
Lomax and Arensberg (1977) classify all the Central Brazil tribal groups as “incipient
producers,” which they define as “extractors, harvesters of wild products, with ---some
13
agriculture” (p. 661). The extractors obtained at least half of their subsistence this way and
left little evidence of their passing. The other half of subsistence was based on hunting.
They were small, nomadic, and loosely organized; the production teams were voluntary,
composed of equals. Kinship organization was bilateral allowing for maximal flexibility.
Collectors are extractors who obtain the major portion of their subsistence from collecting
rather than from hunting or fishing. In this economy food and possessions are shared
because needs can usually be met in half a day of collecting (p. 668). They found sharp
distinctions between societies that derived their primary subsistence from hunting and
those who depended mainly on gathering. Men dominated the subsistence activities in the
former and women in the latter.
Scanning the extensive Taxonomic Scheme (p. 680-698) based on Murdock’s Atlas, I could
not find the Maxakalí on any list. According to Wied von Nieuwied (1958), who wrote in
1820, they were primarily hunters. As their territory diminished, the Maxakalí depended
more on roots, vegetables, or tree crops. Early in this century they began to produce some
cereal crops (rice, corn) as they were progressively deprived of traditional hunting and
fishing resources. By the time Nimuendaju visited them in 1939, the forests had been
destroyed and Maxakalí subsistence depended on mainly on agriculture (Nimuendaju
1958). He reports that the homesteaders burned down the forests in the Itanháem Valley
and planted long grasses to provide pasture for the cattle that they brought into the area.
The destruction of the forests killed off the wild animals which were the major source of
the Maxakalí subsistence. It also destroyed the wild fruits and nuts that had supplemented
their protein-rich diet. Between 1919 and 1939 the Maxakalí were often driven to ‘hunt’
the ranchers’ herds for meat and ‘gather’ from the ranchers’ tilled fields in attempts to
survive. Meanwhile they were assaulted by epidemics of measles and chicken pox that
drastically decimated the population. Raiding proved to be a costly way to provide for their
basic caloric needs, because the ranchers killed any Indians caught trespassing on lands the
ranchers claimed for their own. Hunger in its starkest form forced them to begin planting
rice, corn and beans, although seldom in sufficient quantities for their needs.
The Maxakalí as Farmers
The constraints of the physical environment forced rapid changes on a people whose
traditional ideology is changing very slowly. In spite of the fact that their main subsistence
was derived from agriculture as far back as 1939 (Nimuendaju 1958), their deepest values
have not changed. They have been grudging and reluctant farmers.
The government has tried to turn the Maxakalí into agriculturalists for forty years, but has
had only limited success, in part, because the Maxakalí lack the concept of storing food that
is required for an agricultural subsistence. They acquire but do not accumulate. A nomadic
ideology condemns accumulation as antisocial behavior and this has militated against any
attempt to store cereal foods in sufficient amounts to last until the next harvest. Those who
try to store the crops have the privilege of feeding all the relatives who didn’t, and still end
up hungry. Most Maxakalí sell off the crop at harvest time, when the price is lowest.
14
Maxakalí Social Units
The traditional social units occupied a large, round, communal house thatched with palm
fronds (Wied von Nieuwied 1958:265). Later reports tell of dome-shaped individual family
houses (Metraux 1946:542), and still later, small rectangular, precarious structures which
seemed to have been raised haphazardly, with no perceivable order in the placement
(Nimuendaju 1958).
Early travelers reported a single ritual center close the communal houses. The importance
of the rituals waxed and waned during my thirty-year-long acquaintance with the Maxakalí.
The Pradinho reservation has usually had a ritual center in operation during this period,
and Água Boa seldom had more than one, with long periods without any. The modern
emphasis on the ritual life of the society may well be a response to the multiple threats to
the survival of the society, imposed by constant interaction with non-Indian homesteaders
and government agents. Further impact on the society came from an organized literacy
program and the advocates of Christianity. These influences probably triggered a nativistic
response from the society’s traditional leaders.
Literacy and the Vernacular New Testament
The Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) began work among the Maxakalí in 1959. My
husband and I, with two sons under two years of age, settled in among the Maxakalí. We
rented a tile-roofed house from J, a member of the Mariano band. We learned the language
monolingually and developed a tentative phonological statement by 1960. This statement
was unsatisfactory, however, because it failed to explain the predictability of vowel-like
sounds that occurred regularly with certain consonants. With the help of phonologist Dr.
Sarah Gudschinsky, we were able to analyze these vowel-like sounds as allophones or
variants of consonant phonemes. This feature of the Maxakalí language was a theoretical
breakthrough in linguistic research (Gudschinsky, H. Popovich, and F. Popovich 1970).
My husband (H. Popovich) did a grammatical analysis of time/space markers, which was
subsequently published (1967). We further developed a practical orthography for
preparing didactic literacy materials. We began serious Bible translation in the late 1960s,
with several preliminary publications and culminating with the final manuscript of the
completed New Testament in 1980.
As a registered nurse, it did not take me long to find uses for my nursing skills. The
Maxakalí were far from any medical center and the Indian agency suffered a chronic lack of
medical supplies in the early years. I was able to see encouraging results in the reduced
infant mortality rate and a measure of population growth. In the mid-1970s the Indian
agency acquired both trained staff and more adequate medical supplies, so I concentrated
on Bible translation. I was privileged to translate fifteen of the twenty-nine New Testament
books. The translation was done entirely monolingually, because the Maxakalí resisted the
dominant language of Brazil until the eighth decade of this century. Even today, the
Maxakalí only use Portuguese when absolutely necessary for communication.
In 1981 the Maxakalí New Testament was dedicated and distribution was linked to
completing all the literacy classes. Students who proved they could read for meaning were
awarded a brand-new New Testament in Maxakalí. While individual Scripture portions had
15
been published and distributed since the early 1970s, this was the first time that a
significant percentage of the adult population could read the Scriptures themselves. The
successful completion of the primer series and transitional literature served to raise the
value of the printed page to unprecedented heights. Something like 30% of all adults
earned a New Testament during this decade; the vast majority were men because the
women lagged far behind the men in acquiring reading ability.
The vernacular New Testament expanded traditional linguistic categories while it
challenged central values and the traditional rituals. The values and rituals continue to
provide the ‘glue’ that hold the Maxakalí together as an ethnic group and as a tribal people.
While the vernacular scriptures challenged some unquestioned presuppositions and
cultural values, they strongly affirmed the value of the Maxakalí language and ethnicity.
The Maxakalí received the published New Testaments with pride and pleasure. Some forty
people had become Christians in 1971, when the Maxakalí experienced a divine
intervention in their lives (see Chapter V). The society places a high value on the vernacular
language and consequently the published New Testament was a validation of their pride in
their ethnicity. The early Maxakalí enthusiasts for literacy were primarily Christians who
were excited about God’s words in their own language. There were diverse reasons,
therefore, for the warm reception given to the completed New Testament. To some,
Christianity is an enhancement of their traditional rituals and they have incorporated the
scriptures into their culture to varying degrees. Others, however, identify themselves with
the faith in Jesus Christ and affirm that they are kenẽn xop ‘believers’ who “walk on God’s
road.”
The Problem
The Maxakalí define the highest moral value of their society as carrying out the Souls-ofthe-Dead ritual obligations. Of the seventy members of the society interviewed (the
majority men), sixty-eight said that the rituals and preparations for them are the primary
characteristics of a ‘good’ Maxakalí. Only two people listed relational values first, such as
speaking well, not being angry, and generosity. Even the two who did not give rituals first
place agreed that ritual performances are important attributes of a responsible member of
the society.
During a period of some fifteen to twenty years, the ritual life had low priority in the lives
of the people. How do we account for the resurgence of ritual activity and the strong
consensus of the importance of the rituals to the survival and well-being of the society?
What is the relation between the introduction of Christianity and the renewed emphasis on
the traditional rituals? What is the role of the traditional rituals in the lives of the Maxakalí
people, particularly as they relate to the power structure of the society?
In order to answer this question we will need to examine what is the place of ritual and of
power in the Maxakalí society, and how do they relate to each other. In order to answer the
question, we first need to examine the existing power structures of the society.
When a society’s leaders cannot control the access to energetic resources in their
environment, they will try to strengthen their control of mentalistic resources. They will try
to attract followers from among those who also value these resources and increase their
16
social power in this way. In this paper I will show that the loss of the traditional Maxakalí
male role of dominance in subsistence factors and war parties has created a need to
express male dominance in other ways. The male esoteric cult of the Souls-of-the-Dead
gives the men exclusive access to spiritual power and thus provides them with undisputed
social power.
This research project attempts to expose the cultural factors that have contributed to the
syncretistic form of Christianity among the Maxakalí. The research will examine first the
exercise of power within Maxakalí social units, and then focus on the place of rituals in the
exercise of power.
Methodology
I have had regular association with the Maxakalí over a period of twenty-five years. With
my husband A. Harold, I did linguistic research and analysis as well as ethnographic
research. All of the research has been done monolingually, using the Maxakalí cultural
communication vehicles. I experienced with them the pain and loss caused by intergroup
violence, the frustration of an enforced agricultural lifestyle that contradicted social
behavioral norms. I observed the veiled power struggles within social units. I had access to
inside information due to my fictive kinship status with certain households: those of my
own fictive kin and my husband’s fictive kin.
With Maxakalí assistants I translated 15 books of the New Testament into the vernacular
language. Both my husband and I have served the people with medical assistance over the
years. The trust relationships established over the long time span of our association have
given me access to information that goes beyond the surface phenomena.
My husband recorded some 200 hours of Maxakalí myths and folktales. Only a small
percentage of these have been transcribed, but I had access to this rich source of data. My
fluency in the Maxakalí language allowed me to use ethnographic interviews to discover
the characteristics of a ‘good’ Maxakalí. It also permitted me to use ethnosemantic analyses
to discover Maxakalí emic categories of the beings in their universe.
I kept daily journals on interactions which have given me deeper understanding of cultural
mechanisms as well as ideologies. These ethnographic notes were taken over a twenty-five
year period and are my primary source of transactional data. I also did a structural analysis
of three Maxakalí bands to study the power relationships through the spatial factors.
Histories of the early settlement of the area under study helped to flesh out the broader
picture. Most of the library sources are available in Portuguese, although a few were in
French and German. These I read through Portuguese translations or through translated
syntheses produced by Brazilian colleagues and credited to them. The Fundação Nacional
do Indio (FUNAI) generously made their census records on the Maxakalí available to me.
The hospitality and warm humanity of the agency employees also greatly assisted me in my
research.
17
CHAPTER I
POWER IN DOMESTIC RELATIONS
Social power has to do with the relative control the participants of a community have over
the part of the environment that concerns them all (Adams 1975:9, 10). Responsible social
power mobilizes the members of the group for the welfare of the entire community. In this
chapter we will review the power relations within and between Maxakalí social units.
Social Power
This study of Maxakalí power relations will use the eclectic approach of Richard Newbold
Adams (1975). Adams developed a theory of social power in which he expands on Leslie
White’s (1943) theory—harnessing energy resources is the primary factor in social
evolution—and includes nonmaterial kinds of resources, whose control gives power.
Adams (1975:15) explicitly includes “knowledge, skills, and materials” in his definition of
‘technology’ as well as the “ideas associated with them.” He agrees with Pierre Bourdieu
(1977:178) that the idea of economy should extend to include both material and symbolic
goods (a handshake, a smile, a compliment, a pleasure, information). Anything can become
the basis for power, so long as the item, idea, or process, is judged as valuable by two or
more persons.
Basis of Social Power
Adams defines his use of “social power” as referring to the relative equality of the actors or
groups of actors. It is concerned with how much control one actor has over another, which
one dominates the other in the competition over elements in the environment to which
both desire access. He gives three criteria for determining the degree of control persons
exercise over their world:
1. The increase in the amount and varieties of environment exploited and
destroyed by human beings.
2. The number and variety of social relationships enjoyed.
3. The control over the environment in terms of White’s formula: the amount of
energy a society harnesses per capita per year (Adams 1975:9-11).
All relationships between individuals, says Adams (1975:9), exist about something. Energy
can only be used as a basis for social power when humans culturally recognize that the
energy forms and flows are relevant to some system of value and meaning. Control of the
environment means that the individual or group makes and carries out decisions about the
use of a specific technology (Adams 1975:13).
Adams speaks of two kinds of power: allocated and delegated, and two types of structures:
the mentalistic imposed by the human mind to create order—and the energetic—imposed
by technology, in the broad sense of the term. He defines culture as actors using mental
structures to exercise control over something energetic (p. 107).
Power relationships can be coordinate or unequal: superordinate and subordinate.
18
Description of Maxakalí Social Units
In this paper I use the term social unit (SU) as a rough equivalent for Adams’ “operating
unit” (1975:56). All Maxakalí social units are culturally defined as kin groups.
Traditionally, the Maxakalí were seminomadic hunters in kinship bands. Each band was
independent, although they were linked through marriage ties with other bands and
formed informal identity alliances when facing a common foe. All who share the Maxakalí
language and culture form an identity unit, tikmũ’ũn ‘the People,’ ‘us.’ As they were forced
to depend more on agriculture, which has unproductive seasons, the duty to share led to
the formation of smaller social units. The Maxakalí domestic group is the basic unit of social
integration, whereas the band represents the maximum in Maxakalí social complexity.
Água Boa vs. Pradinho
The Maxakalí (as an identity unit) live on two tracts of land—7,742 acres—that are
separated by a one-mile corridor of land owned by homesteaders from the Brazilian
dominant society. The two tracts of land are Indian reservations called Água Boa and
Pradinho (see Figure 3), with separate administrations. A 1984 census lists 300 Água Boa
Maxakalí and a 1985 census lists 266 Pradinho Maxakalí.
Domestic groups have no special names; they are often referred to by the patriarch’s name.
Households are referred to as “such-and-such’s pet,” ‘home.’ The bands have locationoriented labels. In this paper I will refer to the bands by place name or social unit (SU)
number, keyed to the numbers in Figure 3. I will simply indicate the domestic groups by the
appropriate numbers, keyed to the same map.
Água Boa residents have had more concentrated influence from the national culture than
those in Pradinho because the tutelary federal Indian agency has been operating in the
Água Boa area since 1940. The Pradinho reservation has only had a regular Indian agency
presence since 1981, when it was removed from the Água Boa-based reservation
administration and established as a separate entity.
Rivalries have evolved between the two Maxakalí groups over the years and the Água Boa
and Pradinho Maxakalí have developed separate identities to some extent. The Água Boa
group (no pox yõg tikmũ’ũn) considers the Pradinho group (pananĩn yõg tikmũ’ũn)
primitive and backward. The Pradinho group considers the Água Boa group impure
because they have produced most of the mestiços, those who are not ‘genuine Maxakalí’
tikmũ’ũn yĩnmũn. They accuse them of being more like the outsiders ‘ãyuhuk putuk.
19
Figure 3: Map of the Two Maxakalí Reservations
The diagram of SU #1 (see Figure 4) is based on 1980 data (Popovich 1980:26). It was
structurally a domestic group, but the recent construction of the ritual center showed a
power expansion on the part of the patriarch. This expansion can be seen in Figure 6, as it
is contrasted with Figure 5. In 1980 there was only one other Maxakalí ritual center: that
was in Pradinho, at Pananĩn (SU #15).
20
North
CREEK
4
5
3
F
I
E
L
D
S
Patriarch’s Household
R
0
A
D
1
Public
or
Dance
Area
No Women
Ritual Center
T’s Unit
Allowed
2
FIELDS
Figure 4: Households and Ritual Center at Mãkpa (Su #1) in 1980
(Adapted from Popovich 1980)
21
Patriarch
T’s Household
Δ = Male sex
O = Female Sex
Dotted lines = household
Continuous lines = domestic group
Figure 5: Genealogical Ties of 1980 Mãkpa Social Unit
(Adapted from Popovich 1980)
Patriarch
T’s Domestic Group
Δ = Male sex
O = Female Sex
Dotted lines = household
Continuous lines = domestic group
Figure 6: Genealogical Ties of 1983 Residents of Mãkpa
(Based on data by Carmen Lucia da Silva)
22
The current patriarch of SU #1 (T) is the fourth of five brothers, but in 1982 he already
showed promise as a strong, inclusive leader. His domestic group sheltered affines as well
as consanguineal kin. His wife’s siblings were under his protection and leadership.
JL (the patriarch of SU #9), his two brothers, and a sister with their descendants live an
hour’s walk from the administrative center of the reservation. Their social unit (SU #9) at
Xaxkunut tends to fluctuate between a band and a domestic group (see Figure 7). I have
listed it under bands, although the group was relatively small in 1987 and could more
properly have been classified as a domestic group. There were three clusters of houses that
identified themselves in terms of the location, perhaps a habit acquired when it was a band.
There was no traditional ritual center, but one building was distinguished as a kind of
‘meeting hall,’ and it was my understanding that the Souls-of-the-Dead rituals were not
performed here. The patriarch JL spoke of joining with the SU #1 to participate in the
rituals with them.
The Xaxkunut band shelters the numerous widowed sisters and daughters of the family
heads. The only married couples are the patriarch and his wife, his son and wife, and two
sons of widowed daughters and their wives. The patriarch’s two unmarried brothers also
belong to the group.
(Patriarch)
Δ=O
O
Δ
Δ=O
Δ
O
Δ
O
Δ
Δ = Male Sex
O = Female Sex
Dotted lines = Household
Continuous circles = Domestic Group
Straight continuous line = Kinship Link
Figure 7: Kinship Ties of Xaxkunut Social Unit (Su #9) In 1983
(Based on data from Carmen Lucia da Silva)
Água Boa Domestic Groups
The SU #6 domestic group is prosperous, by Maxakalí standards: they owned horses and
thirty head of cattle in 1987. The patriarch is the father of a large number of young people
who are establishing households. As a result of his relative affluence and large number of
surviving children, he has great power potential. He always was something of an agnostic
rarely participating in the traditional rituals and not easily deterred by the traditional
ideology that assigns wild animals to the Maxakalí and domestic animals to the outsiders.
He has remained marginal to the ritual life of the Maxakalí society.
23
In 1960 the patriarch of SU #6 was a member of the Mariano band that was the only band
in Água Boa. The group built a ritual center and other domestic groups were invited to
participate in the rituals. The Mariano band fragmented when the patriarch-leader beat his
wife to death. Seven of today’s fragmented social units originally belonged to the Mariano
band, but when the patriarch killed his wife, her relatives broke off from his relatives and
the social unit never reorganized. After the band broke up, it was many years before
another ritual center was built in Água Boa. In the interim, the Água Boa residents had to go
to a band in Pradinho (there was only one ritual center there) to take part in religious
rituals. For some years the patriarch of today’s SU #6 formed a domestic group with
siblings from SUs 7, 10, and 11. In time, they split up and formed separate fragmented
units.
Fragmented domestic groups include SU #2,#4, and #5, mestiços; SU #11, a widow, sister of
the SU #6 patriarch, her daughter, son, his wife, and their children; SU #10, whose
patriarch is a brother of the patriarch of SU #6; and another sister in SU #7, whose
household retreated to a mountain side when a son was killed in 1986. The fragmented
domestic groups are composed of two or three households. In the Indian agency records,
SU #10 and 11 are listed as belonging to SU #6 as one “village.” A glance at the map in
Figure 3 will show that these groups are quite separate from each other geographically.
They are children of one mother, but have chosen to live separately. There is little
economic cooperation between them.
Pradinho Social Units
The January, 1983 data on the Mĩkax Kaka (SU #16) unit, lists a patriarch as leader of SU
#16. He was murdered in a binge-sanctioned revenge killing in 1986, and his strong-willed
wife took over the leadership of the domestic group. The data lists four “families,” but the
group is much larger today (see Figure 8, below). In her attempt to consolidate power, the
matriarch sponsored the building of a ritual center after September, 1987 and it is now a
band in terms of structural complexity. Her leadership is truly unique. She is a strong,
commanding figure, uniting her sons and their families.
O
O = Δ
Δ
Δ=O
O=Δ
X
X
X
=
=
=
O
O
Patriarch O
Δ = Male sex
O = Female Sex
X=unspecified Sex
Dotted lines = household
Continuous lines = domestic group
Figure 8: Mĩkax Kaka Social Unit (Su #16) in 1983
Δ = O
O
24
(Based on data from Carmen Lucia Da Silva)
As a woman, the matriarch may not participate in the rituals, yet in 1987 she sponsored the
construction of a ritual center in her band to enhance her leadership. The matriarch’s
unorthodox role is made possible by the proximity to the Indian agency residences that
provide some degree of safety for her and certain practical material advantages. This band
is known to be quarrelsome.
At the end of 1987, there were four bands on the Pradinho reserve, one fragmented
household (SU #14), and three domestic groups (see SUs # 17-19, Figure 3). The largest
band is at Pananĩn ‘spot of grassland’ (SU #15), the traditional location from which the
reservation derived its name.
The band second in size was also second in distance from the Indian agency center.
Hãpxanep (SU #12) is named from its location on a ‘flat hilltop.’ Here the patriarch CO
presides over one of the most conservative bands in the society (see Figure 9).
FIELDS
North
Ritual Center
F
I
E
L
D
S
Public or
Dance Area
C
R
E
E
K
Patriarch
(CO)
ROAD
Figure 9: Households and Ritual Center at Hãpxanep (Su #12) in 1987
The third band was Xatapa ‘over there’ or ‘beyond’ (SU #13). Here the placement of the
houses was less circular; the houses stood in an irregular arc built on the narrow crown of
a hill (see Figure 10).
The Pradinho domestic groups consisted of only two or three households (see Figure 12,
below). SU #18 consisted of a man and his widowed mother and sister as well as his own
conjugal family. Two brothers, with their families and an aging mother, lived off by
themselves, just behind the government residences (SU #19). One patriarch lived across a
stream from SU #16, with his sons and their families (SU #17). His other children lived in
25
diverse domestic groups in Pradinho and Água Boa. The Maxakalí like to build on a hill to
make themselves less accessible.
North
C
R
E
E
K
F
I
E
L
D
S
Ritual Center
Public or Dance Area
Access to Road
Patriarch
(MK)
FIELDS
Figure 10: Households and Ritual Center at Xatapa (Su #13)
Analysis of Maxakalí Social Units
On the macrocultural level, we can classify Maxakalí social units in terms of power relations
and complexity of operating units.
The table below (Figure 11) is adapted from Adams (1975:57). To understand the Maxakalí
power structures, it may help to consider the social organization in terms of Adams’
(1975:55) model. He defines a social unit as an “operating unit,” a group of people who
share the same way of adapting to some part of their environment and a common ideology
which in turn allows them to engage in a collective or coordinated action. An operating unit
is characterized by both technology to control the environment and power which is derived
from other sources.
The larger Maxakalí society is an identity unit, because it is an ethnic group that shares a
common language, symbols, rituals, and common experiences. On the emic level this is
tikmũ’ũn ‘the People’: those who share the Maxakalí language and culture. Neither the
identity units nor the coordinated units have any internal, overt behavioral organization
nor any organized allocation of decision making.
The Domestic Group: a Coordinated Unit
All Maxakalí social units are either fragmented units or informal units. A single dwelling or
fragmented unit is still rare in the Maxakalí culture, but we have a current example of one
in SU #14 (see Figure 11). The domestic group is a coordinated unit in which members
grant power reciprocally, and rights are based on mutuality. A coordinated unit is
composed of two to five households, with separate independent power. There is no
26
centralized authority. A domestic group consists of extended families who have the right of
access to territory and reciprocal rights based on mutuality. As in kindreds, there is no
clear-cut boundary, because there are bilateral networks of extended families. The
Maxakalí domestic group is a single decision-making unit. It is organized around a set of
lineal relatives and their mutual consanguineal and affinal relatives. It is coordinated
through joint use of land, mutual concerns, and through shared linguistic and cultural
traits.
Power
Relation
Independent
Variables
Members have
Independent
Power
Maxakalí
Household
Maxakalí
Tribe
Maxakalí
Domestic
Group
MAXAKALÍ
Band
Individual or
Fragmented
Units
Identity Unit
Coordinated
Unit
Consensus Unit
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
Members
Identify
Common
Membership
Members
Grant Power
Reciprocally
Members
Allocate Power
Centrally with
Ritual Center
+
Figure 11: Maxakalí Social Units
(Adapted from Adams 1975:57)
The Band: a Consensus Unit
A cluster of dwellings can be either a coordinated unit or a consensus unit. A consensus
unit is a band, the largest social grouping in the Maxakalí society. It consists of people
defined as relatives and is composed of several domestic groups, including five or more
households of both consanguineal and affinal relatives of the group leader. It is further
characterized by a functional ritual center.
The Maxakalí give special location-oriented names to bands, whereas domestic groups and
households are merely referred to as “such-and-such’s home.” Maxakalí bands are more
27
complex units of social integration because they allocate power to a central authority. This
power is symbolized in the presence of the ritual center, as is evident in the several maps
presented above.
There are no structures in the society that can coerce the members, however. They
mobilize to perform new tasks, but the members only obey when it is convenient. People
are selected for tasks on the basis of recognized ability. A band is the simplest kind of
consensus unit, and the “relational idiom” (Adams 1975:163) remains the ‘grammar’ of
social interaction. Its centralization of power is only allocated and the leader has no other
sources of power. The only kind of ranking is that of personal qualities in addition to age,
sex, and ability. In modern times Maxakalí bands have built homes in a crude kind of circle
around a public area.
Membership and Residence in Social Units
The grounds for membership in a social unit is kinship, which is more than genealogy or
even strict consanguinity. Kinship is ‘acting,’ not merely ‘being,’ and it implies social
obligations (cf. Schneider 1984). It is not unusual to find collateral and affinal relatives
living in the same social unit.
The Maxakalí have no specific residence pattern except that uxorilocal residence (bride’s
household) for the first year or two of marriage is still the norm. Nimuendaju (1958)
described them as predominantly patrilocal with occasional sororal polygyny before the
reservation was established for them in 1940. We can still find virilocal residence, but I
cannot call it a prominent residence pattern. It would be more accurate to speak of siblingoriented residence than uxorilocal or virilocal.
We can find an example of almost any residence pattern in the society. Domestic Group
(SU) #16 in 1980 was composed of third-generation descendants of three sons of Yãyã
Xexka and their affines (Popovich 1980). The SU #1 (a consensus unit, see Figure 6) is an
excellent example of virilocal residence, except that a daughter and her husband were part
of the group for thirty years. As their children married and settled near them, the daughter
and her husband established a coordinated unit for themselves (SU #3), ten minutes away
from the band, SU #1. One of the most stable domestic groups, SU #1 is also constantly in
flux, with prolonged visits to and from other relatives. Internal tensions produce frequent
changes in the composition of social units. Prolonged visits are also a regular factor in
transitory residence and are partly responsible for the impression one has of lack of
permanence in the social units. I conclude that households tend to gravitate toward the
related social unit that offers them the most advantages.
Power Relations in the Social Units
Social power is legitimately wielded by the elder kinsman or patriarch of a group. There is
a strong ideology of male superiority that is manifest in various ways. Beside the very
practical attribute of superior physical force, a man has jurisdiction over the crops for
which he cleared the land and turned the soil. This gives him great power in the
subsistence realm. When a man abandons his wife and children (they invariably belong to
the wife in such a case), they undergo severe deprivation. The women’s fear of
28
abandonment contributes to the men’s social power. When a man dies, his widow and
children also undergo severe economic hardships.
A man has priority rights to any food the women of his household have prepared. The
women and children may help themselves to whatever the men leave after they have eaten.
Maxakalí men can be very tender fathers. They can often be seen caring for young, weaned
children and even care for little boys in the ritual center. On the other hand, a man has few
duties with relation to his children. Training and discipline are the responsibility of others.
Much of the enculturation process is carried out by collateral relatives, such as younger
siblings of the parents or by lineal relatives, such as grandparents and older siblings of the
children themselves.
The power in a consensus unit (band) is symbolized by the ritual center that is set off from
the residences (see Figures 4, 9, 10). The three-walled construction is the sacred space
where the human-spirit interactions take place. The power is so great inside the ritual
center that only the initiated can enter it. Young boys are privileged to enter during
daylight hours when there are no rituals being performed. The degree of access to the
center defines the degree of power enjoyed by the resident. The most powerful of all are
the patriarchs who organize the rituals. Next in line are initiated men and boys, who have
been empowered through initiation to confront the spirit powers. Young, uninitiated boys
enjoy a certain degree of immunity from the destructive power of the spirits, but women
and girls are extremely vulnerable. Many spirits are actively hostile to women. Ideology
says that a woman or girl who enters the ritual center will be killed. I know of no case in
recent history where this actually occurred.
The bands, with their ritual centers, have a distinct power advantage over the fragmented
coordinated units. Twenty-five years ago, there was only one or at the most two ritual
centers in the entire society. One man—the oldest in the tribe—enjoyed the prestige of
being the wisest in the realm of ritual and the other men oriented their lives around the
ritual calendar.
Pradinho has always had a ritual center, either at Pananĩn (SU #15) or Mĩkax Kaka (SU
#16). Água Boa had none for about fifteen years, but then the patriarch of SU #1 decided to
build one in the mid- or late 1970s. The patriarch at SU #9 has sponsored a ritual center
and its use many times, but in 1987 I saw no three-walled structure that could serve as a
ritual center. The patriarch has an ordinary structure that he says is used to “sing to Topa.”
Women are permitted to participate here.
In the past, the residents of fragmented coordinated units were invited to take part in a
band’s rituals, but with the passage of time, this has fallen into disuse. Now patriarchs of
consensus units consolidate social power by sponsoring rituals within their own bands.
Four bands in the Pradinho reservation have a kuxex ‘ritual center.’ This requires a large
enough group to sustain the rituals and seeks to affiliate smaller, related kin groups. There
is a lot of competition between bands but none is permitted within a band.
The Developmental Cycle and Power
The uxorilocal residence for the first year or two of marriage is characterized by long and
frequent ‘visits’ to groups of relatives on both sides of the family. The son- in-law-father-in-
29
law relationship is always subject to tensions, but some patriarchs have managed to
integrate the affinal relatives into their domestic groups and thus enhance their social
power.
The patriarch of SU #3 was the collateral ‘son’ of a newcomer to the Maxakalí society. Having
no power base of his own, he was happy to be a member of his wife’s domestic group. He
remained a part of this group (apparently without friction) for thirty years, as long as the
father- in-law patriarch lived. After the patriarch’s death he and his wife established a
domestic group of their own, with several married children and their households (1984).
After the first child has a firm grip on life and has been named (at nine to fifteen months),
the couple builds a tiny house for themselves. This construction is the lone task of the
young husband, although he may get minor assistance from his brothers. In August, 1987,
G, a member of SU #16 (Mĩkax Kaka) and M of SU #17 each went their lone way as they
gathered the raw materials to build themselves a new house. In the process of setting up
his own household, the young man begins to establish a modest base for social power. The
young husband may build the house among his own relatives or among his wife’s relatives.
A widow’s son tends to build next to his mother’s house, or may even share one with her, if
his family is not too large. If he is established with his wife’s relatives at the time of his
father’s death, he may move his mother in with his wife’s relatives. In time, married sisters
may also join the group if it is hospitable to the newcomers. A wife’s widowed mother,
unmarried siblings, and widowed sisters may join the son-in-law’s group, all of which
enhances his prestige and power.
AJ is a valuable member of the Hãpxanep band (SU #12). His first wife died of meningitis in
the early 1970s and their youngest child, a small infant, did not survive. AJ’s mother—also a
widow and very poor—took the older children to raise. They showed their extreme poverty
in the ragged clothes they wore and their malnourished appearance. After a number of years
AJ remarried, to a parallel cousin of his first wife. The second wife would not allow her step
children to touch her, and after the couple had several children, one could easily see which
were her children and which were the children of her predecessor by the ragged clothes of
the latter.
AJ built a house in his father-in-law’s domestic group and settled there. After a time his
mother joined the group, and so did two of AJ’s sisters, one a widow. As the group expanded,
CO (the father-in-law) also built a ritual center and consolidated his social power over the
expanding group.
The patriarch or matriarch gains social power by having sons and their families within the
parental domestic unit. Daughters and sons-in-law may also join the group—it depends on
how well the son-in-law can get along with his wife’s relatives. Maxakalí men are very
competitive even while they emphasize cooperation and equality. This means that only
those who can get along with the other residents can live comfortably there.
Competition for Power
Among the Maxakalí, conflicts between social units fail to lead to incorporation because no
single unit has enough social power to control another (cf. Adams 1975:224). A Maxakalí
social unit can only function well when there is a consensus of the residents. There is a
strong ideology of harmony and cooperation, but the frequent eruption of violence
between individuals and social units show that the harmony is ideal, but not real.
Nascimento (1984) has shown that the composition of social units is in constant flux. The
fluidity of the group’s composition suggests that internal frictions have not been
30
adequately handled within the group, causing individual households to withdraw, either
temporarily or permanently. A struggle for power within the social unit is untenable.
Failure to win the consensus of the residents means that the two contesting parties must
separate. Moving out is the simplest way to handle internal friction without serious loss of
prestige. Failure to do so results in violence. As the ardors cool, they may move back again.
Leadership Transition
Any jockeying for power in the domestic group is normally kept a private, domestic affair.
It is only when it erupts into violence that people feel free to comment on the events and
what caused them. The usual ‘family affair’ of power struggles becomes visible when
certain changes occur, such as households leaving a domestic group to join up with other
relatives.
Mãkpa’s (SU #1) patriarch was in his late nineties and had held his band together in an
exemplary manner. Even when his physical powers waned, he continued to direct his group.
In the 1970s most Maxakalí were poorly nourished, but the Mãkpa group were prosperous
by Maxakalí standards. Neli Ferreira de Nascimento (1984) did most of her field research at
Água Boa and studied the Mãkpa group extensively. She believed that the patriarch was
grooming his second son B for leadership by entrusting most of the ritual activities to him.
J—his oldest son—was maimed in a fight and drinks a great deal. M—his second son—
shamed his group by the sex murder of a widow. B was the third in line. The fourth son, T,
was judged by Nascimento to be unqualified for leadership because he had become an
outspoken advocate for Christianity. The youngest son, K, has been ailing for several years.
He is rather unremarkable and may never have been considered for the leadership position.
When we returned to Água Boa in 1987, the patriarch had passed away and B was no longer
residing at Mãkpa. T was organizing and directing the Souls-of-the-Dead rituals and presided
over a vigorous, inclusive domestic group. M and his wife come for visits—as do B and his
wife—but do not reside there. The daughter L and her husband K have formed their own
band with their married children’s households some fifteen minutes away from Mãkpa. The
son K has chronic health problems and continues at Mãkpa with his growing domestic group.
T still advocates Christianity in his own household and within his domestic group, but he has
integrated his new faith with his people’s traditions.
From this example of leadership transition, we see that an inclusive type of leadership
provides a power base to expand the leader’s influence to a larger group of relatives.
Social Control
Maxakalí methods of social control vary all the way from ridicule—designed to make the
deviant conform to cultural standards—to execution in such a way as to make the
punishment fit the crime. Punishment as social control is directly related to the cultural
concept of moral reciprocity. Vengeance is perceived as ‘paying’ or ‘exchanging’ for a sin or
crime. A revenge killing approximates the same kind of death as the victim’s, which pays
for the death of a relative and puts the newly- disembodied spirit at rest so that it will not
curse nor haunt the survivors.
Z’s widow was alone with three young children to care for, but her late husband still had one
unattached brother, T. So, as tribal custom dictates, he took her as his wife.
T, it turns out, was not quite right. “His head was bad,” say the Maxakalí. He assaulted
women. One day he was beating his wife so savagely that her own father interfered and
saved her life, but T grabbed an ax and split his father-in-law’s skull. Then he ran off and
disappeared. “This was reported in detail by an eye witness, MM).
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A few evening later, after vengeful kinsmen had sought in vain for the killer, T tried to slip
unseen into the village to grab some food. Someone saw him and spread the alarm.
“It’s all over now—just let it be finished,” he begged.
But S was there, the late father-in-law’s brother. Together with his son O, he caught him and
cut his throat. And so, the Maxakalí say, “it was paid.” (Popovich 1975:44)
Gossip is a very efficient control device in a face-to- face society where the pressure to
conform is very strong. The accusation of witchcraft further discourages antisocial
behavior and controls social deviation. Ideology is also a powerful method of control, as
exemplified by the “ancestor’s words,” the mythology and folk tales. Ideal cultural behavior
and mythical monsters who “pay” wrongdoers in horrible ways, are taught through the
verbal tradition.
One myth tells how the Putuxop ‘parrot’ spirits punished a woman for committing incest
with her brother. It seems the brother slept through the entire process, so only the woman
was guilty. The spirits raped the woman with their immense sexual organ and killed her
(from Popovich 1976).
Topa as culture hero represents the society’s moral standards by rewarding noble behavior
and punishing selfish, greedy practices, as in the tale below:
Topa saw ten monkeys in a corn field, eating the corn belonging to an outsider. The monkeys
had finished stuffing themselves [legitimate behavior] and were starting to carry the corn
away [antisocial behavior]. Topa got a horse, brought it to the corn field and told it to “play
dead.” The monkeys worried that the ‘dead’ horse might smell up the whole corn field, so
they began to tie the horse up with vines so that they could drag its carcass out of the field.
When they were well along in their project and had gotten snarled up in the vines, Topa said
to the horse,
“Now!”
The horse suddenly struggled to its feet with ten monkeys hanging onto him and ran under
low hanging branches until all the monkeys were dead (Topa Text #5).
There is a legal time-limit for revenge. I am not sure what the time span is, but I suspect
that it depends on the gravity of the crime.
In 1962, M and his wife’s son JP lured a promiscuous widow into the forest and there forced
her to drink liquor and abused her sexually for many hours. When she failed to come home,
her sons searched for her, finding her unconscious. They carried her home, but she was so
severely traumatized that she died a week later. The murderer and his accomplice fled to his
band in the other reservation. The band was shamed by his savage behavior, but they closed
ranks to protect him. The sons of the ravaged victim vowed vengeance, but they were sadly
outnumbered by the murderer’s band and failed to gain a consensus support within their
own band for avenging her death.
The murderer was careful not to leave the protection of his own band for a year. After that
he ventured out cautiously. Several years later he moved back to the reservation where he
had murdered the widow because the legal time for reprisals had expired.
Drinking: Socially-Tolerated Violence
One reason for the popularity of binge drinking is that drunken behavior is sociallytolerated. An individual is not responsible for what he or she does while under its
influence. An intoxicated person who kills another is not subject to reciprocal justice, but
another form of justice has taken its place. The man who feels wronged by some drunken
violence may get drunk in his turn and wreak his vengeance while intoxicated. As a
32
consequence of this para-legal way of avenging a wrong, few adult males die of old age.
Drinking permits a person to avenge some perceived wrong when a move to punish it lacks
consensus in his social unit. Both men and women become combative when drunk, but
drunken violence is mainly a male prerogative.
Leadership in the Social Units
There is no central leadership in the Maxakalí society; each social unit is linked to another
by a common identity and by ties of consanguinity and affinity, but no group is authorized
to take the leadership over another social unit.
Patriarchal leadership implies a personal relationship to each member of the social unit.
Role expectations include responsibility for the members’ physical needs and obligation to
give whatever the junior relatives request, insofar as this is humanly possible (Popovich
1980).
A patriarch has “moral” leadership: the core of followers are kin-based teams and the
leader is one of an alliance with equals (cf. Bailey 1969:28). The group is unified on the
basis of the common ideology of equality. The modern ‘glue’ of the social unit is the
ideology of domestic solidarity, which is further validated by the supreme value: the ritual
life of the society. The main job of the leader is to keep this ideology bright by exemplifying
it himself.
The patriarch needs to make public opinion coincide with his own because he has no
legitimate way to impose his will or decision on others. He cannot enforce conformity and
therefore he cannot implement a decision without a consensus of those involved. The
Maxakalí social units spend a great deal of time discussing problems before articulating a
decision. The patriarch risks neither his authority nor his prestige if the decision proves to
be impractical or even disastrous. There is also less likelihood of dissatisfaction over
decisions made because the entire group is involved in the decision-making process.
In stating that the leadership role is embedded in the kinship category of ‘patriarch’, or
other related categories, I do not mean to imply that all who are referred to by this kinship
term have equal influence and power. This is far from true. Some men are influential
leaders and exercise a cohesive power that holds the social unit together. Others are less
successful. The kinship category gives legitimacy to the role; it does not automatically
endow the individual with the qualities that make him successful. Some are more skillful
than others in meeting the expectations of their people and in mobilizing them in the
cooperative effort to provide an adequate subsistence for the entire domestic group.
Evidence of successful leadership can be found in the large, inclusive consensual units,
where people’s basic needs are satisfied and interpersonal conflicts are reduced to a
minimum. The patriarchs of SU #1, 12, and 15 are excellent examples of this, because
collateral and affinal relatives in the prime of life have chosen to become a part of these
bands. The father-in-law of SU #1’s patriarch, on the other hand, is living in a fragmented
domestic group with two of his sons. Another example of an apparent lack of leadership
quality is the elderly MR and his wife MM, who live in a fragmented household (SU #14).
Their son MK, on the other hand, is the patriarch at Xatapa (SU #13).
33
Challenges to a patriarch’s authority usually require the withdrawal—temporary or
permanent—of the loser. If a large number withdraws—as in the case of T—the unit
collapses.
Some patriarchs have a more directive leading style than others. Consensual leadership
does not imply indecisiveness but sensitivity to the needs of group members. A successful
consensual leader is able to obtain the maximum group support for and investment in the
decisions the entire group makes.
Sources of Power
Traditional sources of power reside in 1) a large number of relatives a patriarch can
influence, 2) personal ability which inspires confidence, 3) an exemplary life (in cultural
terms), 4) a supportive social unit, and 5) leadership in ritual. This final source is so
important to leadership that I have devoted a complete chapter (IV) to it. These five abovementioned sources of power are still the major factors in Maxakalí leadership.
The patriarchal form of leadership is strong because the leader deals directly and
personally with his followers, and not through intermediaries. It’s weakness lies in the fact
that the patriarch always needs allies because he cannot make decisions without approval
and consent. In contrast, the types of ‘chiefs’ the government agents have tried to appoint
to represent them have very few of the above qualities. Although the government
appointees are able to secure occasional material advantages, they do so mainly for their
own fragmented groups, so there is little or no competition between them and the
traditional leaders.
It is too soon to know what the new skills of bilingualism and literacy will do to enhance
the perceived abilities of the aspirants to leadership. At present they earn mingled respect
and suspicion. It seems quite likely that another twenty years will see a change in the
preferred attributes of a leader. There is quite a bit of jockeying for power—and probably
always has been some—in the ranks of young adult males.
T is the son of Tt, a member of the Mariano band that fragmented after the patriarch brother
killed his own wife in a blind, drunken rage. Tt was killed defending his last surviving
brother D, accused of black magic. T is an aggressive young man who tried to increase his
social power by enlisting a following of disgruntled peers with whom he has kinship ties. In
1980 he tried to establish his own band. The group disintegrated in a matter of months,
because the others would not accept his authority (H. Popovich 1983).
T represents a segment of the society that is disgruntled with their marginal status. The
“contract” kind of leadership is short-lived among the Maxakalí. Only the “moral” variety
exercised by the patriarchs seems able to command long-term loyalty among the followers.
Água Boa Leaders
The Água Boa groups have fragmented even more than the Pradinho groups (see Figure
12). Only two bands are still largely intact: the one called Mãkpa (SU #1) ‘upstream,’ and
the other Xaxkunut (SU #9) ‘blotchy skin.’ They are the closest Maxakalí equivalents to
sedentary groups. There are nine fragmented groups in Água Boa (SUs 2-8, 10, and 11),
each with its own leader. In each case the leader is a man, even when his widowed mother
is the unifying influence of the domestic group.
34
Mãkpa (SU #1) was led by the late patriarch M for many years. He was a powerful leader. In
1919, Joaquim Fagundes persuaded the Maxakalí to leave their historical lands in a mass
exodus to Itanháem. M was a young man and the only one who refused to leave, according
to J, his widowed daughter- in-law. He would not risk his heritage.
When Joaquim Fagundes sold all the Indian land, M was very young, but he refused to leave.
He was the only one who did not go (J, verbal communication, 1987).
The patriarch of SU #9 is also old enough to have made the migration with Joaquim
Fagundes in 1919. His father was over 100 years old when he died, and was considered the
most knowledgeable living person about the complex ritual structure of the society. When
his father died, JL took over. When he accepted Christianity in 1971, JL experimented with
practices unique to his new faith, many of which caused considerable social unrest, such as
praying for the sick rather than using the traditional rituals. He presides over a complex
social unit and has sponsored the rituals within his band many years. Currently he has a
‘meeting house’ rather than a ritual center and joins the SU #1 for the traditional ritual
performances.
Pradinho Leaders
The Pradinho patriarchs enhance their social power by providing a ritual center and
regular ritual performances. They provide watch dogs to protect the band from marauders
from other groups. They encourage better nutrition by raising chickens to an extent
unheard of ten years ago. The reservation has four consensus units (SUs 12, 13, 15, and 16),
three coordinated units (SUs 17-19), and one fragmented household unit (SU #14: see
Figure 12).
ÁGUA BOA UNITS
Consensus Units
1 Mãkpa
9 Xaxkunut
Coordinated Units
2 Isabel
3 Koktix
4 José Pirão
5 Jupi
6 Júlio
Fragmented Unit
PRADINHO UNITS
12 Hãpxanep
13 Xatapa
15 Pananĩn
16 Mĩkax Kaka
7 Otávio
8 Tintim
10 Alfredo
11 Joana
17 Hermano
18 Agusta/Guigui
19 Pauleno/Oscar
14 Mané Rezende
Figure 12: Social Units on the Two Maxakalí Reservations
The most unusual band is SU #16, headed by a matriarch. Her husband had been the
patriarch, but when he was killed in 1986, she took over the leadership, the first woman
known to do so. Her current status took me by surprise, because she had always projected
35
a public image of a submissive wife, who stared adoringly into her husband’s eyes. In actual
fact, she probably was the backbone of his patriarchy. Now that she has taken over the
leadership, she is very directive. She rules her grown sons and their families with a firm
hand. They are involved in more than their share of intrigues and raids. Her unorthodox
role is made possible by the proximity to the Indian agency residences that provide some
degree of safety for her and certain practical advantages. At this time (May, 1988) her
leadership seems to be on very shaky grounds.
Decision-Making
Internal situations that call for decision-making are location of fields, observance of rituals,
arranging marriages, communal clearing of the creek bed, and friction between two or
more social units. Serious councils are a men-only affair, held in the ritual center which is
taboo to women and the uninitiated.
A certain degree of specialized knowledge is needed to organize the rituals and time them
correctly. The religious system boasts some 200 spirits and there is much variation in
when, how, and which rituals are performed.
JG was reputed to be over 100 years old when he died in the 1970s. He was an expert as the
most knowledgeable in the sphere of religion. After his death his son JL, who had worked
closely with his father, was the one who ‘knew’ best what to do. B was said to be the most
knowledgeable of those at Mãkpa in 1982, and JA said the same thing of his son T at Pananĩn,
in 1987.
All initiated males take part in the ceremonies. Theoretically, all are equally qualified, but
some are recognized as more “knowing” than others, earning the title “very wise.” The
social units look to these men to advise them as to which spirits need to be placated, how,
when, and where; then the larger group makes the decision. In the past there were few
options in the society and the cultural mechanisms for making decisions were well-defined.
There was one essential principle: the men needed to confront both the material and
spiritual worlds, and the women needed only ignorance and male protection to keep safe.
In an attempt to discover the cultural way of allocating labor in the Maxakalí kinship mode
of production, I asked several patriarchs who makes the decision as to where individuals
will plant fields and who decides which rituals will be held. On paper this looks deceptively
simple, but there is no direct equivalent term for ‘decide.’ First I asked,
“Who rules (xat) where a person will plant a field?” I had no sooner said this, than I knew
this was not the way to go about it. The answer came, predictably:
“No one. A person plants where he wants to.”
Trying to recover from my sin against the ideology of equality, I asked:
“Who knows where someone may plant a field?”
The response was baffled expressions.
“What if two people want to plant in the same place? Who will be the wise one, whose eye
discerns (idiom for ‘who will judge’)?”
The men discussed this for a while, then vaguely answered that many were wise. It appears
that conflictual situations are also solved by group consensus (1987).
The decision-making process is diagrammed to show the mechanisms by which decisions
are reached by the social unit concerned (see Figure 13, below).
36
In a dispute, the party who fails to gain his community’s support either must resign himself
to losing face or move out and join another group of relatives. Unresolved quarrels flare
into violence when force is the final means of settlement.
J, patriarch of SU #6, came to Pradinho from Água Boa to see the Indian agent, so he
stopped in to visit us. We tried the basic questions, sandwiched in amid general
conversation:
“Who commands where to plant fields in your group?”
J said that he, the ‘father,’ “commands” where his children and grandchildren should plant.
Approved by Community
Community is Indifferent
Part or all of Community
Disapproves
Suggestion
or
Request
Unanimous
Refusal
Most Approve
Others Yield
or Withdraw
Some Object;
Dissention;
Withdrawal or
Resorting to Violence
Figure 13: Maxakalí Consensus Decision-Making
Anyone may request or suggest a location for a field or call for a ritual, and most are either
approved by the community or they are indifferent to the outcome and do not oppose the
request. The decision process is normally initiated by the rank-and-file, not by the leaders
(see Figure 13). Groups that are inclusive or permit many options tend to be larger than the
more restrictive ones. Because of the need for unanimity within a social unit, there seems
to be a direct link between a restrictive consensus within the social unit and intragroup
violence. Where the options are limited, the frustrations increase and eruptions occur
when the pressures become intolerable.
The Maxakalí egalitarian social organization has subtle hierarchies. This ranking gives
value priority to the male sex and makes generational distinctions that give priority to the
senior generations. In the following chapter I will focus on energetic sources of Maxakalí
social power, such as food—its production and distribution—and the Maxakalí sex- based
division of labor.
37
CHAPTER II
FOOD, LABOR, AND SOCIAL POWER
Kinship is the way in which the Maxakalí society obtains the necessary labor to transform
nature. It does this through people who are linked through interpersonal networks that are
symbolized as kinship (see Wolf 1982:91). Coordinated units band together to form
consensus units in order to survive and reproduce socially as well as physically.
Food Production and Sharing
The Maxakalí were foragers until the beginning of this century. Hunting was the prestigious
means of subsistence, but they may have gotten as much as half of their daily caloric intake
from collecting. They formed small, nomadic bands, based on voluntary production teams
composed of equals. The kinship organization was bilateral or cognatic, which gave them
more flexibility and facilitated their collecting and hunting lifestyle. Wied von Nieuwied
(1958), a German botanist, wrote of meeting them in his travels through East Central Brazil
in 1820. He described them as hunters, deriving most of their subsistence from small game.
He may not have recognized the importance of the women’s collecting contribution to the
total caloric intake of the society. It is likely that he considered only male subsistence
activities to be significant.
The well-being of the band depended on cooperative food production and sharing between
households. The modern Maxakalí ideology of economic cooperation and sharing still
reflects these traditional norms. The forced change in subsistence to one based on
agricultural production has produced considerable stress within the households and social
units.
Food production was and still is a priority occupation of the social unit. The traditional
leader gains social power by his proven prowess as hunter and warrior. His ability to
provide for the needs of his band makes him successful and gives him control over those
who looked to him for guidance. It is a greater challenge to provide food for the band in the
eighth decade of this century than it was in the second. In 1920 it was still possible to
collect wild fruits and to hunt game in the forests, but this area of Brazil is now owned by
ranchers and homesteaders who oppose any Maxakalí subsistence activities on ‘their land.’
Maxakalí Subsistence Activities
Patriarch MK of SU #13 tells about his subsistence activities, which consist of hunting,
planting, trading, and begging:
Long ago the ancestors came, they arrived and stayed here. It was long ago that they came
here to live. I grew up here and learned about things. I cleared land, planted beans, manioc
and potatoes. I married and had a child—the first one—and it grew up. I went to the field
and cut down my fruit trees and ate the fruit.
On one occasion sickness struck and we went away so that our child would not get sick. We
returned here and I became very skillful in making bows, arrows, and bodoques ‘twostringed bow.’ I sold them and with the money bought meat, rice, and coffee. I brought them
home and made coffee for the children to drink. They were full and satisfied.
38
I hunted rabbits and brought them home, took my bow and arrows and went long distances
to the outsiders to get clothes. The government did not give us clothes and we needed them.
I would make bows, arrows, and bodoques to take to town to sell, along with beads. We sold
them to the outsiders for meat, clothes, and money.
After this we came home and picked up our hoes to clear land—lots of it—to plant beans,
squash, sugar cane, and papaya so that the children would have food.
Soon I will tie together bows, arrows, and bodoques to take to town and sell for cash and
clothes.
At home we went to work planting crops. Our patriarch was old, but he could work hard in
the field. We planted manioc and lots of potatoes. We were not lazy. Some accuse us of
stealing from the outsiders, but we don’t. We hunt for rabbits and go fishing. Our ancestors
had it easy. They hunted and dried the meat and fish. Long ago the ancestors made bows and
arrows to sell to the outsiders. They didn’t take anything else with them but the outsiders
were good to them and gave them lots of things. Their sacks were full when they started out
for home. That is the way it was with the ancestors. I don’t know how it was long ago; I only
know about recent times. We carry things to the towns around here. We visit many towns
and come home to plant squash, manioc beans, and corn. Saturday I went to Batinga to get
meat, sugar, and rice. We brought them home to eat. I did not lose my money; everything
went well (Life Story Text #4).
JL, H, and J remember the tribal migration to Itanháem in 1919 and their sad return,
decimated in numbers and dispossessed of their ancestral trails. JL spoke of the forced
migration:
The outsiders also caused many changes among us. They even sold and bought the land on
which Pradinho stands. We were forced to leave, but in time we came back here (Life Story
Text #2).
Food has a prominent place in such recollections. J remembers the struggle to find food:
Joaquim Fagundes sold this land. He watched over us here and had us go to this other place.
We carried food supplies on our backs like horses. We carried clay pots and gardening tools;
we loaded up everything. We made cane juice and wrapped food to carry it in cloth bags. We
put up a shelter in the forest and stayed there. Biting ants made us miserable there so we
slept in the grass. We traveled again in the morning until we ate again—I forget what we ate.
Someone said,
“Sleep here tomorrow; you can plant manioc here.”
We gathered firewood and fished by numbing the fish with poison vines until they were
paralyzed in the river. The women caught them and we ate them. In the morning we traveled
on and passed through Itanháem where we ate. Our horses carried the food and went ahead
with the kerosene. We filled our bags with food and went to Itanháem.
We traveled with nothing to eat. We came to a place where there was a very big tree in the
water. We looked down at the water and were very afraid. There was a big field owned by an
outsider who was cutting down papaya. The fruit hit the ground, “Plop, plop, plop, plop.”
Wonderful! They tasted so good to us.
Joaquim Fagundes killed a tapir and dried its meat. He distributed it among the Maxakalí. . . .
We took the dried meat, roasted it, and ate it with manioc roots. . . . The Maxakalí peeled a
whole lot and ate most of it. . .
The men went hunting and got some [wild pig], distributing it to the People. We ate the meat
with the manioc cakes and plain manioc. . . . The outsiders grated a lot of manioc for us and
we ate it all (Life Story Text #1).
The Maxakalí of 1980 depend entirely upon agriculture for subsistence. Principal food
sources are manioc, beans, squash, and sweet potatoes. Some also plant corn, sugar cane,
rice, and papayas. They have only recently begun to raise domestic animals for meat,
39
formerly a taboo activity. Unlike hunting, agriculture is a seasonal activity, in which there
are long, lean months between planting and harvest. Maxakalí women still cook on wood
fires in the middle of the dirt floor or on the ground outside the homes.
An Ideology of Sharing
The Maxakalí have an ideology that emphasizes the high value of sharing. In societies that
emphasize private property rights, mothers discourage children from snatching something
that by definition ‘belongs to’ someone else. In the Maxakalí society the mothers teach
infants and toddlers to share with others. It is withholding food that is wrong, not
snatching it from someone:
At Xaxkunut we found traditional huts, with goods stored in bags hung from the walls. A little
pig rooted around inside the house and competed for manioc peels with a hen and chicks.
The family was drinking coffee when we arrived but did not offer us any.
The young people showed a great deal of respect for the two patriarchs: JL and S. The
women cuddled each other’s children. One infant snatched a piece of manioc from the hand
of a toddler. The toddler howled her protest. The mother of the infant encouraged the
toddler:
“Grab it back!”
The toddler reached out for it and the infant pulled it just out of her reach. The toddler
howled again, and the infant’s mother broke off half of the piece of manioc clutched in her
baby’s hand and gave it to the toddler. Peace was restored (1987).
The matriarch of SU #16 explains how she teaches children to share food with relatives.
I teach the children [of my band] so they will be wise and good. I tell them,
“Be good, stay home, and be careful. When people come to see you, don’t do bad things. Don’t
take things. Don’t steal food—leave it alone,” I tell them. “And don’t swear at our relatives.
“It isn’t good to kill pigs. Sell a pig to an outsider so he will butcher it and give half to the
Maxakalí to eat. Then we can be happy and satisfied, then our relatives won’t be hungry.
“Share the meat. When relatives come to your home, give it to them. If they don’t come, don’t
give them any.” That is the way I teach the children.
“When your relatives come to visit you, and say, “’Oh, our relatives have butchered for meat!’
go and divide it with them so they can share it. If they don’t ask for it, don’t give them any.
They are angry; that is why they don’t come for you to feed them.” This is how I teach the
children (Life Story Text #3).
While sharing within the household is so complete that it is virtually automatic sharing to
relatives outside the household is an idealized behavior.
Maxakalí women found it difficult to sell food in the presence of others lest they might claim
a share of it. They usually tried to make sure no one was around when they negotiated a sale
of food or artifacts. During the years that we lived among them, I often bought sweet
potatoes from them. A woman would come to the house for the transaction, and would stash
the potatoes somewhere along the path. If she found any Maxakalí visiting, she would sit
around and wait until the others left—sometimes for hours. When the others were gone, she
would bring out the sweet potatoes and offer them for sale (1976).
Strategies for Sharing Food in the Social Units
A patriarch gains prestige and adherents by securing economic advantages for the social
unit and by reaffirming Maxakalí cultural values. The most basic role of the leaders is to
40
develop the economic strategies that will permit the social unit to survive. Part of the role
expectation of elder kinsmen and women is to provide the descending generations with
whatever they need.
The traditional value of sharing all food was based on a nomadic ethic. The need to be on
the move made storing impractical and the rich resources of the forests and streams made
storing unnecessary. The modern Maxakalí reality brings the traditional sharing ethic into
conflict with the new subsistence strategies based on seasonal crops.
Central to the activities of the social units is the sharing of food. The primary unit of food
distribution is the household. Distribution to relatives outside of the household, even to the
larger domestic group, is based on surplus and need. The obligation to share diminishes as
the kinship ties become more remote. Even to relatives outside the household units,
sharing is on demand only.
Major stresses in the households are caused by hunger and struggles with the national
monetary system which overrides the cultural norm for “exchanging goods between each
other without reckoning” (Seddon 1976:178). The Maxakalí have used official money as an
all-purpose exchange medium for over half a century and this has modified the generalized
reciprocity system within the social unit and the more restricted reciprocity between
groups. Money comes in different denominations and change is a commodity in short
supply in the interior of Brazil. Moreover, the mathematical skills necessary to understand
the process of giving and receiving correct change are rare among the Maxakalí, as they are
among the area peasants. Money, therefore, need not be shared until it is exchanged for
goods, then the goods are subject to the rules of reciprocity (Nascimento 1984).
A trace of the old general reciprocity surfaced this morning, somewhat mixed in with the
newer balanced reciprocity. J brought over a small tuhut ‘woven bag’ and asked for
Cz$ 100,00 to buy things at tomorrow’s market. Harold did not have the change, but said he
would try to get it at the market tomorrow. He offered to return the tuhut, holding it out to
her. She quickly refused it, saying,
“That is a gift for my ‘sister.’ You can give me the Cz$100.00 at the market tomorrow.”
And so it was settled.
Sharing by Storing or by Celebrations
In the sixth and seventh decades of this century the obligation to share food caused many
social units to fragment into smaller units. The people who worked hard saw little reward
for their labors, because they had to feed all the relatives who did not work and there was
never quite enough food to go around. In Água Boa, many groups separated into
fragmented units during this period.
O’s father was a Pataxo Indian who married a Maxakalí woman and raised his children
among his wife’s relatives. When O married a woman from the Mariano band he established
a household among them. When the Mariano band dissolved, O joined the social unit that
was led by J, his wife’s oldest brother, who today is the patriarch of SU #6. Other members of
the unit were also the children of the slain woman and her siblings.
O was a hard-working member of the domestic group, but no matter how hard he worked to
plant enough for his own household, there were always relatives who demanded a share in
his harvests although they had not worked in the fields. O found that he could not provide
enough for his family to eat because he was obliged to share his crops with his wife’s
41
relatives who did not work. After a number of years, he left the social unit and established a
fragmented household for himself, his wife, and his children (1970).
A leader who wants to establish a power base must find ways to enlist the members of the
social unit in a cooperative effort to provide adequate subsistence for the group and
encourage sharing so that membership in a band will be advantageous to the participating
households. One strategy is that of celebrations. Feasts and celebrations are a priority value
in the society, and provide incentive to produce the food needed.
The patriarchs of the 1970s were torn between upholding the traditional value of sharing
food and the need to store food to last the group until the next harvest. Modern patriarchs
face a new dilemma. Social units that do not store enough of their crops find themselves
with no food to share with others. More traditional social units want to sell most of the crop
immediately in order to get the cash needed to put on a community-wide celebration, and
then there is precious little food left to share with anyone.
Storing: a New Sharing Strategy
The Água Boa residents have more desire to be like their non-Indian neighbors, and their
planting tends to be more adequate to their needs. A few have actually begun to store up
beans for the months between harvests rather than selling the entire crop cheaply at
harvest time.
The patriarch of Mãkpa (SU #1) showed us a house he had set aside for storing things; he
stored beans and manioc flour from his own fields. He had even kept the didactic materials
used in his ‘family school’ back in 1982 and 1983. He was one of the few Maxakalí in 1987
who held back his surplus crops to sell after the price went up again, allowing him to make
a small profit. This has provided greater security for his social unit. Storing food means that
he is now better able to provide for his own household as well as share food with needy
relatives during the long months before the next harvest. This gives him greater social
power within the larger band.
The patriarch of Xaxkunut (SU #9) is another Água Boa leader of great prestige who is
attempting to plan ahead for leaner months. He tries to discourage the members of his
band from selling off their crops immediately at harvest time. In the months that follow,
many of these same relatives come to him for help and he alone cannot plant enough nor
store enough food to share with all the relatives who sold their food cheaply.
It appears that storing food supplies may be on the way to becoming a legitimate
subsistence strategy in Água Boa. They have sheep, turkeys, chickens, and pigs. The Água
Boa Maxakalí do not flaunt their possessions but they do not try to hide all evidence of
them as the Pradinho residents do. Hidden items are likely to be manufactured items rather
than food, goods that are not easily shared.
B has two tiny houses. One is a Maxakalí thatch and the other is daub and wattle. We visited
him in the thatch house that he shares with six pigs, two dogs, four sheep (they stayed
outside while we were there), and a mother hen with her brood of chicks. His enclosed daub
and wattle house is where he stores private, nontraditional things, because we heard sounds
of either a radio or a record player coming from it as we arrived (1987).
42
Celebrations: a Traditional Sharing Strategy
In Pradinho, those who accumulate food stocks still do it furtively, proving that storing
things continues to violate group norms. The only objects that were visible on my visits to
the homes were traditional ones, like clay pots, fishing nets, bows and arrows, and mesh
carrying bags. The residents of Pradinho are attempting to solve the dilemma of how to be
generous when there is not enough food for everyone. They do this by sponsoring
community celebrations. In order to raise the cash necessary to buy meat for a festive meal
and the required alcohol, the people need to sell off the new crop. It is precisely at harvest
time that the price is lowest and the market is glutted with the produce. An essential part of
any modern celebration is drinking, and the Maxakalí sober up to find most of their crop
gone and very little cash to show for it. The small stock of food they kept for themselves
needs to be hidden away, out of sight.
In 1983 the Brazilian government began to provide a pension of sorts for Maxakalí widows
and those unable to work in the fields. These pensions are paid as checks to the retirees
and able-bodied relatives negotiate the checks on behalf of the ‘retired’ relatives. Since the
money is shared as soon as the check is cashed, the retirees are able to contribute
something to the subsistence of the group. By 1987, however, the checks had come to mean
a monthly, large- scale celebration for the entire social unit.
In August, 1987, the elderly widow J received her monthly check, which the adult
grandchildren cashed for her. They spent the money on meat, bread, and plenty of alcohol.
They began to drink on Friday evening and by Saturday afternoon the usually quiet SU #16
was marked by loud voices, strident laughter, and the euphoria of early stages of
intoxication. By Sunday people were fighting and the children were crying and screaming.
The entire monthly check (never large to begin with) had been spent on one meal and
enough alcohol to keep them drunk for three days.
Compulsory Sharing
Stealing or raiding is a means of leveling social inequalities between Maxakalí social units
and between them and the non-Indians. This practice was documented in 1833 (Rubinger,
et al 1980:144), and the tradition probably goes back as far as their communal domeshaped grass huts. The Pradinho Maxakalí are more aggressive raiders than their
counterparts in Água Boa. The older generation still uses verbal demands to access goods
from others, but the young people prefer to help themselves by raiding homes, flocks, and
fields of both outsiders and other Maxakalí.
According to Maxakalí ethics, stinginess is worse than stealing. While the methods used to
equalize possessions have reverted back to more active ones, the basic assumption that
equality of possessions is an attainable ideal has not changed. The older generation does
not regard the conduct of the younger people as ‘bad,’ merely unwise. Children are
especially adept at pilfering, because they must forage for much of their subsistence and
stealing is a form of foraging or ‘gathering.’
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Sexual Division of Labor: Control of Food
The Maxakalí social unit is cohesive and structured on the basis of kinship, sex, and age. Sex
is the basis on which the soil is prepared and the food is distributed. Women harvest the
produce, but men control who may harvest it.
Division of Labor
The traditional Maxakalí division of labor is sex- based. The men are responsible for
hunting, warfare, and the esoteric religious rituals. They clear the land used for planting.
Nineteenth century historians wrote that the Maxakalí subsistence was chiefly through
hunting (Wied von Nieuwied 1958). Hunting is no longer the primary male role in
subsistence because it is no longer significant to the society’s caloric needs. It only yields
rodents and small animals. They no longer fight (except between households).
Men have become more active in planting than formerly. Much larger tracts of ground are
tilled now that farming has—perforce—become the major source of subsistence. The men
do the heavy work to prepare the field for planting, using the method known as ‘slash and
burn.’ They remove the overgrowth, gather up the grass and brush, and pile it up for
burning. The Maxakalí say that the burning process “cooks” the earth to prepare it for
planting. Without the burning, the earth would remain “raw” and crops would not grow.
When the rains begin, the men break the surface of the earth with a dibble stick. This is
men’s work.
The women gather wild produce, fish, and plant to augment the hunting, prepare the food
for eating, nurture the children, and generally take responsibility for household matters.
They are the experts whose help is sought in arranging marriages. Little girls are pressed
into service at a very young age, helping to care for younger children in the social unit.
Women harvest the crops and prepare the food for eating. Traditionally this was by
roasting, but the substitution of light aluminum pans for clay pots has led the women to
boil more of the food. Children supplement the starchy roots the women provide by
trapping rodents and pelleting small mammals with clay balls, propelled by the bodoque
‘two-stringed bow.’
Men also fish, using hook and line, while women fish with a net woven from bark fiber. The
old method of numbing the fish by throwing a specific vine into the water is still
occasionally used. This is a cooperative subsistence method that involves both men and
women.
We gathered firewood and fished by numbing the fish with poison vines until they were
paralyzed in the river. The women caught them and we ate them (Life Story Text #1).
Control of Food
Men control the food crops although the women of the household have free access to
whatever they need from the fields. Any woman may help herself to a man’s field if she has
an intimate physical relationship with the him. The result is an unequal power relationship
between men and women. Men also have priority rights to the food the women prepare.
The women and children eat after the men have finished.
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Food and Sexual Obligations
Food transactions between men and women have sexual implications. This has also been
pointed out by Nascimento (1984). Access to a man’s field obligates an unrelated woman to
grant sexual favors. The reciprocal obligations in the transaction mean that any woman
who has sexual intercourse with a man has a right to help herself to his produce.
There was another outsider whose name was Antonio. His daughter was fair-skinned and
promiscuous. She kept hanging around our men. There was a black woman who did the
same thing. When we moved over to [Água Boa], they went right along. The men did the
rituals and then sneaked food to the women and had sex with them (Life Story Text #1).
Widows as Marginalized Women
The reciprocal obligations in food distribution have serious implications for widows with
young children. When there is no man to clear the land for planting, a woman is severely
handicapped in providing sufficient food for herself and her children. It seems that the
traditional sororal polygyny was designed to take care of this to some extent, so that the
families of orientation have little responsibility for their widowed daughters and sisters.
The abolition of legitimate polygyny has made unofficial concubinage or promiscuity the
only solution for some widows.
Widows are marginalized because the men control the food supply. The man has
jurisdiction over the field, and any food transactions between a man and a woman has
sexual implications. A man has sexual access to any woman who takes food from his field,
unless this woman belongs to the xape xe’e ‘lineal relative’ or xape max ‘collateral relative’
categories in which sexual intercourse is forbidden. It is also ritualized in the marriage act,
thus establishing the couple’s conjugal status. One widow found it necessary to leave her
husband’s relatives where she had made her home during her fifteen-year marriage. Her
sisters-in-law resented her, and the men assumed a right to her she did not wish to
acknowledge. The situation became intolerable and she was forced to move away.
After J’s husband R was shot by a trigger-happy outsider, she moved away from the Mãkpa
band where she had lived over fifteen years. She had two young sons under ten years of age.
Her oldest daughter (barely twelve) was married and living with her husband’s family. Her
oldest son had married into the same household and also lived with the spouse’s family. In
some cases, the widowed mother goes to live with her children’s affines, but in this case that
seems not to have been an option that was open to her.
J was unable to stay at the Mãkpa location because the wives of her late husband’s brothers
looked on her as a potential rival to their husband’s attentions and an unwelcome claimant
to the produce from their fields. She herself resented the lustful looks sent her way and so
she moved to her oldest brother’s domestic group. There she lived through years of extreme
poverty, because the relationship between a man’s wife and his sister is often less than
cordial. She lived close enough to her brother’s household to be able to call on him for
protection when necessary, but not close enough to be a part of his household’s economic
reciprocity (1975).
Marriage and Food Production
M wrote a short class composition on what a man does when he wants to marry, showing
that food is an essential part of the marriage contract:
45
What does a man do when he wants to marry? He plants a field of manioc, sweet potatoes,
and squash. He takes the girl he has chosen to the field to see the crop. If she is receptive, she
takes some manioc and sweet potatoes belonging to the young man and cooks them. They
eat the food together (Text #).
When a young man moves in with his chosen bride’s family, he joins his affines in the
cooperative food production. He builds his fields with them and shares in the
responsibilities of the social unit. I am not sure what the rate of marital separation is
among the Maxakalí, but it is very high. Many couples separate in the first year of marriage.
If the marriage lasts until they can form their own household, it has a much better chance
at permanence. This move toward greater independence normally takes place when their
first child begins to toddle around. The presence of the son-in-law increases the bride’s
father’s prestige, but there are many opportunities for friction between the affines.
Marriage with a woman in the category of MBD means that the young man will live with
relatives he has always addressed with elder kinsman and kinswoman terms. In theory this
is an indulgent relationship, because the elder category has a duty to ‘make the younger
happy.’ That it often does not work out this way is only too evident.
Food, Control, and Social Ranking
Maxakalí social ranking is on the basis of sex. According to Adams (1975:167), ranking
exists in kinship societies as well as any other. The kind of ranking common in tribal
societies is that of giving priority to certain qualities seen as superior: such as sex, age,
kinship affiliation, special skills, and individual attributes. The exclusive male role in the
traditional cult of the dead gives the Maxakalí man an uncontested source of power and
prestige. Another source of power is the male control or ‘ownership’ of the food crop.
Another strategy that guarantees male dominance is their limited mastery of the national
language, Portuguese. The women are protected from all possible contacts with outsiders
so that in literacy the women compare unfavorably with the men. The men claim that the
women have difficulty in learning to read because they have “hard heads” (are stupid).
Ranking According to Sex
The relation of man to woman is one of dominance and submission among the Maxakalí, as
in most tribal societies. Wife-beating is common. I know of several cases where the wife
died as a consequence of the beatings.
J’s oldest daughter died a week ago yesterday. Poor Z! She was one of the loveliest of the
young Maxakalí women before her marriage, but she had seen little but suffering and
disappointment. . . Her husband left her repeatedly to move in with another woman, or even
brought another woman home with him. She became a beaten woman in a few years. In ill
health most of the time, she lost several babies. Her husband abused her. . . . MM gave me the
Maxakalí women’s viewpoint, which supported the view of other women whom I had
questioned earlier. It was quite different from the attitude I had expected to find.
Wife-beating is a very private affair. No one has ever come for treatment for this syndrome,
although it is very common. They come for pain in the shoulder blade area, for vague
internal pains, etc. Some men have a hard time keeping a wife, like Peter-the-pumpkin-eater.
Their wives just can’t take it. . . .
“Z,” said MM, “was bad.”
46
“What bad did she do?” I asked, surprised. As far as I knew she had always been faithful to
her philandering husband, D.
“She didn’t want him to abandon her, and he habitually roamed around,” she explained. He
has certainly had his share of affairs.
In the ‘bad old days’ we often saw men come home drunk, and the women and children
would scatter and hide in the forest. One day D came home and Z didn’t get out of his way on
time. He took his heavy soldier’s shoe and beat her about the head and shoulders. From this
time on she complained of severe pain, shortness of breath, and began the intractable
vomiting that ultimately took her life (Popovich 1975:10, 42, 43).
In one instance a father died defending his daughter from her husband’s abuse.
B is a daughter of JL’s wife D. She was married to Z. One day Z’s brother A decided that his
daughter had died through black magic. The two brothers had squabbled with the two
Mariano brothers about a certain field. So A and Z went after D and killed him with a
machete. D’s brother T came to his rescue and killed Z, and then A killed T and went home
alone.
Z’s widow, B, was alone with three young children to care for, but her late husband still had
one unattached brother, T. So, as tribal custom dictates, he took B as his wife.
T, it turned out, was not quite right. “His head was bad,” the Maxakalí said. He assaulted
women. One day he beat his wife so savagely that her father intervened and saved her life,
but T grabbed an ax and split his father-in-law’s skull. Then he ran off and disappeared
(Popovich 1975:44).
In only one case during our twenty-five years’ stay among the Maxakalí was the wife’s
death avenged.
Sometime in 1982, Antonio Jose killed his son-in-law to “pay” for beating his daughter to
death (A. H. Popovich 1982).
In several cases the family agitated to produce a consensus that favored the execution of
the husband responsible, but this failed. In other instances the abused wife’s family of
orientation intervened, but each time the wife either stayed with her husband or returned
to him after a time. I do not know what alternatives she had. In one instance the wife
defended herself.
Little M was married at twelve or thirteen, just at puberty. One day her husband beat her.
Beatings seem to be more common before the first child and these child-brides can have a
hard time of it. Whether or not the husband was drunk I don’t know, but she grabbed a stick
of firewood and clubbed him on the head, knocking him unconscious. This was unheard of,
and the Pradinho Maxakalí were mute with shock. He went home to his mother and married
someone else. Eventually, M did, too (Popovich 1975:42).
While a woman is certainly considered less equal than a man, this is not to say that she is
powerless in her own sphere. A father has little authority with respect to his children,
except the authority of “the biggest fists” (Bailey 1969:27). The mother rules in household
matters, her husband deferring to her expertise. The older women are the matchmakers,
knowing all the kinship ties. A woman continues to have an important role in the lives of
her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, as long as she is physically able to
carry out her role expectations.
Maxakalí women have ‘relational power.’ They have a significant role in the nurture and
formation of the younger generations. This role is not primarily the mother’s, but includes
xukux ‘elder kinswomen’ (both lineal and collateral), older tutnõy or hex ‘sisters’ (both
lineal and collateral), and mãy ‘mother’s sisters’ (both lineal and collateral). She is usually a
47
welcome addition to the households because of her supportive role in the kinship system.
After a child is weaned, it is almost completely dependent on the nurturing these women
offer.
Maxakalí men obviously consider the women inferior, yet the women do not seem to
agonize over their lack of equality with men. They seem to find their role very meaningful.
However, young women do poorly in literacy classes. One factor may be that they have
been quite thoroughly “protected” from anything that would allow them to compete with
men.
Ranking According to Age and Prestige
The Maxakalí are also ranked as to age, although this is secondary. This kind of ranking
relates to the superior experience and expertise that qualifies a man for leadership. It also
applies to boys who have been initiated into the male esoteric cult (at approximately ten
years of age). Uninitiated boys may visit the ritual center freely during daylight hours
unless a ritual is in process. In fact, men routinely ‘baby-sit’ their young sons inside the
ritual center, once they are weaned.
Another form of ranking is more subtle. This is prestige acquired from membership in
certain kin groups. Some groups are more powerful than others. Their leaders head up
large family groups and guarantee support for the members. Others from fragmented social
units and those without culturally-recognized fathers (illegitimate children or mestiços)
lack the advantages of a powerful social unit.
Finally, there is also an achieved prestige that is awarded to one with proven ability in a
skill valued by the society, such as leadership, marksmanship, literacy, knowledge of the
spirit world, and herbal medicines. A successful hunt not only takes care of basic
subsistence needs but it also brings prestige to the hunter for his endurance and skill. The
modern agricultural subsistence fails to produce this kind of prestige, but a patriarch’s
ability to guarantee the well-being of the domestic group by adequate subsistence
enhances his social power. Some of the larger bands attest to the importance of this factor
in a leader’s ability to attract a following.
The social unit has always been the Maxakalí political unit and their principal source of
identity. A growing dependence on services provided by the Brazilian government’s
reservation system, however, is modifying some of the traditional power domains. One
example of this is the methods for treating diseases and injuries. These were treated by
local remedies and rituals. Today the government offers excellent health assistance with
trained medical workers and jeep transportation to local hospitals in case of emergency.
The health service is a major factor in the population increase and has led to growing
dependence on the Indian agency. Rituals are the traditional method for preventing
untimely deaths, but these are not performed for an unnamed child or an elderly person.
The leader also demonstrates his social power by stirring up the government agents to act
on behalf of the his social unit. The Maxakalí have become dependent on certain
commercial products for subsistence. Salt and sugar are now necessities. Coffee is slowly
becoming one, too. Besides helping the people to access food, a leader also needs to help
them attain the cash needed for items that can only be obtained in the outsiders’ markets.
48
Maxakalí fields are now more adequate to the people’s needs, but failure to store up
sufficient amounts of the food crop at harvest time means that hunger is never very far
away. The government agency is forced to supplement the people’s meager crops at times
because the Maxakalí go out raiding the non-Indian fields and pastures when they have no
more food. This raises pandemonium.
At the end of the August, 1987 dry season, when the soil was being prepared for planting,
the matriarch of SU #16 clamored to the Indian agency in Pradinho for doles of food. The
band was already out of food, although the harvest was many months away. The reason
was that most of the crop was sold immediately at harvest time when market prices were
lowest. The proceeds of the sale had been spent for needs such as clothes and blankets, and
in alcoholic celebrations. The matriarch commented,
I demanded the use of the government tractor, which is ours. I insisted that they [the
government agents] must plow our land so that we can plant manioc sweet potatoes, and
rice to eat, so that we will not go hungry. I demanded it from A [the post agent] and insisted
that they must plow our fields today, now. We sold all our food to the outsiders who wanted
our potatoes. We want to plant manioc, sweet potatoes, and rice for the children to eat. The
children want it, too. If the outsiders are really sorry for us they must bring food here quickly
so we can eat: rice, sugar, beans, manioc flour; and coffee for us to drink (Life Story Text #3).
An Ideology of Equality
Social power is diffuse in the Maxakalí, which, despite subtle forms of hierarchy, is
essentially an egalitarian society. It lacks special terms to designate leaders. This is not to
say that leadership is unknown to the society; it merely says that the legitimacy of the
leadership function is largely embedded within certain kinship categories. The huntinggathering bands have the simplest known form of human social organization: they grant
power reciprocally. Only in ritual relationships, and in activities surrounding ritual
practices, do the Maxakalí allocate power.
It would be misleading to say that the Maxakalí know an ideal kind of equality. What they
share is an ideology of equality. Some people in the society are ‘more equal’ than others;
some work harder and produce more than others. Some groups have more social power
than others. They have more supportive family structures or they offer more material
advantages to family members, but there is a significant absence of an ideology of
inequality.
Equality and Hierarchy
Nimuendaju (1958:59) reported meeting two chiefs in 1939, aged 60 and 70,
approximately. He described them as authorities in religious matters and influential
leaders. As early as 1815, Portuguese settlers were dubbing Indians with influence as
“captain,” attributing a chief’s status to them (Wied von Nieuwied 1958, Nimuendaju 1958,
Rubinger 1963). This practice was taken over by government agents who needed a
‘mouthpiece’ in order to administer a group of monolingual Indians. In time this
degenerated into a practice of choosing anyone who demonstrated a subservient attitude
to the government official, regardless of his credibility with his own people. The only
necessary qualification was to understand enough Portuguese to be able to tell his people
what the government agent wanted of them. In recent years Post agents have named family
49
heads as chiefs, because the lack of such a category “makes the Maxakalí hard to govern”
(Nascimento 1984:72). The title has little significance in terms of the Maxakalí culture, but
it gains them more respect in the dominant society.
Because a leader’s primary concern is to keep his group strong and maintain his position as
leader, Maxakalí patriarchs have devised new strategies to avoid the threat of ethnic
distinction that has been the lot of all of their former tribal neighbors. In the next chapter
we will see how the emphasis on the men’s unique power in the spirit world is being used
to enhance the patriarch’s social power, both within and between bands.
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CHAPTER III
POWER IN MAXAKALÍ COSMOLOGY
The Maxakalí believe that supernatural beings hold the key to their culture, well-being, and
ethnic survival. The patriarch keeps his followers by controlling the access to these beings
through rituals or by allocating this power to other members of his domestic group.
Frederick Bailey (1969:82) wrote that spiritual resources are also a means of social control.
The leader who can monopolize the right to communicate with the ultimate value, or the
right to symbolize it, can influence and control those who also value this communication.
The spiritual resources are “mentalistic” to use Adams’ categories (1975:107), rather than
“energetic.”
Maxakalí Cosmology
In Maxakalí cosmology the sky is a hard dome that covers the earth. Topa lives above this
dome in the Other World. His activities on earth amount to infrequent visits, while the
souls-of-the-dead live below the dome’s shell. They are active on this side of the dome, and
seem to be limited to the This Worldly arena.
Transcendent Beings
Transcendent Beings constitute a distinctive category, which includes Topa ‘God’ and Tex
Kutok ‘Rain Child,’ his son. Topa lives in the sky and used to spend a lot of time on earth in
the remote, mythical past, when he and the Maxakalí were on friendly terms. This is seen in
the Maxakalí origin myth. Topa and Rain Child are anthropomorphic; they have an
ordinary, human appearance. They do not interact with the spirits at all in the human
arena.
Rain Child
The text that follows is the only one in which there is mention of Rain Child.
One day a storm raged, and both trees and branches fell. After the storm was over, the
Maxakalí went to the forest to gather honey. They found Topa’s baby boy, Tex Kutok ‘Rain
Child’ on the ground among some fallen branches. A man wrapped the baby in his shirt and
brought him home for his wife to breast feed. The couple raised the baby and he grew. When
he was seven, the man gave him a deerskin to play with. Whenever the boy dragged the skin
on the ground, a storm came up.
As the boy grew, the Maxakalí began to urge him to go back to the sky, but he stayed on.
One day a storm came up and the Maxakalí started to reinforce their flimsy houses when Tex
Kutok told them that their efforts were unnecessary. The storm skirted the residence group.
Afterward, Tex Kutok went with the Maxakalí again to gather honey in the forest. He was
helping to pull down branches to reach beehives when his mother snatched him back up into
the sky. He lives there with his parents. His mother is still angry at the Maxakalí for keeping
her child, but Tex Kutok is their kinsman and will not let any electric storms hurt them (Topa
Text #6).
Apparently Rain Child had no more interaction with the Maxakalí after he returned to the
sky to live with his parents. Beyond his control over lightning and thunder, he seems to be
fairly powerless. There is no link between Rain Child and the Hawk Spirits. Rain Child is
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associated with the power manifestations of rain—lightning, hail, and thunder—rather
than with precipitation.
Topa
There are no rituals that celebrate Topa, the transcendent Being in the Maxakalí universe.
He is something of a partial Creator and a good Being in terms of Maxakalí cultural ideals.
Like the Greek gods, he lacks the element of the sublime but there is a hint of majesty when
he lands on earth, heralded by thunder. Topa ordained the cultural traits that make the
Maxakalí distinct from the non-Indians all about them and contribute to their
powerlessness.
Topa came. There was a storm and thunder rumbled in the sky when He landed on the earth.
He took a rifle and gave it to a Maxakalí, but the ancestor did not know how to shoot it. When
it thundered again Topa stepped on the earth. He took the rifle and gave it to an outsider.
The outsider took the rifle and shot it.
Again Topa landed and gave a bow and arrow to the ancestor. The bow and arrow are ours.
The man shot the arrow. Topa said,
“The bow and arrow are yours, not the outsiders.” So they tell us (Topa Text #1).
Topa sponsored the genesis of the Maxakalí society, according to the following flood myth:
The waters were rising all about the ancestors.
“Everyone, pack up your things!”
The white-foamed waves kept coming in from the horizon, where the sky meets the earth.
The waves crept up the hill where the ancestors were living and they fled. The elder kinsman
said,
“Let’s go!”
While everyone packed, the patriarch’s wife packed up cooked sweet potatoes. To escape the
rising waters, they climbed to the top of a tall rock. The water kept rising, filling in the spaces
between the trees, coming up until it covered most of the rock and was just below where the
refugees were huddling.
“Alas,” they wailed, “the flood will swallow us up!”
All the Maxakalí drowned, every one of them. The ducks came together and enjoyed the
flooded landscape. Tapirs and other land animals drowned in the flood until none were left;
they perished in the deep water. There was not enough land left to provide a refuge for the
ancestors.
The water slowly receded until it got down to the level of the houses and left a layer of sand
over the land.
One ancestor had taken an animal skin and crept into a hollow log. He sealed both ends to
keep the water out and waited for the flood to subside.
After the water went down, Topa came. He turned Himself into a honeybee, buzzing around
the log in which the man lay. The man called,
“Help me, I’m suffocating in here!”
Topa [as a honeybee], asked,
“Where is your mouth?”
“It’s right here,” the man answered. Topa asked him to shout again. The bee [Topa] hovered
around the log in order to locate the spot where the man’s face was. The man pleaded again,
“Hurry—I can’t breathe!”
The log was covered with sand at the place where the man’s mouth was located. His plea was
urgent:
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“Go get an ax to open the log and take me out.”
Topa went for the ax and when He returned He again asked to be sure where the man’s
mouth was located. The man responded,
“Here.”
“And where are your feet?”
“They are down below.”
Topa chopped the log, making sure not to chop the man’s head. He cut through the log and
took the man out, who was very nearly dead, shivering and weak.
“Build a fire for me,” he begged.
Topa built a fire and the man revived. He begged for some peanuts because he was hungry.
Topa [as a bee] flew off and brought back a full bag of peanuts for the man to eat. He then
directed the man to go in the direction from which animal sounds were coming:
“You will find a female there for you to marry, to bear children so you will become a large
group again.”
The next day the ancestor went in the direction indicated but couldn’t see her. He went a
second time where he had heard the animal sounds. He could not see the female Topa had
spoken of. He went a third time and saw a deer’s hoof prints this time.
The next morning he picked up the deer’s trail again; it became progressively harder to
follow. Then he came upon her, and asked,
“Where do I copulate with you?”
The deer answered,
“Here, in the split part of my hoof.”
He did as she [the deer] indicated. She became pregnant in the bulge of her foreleg muscle
and gave birth to a child. Later she gave birth to another. She gave birth to many children.
Topa came again.
“This is your wife,” He said, indicating the deer, “Wait,” He added, “We want to give you
something else so that you may become rich.”
Topa gave the ancestor a rifle and told him to shoot it. The ancestor pulled the trigger but
nothing happened. Topa took the rifle and gave it to an outsider who was there, and the
outsider pulled the trigger, and “BANG!”
Because he had known how to fire the gun, Topa gave it to him. Then He gave a bow and
arrow to the ancestor:
“Shoot it at something.”
The ancestor fit the arrow in the string of the bow and shot it. The arrow pierced a tree
trunk.
“It is yours to keep,” said Topa, “Go!” (Maxakalí Origin Text)
This myth tells us why the Maxakalí are unique. It also explains why they are poor and why
their technology is inferior to that of the outsiders. Topa offered it to them first in the shape
of a gun, but the ancestor who represented the Maxakalí was too stupid to know what to do
with it. As a consequence, the Maxakalí are forced to make do with their traditional
technology and the hunting and gathering subsistence that is implicit in this technology. In
addition, the myth explains the higher rank given to males than to females. The woman’s
role in the universe is primarily that of sex and reproduction.
Topa performs all kinds of impossible feats, rewarding culturally noble behavior and
punishing the ignoble. He is indistinguishable from ordinary human beings when he travels
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on the earth. He combines the traits of a culture hero and a trickster with those of a deity.
As a trickster, he has little patience with fools.
Topa and Pedro cooked in clay pots over an open fire right on the trail. When they saw an
outsider coming, they quickly swept away all signs of the fire. When the outsider came to
where our friends were, he saw only the bubbling pot on the bare path with no sign of a fire.
Greedily, he offered to pay a large sum for a pot that “cooked without a fire.” When the man
later tried to cook food without a fire, he realized that he had been tricked and vowed to kill
Topa and Pedro. He went after them with a gun and Topa turned the angry man into a small
mule, which He gave to an outsider to use as a pack animal and as a means to become rich
(Topa Text #5).
For sheer entertainment, the myth of Topa’s “dried out mother” has few equals. In a society
where death and dying are replete with all kinds of taboos and dangers to the living, we
have a Topa who carries the desiccated corpse of his mother around to make money out of
foolish, terrified outsiders.
One day Topa came home and found that his emaciated mother was dying. Topa took her
corpse and dried it in the sun. It became dry and shrunken and her eye sockets were hollow.
Topa and Pedro took the dried corpse along when they began to travel again. On the road
they saw an empty house belonging to an outsider and they placed the body in one of the
rooms. When the outsider came home, he saw the shrunken corpse. He screamed,
“Who will remove this jáguar spirit monster for us?”
Topa came up to the outsider and offered to take the body away for a large sum of money.
The outsider paid Topa to take the corpse away. Topa went on further and repeated the
same thing several times.
Topa made a lot of money out of his dried-out mother (Topa Text #7).
Topa decreed that the Maxakalí must be ethnically distinct from the outsiders. He made it
clear that He wanted them to be different both in appearance and in technology.
Topa divided the Maxakalí and the outsiders into two distinct groups. He said,
“The jáguar spirit belongs to the outsiders and the deer spirit belongs to the Maxakalí. The
Maxakalí do not have body hair. The outsiders have stiff hair like the jáguar, so they are to
take charge of that spirit.”
Thus he commanded the ancestors. He divided the Maxakalí from the outsiders, giving the
rifle to the outsiders and the bow and arrow to the ancestors. He said,
“I divide the land among you. Part for the Maxakalí and part for the outsiders.” (Topa Text
#3)
Topa decides who should die. One man explained Topa’s role in the death of his infant
daughter:
A says he talked to Topa. Topa said, “I want her. She isn’t yours, she is mine.” So he knows
she will die. If Topa had said, “She isn’t mine, I don’t want her. She belongs to her father,”
then she would live (Popovich 1975:24)
The Maxakalí Spirit World
The Maxakalí live in a personal world ruled by spirits of dead Maxakalí, some of which are
good and some bad, but all are potentially dangerous. The majority are whimsical and use
their powers irresponsibly. They may use their powers in ways that are detrimental to the
Maxakalí.
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The Maxakalí differentiate the spirits of living human beings koxuk ‘shadow or shade’ from
the spirit beings called yãmĩy ‘Souls-of-the-Dead’. Living human beings have a koxuk ‘spirit’
that may leave the body during dreams or through seduction by the ‘Souls-of-the-Dead.’ On
the other hand, human beings who join a Souls-of-the-Dead spirit group after death lose all
personal identity, the way a chemical change produces a new compound from assorted
elements.
The term yãmĩy ‘Souls-of-the-Dead’ is used on the most generic level to refer to the spirit
beings in the Maxakalí universe. They are the ghosts or souls of dead human beings. They
have animal or plant names, but these are mere labels for categories of human ghosts. Each
spirit is a corporate entity and has a distinctive appearance and personality. The spirits
materialize on occasion, but are never mistaken for ordinary human beings. They are
described in dramatic terms, as being grotesque, terrifying, and always unearthly. An
example is the Ĩnmõxa ‘jaguar’ spirit who is described as fat-bellied, spindlelegged and
having curling toes. It is covered by an impenetrable shell and is only vulnerable through
its orifices. It is a cruel being, with knife-like projections jutting out of its wrists (Popovich
1976a).
On a more specific semantic level, the term yãmĩy refers to a specific spirit entity that is
famous for indwelling the living. Because of this trait, I sometimes used the English term
‘demon’ to gloss it. It causes disease and ultimately death, if not exorcised by the
appropriate rituals.
The Kotkuphix ‘Manioc Stalk’ spirit has orange and black stripes all over its body. It is one of
the most vicious spirits. Some spirits have superhuman sexual appetites and are sexually
abusive to women. The Putuxop ‘Parrot’ Spirit has an enormous male sexual organ that it
uses to punish incest or just to rape a woman for pleasure. Rape by these spirits is always
fatal. (Popovich 1976a).
The Mõgmõkaxop ‘Hawk Spirit’ is also categorized as ‘vicious’ or predatory, but it has an
important role in Maxakalí subsistence. It is invited at the end of a rainy season because it’s
presence deters rainfall. It needs to be expelled in order for there to be rain. The rituals
inviting and expelling the Hawk Spirit are among the most common rituals in the society,
because the people believe that the Hawk Spirit can regulate the rainfall. At the end of a
long dry season in August 27, 1987, the patriarch of SU #1 built a new ritual house and
scheduled Hawk Spirit rituals to take place at sundown. He said that the Hawk Spirit must
leave or the rains will not come, so he sponsored the ritual to urge it to leave. The
community celebrates to cajole the spirits, as shown by the patriarch of SU #13:
The Maxakalí will sleep through the night because tomorrow is the Hawk Spirit ritual when
there will be a feast. The feast will end in the evening and when the food is gone we will have
to go to the forest to kill some more animals, such as armadillos or monkeys. We will bring
them to the ritual center to eat with the Souls-of-the-Dead. The women can cook the manioc.
We’ll put all the food together and divide it among the children (Life Story Text #4).
The Souls-of-the-Dead
The term Yãmĩyxop ‘Souls-of-the-Dead’ is commonly used to designate the rituals with
which the people interact with the corporate spirit entities. It is also a generic term for all
the spirits in the Maxakalí universe. The Souls-of- the-Dead is not a form of ancestor
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veneration because a Maxakalí does not interact with dead kinsmen. There is no concept of
a personal kinship affiliation between the living and the dead, and no idea of
communication between individuals in the Here-and-Now and those in the Beyond.
Members of a ritual group interact with the counterpart abstraction, the corresponding
corporate spirit entity. All of Maxakalí ritual life is concentrated on manipulating and
controlling these spirits and this is probably the major official preoccupation of the
Maxakalí society. The ritual activities are geared toward to maintaining the crucial balance
of power between the worlds.
The primary meaning of the term for ‘ancestor’ mõnãyxop is a deceased Maxakalí of an
ascending generation; it is only used to refer to some action or attribute of persons during
their lifetimes. Ancestors belong to the physical world and have no role in the spiritual one.
A Maxakalí loses personhood at death and may not be mentioned by name. The term
‘ancestor’ refers to a category we might call ‘persons who once existed.’ The dead are
remembered only in a generic impersonal sense, devoid of ties to the living. Myths are
replete with the feats of persons referred to as ‘ancestors,’ but these have no names and no
personal link to the living.
At Death
Death brings about a power confrontation. The erstwhile beloved relative and trusted
friend becomes a threat to the society at death. The enmity is not personal; it is merely that
a spirit has far greater power than living human beings and uses it whimsically and
irresponsibly. At death a person abruptly ceases to be a member of the community and
becomes a feared spirit that needs to be controlled. This requires the united powers of the
appropriate male ritual groups.
When the Maxakalí die, they are mourned ritually and are buried before sundown. Rituals
are not performed on behalf of an unnamed infant or an elderly person; there is no danger.
These are natural deaths, and a spirit has come to guide the dying person away from the
living community, to the Beyond (Nascimento 1984). If the death was violent or untimely
(black magic is suspected in the latter case), there is a rush to evacuate the residential area
before sundown. All the deceased’s personal effects must be destroyed and the house
burned to the ground. There is often not time to do this before sundown and then there is
great urgency to get as far from the home of the deceased as possible. The deceased was
compelled to leave the body by either physical or spiritual violence, without a spirit guide
to direct the newly disembodied soul to the Beyond.
L’s wife, M, was my very first language helper. I used to sit on a log in her house and write
down words. I learned quite a bit about daily life and relationships in the tribe. We
developed a good, if cautious, relationship.
One Saturday L and M went to town with their earnings. After dark we heard this loud
wailing and there was a furor of activity where things were usually silent after sundown. We
stayed at home, suspecting a drunken brawl. Sunday morning we learned what had
happened.
Both had apparently been drinking and L, at some point on the road home, took a club and
literally battered her to death. Her skull was crushed and there was hardly a bone that
hadn’t been broken. Her sons got her body that night. The husband had come home very
drunk, saying that he had left her “back there.” When he realized what he had done, he ran
off to his sister’s family group. . . .
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M’s brother and sons agitated until a son and nephew slipped into the house where L was
sleeping (presumably with the permission of L’s sister’s family group), and battered him to
death. Then there was calm again (Popovich 1975:41, 42).
When the family learned that she had been murdered, the members of the band evacuated
all the homes. They burned M’s clothes, smashed her pots, and burned all the thatch homes
of the band (1961).
The unaccompanied soul is lonely and disoriented for the first month or so. It returns to its
home, its loved ones, and its personal belongings, but such a visit threatens the survivors
with sickness and death because it will try to take a loved one along to the Beyond. The
artifacts are destroyed to discourage the disembodied soul from returning to its former
body. The homes are evacuated and razed to avoid any contact of susceptible living humans
with sinister spirits of the dead.
After Burial
As soon as the body is buried, the deceased needs to be forgotten. His or her name is not to
be mentioned. The spirit returns to earth as long as the person is remembered, e.g.,
mentioned by name.
The soul of a living person is called a koxuk. The soul may leave the body in dreams or
when the individual loses consciousness. After an untimely death, the soul of a loved one
becomes a sinister spirit ‘Soul-of-the-Dead’ within five days in the case of a natural death.
The intervening five days are very threatening to a surviving relative because the
disembodied spirit is lonely and may try to seduce a loved one’s soul to go along to the
Beyond. This seduction can threaten the individual’s life. Vigorous ritual activity is needed
to restore the survivor to health (Popovich 1976, Nascimento 1984).
JX lost his young daughter after a short, fulminating infection. He grieved her loss, refusing to
leave his house. In the days that followed he abandoned himself still more to his grief,
dwelling on her loss to the exclusion of everything else. He died within a few weeks. M said
that he grieved himself to death. The spirit of his daughter seduced his soul, and he yielded
to it, numbed as he was by his loss (1977).
In the case of a violent death, the spirit tries to take revenge and may be around even
longer. The spirits, say the Maxakalí, are always dangerous.
As a Soul-of-the-Dead
Sometime after death, the new spirit, now depersonalized, joins any spirit group he
chooses in which he had membership or a ‘title’ during his lifetime. He takes on the
characteristic appearance of the subgroup he joins. All can become visible to the Maxakalí.
It is not certain whether they have a visible substance or whether they can materialize at
will. They reproduce among themselves and are mortal. They vaguely resemble humans
but with grotesque variations. Most ghosts are masculine, but a few are feminine (Popovich
1976:21).
There are several places on earth where the spirits tend to stay when they visit the living.
The most important places are the religious area with its three-walled ritual center,
religious pole, and dance area. Even female ghosts are welcome here. Another place ghosts
like to stay is in the “heart,” the innermost, of the living Maxakalí. This type of indwelling is
invariably disastrous and they must be exorcised by the appropriate rituals. Spirits also like
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to stay in tree stumps, hollow trees, and among tree branches. Many die after five years. A
few, who had been prominent leaders during their lifetimes, may last for several
generations as spirits, but without any personal identity.
Human/Supernatural Transactions
In terms of Carley Dodd’s (1977) dimensions of worldview, the Maxakalí universe is
unpredictable and whimsical; very little is predetermined. This lays a heavy burden of
responsibility on the men who are responsible to control these unpredictable beings for the
benefit of the society. Personal or public misfortune is either attributed to supernatural
beings or humans. It may be prompted by a deliberate intent to cause trouble or to simple
negligence for failing to take proper precautions.
Topa and the Maxakalí
The friendship between Topa and the Maxakalí was strained when the ancestors treated
him badly and eventually ruptured entirely when they shot arrows at him in their
frustration, unable to master the technology he offered them. The myth shows that Topa
cannot be destroyed by human technology, but it also shows an alienated deity:
The ancestors were fishermen who used hook and line to fish. Topa rained fish from the sky
with which the ancestors filled their sacks. He rained down 500 strings of fish for the two
ancestors. While they went to pull in the fish, the two ancestors tried to break the string and
got fish hooks embedded in their hands. One hook pierced a man’s foot when he tried to pull
in the fish. Topa threw down more fish, and ten ancestors dived into the water to pull them
out. Again fishhooks embedded themselves in their hands. They were furious. They could
hear Topa singing on the trail, so they seized their bows and arrows and pursued him.
During this period of pursuit, Topa was hunting and providing the game that his mother
desired. He sang as he hunted.
Topa was up in the sky and came down to the ancestors’ land. The ancestors got out their
bows and arrows and surrounded him. When they pulled the bowstrings to shoot the arrows
at Topa, their legs broke and they fell to the ground. They had all wanted to kill Topa, but
could not do it (Alienation from Topa Text).
This is why Topa left the Maxakalí, the ancestors said, and began to show special favors to
the outsiders, giving them guns, jeeps, domestic animals, and airplanes. The ancestors were
left to muddle along with bows and arrows, to travel on foot, and to carry their own
burdens instead of having a pack animal or a jeep.
Topa and the Maxakalí were good friends, but when they treated him badly [shooting arrows
at him in frustration], He left them and went to live with the outsiders. There a man refused
to give cow’s milk to someone traveling with Topa, so he cursed the man’s cows and they
died. Another man killed his only cow to feed a mysterious stranger who turned out to be
Topa. He offered his humble hospitality to the unknown Traveler. The next morning the hut
had become a luxurious mansion. A large herd of cattle was grazing on a huge tract of land
that Topa had given him (Topa Text #4).
The Maxakalí were allotted the wild animals for food, while the outsiders could raise
domestic animals. This may have been a fair distribution of resources a century ago, but
now the game is gone and grass fires have destroyed many of the wild fruits and plants that
complemented the high protein diet. M complains about Topa’s decree that favors the
outsiders and discriminates against the Maxakalí:
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Long ago, there were no outsiders here. The jungle was uncut and there were plenty of game
animals: tapir, and wild pig. Today, people are constantly fighting, the outsiders are all
around us, and the game has disappeared; it is gone, finished.
Once the jungle was full of animals and there was only one ancestor. Topa stacked all the
guns and then he tested the ancestor himself, saying,
“Shoot the gun!”
The ancestor picked it up but he didn’t shoot. Then Topa said to the outsiders,
“You shoot!”
One of them picked up a gun and shot it, like this, BANG! The guns were stacked, so now the
outsiders are very rich. If the ancestor had done the right thing, he would have become rich
and we with him, but the ancestor was stupid whereas the outsiders were clever. As a result,
they are rich and have jeeps and airplanes. The ancestor was poor and his descendants have
nothing either. If Topa’s decree had favored us, we would have become rich because of our
cleverness.
Why don’t we own any cattle? We have a lot of pasture grass that nobody can use because
we don’t eat grass. The outsiders and their cattle come and eat our grass. Topa didn’t
designate cattle for us, so we don’t keep cows. Why did Topa deprive us? We are poor; the
outsiders are the ones who are rich. They own many things and we are destitute. What do
we own? We have no cows, only a few horses, and no pigs or chickens. We have plenty of
dogs, but we don’t eat dogs (Complaint about Topa Text).
M shows that Topa ranked the Maxakalí lower than the outsiders, because he limited
Maxakalí technology and sources of food.
After Topa withdrew from any active participation in Maxakalí life, he was relegated to an
inactive status, to the role of culture hero. He is good, they say, he doesn’t do us any harm,
but neither does he help us. So they turn their attention to the mischievous beings in their
universe, to those that are gãy ‘vicious.’ Topa is an otiose being (cf. Malefijt 1968:153). They
believe that he is indifferent to Maxakalí welfare and they rate him at about number six of
twelve beings, in a ranking of relative power (see Figure 16).
Cleverness and Unity Confront Supernatural Power
Maxakalí women and children are completely powerless in a confrontation with the
corporate spirit entities, but the men relate to the spirit world as the rabbit in the folk tales
relates to the hãmgãy ‘jáguar.’ All the power, all the predatory strength is on the side of the
jáguar, but the rabbit wins out by his cleverness. Topa is a relatively minor character in
myths involving the jáguar (traditional villain in Amerindian tales), and the rabbit. The
rabbit represents the defenseless victim, and it outwits the predatory jáguar with Topa’s
help.
Topa went on and met a jáguar rolling a rock uphill. Topa told the rabbit and the ram to help
the jáguar to roll it uphill. The ram and the rabbit obeyed. The jáguar cursed them while they
were helping him, so they ran away. He called them to come back, but they refused. He was
furious and swore at them. He chased the rabbit until he was tired and the rabbit slipped
into a hole in the ground. The jáguar called a wasp to come and guard the hole so the rabbit
would not escape. Then he left to get a hoe to dig him out.
The wasp sat there to wait for the rabbit to come out. He waited, and he waited, and he
waited.
The rabbit chewed tobacco and the wasp heard him. He put his eye up to the hole to try to
see what the rabbit was doing. The rabbit said,
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“Let me put medicine into your eye. Open it wide.”
The wasp opened his eye wide and the rabbit spit tobacco juice into it. The juice blinded the
wasp and dripped from his eye. The rabbit quickly slipped out of the hole and escaped.
When the jáguar returned he dug in the hole to get at the rabbit and found it was empty. He
scolded the wasp:
“He is gone! Why didn’t you guard the hole better to make sure he did not escape?” He was
very angry. . . (Topa Text #11).
The spirits often use their supernatural powers in an irresponsible fashion. The struggle
would be unequal were it not for the united efforts of all initiated males in the Maxakalí
society. All Maxakalí men are priests and are empowered by initiation to manipulate the
beings that are both the blessing and bane of the society. The spirits have supernatural
powers, so the Maxakalí always work as a group to make sure that their united strength
will be equal to—or greater than—the strength of the spirits. They use strategies such as
rituals, offerings, feasts, and dances. There is strength in ritual solidarity. Even burials are
done by groups of men who present a united front to the disembodied soul and the threat it
poses to the living. The need to unite in the face of the spirit world draws the Maxakalí
together and gives the unity of shared danger.
The Maxakalí relation to the spirits also has an element of celebration. The rituals include
dancing and feasting as well as mystery and power. One man described the lighthearted
aspect of the rituals:
Someone said, “Let’s hunt capybara!”
We went and stalked the capybara, killing so many of them that we had to cut poles to carry
them home. We brought them home to use in the Souls-of-the-Dead rituals and put them in
the ‘ritual house.’ We performed the rituals. At midnight we threw some of the meat to the
women. They cut it up for the spirit rituals, to eat in the ritual house. In the wee hours of the
morning, the spirits were very happy. They laughed a lot, saying,
“Let’s do it again tomorrow!”
Someone urged my daughters,
“Make the Souls-of-the-Dead laugh!”
But they were shy and did not want to do it. The spirits were left alone so they went away.
The next day the spirits were not my [responsibility], but I said,
“I will make a feast for the spirits.”
Lots of people came and ate the feast. . . .
At night the spirits arrived. The women danced as well as the men. We were happy and
danced until we were sleepy (Life Story #4).
Private Ritual Practitioner: Black Magic
A private practitioner is suspected of having an alliance with a hostile spirit to practice
black magic. The penalty for private practice (witchcraft, sorcery) is death.
A’s father was executed as a warlock many years before we arrived at the reservation. “He
was bad,” the elderly women explained, “and the People killed him.” (1974)
H spoke to J, A, and O. J and A are said to be involved in black magic and it is not a healthy
occupation in this tribe (Popovich 1975:34)
H reported on JL. JL believes that his illness is the result of black magic practiced by A and J,
who are his avowed enemies (Popovich 1976:41)
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One day [Z’s] brother A decided that his daughter had died because of witchcraft. (They had
also squabbled with the two brothers [D and T] about a certain field.) So A and Z went after
D and killed him with an ax or a machete. D’s brother T came to his brother’s rescue and
killed Z, and then A killed T and came home alone (Popovich 1975:44).
JL found his life was radically changed by the 1971 group experience. Enthused about the
healing power in Jesus’ name, he began practicing a private kind of exorcism for healing. It
was not long before rumors began to circulate that he was a witch, that he was “bad.” Since
the accusation of witchcraft is equal to an accusation of murder, He was forced to halt his
healing practice. For a time he floundered. . . . Now he is an ‘overseer’ in the Maxakalí church,
and a man highly respected by his peers. He is careful, however, not to reach too far outside
of his own band in exercising his influence (1977).
Practitioners of black magic (xutmĩhĩm) ‘take out of wood’ use the occult power in a
mechanical fashion to injure or kill someone. Information on witchcraft has always been
private and confidential. No one will admit any knowledge of this and is unwilling to risk
speaking about it into a tape recorder. What I have learned is that the evil charm is
transmitted to an intended victim by building a certain kind of fire on the side of a foot
path. In order for it to be effective, the victim must pass downwind from the fire, so that the
smoke blows on him or her.
Disease and Death
According to the Maxakalí, diseases are usually caused by bad or capricious spirits who
enter a person as a consequence to some violated taboo. An example of this is the taboo
against speaking of the dead. If the cause of death was either murder or witchcraft, the
disembodied soul will return to haunt the survivors until its death is avenged. There is,
therefore, great urgency to avenge an untimely death. The usual precautions of destroying
the deceased’s belongings and burning the house are crucial. The emotional impact of the
loss is compounded by fear and the inability to express grief after the burial of a loved one.
Spirit possession is a common cause of disease. This is a power confrontation in which the
spirits invade the human body and challenge the power of the ritual groups to expel them.
The treatment for possession is exorcism by the ritual groups of the spirits involved. A
diagnostic ritual may be performed first, in which the etiological spirit entity discloses
himself and prescribes the type of offering required to induce the spirit to leave
(Nascimento 1984:55- 57). It must be expelled by groups of men empowered to do this.
Most bad luck is caused by people’s carelessness about taboos or about offending a spirit.
Spirits are like any overpowering enemy: they need to be coaxed and tricked into doing the
things that will benefit the beleagured society of the living Maxakalí.
Rituals and Shrines
The ritual center is the most sacred place in the social unit. It is a place of great spiritual
power and danger. Only males are allowed in there at any time, and only initiated males are
allowed in the ritual center after sundown. A ritual must be held in a sacred place and no
female may contaminate it. According to Maxakalí cosmology, the female belongs to the
profane world and her presence would contaminate the sacred areas. There are degrees in
male purity, but the female is impure by definition. Women may freely enter all profane
areas, and semisacred areas under specified conditions, but they may never enter an area
defined as sacred.
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The dance area is open to women participants in some but not all rituals. This is a
semisacred space and only open to women during specific ritual dances. The religious pole
is a bridge between the material and spiritual worlds. Spirits come down via the pole to
join the human ritual performers. The Maxakalí say that the spirits themselves painted the
special designs on the religious pole.
The three-walled ritual center protects the sacredness of the ritual by guaranteeing the
privacy of the interactions between the men and spirits. It is a place of great danger for
girls and women. The area immediately surrounding the shrine is also taboo to women.
Uninitiated boys may play in and around the shrine during daylight hours, but the hours of
darkness are the most sacred hours of all. Only initiated men and boys are permitted access
to the most sacred areas after nightfall.
The burial ground is also a dangerous place for unprotected persons and Maxakalí men
always perform a burial as a team. Newly-dead ghosts return to search for their bodies, and
it is dangerous for a living person to meet one. Only a group of initiated men and boys can
safely do so.
Analysis and Ranking of Beings
The way in which the Maxakalí prioritize the beings and phenomena in their universe is
significant. Except for myths and folk tales that told about Topa, the people seem to have
gone on about their daily lives as though He did not exist. Indeed, since he was thought to
be indifferent to their concerns and needs, they focused their attention on the spirit
world—the Souls-of-the-Dead’—as the key to survival and well-being.
S
A
C
R
E
D
MOST SACRED
CENTER
RITUAL
(Pole)
S
A
C
R
E
D
SEMISACRED RITUAL DANCE AREA
PROFANE AREA
Figure 14: Sacred Areas of Consensus Unit
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To understand the spirit world that is so important to the Maxakalí, I decided to study the
beings in their universe. I wrote twenty-six names down on little pieces of paper and asked
several literate young men to put the beings together that were alike. My first attempt
failed because the young man used phonological similarities as his criterion for grouping
them. On my second attempt I prepared a sample exercise that used semantic similarities,
such as ‘things that fly,’ ‘things in the ground,’ and ‘things used to fish.’ I went over the
sample with them and then gave them the twenty-six slips of paper to analyze.
B and P together categorized the list according to five cover terms (see Figure 15). The
columns they labeled “vicious” (gãy) and “spirits” (yãmĩy) are both categories of spirits.
The vegetable and animal names are labels for categories of spirits. They are all souls of
dead Maxakalí. The term ‘demon’ is an attempt to gloss yãmĩy in a meaningful way, because
it is the category of spirits that can indwell living human beings, causing disease and death.
The term ‘Satan’ is a gloss for hãmgãyãgnãg, the personification of evil.
OUTSIDERS
TOPA’S
VICIOUS
SPIRITS
MAXAKALÍ
Non-Indians
H. Spirit
Jáguar
Manioc
M. women
Non-I child
Live soul
Hawk
Demons
M. child
R C Priest
Topa
Satan
Parrot
the People
Rain Child
Fem ghosts
M. men
Topa’s Son
Armadillo
Christ
Vegetation
Angels
Figure 15: Maxakalí Categories of Beings
Ranking as to Power
B returned the following week and obliged me by ranking a list of seventeen beings in
terms of power (strongest). He gave top billing to those who produce the greatest havoc
and ranked them in the order given in column 1 of Figure 16, below. The following chart
compares ratings given by Bu, Pi, JL, and Bo.
When I asked Pi in Água Boa to rank the beings according to power, I needed to reduce the
list used above so that he could do it in the short fifteen minutes he had available. I asked
him to pick out five names or entities and list them from the strongest to the weakest. He
selected and ranked the names given in column 2 of Figure 16.
At Xaxkunut (SU #9) I asked both JL and his brother Bo to rank the beings as to power. JL
did not understand the idea of ranking, so I set out the beings in terms of binary
oppositions: do women command men or do men command women? He concluded that
Jesus commands everyone else, even Topa ‘God’ and Hãmgãyãgnãg ‘Satan.’ He quickly
identified God’s Son with Jesus rather than with Rain Child. I noted that he ranked Jesus as
considerably more powerful than Topa (God).
63
Rank
Bu
Pi
JL
Bo
1
Satan
Jesus
Jesus
Jesus
2
Spirits
M. men
Satan
Spirits
3
Topa
All spirits
Topa
Topa
4
Outsiders
Topa
5
RC Priest
M. women
6
Jesus
Outsiders
7
Spirits
Topa’s Son
8
Live soul
9
Rain Child
10
M. men
11
H Spirit
12
M. women
Figure 16: Ranking Beings as to Power
His brother Bo ranked Jesus the highest, over all other powers, above Topa (see Figure 16,
above). I noted that the cultural concept of God (indifferent, remote, uninvolved) had not
changed as much I had expected. This shows that, on the whole, the Maxakalí still give
priority to the spirit beings in their traditional world. They cling to their role as power
brokers between the visible and invisible worlds. Of our four analysts above, JL and Bo are
lively Christians. Pi professes to be one and Bu may possibly be one. I think the last two
would be better described as open to Christianity than as Christians.
Analysis of Power and Ranking
The beings that are perceived as the most powerful in the Maxakalí universe are those that
inspire the most fear in the society. The young analysts simply explained their choices of
the ‘vicious’ spirits by saying that everyone is afraid of them. The ‘good’ or benign beings
are ranked a lot lower. I conclude that the power ranking of the beings in their universe is
in terms of threat to the society, not in terms of ability to act on its behalf. The one they
rank highest in terms of power is the one who is the personification of evil, Hãmgãyãgnãg
‘Satan.’ Topa ranks just above women, and slightly below men, since men can also be
vicious.
The Maxakalí leaders have placed new emphasis on the spirit-human interaction to
consolidate their social power in the society. They have reacted vigorously to the threats of
secularism, loss of meaning systems, and an alien form of Christianity by revitalizing their
traditional religion. Adams (1975:149) points out that when leaders are faced with a loss of
essential resources, they try to increase their control either by increasing the energy
64
available in the system or by strengthening the social organization. Or they may try to do
both. It is difficult to distinguish the Maxakalí this-worldly power needs from other-worldly
concerns. This is, perhaps, not untypical of animists, who readily blend the physical world
with the spiritual world, and the natural with the supernatural. In the next chapter we will
see how they have integrated their power within the domestic groups and their power as
mediators between the material and spiritual worlds.
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CHAPTER IV
RITUAL POWER AND MAXAKALÍ SOCIAL INTEGRATION
Giving priority to the male sacerdotal role as exemplifying the ‘good Maxakalí,’ the society
orders their universe by attributing supreme value to its initiated male members over the
age of ten and to their participation in the traditional rituals. Richard Adams (1975:171)
says that in the process of assigning priorities to a finite number of categories, a society
ranks its values. Through the process of initiation into the cult of the Souls-of-the-Dead, the
males of the society achieve power over the spirit world. This exclusive access to spiritual
power also gives them social power within the domestic group.
The Maxakalí political structure has little coercive power; consequently a patriarch-leader
expands his religious authority to mold the society into a “more inclusive moral
community.” (cf. Adams 1975:233) Although there is no direct link between energetic
sources and religion in the allocation of social power, the mentalistic connections between
them are significant. Religion serves not only to deal with the power of the spirits but also
to support and extend allocated social power (Adams 1975:235).
Ritual Power and Cosmology
Researchers who visited the Maxakalí before 1940 pointed out the importance that the
Maxakalí attached to the souls or spirits of the dead. Nimuendaju described the ritual
center as being part of each Maxakalí “settlement” and yet set apart from the residences as
sacred, being taboo to women and children. An exception was made for uninitiated boys; by
implication, they were allowed in the sacred area during daylight hours (Metraux
1946:543).
Nimuendaju (1958) described the appearance of spirit beings as taking place during
dreams, but my understanding of the phenomenon is that the appearances take place
during rituals, either in the privacy of the men’s hut or in the open dance area, visible to the
uninitiated. His understanding of the function of the men’s huts also differs from mine. The
religious hut is a ritual center, not a dormitory. This is not to suggest that sleeping there is
unthinkable, only that it is likely to be limited to dozing between rituals or their phases.
Now that there has been a significant loss of social power from material resources and
energy available to them, Maxakalí leaders have put renewed emphasis on the religion, a
male cult. They have made participation in the rituals a behavioral norm for the ‘good’
Maxakalí. All Maxakalí rituals are executed by a ritual group or committee, none are
“individual” activities. There are no specialists, and so ritual transactions between the
society and the spirit world cannot be termed “shamanic” (Wallace 1961). The most
appropriate of Wallace’s categories of religious systems is the “communal,” because each
ritual group constitutes a secret society and because it is unstructured and socially
minimally stratified.
Ritual and Ideology
One of the routine questions I asked of some fifty adults in Pradinho and 20 adults in Água
Boa, was, “What does Topa want the Maxakalí to do?” The following responses are
66
particularly interesting when we note that the old time myths about Topa do not mention
the Souls-of-the-Dead, nor do they say anything about the rituals connected with them (see
Chapter III and Appendix A for Topa Texts).
Folk tales tell of the wonderful things that happened in the mythical past. They tell how
Topa selected the Maxakalí over all other people (see Chapter III). When Topa left to
shower his blessings on the outsiders (wealth, cattle, advanced technology) he restricted
the Maxakalí to a simple bow-and-arrow technology. He left them to cope with the hostile
spirit world as best they could. The myths follow Topa’s dealings with the outsiders,
rewarding noble behavior and punishing the selfish. He is no longer involved with the
Maxakalí and their problems.
In answer to the question, “What does Topa want the Maxakalí to do?” the people in
Hãpxanep (SU #12) responded, in the following order:
1. He wants them to celebrate the rituals,
2. He wants them to make a feast,
3. He wants them dance like the ancestors did, and
4. He does not want them to fight or be angry (August 6, 1987).
At Mĩkax Kaka (SU #16), M and her sons said that Topa had commanded the Maxakalí to
make feasts for the ‘Souls-of-the-Dead.’ Asked specifically about what he wants women to do,
she answered that he wants them to build a kuxex ‘ritual center’ and listen to the rituals
(August 5, 1987).
MK at Xatapa (SU #13) echoed the belief that Topa wants ritual fidelity. Asked specifically
what good men and good women do, he still related this to activities connected with ritual
(August 7, 1987).
The widow A and her son G (SU #18) answered that Topa commanded the Maxakalí to make
feasts for the Souls-of-the-Dead (August 5, 1987).
At Pananĩn (SU #15), AM first said that Topa wants the Maxakalí to sing to the Souls-of-the
Dead, and then that Topa wants them to build a ritual center, to make feasts that the women
cook for (August 6, 1987).
Among those who were asked this question in Água Boa, was T, patriarch of SU #1. He was
most specific that Topa wanted the Maxakalí to send the hawk spirits away so that the rains
would come to prepare the soil for planting. JL, the other Christian patriarch, said that he
sang the rituals “for Topa”:
There are also believers over at Mãkpa, where T lives. Tomorrow, Wednesday, I go to the
kuxex ‘ritual center’ with the believers there. We Christians will sing together. We come
together in order to sing (September, 1987).
I found amazing consensus on the question of what Topa ‘God’ requires them to do. Topa
wants them to make feasts to the spirits and to sing and dance to them. We got the same
answers in both Pradinho and Água Boa and from Christians and non-Christians. The
answers show that a syncretistic form of Christianity is developing and this will be
discussed later.
67
The ‘Good’ Maxakalí
What are the characteristics of a ‘good’ Maxakalí? I thought I knew them, although
primarily in the form of negations of undesirable behavior. I was familiar with the women’s
gossip and criticism of stinginess, disloyalty, and anger. I decided to elicit the information
by asking for the positive attributes of a ‘good’ Maxakalí. To understand the impact of the
data I must define some of the semantic components of the word max ‘good’ in Maxakalí.
There is little of the idea of ‘goodness’ as an absolute value. Its primary range of meaning is
‘pleasing,’ ‘beautiful,’ ‘convenient,’ ‘desirable,’ ‘harmonious.’ It is subjective rather than
objective in its semantic usage.
The questions were:
1. What does the ‘good’ Maxakalí do?
a. for relatives?
b. for nonrelatives?
c. for Topa (God)?
d. for outsiders?
2. Are believers ‘good’ Maxakalí?
3. Are believers genuine Maxakalí?
4. What do genuine Maxakalí do?
5. What do the Maxakalí believers do?
6. What does Topa command all Maxakalí to do?
I asked the first question of some fifty people in Pradinho and about twenty in Água Boa.
Most of the questioning was done within the various domestic groups, where a number of
people contributed. I was unprepared for the broad consensus as to what a good person
does. After their initial surprise at being asked such an obvious question, the answers
varied little. A good person builds a ritual center and carries out the souls-of-the-dead
rituals. This answer was given by an overwhelming majority of the seventy respondents.
Two Christian patriarchs modified their answer by adding “for Topa.” One patriarch (J of SU
#6) is something of an agnostic, and his response ignored the ritual duties. Moral behavior,
as I understand it, is definitely given second billing to ritual fidelity.
On the questions as to what ideal behavior was in relation to specific categories of people,
the answers tended to be vague, such as that “good people do good things.” A more explicit
answer was “They have feasts and celebrate.” Or “They speak well,” and “They are wise.”
The patriarchs insist that ritual obligations to the spirits are a primary social obligations.
Because the spirits control the factors that determine the fate of the Maxakalí, neglect of
these spirits will bring bad luck down on the households and social units. Some young
people worry that they will lose their ethnic identity if they stop taking part in the rituals.
Many believers do not know how to break with the custom. M, now one of the elders, once
said:
“If I am a Maxakalí, I must participate in the rituals. Because if I am not a Maxakalí, I am no
one at all.”
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At that time I assured him that as a Christian he was more Maxakalí than ever; God would
enable him to live much closer to the ideal of the ‘good person’ than he had been able to
attain previously. (H. Popovich, 1982).
However, we had not understood that participation in the traditional rituals was such a
high cultural value. They listed the characteristics of a ‘good’ Maxakalí, charted as to source
and ranked in terms of frequency in Figure 17.
Characteristics of
Good Maxakalí
Maxakalí Social Units
#1
#6
#9
#12
#13
#15
#16
#17
#18
#19
x
x
x
x
x
Perform Rituals
x
x
x
x
x
x
Celebrate (feast)
x
x
x
x
x
x
Build Rit. Center
x
x
x
x
x
x
Do not Fight
x
x
x
Do not be Angry
x
x
Teach Each Other
x
Read and Write
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Are Generous
x
Drink Coffee
x
x
Live
Harmoniously
Speak Well
x
x
x
Make Artifacts
Prepare Feasts
x
x
x
x
Are Wise/Capable
x
Kind to Outsiders
x
Figure 17: Characteristics of ‘Good’ Maxakalí
Note that Social Unit #6 is the only source that does not give primary value to ritual fidelity.
The patriarch of this domestic group is an agnostic. He does not participate in the rituals
and has not for some time (see Chapter I for more details).
A summary of the answers are listed in the order of their frequency:
1. He observes the spirit rituals and feasts.
2. He helps to build the ritual center.
3. He provides/prepares food for the celebrations.
4. He is not violent, angry, or quarrelsome.
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5. He shares food generously with his relatives.
The Hawk Spirit Ritual
The Mõgmõkaxop ‘hawk spirit group’ ritual sends the hawk spirit group away so that the
rains will come and crops can be planted. Preliminary preparations call for hunting the
now scarce wild animals, such as capybara and monkeys. These animals are offered to the
spirits first, then the women roast the offerings and present them to the male participants
at the appropriate phase in the ritual. The men and spirits enjoy a ritual feast in the ritual
center:
We killed so many [capybara] that we had to cut poles to carry them home. We brought them
home to use in the rituals and put them in the ritual center. We sang the rituals. At midnight
we threw some of the meat to the women. They cut it up for the spirits to eat in the ritual
center. In the wee hours of the morning the spirits were very happy (Life Story #4).
The women also have preparations to make. According to the same source, the women
provide large quantities of manioc, which they peel and cook in the late afternoon. The men
begin to gather in the house of the patriarch during the afternoon. They conduct informal
group discussions on topics of mutual interest. As the sun sinks lower on the horizon, the
male members of the community drift toward the ritual center and this creates an
atmosphere of expectancy in the entire band.
Before sundown the male ritual performers meet in the ritual center, which is barred to the
women. The leading participants of the ritual are members of the Hawk Spirit ritual group.
Men who do not belong to the ritual group form a special part of the audience. Initiated
members of other ritual groups may freely enter the ritual center but they only participate
with the community and not as part of the ritual group that leads. As the sun sinks behind
the horizon, a few of the performers begin to sing the ritual and then they come out to the
dance area. This is the first phase of the ritual. The invitation to the spirits is sung as the
xãnã’ax ‘call.’ This is a call to the spirits but is also an invitation to the community. But the
participation is sexually defined in several ways. The relation of men and women is one of
polarities. This is especially clear in the liminal part of the ritual, with its emphasis on
communitas.
The ritual singing is composed of repetitive phrases, interspersed with ‘tra-la-la’ type
syllables. The phrase urges the Hawk Spirit to leave:
“Go, go, Hawk Spirit, go away.”
The men sing and dance with an interlocking step in the sacred area that is directly in front
of the ritual center. There are phases of the ritual in which only men are allowed to dance.
There are also phases in which the entire community may join in the dancing. The women
dance in semicircular format, with their arms around each other’s waist. The dance step is
two steps to the right and one step to the left, on the semisacred periphery of the dance area.
There is much repetition in the ritual chants. From sundown to midnight the ritual
performers urge the Spirit to leave.
Some time around midnight the men toss the wild animals used for meat offerings to the
women, who roast them and then offer them ritually to the male dancers. The women add to
the general merriment by playing tricks on the male dancers while presenting the meat to
them. The men receive the meat and manioc ceremonially, taking the food into the kuxex
‘ritual center’ to share it with the spirits.
The women offer food from their fields to the spirits, while the nonperforming men offer
wild animals from the forest. The women may join in some of the dances, but use a different
dance step than the men. They are limited to the semisacred part of the dance area in front of
the ritual center (see Figure 14 in Chapter III).
70
Male members of the community join the performers during the dances by making their way
inward, from the outer periphery of the dance area to the ritual center itself. The women
remain on the periphery.
The ka’ax ‘tail’ or ‘end’ signals that the ritual is coming to a conclusion. At this point the
entire community celebrates with a feast.
From this description, we can see that the male-female role dichotomy is expressed in
many ways, both before and during the ritual performance.
The Element of Secrecy in Rituals
There is a unique power in secret societies. Secret knowledge gives a delicious sense of
power to the fortunate possessor of that knowledge. Ritual knowledge is more than
information, however. It is an esoteric ‘know-how’ that enables the possessors to
successfully confront superior powers. In withholding this skill from the uninitiated, the
men of the society consolidate their social power over the women and children.
The women and children pass many nights in an emotional state that ranges from
fascination to fear, listening to the sounds coming from the men’s ritual center. It is certain
that the women know more than anyone will admit; they all grew up with boys who
underwent initiation and certainly they learned something from unguarded moments with
them. Much has been made of the fear factor, but I have yet to hear one tell of the
fascination that this interaction with the spirit world has for the participants. The men
experience the thrill of power in manipulating the spirit beings and women find the
mystery deliciously exciting.
Y reported on a particularly exciting ritual. She told how a female spirit had joined the
women in the dancing phase of the ritual, participating in the dance itself (Popovich
1975:25)
The Use of Disguises
Maxakalí cult activities are secret and include the men masquerading as spirits, using
masks, wigs made from hair of female corpses, the ceremonial flute, and the famous bull
roarers. The latter are carved from wood, shaped like the blades of a fan. They are formed
so that when one is held by a string and waved around in a circle above the head, a whining
sound is produced. This sound is attributed to the voice of a spirit. A small bull roarer
simulates a child’s spirit; a medium-sized one a woman’s spirit, and a large one a man’s
spirit.
Late one evening, several Maxakalí men came to our door and called for my husband. When
he went to the door to see what they wanted, they asked him to step outside, away from the
kerosene lamp. In the darkness they presented him with three bull roarers, a mangy-looking
wig of long, black hair, and some special flutes. It was a conditional presentation. He had to
promise that he would not show them to any Maxakalí woman, because these were examples
of the means the men employed to simulate spirit participation in the rituals (1960).
Nimuendaju described the masquerade costumes and disguises used in the rituals:
Two types of sacred objects—masquerade costumes and bull-roarers—were linked with the
initiation rites. The disguise consisted of a coarse bast fringe suspended from a rope on the
wearer’s head, the fringe completely hiding the masquerader, who carried a 6-foot switch.
All the costumes were stored in the men’s house and were taboo to the uninitiated, who
were told that the dead appear in this apparel.
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The use of these disguises is restricted to a special season, during which bull-roarers—
dubbed “men,” “women,” and “boys,” according to their size—are wielded by those
privileged to do so. The sound is interpreted to outsiders as emanating from the spirits, and
newly initiated boys are forbidden on pain of corporal punishment to divulge the secret.
Long after the close of the mummers’ season, a sacred post about 18 feet (5.5 m.) high is
erected in front of the men’s house in the dance plaza, which is not taboo to women. Men
dance around it while the souls of the dead supposedly descend from the sky via the post
(Metraux 1946:545).
We have here a paradox. The men apparently sincerely believe in the rituals, and yet
consciously and deliberately use means to deceive the women into thinking that the sounds
they hear (made by flutes and the mysterious bull-roarers) are the voices of spirits; that the
men, wearing wigs and disguises, are manifestations of female spirits. This appears to be a
conscious effort to enhance the male ritual role and thus the men’s social power.
A costume is not the same as a disguise. A costume is dress appropriate to a special
occasion. Much of costuming consists of the traditional body painting, use of special hats,
even of wigs. These are cultural conventions. The purpose of costuming may be to attract
or repel spirits. Maxakalí costumes consist of body painting and special ritual hats. A
disguise, however, is intended to mislead the spectators—e.g., the uninitiated. It is meant to
make the user appear to be what he is not. Maxakalí men wear wigs made of women’s hair
and masks to impersonate spirit beings. The use of masking and costuming may be what
Anna Freud described as an “effective defense mechanism” against fear which is to identify
with the object of fear in order to take away its power to harm (Turner 1969:174).
The use of masks and disguises enhances the male sense of secret power. It is intended to
confront the uninitiated with the sense of their helplessness before this malignant spirit
power. Many of the spirits are depicted as cruelly hostile to women and this reinforces the
dependence the women and children have on the men of the society. This strategy also may
prevent a possible challenge to male power in the realm of subsistence, where the men are
now susceptible.
Drinking and Rituals
M tells of Souls-of-the-Dead celebrations and how they are enhanced by drinking cachaça
‘fermented cane juice’:
So we held a big dance and people got married, fought, and danced. We drank coffee and
cachaça and were somewhat drunk when we danced. We danced well because we were
drunk. When we are sober, we dance badly because we are ashamed [inhibited]. But when
we are drunk we dance well (Life Story Text #3).
MK, in turn, shows that too much alcohol can ruin a ritual performance:
We pulled up stakes and went to town, but some were drunk when we arrived at
Umburaninha. We went back to the place we had celebrated yãmĩyxop earlier. The ancestors
drank liquor again and got so drunk that they spoiled the rituals, so we stopped early (Life
Story Text #4).
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The Ritual Importance of Women’s Role
The women’s role in rituals varies with the type of ritual being performed. In some, the
women make food offerings and play tricks on the male dancers who come out of the ritual
center to receive the offerings. In some the women join in the dancing. M says:
We wanted to do the Hemex ritual, so we invited our relatives to come with all their children.
We made a big feast for them. In the morning everyone went to make things ready for the
rituals. Wherever the rituals were, the people went.
Soon another ritual was held, and again we made a feast. At night all the women wore their
best clothes and reddened their lips to dance. They celebrated joyously with the spirits,
singing, joking, and teasing (Life Story Text #3)
The role of Maxakalí women in the men’s esoteric religion deserves more than cursory
attention. As the chief beneficiaries and main audience of the men’s elaborate disguises and
maskings, the women are also important in the ritual activities. From an anthropological
perspective, the woman’s role in the traditional religion is a key one. She is the audience,
the chief target of all the simulations. The men freely admit that much of the spirit
manifestations are simulated to impress the women, using devices previously mentioned.
The fact that the male performers go to great pains to impress the female spectators,
emphasizes the importance of their role in the society. A secret cult derives its meaning
precisely from excluding a large segment of the society. After all, there can only be an ‘ingroup’ if there is also an ‘out-group.’
The diagram below illustrates some contrasts between the male and female roles in the
liminal phase of the Hawk Spirit ritual. The sex roles in ritual are a metaphor of the sex role
distinctions in the larger Maxakalí society. The male performers are the stars and the
female performers are the stage hands and supporting cast (see Figure 18). It is safe to say
that the complementarity of the sex roles, both in ritual and in social transactions,
contributes to an integrated, functioning society. That this gender dichotomy may not be
equally satisfying to everyone is not the focus of this paper.
Men
Women
Location
Central
Peripheral
Dance
In pairs
In a semicircular line
Intricate, interlocking step
Simple, 1 step right, 2 steps left
Works way in from outside
to inside
Remains in outer semicircle
Take all initiative
Follow the lead of men
Movement
Singing
Figure 18: Liminal Phase of the Hawk Spirit Ritual
Ritual and Social Integration
The Maxakalí religion is an esoteric men’s cult; there are no specialists but certain men are
reputed to be more “knowing” about the spirit world. Both boys and girls are assigned to
ritual groups at birth and at significant milestones in their lives. Men carry out their
73
daughters’ and wives’ ritual obligations. These ‘titles’ to ritual groups are received from
both paternal and maternal kin of ascending generations, but unworthy behavior may be
responsible for the repossession of the ‘title’ which is then given to someone else (A. H.
Popovich 1976). I do not know on what basis these ‘titles’ are assigned to the younger
generations, nor what relation the membership in spirit groups has to the member’s
ultimate destination as a yãmĩy ‘Soul-of-the-Dead.’
CO explained that he received ‘titles’ to ritual groups from both maternal and paternal
grandparents. He received one from his father at his initiation, for “responsible behavior.”
His brother also received one, but this was later revoked for irresponsibility and the title was
given to another relative. CO received another at his marriage and another upon the death of
his mother’s brother. He had something like six ‘titles’ to ritual groups, not counting his
wife’s and daughters’ ‘titles’ that he was obliged to discharge on their behalf (A. H. Popovich
1976)
AJ tells about a quarrel between two outsiders, one of whom lived with his domestic group
and was a regular participant in the Maxakalí rituals. He shows how membership in a ritual
group gives a sense of identity to the members and has a claim on their loyalty:
Those who were faithful to the rituals came to defend MZ and to kill the outsider instead.
Those from the Souls-of-the-Dead group, from the Manioc Stalk group, and from the Hawk
group killed the outsider and hid the body. . . .
We had not done any wrong and we had helped MZ. . . . Later he came back to live with us.
Nothing wrong had been done. This is what the ancestors said. (Life Story Text #6).
J tells of the exodus to Itanháem in 1919, and of the tremendous cost of that trip in terms of
lives lost to infectious diseases. When the rituals alone did not turn the tide, the people
packed up and returned to their traditional land, which Joaquim Fagundes had meanwhile
“sold” to homesteaders:
There were a lot of tapirs around which the men killed and used in the Hawk rituals. The
next day the men decided to go out after more tapirs, so they got more and again used them
in the rituals. We held many rituals. Many children got sick and died quickly. Some were
anxious to leave because so many died, so we packed up to leave. One this tall [indicated
height with hand] died along the way. We traveled while grieving. My mother also died on
that trip. Another person this tall [gestured to indicate height] died. We kept traveling until
we arrived back here (Life Story Text #1).
The ritual center converts the simple coordinated unit into a consensus unit. In order to
sponsor and maintain the ritual life of the domestic group, a fairly large group of initiated
males are necessary. Although each initiated male has ‘titles’ to a number of ritual teams,
he cannot participate in them all.
A patriarch needs to develop an inclusive style of leadership that attracts a large number of
able-bodied male relatives. In order to attract them, he needs to offer material advantages
and a certain amount of freedom within the limits of consensual decision-making.
Another strategy involves concentrated ideological education. The patriarch emphasizes
that the ritual practices are an integral part of the Maxakalí ethnic identity. He further
affirms that they are essential to an authentic lifestyle as well as physical well-being.
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Women and Religious Change
The women’s traditional role in religion continues to determine much of their participation
in Christian groups. The leaders’ wives will not participate in meetings nor have they been
baptized. They support their husbands’ roles in the developing churches, but are only
active behind the scenes. One young woman is an exception to the rule: D is a trained
teaching assistant (a young widow) and has helped to put Maxakalí Scripture to music. Her
active role and participation in the eucharist service were unique in the society. It is
significant to note that widows—like promiscuous women and mestiças—are somewhat
marginal to the society (see below). They have been more receptive to Christianity and to
literacy than other Maxakalí women.
Although some young women were baptized, few women participate actively in Christian
meetings. Women have been slow to learn to read. In Pradinho, for example, there was no
woman student in the government schools in 1987. We learned recently that several of the
young men from Mĩkax Kaka taught their wives at home. The idea that women must be
protected from the outside world is still very strong. The women themselves, even when
they have learned to read, will publicly pretend that they cannot. In Água Boa, the women
trail behind the men in literacy. Those who are literate are mestiças or marginalized
women, such as widows and promiscuous, unmarried women.
Male Roles
The Maxakalí subscribe to dichotomous relations between men and women to enhance the
social power of the males and to reinforce the dependent role assigned the females in the
society. The last few years have seen a significant increase in emphasis on the rituals as the
society’s solution to the problems of ordinary living and the meaning of Maxakalí existence.
For an explanation of this phenomenon, we need to look at the social reality of the Maxakalí
today.
In the past the typical Maxakalí male expected to become the head (‘patriarch’ xuxyã) of an
extended family one day. The traditional society had no ideology of chiefdom beyond the
headship over the descending generations of a man’s personal kindred. As family head, he
had the responsibility to lead the group to areas where game was plentiful. He proved his
manhood by inter-tribal warfare and by prowess as a hunter. In the relationship with the
yãmĩyxop he could protect the interests of his own group by knowing how and when to
perform the required rituals, and thus maintain the very sensitive metaphysical balance
between the living and the dead.
The role of women was to bear and nurture children, to augment the game by fishing and
by simple gardens of sweet potatoes, corn, and manioc. She made mesh bags, fishnets, and
bowstrings for the bows her husband made. As her children grew up, she helped arrange
marriages and then helped care for her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Times change, but the Maxakalí woman’s role is still essentially what it always was. Her
lifestyle is now sedentary to the extent that family migrations only take place within the
two reservations. Her diet now consists mainly of starches, but her role has changed very
little.
75
The man’s role, however, has changed drastically. The game is gone; there is little left to
hunt. Once a nomad, he is locked into a reservation. The alien agents of the national
government impose their decisions on the tribe; the man now finds himself treated rather
like a mentally- retarded juvenile. Only in one sphere is his role unchanged and
unchallenged: in the traditional religion. Here every man is a priest. This role has changed
only in the direction of added emphasis, because in this one role he must express his
creative masculinity. All the dexterity once expressed as warrior and hunter now needs to
find expression in the rituals, hence there is an increasing need to differentiate male and
female roles in the area of religion.
Theoretical Debate on Sex Roles in Rituals
In recent years, many researchers have studied the unequal role women have in the ritual
life of some aboriginal societies. The answers given by anthropologists like Crocker (1977)
do not satisfy. They believe that men ban women from full participation in the society’s
ritual life because they feel themselves to be threatened by female dominance. None of
these real or imaginary threats exist in the Maxakalí society, so the Maxakalí men’s
exclusive tactics cannot be explained away so simply.
Crocker (1977:188ff) explains sexual dichotomy among the Bororo Indians of Mato Grosso,
where many rituals are forbidden to women. According to Crocker, the masculine solidarity
functions as a refuge from the domination of women in a matrilineal society that has
uxorilocal residence. He also implies that the use of the secret bull-roarer provides them
with a potent weapon of defense again the women. However, the Maxakalí are not
matrilineal nor predominantly uxorilocal, yet they subscribe to the same kind of
dichotomous relations between men and women as the Bororo. If the same type of
polarization between the sexes is found in the Maxakalí cognatic society, the social factors
behind this dialectic are more complex than Crocker indicates.
Reinforcing this position, La Fontaine (1972:162) reports that the Gisu women are
excluded from active participation in the male-dominated rituals, although they are equally
subject to the power of the ancestors. The Gisu are patrilineal but also believe that the child
is influenced by the spiritual powers of his mother’s lineage. We see here a contrast to the
Bororo situation; Gisu men do not feel threatened by female dominance and yet the women
are excluded from active participation in the rituals.
Ardener (1972) says there can be no question but that men and women are universally
defined in relation to one another. These definitions are determined by “social and
ideological factors” and the cultural representation of one sex depends on the
representation of the other sex. The dominance of men is a universal feature of social
systems; they are inevitably assigned roles of authority, dominance, and prestige (Rosaldo
and Atkinson 1975). With this in mind, we might do better to say that men use various
means to maintain the power status quo. Maxakalí men use secret devices to make sure
that the women remain in a subsidiary role in matters pertaining to religion and ritual.
The male-female role distinctions in rituals remind us that 1) the dominance of men is a
universal phenomenon; 2) sexual asymmetry is a cosmological conception; therefore 3)
rituals reflect and reinforce this concept (Evans-Pritchard 1965:157, Peirano 1978,
Tambiah 1978).
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Children and Ritual Power
Children occupy something of a no-man’s-land in the ritual life of the society. Girls are
trained from infancy to identify with the woman’s role in ritual, but boys begin with a
modified woman’s role. At ten years of age they are trained into the male ritual role. This
initiation thrusts responsibility on the young boys who, until this stage of life, have never
had domestic duties and responsibilities. With initiation they are entrusted with cosmic
secrets upon which the existence and well-being of the society depends. They become a
vital part of the Maxakalí male elite and perform the rituals of the spirit groups to which
they have a title or membership.
Children early learn to forage for much of their food and most of them are undernourished.
I noted with interest that MK speaks about sharing food with the children five times in his
recital of experiences. The mention of children is quite unusual in the men’s recitals of
experiences, so I found it quite remarkable. Even in women’s recitals, the mention of
children is usually limited to vital statistics.
MK first mentions feeding children in connection with a trip to town to sell artifacts to buy
meat, rice, and coffee with the proceeds. Then he goes on to give the children’s needs as his
motivation for planting:
I brought it home and made coffee for the children to drink. They were full and satisfied. . . .
After this we picked up our hoes and cleared land—lots of it—to plant beans, sugar cane, and
papaya so that the children would have food (Life Story Text #4).
Later MK speaks about the ritual and tells about preparing and offering a feast of game and
manioc. Here he again stresses the importance of giving food to children:
Lots of people came and ate the feast. They were full and fed their children, too. They fed
even the smallest ones; no one was left hungry. The Mĩmãg [spirits] said,
“Don’t feed the children!”
I argued,
“Topa’s people do not act that way. Go ahead: feed the children. Feed the Mĩxux [spirits] until
they are full. At Topa’s feast you must feed the children until they are full.” (Life Story Text
#4).
In the feast offered at the Hawk Spirit ritual, he repeats that they must not neglect the
children at feasts:
We’ll put all the food together and divide it among the children. Don’t scold the children even
though there are so many of them. Topa does not want us to scold the children. The children
were fed until they were full (Life Story Text #4).
After an artifact-selling trip that had degenerated into a drinking bout, he notes the
negligence of a few young mothers:
Some of the women were so drunk they would have lost their own babies if their elder
kinswomen had not rescued them. After we recovered from this, I said “When you are
finished breast feeding the babies, let us go among the outsiders before we leave and scold
them for taking our bundles. Feed the babies and forget about trying to get our things back.
Look around for something to feed the children until they are no longer hungry.” (Life Story
Text #4)
MK’s exaggerated emphasis on feeding the children confirms my impression that the
Maxakalí children are powerless and peripheral to the ritual feasting process.
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Religion, Social Power, and Sectarianism
The Maxakalí religion does not emphasize morality, as such, but the prestige of the leader
(patriarch) as knowledgeable about the spirit world is a powerful force in social cohesion.
Male superiority is maintained in the society through the esoteric men’s cult, in which all
initiated males have a sacerdotal function in the society on behalf of the women and
children. The men have lost most of their traditional roles on which their leadership rested,
but they maintain their social power based on “the biggest fist” (Bailey 1969: 27) and their
exclusive right of access to the spirit world.
The invocation of supernatural authority for leadership validity is a common mechanism
for social control (Adams 1975:235, Bailey 1969:82). The appeal to an ultimate value is a
high moral principle and this equates allegiance to the leader with allegiance to the
religion. Supernatural sanctions are an effective way to control a band of followers. The
leader who is believed to have great spiritual power will also have great religious authority.
Traditional leaders enjoy the trust of their people. When they find they cannot access the
resources needed to organize their domestic groups, they will need to explore new sources
of energy (Adams 1975:149). Up to now, this has largely been done in the religious realm,
by controlling access to spiritual power to “enhance and extend allocated power” (p. 235).
Sectarianism
During the interviews, several people mourned the trend toward sectarianism in the
practice of the traditional religion. They deplored the current practice of building a ritual
center in each of the consensus units and of holding the rituals for themselves alone. JL
talked about the ‘good old days’:
When I grew up there were many ancestors and they built one ritual center (Life Story Text #2).
H in Pradinho defined a ‘good Maxakalí’ as one who builds a single ritual center for the
entire society, where all would live harmoniously in a single band. M in Água Boa echoed
that there should be only one kuxex ‘ritual center’ where everyone is invited and joins
together in celebration. R, J’s daughter, deplored the fact that bands no longer invite
relatives from other groups to celebrate the rituals with them. All agreed that the
ecumenical ritual practice is declining. This indicates the beginning of the collapse of ritual
as the center of tribal life and that the traditional leaders are controlling the access to
sources of spiritual power to enhance their personal power.
Conclusions
By making participation in the traditional rituals a trait of the ‘good’ person, the Maxakalí
leaders are pressuring the rank and file in the society to give priority to their religious
duties. The ritual life highlights the dominant themes of the society, such as male
superiority, kinship solidarity, value of the vernacular language, and social equality.
Christianity has been interpreted in such a way as to enhance these themes.
In the following chapter we will look closely at the impact of Christianity on Maxakalí
attitudes. We will study the impact of the traditional power structure on the Christian
message and see how this influenced the kind of Christianity that developed in the tribal
group.
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CHAPTER V
SOCIAL POWER AND RELIGIOUS CHANGE
Mentalistic factors, such as Maxakalí cultural values, have a decisive influence on how the
society prioritizes its universe. The traditional Souls-of-the-Dead religion is used as a
device to preserve the identity of the Maxakalí and to enhance and extend the allocated
power of the band’s patriarch. Other values that support the traditional social order are
sharing and generosity, the vernacular language, kinship solidarity, male superiority, and
the performance of the Souls-of-the-Dead rituals—all of which are reinforced by the
Maxakalí power structure.
Maxakalí social power is a reciprocal or mutual granting of power from one member of a
social unit to another. The social power that is derived from the ritual center is allocated,
however. It is based on dogma or beliefs, and it is allocated by the individual participant. If
the dogma is discredited, the entire power structure will disintegrate (cf. Adams
1975:236). The Maxakalí patriarch leader recognizes that much of his power will disappear
once the link between his legitimacy and the Maxakalí ultimate value is severed. One
woman reverently named the supreme authority of the Maxakalí world:
“What do you call someone who commands and others obey him?” I asked M.
She frowned in thought.
“The Maxakalí Spirits-of-the-Dead,” she said in an undertone. “They command and everyone
obeys them.” (Popovich 1976:20)
The question, therefore, arises: what happens when Maxakalí convert to Christianity?
The Coming of Christianity
My husband and I, with two infant sons, went to the Maxakalí in February, 1959 to do
linguistic research leading to Bible translation and literacy. We learned the language the
hard way—monolingually—and gradually developed more expertise in communication
and awareness of the implications of what was said. We learned that a Christian surveyor—
one Alarico Torres—had spent several months among the Maxakalí in 1958 in a
professional capacity. He tried very hard to communicate with the monolingual people. He
worked on translating the hymn “Jesus Loves Me” for them, which a few people still
remembered when we came. It is probably due to the favorable climate that he created,
that the name of Jesus was known to the Maxakalí when we arrived. He never learned
enough of the language to transmit any verbal gospel message, but his attitudes gave
positive connotations to the name of Jesus.
The Maxakalí have been in permanent contact with the dominant Brazilian society since
the beginning of this century so they knew something of the capitalist idea of buying and
selling services. They did not take kindly to jobs like carrying water from the river,
chopping wood for us, or washing clothes in the river. We had to look to the sharecropping
non-Indian peasants for this kind of domestic help. The Maxakalí were enthusiastic
teachers of their language and culture, however. The women were particularly helpful to
me, but in the area of the traditional religion I was severely handicapped. The Maxakalí
religion is an esoteric male cult that is kept secret from the women. Much of my
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information on the subject I owe to my husband, A. Harold Popovich, who had little
difficulty in obtaining information on the subject. The ritual center was open to him and he
was a welcome visitor.
In the years that we lived among them we were often involved in giving simple medical
assistance and in this way were able to identify with them in their diseases and fears. They
met our early attempts to witness of God’s love with: “We have Topa and the spirits. God is
for the outsiders.”
My husband and I rented a daub and wattle hut in Água Boa from J, now the patriarch of SU
#6. Our closest neighbors were the members of the Mariano band to which J belonged. We
accompanied the Maxakalí in births, illnesses, and deaths. We washed our clothes and
dishes in the creek and worked on learning the language and culture. Our third child was
born in 1962, shortly after we moved to Pradinho. We later moved our residence to the
town of Nanuque, Minas Gerais in order to home-teach our two school-age little boys. Our
fourth child was born in 1967 during a temporary assignment in Rio de Janeiro, and after
this my contact with the Maxakalí was limited to occasional month-long visits and the field
trips sandwiched in between school terms. In this way we raised our four children among
both urban Brazilians and the Maxakalí.
No translation is born without painstaking study of the language and culture. Throughout
our years with the Maxakalí, we faced the continuing struggle to understand their ways and
beliefs. The Maxakalí were a monolingual people whose language had never been written.
We had to undertake an analysis of the phonology and grammar to develop a scientific
alphabet for them. The Maxakalí were preliterate, which meant that we also had to teach
them to read their own language. Without this, the translation would be useless.
We lived among them and translated the scriptures for them, and yet twelve years went by
with no indication that we were making any kind of impression on them. They enjoyed
teaching us their oral traditions and hearing the scripture read to them. They asked to hear
the Gospel Recordings on tape over and over again, but no one committed him- or herself
to the Christian faith.
In the following section I will describe the power confrontation between Jesus Christ and
the Souls-of-the-Dead spirits in 1971. Between our first visit in 1959 and the power
transaction, the people were evidently fascinated with the scripture portions available in
their language, but for twelve years no one was willing to commit him- or herself publicly
to following Christ. When the break came, it came in a culturally valid way that had no
direct connection with us—the outside advocates—at all (see excerpts in the following
section).
Conversion as a Power Transaction
Christianity became relevant to the Maxakalí after a spiritual power confrontation in 1971.
A significant number of Maxakalí experienced relief from disease and suffering when a
representative group of patriarchs decided to test the claims made by evangelical recording
companies that “Jesus is more powerful than the spirits.” This introduced a new dimension
into the human-spirit power transactions.
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We were away from the Maxakalí reservation for over two months in 1971. The Maxakalí
were suffering from hunger at the end of the dry season; many were sick and were
diagnosed as possessed by spirits. The usual rituals were unavailing. At this point someone
remembered they had heard that Jesus was stronger than the spirits. This was discussed by
the large group of men who had gathered to search for a solution to the problems. We never
knew exactly how many were involved in this decision, but the upshot was that they decided
to try calling on Jesus Christ for help. We only knew of this upon our return to the
reservation.
When we arrived we found some forty people from both Água Boa and Pradinho who
claimed to believe on Jesus and to be “different in their hearts.” Their joy was evident.
Singing is traditionally restricted to rituals or drunkenness. Now they sang in their homes,
on the trail, and everywhere. Until then we were scarcely aware that only unimportant
decisions are made as individuals. A decision as crucial as to ‘walk on God’s road’ had to be
made by the particular household on the basis of consensus (1984).
Upon our return, we were greeted with the news that many Maxakalí “hearts were sitting
firmly in Jesus,” an idiomatic expression for faith. There was great excitement in Pradinho
as people described how different they were now “in their hearts.” They spoke of hatred
and anger being replaced by love and joy. We were never able to discover exactly what
happened inside the ritual center. Trying to recreate the experience would be mere
conjecture, because no Maxakalí has agreed to answer this question. How they called on
Jesus—whether ritually or spontaneously—is probably not important. What does matter is
that they did, and the experience made a deep impression on the whole society. For several
years the leaders appeared undecided as to how they could integrate this with their
traditions and social organization.
It was JL who first asked for baptism. We agreed on the time and the date, and asked him to
invite others who also believed on Jesus and were “walking on God’s road.” Until then we
were scarcely aware that only unimportant decisions are made as an individual. A decision
as crucial as to ‘walk on God’s road’ had to be made by the particular household on the basis
of consensus. When he came for baptism he brought some of his own relatives. His son and
daughter were baptized and his wife was obviously pleased although she refused baptism
for herself. The next group of converts were also his relatives, and Harold encouraged him to
do the baptizing. Since that time, the Christian elders have taken over the responsibility of
evaluating the convert’s sincerity and they perform the baptisms.
After a time we noticed that all the converts being baptized were either his consanguineal or
affinal relatives. Now there are three elders who mainly serve their own kin groups, their
“congregations.” (1984)
Missionary scholars have used several terms to describe an animist society’s communal
experience of the power of God over oppressive spirits. Tippett (1967) coined the term
“power encounter” to describe this experience among South Sea Islanders and it has been
used and applied to both spontaneous and planned experiences. To indicate a divine,
supernatural intervention into a people’s life, I will use the terms ‘power confrontation’ or
‘power transaction.’ With this term I refer to a spontaneous experience, not one that is
planned by a outside advocate of Christianity.
Conversion, Consensus and Leadership
The Maxakalí are an introverted people who protect their privacy with all the means at
their disposal. This proud society resents any outside intrusion into their internal affairs. A
major barrier to the Christian faith was the fear that its acceptance might lead to loss of
81
their ethnic integrity, becoming like the detribalized fragments they have encountered:
demoralized, poor, ragged, with no common history and no communal future. Their group
ideology rebels at what is to them the ultimate loss of meaning: loss of their language and
traditions. In a society where only trivial decisions are made by individuals, the decision to
accept Christianity is a group concern.
The divine intervention in the history of the Maxakalí tribe occurred during our absence in
1971. It produced a majority consensus that Jesus Christ was the solution to the problem of
oppression by the Souls-of-the-Dead groups. Not all social unit leaders accepted Christianity
but the consensus was broad enough that the Christian faith was provisionally accepted by
all and this produced a climate in which people were free to experiment with this new
option. It was a ‘power transaction’ in every sense, because every Maxakalí felt the
repercussions from this dramatic experience. While not all of them followed through to ‘walk
on God’s road,’ some forty adults did. Today, many more have followed their example
(1978).
The social units are the ‘house churches’ in the Maxakalí society. The development of
Christian social units has greatly facilitated the role and prominence of Christianity in the
society. As strong, united social units, they are evidence that Christianity need not be
damaging to kinship solidarity, and this has done much to promote the image of the
Maxakalí Christian as a ‘good’ person.
Christianity in Água Boa
A very simple form of Christianity was accepted in 1971. An unknown number of Maxakalí
leaders believed that Jesus could free them from the oppressive spirits they believed were
causing wide-spread illnesses. The results were dramatic healing and relief. As a
consequence, a consensus was born that “walking on God’s road” was a legitimate Maxakalí
option. In Água Boa, Christianity has thrived in specific bands under the sponsorship of two
traditional leaders, JL and T.
In the 1970s, JL was reputed to be the most knowledgeable man about the traditional
religion. His father was well over a hundred years old when he died in the middle 1960s and
had been the foremost Maxakalí authority on the spirit world. JL and two brothers with their
families settled at Xaxkunut in Água Boa. JL was prominent among the leaders who
advocated testing the power of Jesus over malignant and troublesome spirits. He recalled
that his mother (long dead) had insisted that there was only one God and none of the spirits
deserved a status other than that of demon.
JL’s life was profoundly changed by the 1971 ‘power transaction’ experience. He was the first
Maxakalí to be baptized and the first to baptize other believers. For a number of years he
baptized only members of his own household. Now he is an ‘overseer’ in the Maxakalí
church, and a man highly respected by his peers (1976).
The second leader is a younger man, T, who has been influenced a great deal by the
patriarch, JL. T is the youngest son of the late patriarch, M (mentioned above). T committed
himself to Christianity sometime in the late 1970s, and his leadership gifts have brought
the him to a position of unique influence in the prominent band. While his brothers do not
share his new faith, he enjoys the respect of his kin group and of the Água Boa Maxakalí. He
takes the initiative in sponsoring rituals at the appropriate times and is faithful to his ritual
duties. He and his fellow patriarch have a close relationships of trust and cooperation rare
among competitive leaders.
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Christianity in Pradinho
Maxakalí Christianity is diffuse in Pradinho. There is no marginalization of those who
profess the Christian faith; they continue to be full-fledged members of their own domestic
groups. Pradinho patriarchs were unanimous in affirming that Christians are ‘good’ and
‘genuine’ Maxakalí. They boasted of the Christians in their own domestic groups,
mentioning some by name. The patriarch of SU #15 proudly told us that his group
contained members known to be Christians. His quiet wife corroborated this statement
with a smile,
“Yes, I am one whose heart sits firmly [believes] in Jesus!”
Here, as in Água Boa, the Christians are careful to discharge their ritual obligations to their
own social units. By 1987 the ‘power transaction’ of 1971 had taken on the traditional
meaning of a power dialogue that Maxakalí men mediate between the physical and spiritual
worlds.
Christians as ‘Good’ Maxakalí
During the twenty years that I lived among the Maxakalí I gathered—mostly by listening to
the things the women gossiped about—that good persons did not do certain things: they
did not hoard things, they did not get angry (vicious), they did not give away family secrets.
When I planned this research project, however, I decided to make an explicit study of social
norms by asking what a ‘good’ Maxakalí does (see Chapter IV). The answers to my question
showed that the Maxakalí define the highest moral value of their society as carrying out
ritual obligations. Although some mentioned other traditional values, such as “speaking
well,” “not being angry,” and “sharing with members of their group,” all but one mentioned
the ritual practices and preparations for them as the primary characteristics of a ‘good’
Maxakalí (see previous chapter).
On the theory that social deviation would be perceived as ‘bad’ behavior, I decided to test
whether Maxakalí Christians were imitating uncultural behavior as part of their perception
of Christianity, so I devised some questions to test how the Christians were perceived by
others in their society. I asked the adults of all the Pradinho social units (perhaps forty in
all), and some thirty people in Água Boa. When asked whether the Christians were ‘good’
Maxakalí, the answers were uniform.
Yes. They do things for Topa (God). They share among themselves; they have feasts to which
they invite others, even outsiders. They don’t fight, they don’t quarrel, they don’t drink, and
they don’t get angry (1987).
To the question of whether Maxakalí Christians are ‘good,’ they all answered “Yes.” They
gave the following reasons, again listed in order of their frequency:
1. They are not violent or quarrelsome.
2. They prepare feasts—food and coffee—and invite others.
3. They share with their own relatives.
4. They participate in the rituals and feasts.
5. They do not drink kenmuk ‘alcoholic beverages.’
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The Christian leaders echoed the definition of a ‘good Maxakalí, merely adding the qualifier
“for Topa.” It became clear that the belief remains unshaken that Topa wills the traditional
sacerdotal ministry for the Maxakalí. As a consequence, Christians continue to participate
in the tribal rituals in the ritual center. Another important value is community celebrations,
and the Christians are able to attain close to the cultural ideal by some tentative interdomestic group fellowship meetings.
Christian Participation
The Christian leaders (JL, T, and M) agree that Topa has instituted the Souls-of-the-Dead
rituals for the continuity and well-being of the Maxakalí. T promotes this view more
aggressively than his two colleagues. This puts tremendous pressure on the male converts
to Christianity to carry out the ritual obligations inherent in their male roles. The main civic
role of the Maxakalí male is sacerdotal: interacting with the spirit world on behalf of the
society. For a number of years some of the believers managed to avoid an active role in the
rituals, although Nascimento (1984), judging only by the criterion of participation, opined
that there were no real Christians among the Maxakalí. T openly sponsors the rituals:
T claims to have built a ritual center on his land and has Hawk Spirit rituals scheduled for
sundown today. These rituals are linked to the need for rain. The Hawk Spirit must leave or
the rains will not come (August 14, 1987).
In previous chapters I have shown that JL has built a meeting house that is not the
traditional ritual center. The building is not directly linked to the esoteric cult and seems to
be open to men and women, equally. This suggests that he is attempting to imitate a more
traditional church building, such as those he has visited in the dominant society. He
himself, however, still participates cooperatively in the rituals at Mãkpa.
M has been influenced by the dominant society through his association with a young
Brazilian missionary. He did not mention rituals and was the only one interviewed who
gave the principal characteristic of the ‘good’ Maxakalí as planting adequate crops for the
needs of the household. His father, however, as head of the domestic group (SU #17),
strongly emphasized the consensus view of ritual performance as most important. It was M
who some years ago worried about losing his ethnic identity should he abandon the
traditional practices. The leaders may have mixed motives, but the rank and file associate
the religious practices with the ultimate meaning of life: the interaction with spirits.
Evaluation of Christian Participation in Rituals
To some extent we can say that Christianity has fit into some of the meanings of the
traditional religious system. Kinship loyalties are reinforced, and the value of the
vernacular language and traditions are reaffirmed by the Christian faith. Social norms are
given renewed emphasis by the harmonious lifestyles of the Christian Maxakalí.
Maxakalí Christianity has done little to challenge the traditional leadership patterns of the
society. After JL’s preliminary attempts to minister to the needs of people outside of his
domestic group, the Christian leaders have mainly limited themselves to influencing those
of their own social units. To this point it seems as though Christianity is well contextualized
among the Maxakalí.
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The problem of direct interaction with spiritual entities is more serious, however. What
does the Bible say about humankind’s relationship to the spirit world? Does the Scripture
authorize direct communication between human beings and spirit powers? More to the
point, has God appointed specific groups or a society to mediate the spiritual and material
worlds? Has He appointed anyone or anything to maintain the cosmic order? What is the
role of the Church in the universe of spiritual powers?
Analysis of Maxakalí Syncretism
Stated simply, syncretism —sometimes called Christopaganism—is Christianity mixed with
pagan beliefs and practices. New converts from tribal societies invariably have some
syncretistic practices, since their traditional perspective of reality is based on animistic
assumptions that have permeated their lives, which they were taught implicitly and
explicitly during their enculturation.
Animism is a distinctive way of perceiving reality and can be distinguished analytically
from the sacred and ritual practices that are overt evidences of religion. David Hesselgrave
(1981) describes the typical characteristics of a tribal or animist perspective which he
attributes to something like 40% of the world’s population. Every one of the
generalizations that follow is descriptive of Maxakalí animism:
1. It often transcends the secular-sacred distinctions of the modern perspective of
reality.
2. It is preoccupied with gods, spirits, and ghosts.
3. It is clearly anthropocentric and ethnocentric.
4. It blends nature and supernature together in a curious way.
5. It joins space and time, including This World and The World to Come in a single
system.
6. The universe is something like a continuum, blurring the boundaries between
deities, spirits, human beings, animals, and natural phenomena.
7. Humanity is one with nature; human beings must strive for harmony, not for
dominance.
8. The concept of a high god tends to be of one aloof and indifferent to the concerns
of ordinary life.
9. The world is populated with invisible beings who are involved with affairs that
concern human beings.
10. There is a tendency to personalize spiritual powers so that the universe is
morally significant.
The Problem of Ideological Dissonance
William Reyburn (1957) warns that Western translators usually judge animist practices
intuitively, based on their own ideal cultural background, not on the way things really are
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‘back home.’ In order to do the job of evaluation that needs to be done, he recommends
asking the following questions:
1. How do the tribal believers themselves evaluate these practices?
2. How do they prioritize their own values?
3. What kinds of innovations already present will eventually influence these
practices?
4. Do these innovations tend to affirm or contradict Christian moral and spiritual
values?
The answer to the first question is that the Maxakalí see these practices as divinelyordained. They give first priority to ritual activities. Innovations that could change this
include a subtle trend toward agnosticism on the one hand—being combated vigorously by
most patriarchs—and our attempt to introduce new, relevant Christian rituals on the other.
The Problem of the Excluded Middle
Another way of defining syncretism is that it is the linking of old religious meanings to new
religious forms. I believe that we can describe the current Maxakalí problem best in terms
of Hiebert’s (1982) model of the Excluded Middle (adapted to the Maxakalí reality in Figure
19).
The Maxakalí use rituals to solve the problems of daily life, such as fertility, disease, death,
drought, and excessive rain. The reversion to—or continuation of—the traditional rituals
can be understood when we consider that the Maxakalí perspective of the world has
changed very little in these areas. While we taught and encouraged them to look to God for
direct divine intervention in sickness and subsistence crises, we modeled this on the
Pentecostal pattern which is oriented to the individual and not to the group. We prayed
with individuals and urged them to ask God personally for their needs. We received some
dramatic answers although our prayers were not always answered as we expected. We
believed that we had helped the infant Church to find the Biblical pattern for solving Middle
Zone problems but we did not do it in culturally relevant ways, because a Maxakalí private
practitioner is a social deviant (as JL found out; see Chapter II).
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Unseen
or
Supernatural
Seen or
Empirical
Organic Analogy
Mechanical Analogy
High Religion based on
Cosmic Beings
- Topa
- Rain Child
High Religion based on
Cosmic Forces
- impersonal forces
Other
Worldly
Folk or Low Religion
- yãmĩyxop
- ghosts
- good and evil spirits
Magic and Astrology
- charms
- amulets
- magical rites
- black magic
This
Worldly
Folk Social Science
- interaction with living
beings, humans, animal
and plants
Folk Natural Science
- interaction of natural
objects based on natural
forces
Figure 19: Dimensions of Maxakalí Religion
(Adapted from Hiebert 1982: 40)
The Maxakalí equate the Christian God with Topa and the traditional rituals with prayer.
This is seen in the way they handle the need for rain when planting crops.
In early September, 1987, the Maxakalí were preparing the soil for planting. The planting
actually takes place after the southern hemisphere spring rains begin in the latter half of
the month. The rains must come at the appropriate time and in appropriate amounts to
guarantee a good crop. This is where the Hawk Souls-of-the-Dead Spirit comes in.
The Hawk Spirit prevents the rains, so it is invited to come down in June to stop the copious
rains that would ruin the harvest. At the end of August, people finish preparing the soil for
planting and when this is done, they beg the hawk spirits to leave, so that the rains will
come. This year the perennially green grass was brown and dry because the rains had been
less copious than normal in June and July.
In discussing the problem with JL, I asked if he had invoked God directly to intervene and
send the needed rains. He indicated that he had not, explaining:
“Topa [God] already knows it.”
When I suggested calling a meeting to collectively pray for rain, Toto answered,
“We are. Tonight we are singing to the hawk group.”
In the Maxakalí ideology, Topa himself is not involved with Middle Zone needs, those of the
physical world, but has established the rituals to deal with the practical concerns of the
people. With special focus on the relationships or organic dimensions (Hiebert 1982,
Kearney 1984, Dodd 1977) of Maxakalí religion, we can diagram the various images the
people have of how the beings in their universe relate (see Figures 20, 21).
The myths about Topa (see Appendix A) depict a deeply personal relationship with the
Maxakalí that was ruptured when the ancestors were unable to master the complex
technology he offered them. In their frustration, they reacted to him with hostility, even
trying to kill him with their bows and arrows. In the myths dealing with the remote past,
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we see no mention of human-spirit interactions. Apparently there was no need for this as
long as Topa was their champion. The Maxakalí communicated with Topa by invoking his
aid (“May Topa help me....”) and Topa responded with a blessing or curse, whichever was
indicated We have one example, given earlier, in which Topa gave a verbal answer to A’s
question of whether his daughter would live or die. Prayer—as we know it—is unknown.
Topa
(Response)
(Invocation)
The Maxakalí
Figure 20: Mythical Human-Divine Relationships
When Topa abandoned them, however, they were forced to develop ritual strategies to
cope with the potentially hostile spirit world. Many Maxakalí have voiced the belief that
Topa intends for them to control their universe through this ritual interaction. Figure 21
depicts the Maxakalí view of the actual state of affairs in human-divine interaction. Now the
communication with the ultimate value is through rituals directed toward the spirit beings.
Topa
(Disjunction)
Souls-of-the-Dead
(Rituals)
The Maxakalí
Figure 21: Traditional Human-Divine Relationships
The Biblical picture of God (Topa) as Father, shows a God who is intimately concerned with
human affairs and interacts directly with His creatures in a variety of ways. In the
incarnation of God’s son, Jesus Christ, we have emphasis on a personal human-divine
reconciliation. We also see Jesus Christ as victor over all the powers in the universe. He is
the great mediator between an offended Deity and erring human beings. He advocates the
cause of his people with all the powers in the universe. Now we see Topa directly relating
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to the Maxakalí through Jesus Christ, who is the supreme power as well as mediator (see
Figure 22).
Topa
Spirits
Spirits
Jesus Christ
The Maxakalí
Figure 22: Biblical Human-Divine Relationships
God has explicitly forbidden direct interaction with spirits other than Himself (Deut. 18:1013). Invocation of spirits is not part of historical Christianity for this very reason. The
Maxakalí seem to have little understanding that God is personally involved with His
creatures and that Christ has already triumphed over all the principalities and powers in
the universe. The Christian relates to the spirit world indirectly, mediated by Christ and his
finished work. Christ is the key to cosmic order; he is both the creator and the redeemer of
creation.
In terms of power transactions in Maxakalí syncretism, we can diagram it this way, still
referring back to the Hiebert (1982) model of three dimensions of religious systems. In the
organic or relational column (see Figure 19), the major focus is on the middle and lower
tier: the spirit-human power transactions. In 1971, the Maxakalí experienced a divinehuman power transaction that belied the traditional perspective that such transactions
cannot occur in the upper level (see Figure 21). The society has struggled to reconcile this
experience with their traditional view of reality. A significant factor in this dilemma is the
fact that much of the social power in the society derives from the male’s unique, endowed
ability to transact successfully with the spirit world (see Figure 23).
Traditional
Leadership
+
Animist
Practices
=
Figure 23: Basis of Maxakalí Social Power
Social
Power
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The Maxakalí are protecting their social organization from any influences that could
undermine the cultural integrity of the society. They do this with fierce determination. The
social unit is the basis of Maxakalí life and attempts to erode its solidarity meet with
consensual opposition of the entire society. The introduction of Christianity was a
sovereign act of God and was accepted by a consensual decision of the larger society; it can
only flourish and thrive by the same community consensus.
Theological Issues in Syncretism
In retrospect, I believe that we have not yet helped them to discover Biblical and culturally
congruent ways to deal with Middle Zone problems. Our Western theology of redemption
and of the Christian life focuses on personal experience, not on group experience. The
Western Church addresses individuals but ill prepares us to present the gospel to a
communal society. Although we were extremely careful not to suggest anything that could
rupture the social fabric, we had not fully conceptualized the gospel in a communal
perspective of reality.
A Theology of God the Father
The translation of the whole of the New Testament and its subsequent distribution has not
been adequate to reveal the whole counsel of God. The New Testament barely deals with
the problem of idolatry. Old Testament teachings are needed to show how God wants to be
worshiped and invoked. They demonstrate graphically that God is vitally concerned with
the mundane affairs of human beings. The ranking of beings done by various persons
revealed that even among believers, the concept of God had not changed sufficiently to
enable them to believe that God was concerned about their day-to-day concerns, or the
Middle Zone problems (see Chapter III).
Much of what we can call syncretism in their practices we can attribute to an inadequate
theology of God; one that the stories of Joseph, Moses, Elijah, Elisha, and Daniel, among
others, would do much to remedy. Evans-Pritchard (1965) and Reyburn (1957) warn that
if the message of the gospel is to be faithfully delivered and understood, the communicator
must clearly understand what the society assumes God to be like. A “conceptual
transformation of God as God is necessary before man can understand and grasp the idea of
God as Redeemer.” (Reyburn 1957:197) The cognitive aspects of the radical change we call
conversion may not be neglected, or a “power encounter” (Tippett 1967) may become little
more than an emotional catharsis or variants of the traditional manipulative practices.
A Theology of Christ
The presentation of Christ to the Maxakalí seems to have been more adequate. The danger
persists, however, that a failure to present God the Father as the One Who loves us with an
everlasting love (Jer. 31:3; Zeph. 3:17; John 16:27; Rom. 5:8) may actually present a
superhuman Christ—without a true divine nature—who loves the underdog. His role is
then seen as champion for the weak; one who influences his stern (or indifferent) Father to
be more tolerant of human flaws and sins.
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A Theology of Spirits and the Holy Spirit
Influenced by Pentecostal teachings we had simply dismissed all their spirits as evil
beings—demons—which is both questionable and irrelevant. God, through Jesus Christ,
must be shown as greater than the spirits, who are bound to obey Him. Since He is the
ultimate Authority or Power, He should be invoked to invite or dispel spirits as the society
sees the need. It seems unlikely that the Maxakalí will change their belief that the Hawk
Spirits determine whether or not it rains; nor is it necessary that they do. The point is that
God should be invoked directly to command the spirits as He comes to aid those who
invoke Him. This must be carefully taught to all new converts.
The doctrine of the Holy Spirit is principally found in the New Testament, but here again,
unless the Maxakalí understand that the Holy Spirit is God Who is present and active in His
children and in His Church, they have failed to understand the divine sovereignty over the
spiritual realm. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, God-with-us in the Church Age.
A Theology of the Church
The Old Testament shows God at work in a communal society. The Maxakalí have a far
clearer understanding than we of what is ‘body ministry.’ They can live out the organic
concept of the Church far better than we can. The concept of group involvement in
ministry—as presented in James 5:13-15—is beautifully congruent in the Maxakalí context.
While the New Testament often emphasizes the individual, the Old Testament stresses the
community. In order to develop a sound group-oriented Biblical theology, the Old
Testament is as important as the New. There are many passages in both Old and New
Testaments that have group implications, but we give them individual interpretations. The
concept of the Church as an organism rather than an organization composed of individuals
is far easier for the Maxakalí to understand than for North Americans. There are many
exhortations in the epistles about koinonia or community.
Sacramental Expressions of Faith
W. T. Harris (1960) points out that a sacramental expression of the Christian faith is very
important to the animist. This agrees with Comstock’s (1971) statement that the animist’s
religion consists of rituals (doing) rather than creeds (saying). How can an outsider, from a
nonsacramental background, encourage new converts to give meaningful, behavioral
expression to their faith?
Hymns in a Foreign Vehicle
Since 1971 we urged them to compose hymns in their own musical system, but this led to
nothing. We turned to translating Brazilian choruses to introduce the idea of hymns of
praise to God. The translated hymns were enthusiastically accepted and several Indians
have composed original hymns in the Western music system. They enjoy wide acceptance,
but do not qualify for a ritual expression of the faith.
Anxious not to introduce foreign forms of worship, we gave the Maxakalí very little
guidance as to appropriate forms. We did not know how to help them discover meaningful
ways to develop rituals to fill the vacuum left by conversion from animism.
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Immediately after the 1971 large-scale recognition that Christ was above all other powers,
we encouraged them to praise God in their own music system. We drew a blank.
“Do you mean sing the rituals to Him?”
That was not what we meant, so we tried to show them by producing perhaps fifty songs in a
musical system that we understood, from our own cultural heritage. The songs enjoyed
unprecedented popularity, and the Maxakalí constantly begged for more. We continued to
encourage them to produce their own and decided that none of the Christians had the gift of
musical composition. The few occasions when some did oblige us by adapting a traditional
tune, they used words from some hymn or chorus we had translated (1977).
Hymns in a Traditional Vehicle
By August 1987, however, this had changed. Three Christians had composed original
hymns in the national music system, and T experimented with using Maxakalí music to sing
praise to God. The national music is much appreciated, but it does not have the same
meanings as the Maxakalí songs. The latter consists of a measured line of syllables,
repeated four times in their entirety and then repeating selected phrases of the line
another four times or so. This is followed by a line of ‘tra-la-la’ equivalents.
T was happily working on an appropriate traditional musical vehicle for the doxology
(below), when a brother’s wife came by, frowned disapprovingly, and asked,
“Why are you using our music to sing strange words?”
T’s answer was very simple:
“Because we need songs to Topa. The outsiders have songs to Him, but we Maxakalí have
none at all.”
Developing Ritual Expressions of Faith
On our visit to Água Boa in 1987 we discovered that T had taken the words from one of the
translated hymns and put it to traditional Maxakalí music. Seeing a long-held dream
becoming reality, we began to work with believers from T’s and JL’s groups to develop
rituals to meet this crucial need, using scripture portions which the believers set to music
with such enthusiasm that we knew this was a lack that they had not known how to fill. Our
first attempt was a eucharist ritual, based on I Cor. 11:23-26. We took the verses and
measured out the syllables per line, allowing a variation of only one more or one less per
line. The people then ‘acted out’ the message of the passage as the elements were
distributed. T proved to be a gifted composer of the traditional music system, adapting the
words to acceptable music themes.
The following is a Maxakalí eucharist ritual from I Cor. 11:23-26:
Our Elder Kinsman taught me, and I teach you
so that you will know, also.
Our Elder Kinsman Jesus ate with his own group,
They ate when it was dark.
He was truly good, but the vicious ones would seize him,
They would grab him in order to kill him.
So Jesus took the bread and spoke to God:
“You are good, God. You give us
Your excellent food. It is very good.”
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When he broke the bread he spoke to his own group:
“This is my body; I die on your behalf.
Take me in order to eat me, so you won’t forget me.”
Our Elder Kinsman ate with his own group of men.
When he finished eating, he picked up the cup:
“God made an agreement with the People,
By means of my blood He made it.
Truly He made a new agreement because I die.
I will bleed in order to make it.
Take the cup and drink it, so you won’t forget me.”
This is what Jesus said.
If you eat the bread and drink from the cup,
Then you tell about his death
Tell about our Elder Kinsman’s death until he returns
Until he comes back, tell about Jesus’ death.
We found that the eucharist passage was too long for an ideal ritual, because endless
repetition is the rule. We took the short passage of Eph. 1:21, 22 for use as a doxology, cast
in the form of a prayer of adoration to Christ as the Power over all powers. This is an ideal
length for memorization and execution.
Elder Kinsman Jesus, you are the greatest in heaven;
You command all the important ones in heaven now;
You command those of all races and you command the yãmĩyxop ‘Souls-of-the Dead,’ too.
You command Satan and all those with him.
Elder Kinsman Jesus, God caused you to be great
And He sent you to those who believe,
So that you might be the only One Who commands;
Truly you alone are our Elder Kinsman. Amen.
Next, we prepared the passage of Matt. 28:18-20 for use in baptisms.
Jesus said, God empowered me to command in heaven and on earth.
Go, go to all ethnic groups, and teach them about me,
Teach them by telling about me so they will believe on me.
Because God commands you, baptize them.
He authorized you Himself to baptize those who obey God’s Spirit.
I am with you,
I will always stay with you.
I have never abandoned you, and
I never will abandon you. The End.
The most recent ritual was a prayer for the sick, based on James 5:13-15:
Elder Kinsman Jesus, come to us,
Look at our kinsman here;
Truly he is very ill and begs you
To have pity on him to heal him.
If he has done something bad,
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Please forgive him.
Elder Kinsman Jesus, make him well again!
They were accepted enthusiastically; it remains to be seen how they will be used in the
context of worship.
The purpose of this campaign is to encourage the Maxakalí themselves to put scripture to
music to aid in its propagation, to encourage memorization, and to serve as a ritual
expression of worship. Traditional songs celebrate the spirits who are believed to be
concerned with the Here and Now. Topa was rarely discussed and never celebrated before
1971 when the Maxakalí called on Him for deliverance and He showed them His power and
reality. That experience served to recall to their minds all they had ever learned about Him
in myths and tales. It brought Topa from the background to the foreground of Maxakalí
awareness.
The Maxakalí have been in permanent contact with the Brazilian dominant society since
the beginning of this century. The social revolutions of an all-purpose monetary system and
literacy had been introduced some decades earlier. We were, however, the first to analyze
their language and reduce it to writing. We were also the first to give them the Gospel in
their own cultural communication vehicles. The message that Topa (God) cares about them
and wants to bless them is an affirming message. It shows them that they are very
important to God.
The translation process gave fresh value to the vernacular language, its categories, and the
ideologies it represents. It showed them that Topa had not forsaken them forever, as their
myths implied. It proved that Topa was offering reconciliation to the estranged Maxakalí.
Social Issues in Conversion
In the 1971 community crisis, the Maxakalí agreed by consensus to call on Jesus Christ to
deliver them from severe oppression by the Souls-of-the-Dead. The dramatic response
convinced many that he was the solution to their deepest needs, but a reaction set in that
was based on their greatest fear: that of losing their ethnic identity. Other fears include the
loss of male social power, and continued domestic fragmentation. The tribe closed ranks on
threats to solidarity.
In this setting Christianity has enhanced domestic unity and has proven efficacious in
controlling the spirit world, consequently, the Christians are pressured—as responsible
members of society—to be faithful to their traditional ritual duties.
Corporate Decision-Making
Even after the divinely-oriented consensual decision in 1971, public commitments
continued to be group decisions. In Pradinho, however, it is now possible for individual
members of social units to become believers because the group consensus is that believers
are good people and an asset to the community. The idea of ‘believer’ has become more
inclusive and perhaps even threatens to lose some of its historically exclusive connotations.
I believe that it would be virtually impossible for the Maxakalí to make a decision to follow
Christ without the support of their households, because failing to gain the larger group’s
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approval means that the individual must either yield or move out. Failure to yield to the
household unit would mean the ultimate ostracism: to become a ‘nonperson.’ Where would
a ‘nonperson’ go? The Maxakalí are confined to a reservation. When we invite Maxakalí to
‘walk on God’s road,’ it must be as households and social units rather than as individuals.
The claims of Christ may be accepted or rejected, depending on the consensus of the group.
It is important to be sure that the whole group understands the gospel well enough to
know what is involved. The ‘Good News encounters’ (Dye 1980) need to focus on the social
unit more than on individuals. Bands like T’s and JL’s have shown us how beautiful kinship
solidarity can be when the patriarch is a Christian.
Leadership Roles
Experience has shown us that a leader causes trouble between his social unit and others
when he expands his sphere of influence to include members of other groups. JL found this
out when he prayed for the healing of nonrelatives. There are cultural ways to reach out to
members of other social units and this is through extended kinship ties. A leader’s
recognized ability to provide a better life for members of his social group also attracts
relatives from other groups, either for prolonged visits or for a longer duration. This is as
true for CO (a staunch conservative Maxakalí) as it is for T, a Christian leader. In addition,
the Christian leaders’ sensitivity to other leaders has done much to produce a social climate
that favors Christianity. We have shown that those who profess faith in Christ are
perceived to be ‘good’ Maxakalí. The patriarchs say they are assets to their social units.
Energetic Effects of Mentalistic Change
There are also economic evidences of this new life. The Christian social units are more
prosperous than most of the other groups, although SU #6 (the patriarch is agnostic) is also
prospering. An important factor in this prosperity is that binge drinking has been radically
reduced in the Christian groups. The popular tendency among modern Maxakalí is to spent
whatever cash can be acquired in drunken celebration. MK (see Life Story #3 in Appendix
B) shows how this practice results in loss of goods as well as cash. The Christians are
strongly motivated to emulate their non-Indian brothers and abstain totally from alcohol.
The three elders seem to have the victory over the problem and they continue to struggle
with it in the members of their social units and others under their influence.
Conversion and Change
The role of ritual is central to the life of the Maxakalí people. Ritual and social power are
mutually reinforcing. Whereas Western religions emphasize beliefs or dogmas, animist
societies emphasize rituals. As previously stated, animism is not concerned with beliefs but
with performance, with acting out the ideology in stereotyped actions that we call rituals.
The rituals and the power structures together form the basis of Maxakalí community life.
In the process of assimilating the Christian faith, the Maxakalí applied some traditional
animistic meanings to the innovation. The 1971 experience was a power confrontation
between Christ and the oppressive spirits. In this encounter the name of Jesus (Yeyox) took
on meaning to the people. Since much of the meaning of Maxakalí social existence is linked
to the Souls-of-the-Dead rituals, the name of Christ became linked to the traditional religion
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as well. Christianity took on a syncretistic form. By 1987 the ‘power transaction’ of 1971
had taken on the traditional meaning of a power dialogue or transaction between the
physical and spiritual worlds, mediated by the initiated males of the society.
Implications for Understanding Syncretism
When we speak about attitudes, we admit that changes come slowly at its deeper levels.
When we speak of changes in religion, however, we demand that the transfer from one
religion to another be immediate and complete. In actual fact, I expect this rarely, if ever,
takes place all at once. Eugene A. Nida (1971, 1972) says that learning a second religion is
like learning a second language: the first one learned interferes both structurally and
semantically with those learned afterward.
A major barrier to renouncing any participation in the Maxakalí rituals is that refusal to
participate is equivalent to renouncing the male role and refusing to cooperate in activities
that promote the welfare of the society. It violates the principle of domestic solidarity. As
long as the Gospel is not specifically directed to meet these corporate needs, the Maxakalí
Christians will not be able to put their pagan past behind them once for all to serve a God
Who works in human history and Who intervenes in the Here and Now.
Women have been permitted mere token participation in the fledgling Christian
fellowships. Meetings are held in a household or a domestic group. The women participate
enthusiastically in the singing, but during a Bible study or a discussion they are silent
listeners, fringe participants. The elders’ wives rarely participate in the meetings. When
they do, it is on the outer perimeter of the group, as if being there makes them
uncomfortable. Religion is still a man’s province.
I believe that the ‘good’ behavior the Maxakalí see in the Christians is the fruit of a Spiritawakened conscience that is culturally-conditioned. In joyous love and gratitude new
believers try to live up to the society’s standard of ideal behavior. The new life in Christ
empowers them to live much closer to that cultural ideal.
Dealing with the Old
We need to do a “critical contextualization” of Maxakalí rituals (cf. Hiebert 1985). We must
sit down with the new believers and discuss their significance. As outsiders, we do not
know many of the deeper meanings and functions of the rituals. Our analysis may be quite
faulty. Our contribution to this meeting will be to serve as catalysts of the meeting itself and
to help them find scripture passages that give guidance toward the solutions of the
problems being discussed. The responsibility ultimately lies with the Maxakalí Christians.
They must decide which rituals are acceptable for Christian usage and which may be
modified in keeping with the new life in Christ they are now living. They also need to
decide which rituals run counter to the Biblical revelation and thus need to be replaced by
others.
Another problem that we need to bring before the church is the civic role of the Christian
male in engaging in a spiritual confrontation with the powers. How can a Christian
contribute to the welfare of his social unit in the spiritual realm? Would the patriarchs of
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other social units accept a ritual for public use that appeals directly to Topa for his
intervention in these spiritual battles?
Recommendations for Translation Strategy
The first lessons for translation learned from this research is that it is important to
translate sufficient Old Testament materials (we did only Genesis) because they provide
the solid foundation on which the New Testament meanings are based. The translation of
the New Testament alone did not adequately change a perspective in which God is remote
and inactive. Reyburn (1957) holds that a major obstacle to the communication of the
Christian message are the receptor’s ideas about God. These ideas must change if the
people are to understand that God is their Redeemer. One way to teach the nature of God is
by implementing the Dye (1980) strategy of “good news encounters” in which ordinary
concerns of daily life are made occasions to show God’s involvement with—and concern
for—the needs of His people.
Spiritual Power in Old Testament Scriptures
The New Testament is God’s record that shows the divine power of Christ’s assumed
humanity and his rule as risen Lord. It has taught the believing Maxakalí that Christ is very
powerful. The New Testament affirms the Old Testament teachings about the nature of
God, but it is not as rich in examples of His dealings with patriarchal societies as the Old.
This is perhaps the major shortcoming of our translation program. The 1971 experience of
spiritual power transaction brought Topa into the foreground of discussion but it has not
brought about the radical change we expected in their perception of God as Immanent as
well as Transcendent.
The concept of an otiose Deity has great implications for the formation of the Church in an
animist society. If the Deity is seen as indifferent to human concerns and completely
uninvolved in human affairs, the concept of Christ as the God-Man is bound to suffer as
well. The people are liable to attribute Jesus Christ’s concern in their daily affairs to His
human nature. Then they would have a Docetic form of Christianity, with Christ as a
superman rather than as truly Divine, in the Scriptural sense.
Spiritual Power in Teaching
The second lesson learned from this research may also apply to other translation
programs. We translated the Scripture with great attempts at objectivity, and tried to
interject a minimum of explanation into the text itself. This is highly commendable, and in
keeping with the United Bible Societies’ standards. This leaves the new readers to make
their own practical applications. With little or no understanding of the historical and
cultural contexts of the original document, they can only infer meanings on the basis of
their own experience and implicit assumptions about reality. In the New Testament there is
a great deal of implicit information in the text. This means that a great deal of teaching
needs to accompany the translation process and continue after the people receive
published copies of their vernacular Scriptures. The teaching program should include
explicit instruction on the nature of God to accompany the Biblical cases that are translated.
The Dye (1980) strategy has already been mentioned as a suitable medium for this. The
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teaching must be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and the people’s perceptions of reality. An
integral part of the translation process is explicit teaching.
In our modern world, translators have little guarantee that they can continue to be
physically present to carry this out in person. Common reasons for this are political
unrest—both local and national—and the translators’ health and/or family problems. Since
this is the reality under which we work, we must use our work context as a teaching
medium. This is a quality medium, because the translators can discuss the intended
meanings of passages and decide on the best way to render them. The larger the number of
people involved in these kinds of sessions, the greater the opportunity for helping the
people to a more adequate understanding of the Scripture. God has appointed human
instruments to spread the knowledge of His greatness throughout the world. In the Old
Testament the Levites and priests were entrusted with the teaching of the law and in the
New Testament the ministry of teaching is included among the Holy Spirit’s gifts to His
Church (Eph. 4:11).
Spiritual Power in Christian Rituals
Another lesson learned from this research is the importance of rituals to recent converts
from animism. Animists are sacramentalists. This means that a ritual expression of praise
and prayer is more satisfying to them than the extemporaneous kind that is more common
in Western evangelical and fundamentalist churches. According to Mary Douglas (1970),
the tribal individual does not think of rituals in terms of their meanings or even their
functions. A ritual is simply a performance and an essential one. For this reason, translators
should encourage the new believers to develop rituals to express their love, worship, and
concerns. Rites of transition or passage may help the new converts to conceptualize the
Christian life as a growing in the knowledge of Christ and as a pilgrimage. Beyond the ritual
of baptism, Western Christianity gives little attention to the stages of the Christian life. How
could we help the Maxakalí to develop further rites of passage (Van Gennep (1960), where
the only public rite of passage is the initiation of ten-year-old boys into the esoteric male
cult? The elders of the Maxakalí church may have some insights into how this could be
done.
Social Power in Church Structure
There are three elders in the Maxakalí church, and they call themselves penã’ax ‘overseers’
or ‘those who look after.’ T and JL live in opposite corners of the Água Boa reservation,
while M lives with his father and brother in Pradinho. Both Água Boa elders are patriarchs
of large social units. M’s sister is T’s wife, and he was a member of T’s group during the
1983 census. He is much younger than the other two, but like Timothy, his consecration is
unquestioned. His wife has been unable to bear children and this was responsible for a
major crisis in his life. He left her for a time, but did return and is presently living with her.
He once worked as an associate for a young, single Brazilian missionary and was greatly
influenced by him, both culturally and spiritually. As a young man still living in his father’s
social unit, M lacks the social power of the other two elders.
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The believers in Pradinho have not formed distinctive Christian households, as did those in
Água Boa. It is much more conservative and the conservation of ethnic integrity is a major
concern. There are many professing Christians throughout the Pradinho social units.
Two of the elders helped with the translation of the New Testament, but it was
comparatively little. One elder never worked on the translation at all because he lived at
quite a distance from our location. All three had close contact with the SIL linguist during
the four-year literacy project, however. These men have had little Bible training, but they
are respected for their Christian character.
The Maxakalí church is growing through affinal and collateral kinship networks. It appears
likely that the church will continue to be structured on the basis of kin groups and that
decisions will be made by consensus rather than by majority vote. Since kinship ties can be
emphasized or deemphasized at will, there should be no lack of opportunity to expand in
this way. There is a growing sense of Christian kinship, shown by the ties between the
three elders and the occasional fellowship meetings between groups of believers.
Conclusions
I have shown that the link between social power and the rituals is very close, each
supporting the other in the Maxakalí social organization. Any presentation of the gospel to
animists needs to take rituals into account. As sacramentalists, conversion to Christianity
will leave a great vacuum if this is not dealt with early in their Christian experience. In the
case of the Maxakalí, the developing rituals are only taking care of the ‘tip of the iceberg.’
We need to help them develop rituals to deal with all of life’s crises, including age
transitions, childbirth, naming of infants, and death in the family.
I have used the pejorative term ‘syncretism’ in this paper. In so doing I am not passing
judgment on the Maxakalí to the effect that their Christianity is not genuine. I am, however,
emphasizing that their Christianity still contains many elements of their pagan background
and that they will need to deal with them if the Maxakalí church is to glorify God. The
vessels of God’s grace are made of ordinary clay, like Maxakalí pottery, but God wants them
to be clean and pure so that they grow and witness to their own world.
Conversion is not the end but the beginning of the Christian life. The Maxakalí have just
begun to “go on God’s road” and need a great deal of teaching. There are high linguistic and
ethnic barriers between them and the Christians of the dominant society, so that looking to
the latter for help is not very realistic. We can trust God’s word and the work of the Holy
Spirit to make His word relevant to the Maxakalí way of perceiving the universe. Bible
translators, however, have a responsibility to help the new readers and new believers to
understand God’s message to them.
Further Research
We need to discover the meanings of the ‘titles’ Maxakalí children receive to rituals groups
and whether this is something that the church may imitate in the context of worship and
ministry. Can a newly-baptized believer receive a ‘title’ to a special Christian growth and
ministry group that will uniquely help him or her to grow in understanding, effectiveness,
and spiritual maturity? Could this be a cultural substitute for the ‘titles’ to spirit groups and
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also function as a discipling process in the Maxakalí church? Would this group need to be
limited to the convert’s social unit, or would a more broadly-based group be possible?
We need to understand more about individual rituals and their function in the society.
Questions like, “What would happen if the Maxakalí stopped performing the specific
ritual?” might be productive in showing the explicit or superficial function of the ritual in
the society.
Can a meeting house—such as JL built in his own band— be a functional substitute for the
ritual center? Would this be desirable? Some of the meanings of the ritual center, such as
secrecy and exclusiveness, may be undesirable in the Christian context. Are there meanings
that we should try to Christianize, such as the element of the sacred in a profane world, so
important to ritual life? This needs to be studied in closer detail.
How does Christianity function in the diffuse form we see in Pradinho? Is there a sense of
shared identity between believers of different social units? How is this shared identity
communicated? What does it consist of? How can the communal nature of Maxakalí
Christianity be lived out by an individual who is the only believer in his/her social unit? Is
it possible to build the kind of Christian interpersonal networks that can function as
coordinate units or consensus units for Maxakalí church organization? Would this destroy
the integrity of the traditional social units?
Finally, the unity between ritual power and social power brings up the problem of Christian
leadership over believers who belong to social units where the patriarch is not a Christian.
What would it do to the cultural survival of the Maxakalí if Christianity were permitted to
divide the loyalty of members of domestic groups? We need to know more about
interrelationships between social units and the kinds of cooperation that exist between the
patriarch-leaders of different social units.
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APPENDIX A
MYTHS ABOUT TOPA
C was reputed to be over a hundred years old when we moved over to the Pradinho section
of the Maxakalí reserve in 1961. He and a contemporary, JG, were the society’s chief
repository of oral tradition. C’s son, CO, a gifted storyteller, recorded most of the tales
below in 1977. During this same period M recounted myths to explain why the Maxakalí
are poor and lack the resources that are enjoyed by the neo-Brazilian settlers all around
them. I have translated and summarized them in a free form to eliminate the stylistic
redundancy that is characteristic of Maxakalí verbal narrative style but awkward in
English.
M’s Complaint about Topa
Long ago, there were no outsiders here. The jungle was uncut and there were plenty of
game animals: tapir, and wild pig. Today, people are constantly fighting, the outsiders are
all around us, and the game has disappeared; it is gone, finished. Once the jungle was full of
animals and there was only one ancestor. Topa stacked all the guns and then He tested the
ancestor Himself, saying,
“Shoot the gun!”
The ancestor picked it up but he didn’t shoot. Then Topa said to the outsiders,
“You shoot!”
One of them picked up a gun and shot it, like this, BANG! The guns were stacked, so now the
outsiders are very rich. If the ancestor had done the right thing, he would have become rich
and we with him, but the ancestor was stupid whereas the outsiders were clever. As a
result, they are rich and have jeeps and airplanes. The ancestor was poor and his
descendants have nothing either. If Topa’s command had favored us, we would have
become rich because of our cleverness.
Why don’t we own any cattle? We have a lot of pasture grass that nobody can use because
we don’t eat grass. The outsiders and their cattle come and eat our grass. Topa didn’t
designate cattle for us, so we don’t keep cows. Why did Topa deprive us? We are poor; the
outsiders are the ones who are rich. They own many things and we are destitute. What do
we own? We have no cows, only a few horses, and no pigs or chickens. We have plenty of
dogs, but we don’t eat dogs.
CO’s Topa Tales
Topa came. There was a storm and thunder rumbled in the sky when He landed on the
earth. He took a rifle and gave it to a Maxakalí, but the ancestor did not know how to shoot
it. Another time it thundered and Topa stepped on the earth. He took the rifle and gave it to
an outsider. The outsider took the rifle and shot it.
Again Topa landed and gave a bow and arrow to our ancestor. The bow and arrow are
ours. The man shot the arrow. Topa said,
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“The bow and arrow are yours, not the outsider’s.” He spoke thus, they tell us.
Tale Two: Topa Gives the Otter
They say that Topa came again and gave a big otter to the Maxakalí. He said,
“It will fish for you. When the otter drives the fish toward you, you kill the fish and eat
them.”
The Maxakalí caught great quantities of fish. One day a man was stupid. He took the otter
out to fish and did not feed it afterward, so it escaped. It fled downstream.
Tale Three: Topa Decrees Ethnic Distinctions
Topa divided the Maxakalí and the outsiders into two distinct groups. He said,
“The Ĩnmoxa ‘ jaguar spirit’ belongs to the outsiders and the deer spirit belongs to the
Maxakalí. The Maxakalí do not have body hair. The outsiders have hair like the Ĩnmoxa so
they are to take charge of that spirit.”
Thus He commanded the ancestors.
He separated the Maxakalí from the outsiders, giving the rifle to the outsiders and the bow
and arrow to the ancestors.
“I,” said Topa, “divide the land among you. Part for the Maxakalí and part for the outsiders.”
Tale Four: Topa Rewards Hospitality
Once Topa and the Maxakalí were good friends but when they treated Him badly [shooting
arrows at Him], He left them and went to live with the outsiders. There a man refused to
give cow’s milk to someone traveling with Topa so Topa cursed the man’s cows so that they
died. Another man killed his only cow to feed a mysterious stranger Who turned out to be
Topa and offered his humble hospitality to the unknown Traveler. The next morning the
hut had become a luxurious mansion and grazing outside was a large herd of cattle on a
large tract of land that Topa had given him.
Tale Five: Topa Tricks the Stupid Outsider
Topa and Pedro cooked in clay pots over an open fire right on the trail. When they saw an
outsider coming, they quickly swept away all signs of the fire. When the outsider came to
where our friends were, he saw only the bubbling pot on the bare path with no sign of a
fire. Greedily, he offered to pay a large sum for a pot that “cooked without a fire.” When the
man later tried to cook food without a fire, he realized that he had been tricked and vowed
to kill Topa and Pedro. He went after them with a gun so Topa turned the angry man into a
small mule. He gave the animal to an outsider to use as a pack animal and as a means to
become rich.
Tale Six: Topa Punishes Greedy Monkeys
Topa saw monkeys in a corn field eating the corn belonging to an outsider. The monkeys
had stuffed themselves and started to carry the corn away. Topa brought a horse to the
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corn field and told it to “play dead.” The monkeys worried about a dead horse smelling up
the corn field so they proceeded to tie the horse up with vines to drag him out of the field.
When they were well along in their project and had gotten snarled up in the vines
themselves, Topa said to the horse,
“Now!”
The horse jumped up with ten monkeys hanging onto him. He ran under low hanging
branches until all the monkeys were dead.
Tale Seven: The Rain Child
One day a storm raged, felling both trees and branches to the ground. After the storm was
over, the Maxakalí went to the forest to gather honey. They found Topa’s baby boy, Tex
Kutok ‘Rain Child’ on the ground among some fallen branches. A man wrapped up the baby
in a shirt and brought him home for his wife to breast feed. The couple raised the baby and
he grew. When he was seven, the man gave him a deerskin to play with. Whenever the boy
dragged the skin on the ground, a storm came up.
As the boy grew, the Maxakalí began to encourage him to go back to the sky, but he stayed
on.
One day a storm came up. When the Maxakalí started to reinforce their flimsy houses, Tex
Kutok told them that their efforts were unnecessary. The storm skirted the residence
group. Afterward, Tex Kutok went with the Maxakalí to gather honey in the forest. He was
helping to pull branches down to the reach beehives, when his mother snatched him back
up into the sky. He stayed up there with his with his parents. The mother is still angry at
the Maxakalí for keeping her child, but Tex Kutok is their relative [friend] and will not let
any electric storm hurt them.
Tale Eight: Topa and His Mother’s Corpse
One day Topa came home and found that his emaciated mother was dying. After she died,
Topa took her corpse and dried it in the sun. It became dry and shrunken with hollow eye
sockets. Topa and Pedro took the dried corpse along when they began to travel again. On
the road they saw an empty house belonging to an outsider and they placed the body in one
of the rooms. When the outsider came home he saw the corpse. He screamed,
“Who will remove this Jaguar Spirit for us?”
Topa came up to the outsider and offered to take the body away for a large sum of money.
The outsider paid them to remove the shriveled corpse. Topa went on further and repeated
the same thing several times. The tale concludes, with:
“Topa made a lot of money out of His dried-up mother.”
Tale Nine: Topa and the Coffee Harvest
Topa went on His way and met an outsider hoeing in his field. Topa asked him what he was
planting, and the stupid man answered that he was planting rocks. When he went back
later to work in his field, he found a huge rock covering his land. Topa had commanded it.
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Topa went on and met a man clearing away weeds from his field. Topa asked him what he
was doing and he answered that he was weeding his forest. The next morning the man
found big trees covering his land.
Later Topa saw another man clearing away weeds between his coffee trees. He asked him
why he was doing that and the man answered,
“I am clearing away the weeds among my coffee trees. May Topa help me so that I will get a
good coffee harvest.”
Topa said,
“Yes, yes. That is right.”
In the morning the coffee trees were loaded with glowing, ripe coffee beans. Topa had
helped him.
Tale Ten: Topa and the Rice Crop
Again Topa went on. He saw a man working in a rice field.
“What field is this in which you are clearing away weeds?” he asked.
The man explained that it was a rice field, and added that there was very little rice, but he
hoped that Topa would help him to have a bountiful harvest. Topa agreed. The next
morning the man found a big field of rice ready to be harvested.
Tale Eleven: Topa and the Pigs’ Tails
Topa went on and met a herd of pigs belonging to a non-Indian. He gathered the pigs
together and cut off their tails, planting the tails in the mud. Then he lied to the non-Indian
owner. He said,
“Come here! Look! The pigs are stuck in the mud! Come and pull them out!”
The man grabbed the tails and they came out of the mud.
“They must have broken off,” said Topa, “They must have broken right off when you pulled
at them! The pigs are still stuck deep in the mud, so dig!”
The man dug deeper and deeper. He was still digging when Topa left to continue His
travels.
Topa Animal Tales
Topa is a relatively minor character in myths involving the jaguar (traditional villain in
Amerindian tales), the rabbit, and the wasp. The rabbit and the wasp represent the
defenseless victim, and they outwit the predatory jaguar with Topa’s help.
Tale Twelve: Topa, the Jaguar, and the Rabbit
Topa went on and met a jaguar rolling a rock uphill. Topa told the rabbit and the ram to
help the jaguar roll the rock uphill. The ram and the rabbit obeyed. The jaguar scolded
them angrily while they were helping him, so they ran away. He called them to come back,
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but they refused. He was furious and swore at them. He chased the rabbit until he was tired
and the rabbit slipped into a hole in the ground. The jaguar called a wasp to come and
guard the hole so the rabbit would not escape. Then he left to get a hoe to dig him out.
The wasp sat there to wait for the rabbit to come out. He waited, and he waited, and he
waited.
The rabbit chewed tobacco and the wasp heard him. He put his eye up to the hole to try to
look inside. The rabbit said,
“Let me put medicine into your eye. Open it wide.”
The wasp opened his eye wide and the rabbit spit tobacco juice into it. The juice blinded the
wasp and dripped from his eye. Meanwhile the rabbit slipped out of the hole and escaped.
When the jaguar returned he dug in the hole to get at the rabbit and found it was empty. He
scolded the wasp:
“He is gone! Why didn’t you guard the hole better to make sure he did not escape?” He was
very angry.
Tale Thirteen: The Jaguar and the Wasp
The angry Jaguar seized the wasp by the foot and meant to kill him. But the wasp said,
“Wait. The best way to kill me is to throw me into the water. That way I suffocate by
drowning.”
The jaguar threw him into the water, but the wasp flew out of the water and escaped. The
jaguar was livid. He chased him to the potato patch and seized him by the foot. The wasp
jeered,
“You only think you grabbed me. You really grabbed hold of a twig instead of my leg.”
When the jaguar opened his hand to look, the wasp escaped.
Tale Fourteen: The Jaguar and the Rabbit Again
Once when the jaguar was chasing the rabbit, the rabbit turned around and said to him,
“You are not allowed to kill me.”
Then the rabbit put a saddle and bridle on the jaguar and mounted him, making him gallop
off like a horse to where Topa’s feast was being held.
When they arrived there, the rabbit dismounted and tied the jaguar up, although the jaguar
was very hungry. The next day the rabbit untied and mounted him again and they traveled
on.
“When you get to my house I will kill you for this, rabbit,” threatened the jaguar.
Topa reassured the rabbit. When they got to the edge of the forest, He told the rabbit to
seize a tree branch. He did this, and found a perch high up in the tree. The jaguar did not
notice and kept going. When he arrived at home, he wondered why no one removed his
saddle and bridle. The ram came and removed both. When the jaguar turned to attack the
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ram, Topa commanded the latter to kill the jaguar because he was “bad.” The ram butted
him until he was dead. The rabbit came and applauded what the ram had done.
The Maxakalí Origin Myth
This myth was recorded in 1976 for us by A, some forty years of age, as part of a series of
myths about Topa. It tells how He helped the sole Maxakalí ancestor, the survivor of a flood,
to find a deer for a spouse. As in all Topa stories involving animals, the animals talk to Topa
and to the human characters. This sole survivor is the mythical founder of the Maxakalí
tribe as they know it today.
The Otter Tale
The Maxakalí origin myth is preceded by the myth of the Otter; Topa gave it to the Maxakalí
to facilitate their subsistence. The Otter was to drive the fish toward the Maxakalí so that
they could catch them in a net. Greedy and incompetent younger relatives asked to use the
Otter but failed to feed it adequately, so the Otter ran away. As the ancestors realized that
they would never again have the Otter’s help in catching fish, a flood seemed imminent.
The Flood and the Sole Survivor
The waters were rising all about the ancestors.
“Everyone, pack up your things!”
The white-foamed waves kept coming in from the horizon, where the sky meets the earth.
The waves crept up the hill where the ancestors were living and they fled. The elder
kinsman said,
“Let’s go!”
While everyone packed, the patriarch’s wife packed up cooked sweet potatoes. To escape
the rising waters, they climbed to the top of a tall rock. The water kept rising, filling in the
spaces between the trees, coming up until it covered most of the rock and was just below
where the refugees were huddling.
“Alas,” they wailed, “the flood will swallow us up!”
All the Maxakalí drowned, every one of them.
The ducks came together and enjoyed the flooded landscape. Tapirs and other land animals
drowned in the flood until none were left; they perished in the deep water. There was not
enough land left to provide a refuge for the ancestors.
The water slowly receded until it got down to the level of the houses and left a layer of sand
over the land.
One ancestor had taken an animal skin and crept into a hollow log. He sealed both ends to
keep the water out and waited for the flood to subside.
After the water went down, Topa came. He turned Himself into a honeybee, buzzing around
the log in which the man lay. The man called,
“Help me, I’m suffocating in here!”
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Topa [as a honeybee], asked,
“Where is your mouth?”
“It’s right here,” the man answered. Topa asked him to shout again. The bee [Topa] hovered
around the log in order to locate the spot where the man’s face was. The man pleaded
again,
“Hurry—I can’t breathe!”
The log was covered with sand at the place where the man’s mouth was located. His plea
was urgent:
“Go get an axe to open the log and take me out.”
Topa went for the axe and when He returned He again asked to be sure where the man’s
mouth was located. The man responded,
“Here.”
“And where are your feet?”
“They are down below.”
Topa chopped the log, making sure not to chop the man’s head. He cut through the log and
took the man out, who was very nearly dead, shivering and weak.
“Build a fire for me,” he begged.
Topa built a fire and the man revived. He begged for some peanuts because he was hungry.
Topa [as a bee] flew off and brought back a full bag of peanuts for the man to eat. He then
directed the man to go in the direction from which animal sounds were coming:
“You will find a female there for you to marry, to bear children so you will become a large
group again.”
The next day the ancestor went in the direction indicated but couldn’t see her. He went a
second time where he had heard the animal sounds. He could not see the female Topa had
spoken of. He went a third time and saw a deer’s hoof prints this time.
The next morning he picked up the deer’s trail again; it became progressively harder to
follow. Then he came upon her, and asked,
“Where do I copulate with you?”
The deer answered,
“Here, in the split part of my hoof.”
He did as she [the deer] indicated. She became pregnant in the bulge of her foreleg muscle
and gave birth to a child. Later she gave birth to another. She gave birth to many children.
Topa came again.
“This is your wife,” He said, indicating the deer, “Wait,” He added, “We want to give you
something else so that you may become rich.”
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Topa gave the ancestor a rifle and told him to shoot it. The ancestor pulled the trigger but
nothing happened. Topa took the rifle and gave it to an outsider who was there, and the
outsider pulled the trigger, and “BANG!”
Because he had known how to fire the gun, Topa gave it to him. Then He gave a bow and
arrow to the ancestor:
“Shoot it at something.”
The ancestor fit the arrow in the string of the bow and shot it. The arrow pierced a tree
trunk.
“It is yours to keep,” said Topa, “Go!”
The Ancestors Fight with Topa
The ancestors were fishermen who used hook and line to fish. Topa rained fish from the
sky with which the ancestors filled their sacks. He rained down 500 strings of fish for the
two ancestors. While they went to pull in the fish, the two ancestors tried to break the
string and got fish hooks embedded in their hands. One hook pierced a man’s foot when he
tried to pull in the fish. Topa threw down more fish, and ten ancestors dived into the water
to pull them out. Again fishhooks embedded themselves in their hands. They were furious.
They could hear Topa singing on the trail, so they seized their bows and arrows and
pursued Him. During this period of pursuit, Topa was hunting and providing the game that
His mother desired. He sang as He hunted.
Topa was up in the sky and came down to the ancestors’ land. The ancestors got out their
bows and arrows and surrounded him. When they pulled the bowstrings to shoot the
arrows at Topa, their legs broke and they fell to the ground. They had all wanted to kill
Topa, but could not do it.
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APPENDIX B
LIFE STORIES
The life histories that follow were elicited from a man and a woman over sixty years old (JL
and J), from a man and woman between the ages of forty-five and sixty (MK and M), and
from a man and woman between the ages of twenty-five and forty (AJ and D).
J’s Story
I did not see my father marry my mother. He married her before I was born. My mother
gave birth to me and I was very small when she died. My xukux ‘elder kinswoman’ took me
in, breast fed me, and mothered me. She fed me, dressed me, and cared for me until I grew
up.
A man wanted me [A]; he married me and I gave birth to P. Next I had a daughter and she
grew fast. She grew and she died. [Here she married H.] I bore another son and this was AJ.
He grew very big. I had another and he was big when measles killed him. Another boy was
born and also died. I gave birth to another daughter, A. Another daughter lived, grew up,
and got married. I had many children and then stopped having them. Now all my children
are grown, married, and gone.
My children’s father was sick. He was very sick and worked in the hot sun; he got a fever
and died in a few days. I became a widow and was very poor. Jm wanted me, but he beat me
and someone [her son?] threw him out. I was left alone. I wanted to marry again, but I am
alone now, so I came here [to live with my married son’s family]. That’s all.
[I asked J to tell about the old-times and the outsiders she knew.]
Joaquim Fagundes sold this land. He watched over us here and urged us to go to this other
place. We packed up everything, and carried food supplies on our backs like horses. We
carried clay pots and gardening tools, too. We made cane juice and wrapped food to carry it
in cloth bags. We put up a shelter in the forest and slept there. In the morning we went to
Bertopolis and stayed there. Biting ants made us miserable so we slept in the grass. We
traveled in the morning until we stopped to eat. I forget what we ate. Someone said,
“Sleep here; tomorrow you can plant manioc here.”
We gathered firewood and caught fish by numbing them with poison vines until they were
paralyzed in the river. The women caught the fish and we ate them. In the morning we
traveled on and ate when we arrived at Itanhaem. Our horses carried the food and went
ahead with the kerosene. The men were naked then except for a penis sheath but now they
wear pants over this part of the body. The outsiders told them that they had to wear pants.
C said,
“Wait, I’m going to buy some pants.” He went and found a lot of pants for sale. C got a big
pile of pants and handed them out to the men. An outsider came along and jeered at the
men for being naked, but others gave them shirts and pants to wear.
We filled our bags with food and went to Itanhaem. The houses were small and roofless.
We stayed in these open houses and sold things. Someone suggested that we stay under the
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breadfruit trees. It was the time of the year for them to have fruit. We slept in the woods, in
tiny huts. At night the rain came down hard and washed away our little shelters. We got
soaked.
The next day we went on to the trees that had lots of thorns and there O was born; his
mother gave birth to him on the road. He was tiny. The next day we traveled on and O’s
mother carried him in her arms.
We traveled on a narrow road and saw wild pigs. The grass was tall. We traveled fast but
the undergrowth often tripped us up. We climbed hills, going upstream. Once we jumped
over gaps and fell and landed where there were sloths. They had long claws and we had
difficulty getting away. Some men had machetes and helped us to cut ourselves free. We
traveled downstream to Kayaket Tox.
We traveled with nothing to eat. We came to a place where there was a huge tree standing
in the water. We looked down at the water and were afraid. The big field was owned by an
outsider who was cutting down papaya. The fruit hit the ground, “Plop, plop, plop, plop.”
Wonderful! They tasted so good to us. We went on and came to an outsiders’ cemetery on a
burned stretch of land. We were afraid so we hurried on until we arrived at Notet’s place.
There we Maxakalí took another road.
Joaquim Fagundes killed a tapir and dried its meat. He distributed it among the Maxakalí.
We stayed a while at N’s place and left. We took the dried meat, roasted it, and ate it with
manioc roots. N said,
“Here, wash this manioc; I’m giving it to you to eat.”
The Maxakalí peeled a whole lot and ate most of it. The next day we tied up bundles of
manioc. We remembered that the tapir skin was still on a stretcher in the forest so
someone went to get it and packed it in the bag. We wanted to take all the manioc with us
but we couldn’t so we made manioc cakes. Someone said,
“Let’s hunt wild pig here!”
The men went hunting and the dogs chased a very big anteater which the men killed with
long bows and arrows.
Someone said,
“Don’t eat it, leave it alone! Let’s hunt wild pig again tomorrow.”
They went out and got some, distributing it to everyone. We ate the meat with manioc
cakes and plain manioc. It rained hard during the night and we were afraid. We could hear
animal sounds.
The next day we went into the forest and came out at the large fields on our own land. The
outsiders grated a lot of manioc for us and we ate it all. We planted huge squash and
dragged manioc shoots out to the field to plant them. I planted four liters of rice but none of
it came up.
The men killed a lot of tapirs for use in the Hawk Spirit rituals. The next day they decided to
go out after more tapirs, so they got more, and again used them in the rituals. We held
many rituals. Many children got sick and died in a short time. People were anxious to leave
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because so many died, so we packed up to go. A child this tall [indicated height with hand]
died along the way. We traveled while grieving and my mother also died on that trip.
Another person this tall [gestured to indicate height] died. We kept traveling until we
arrived back here.
[J was asked to talk about her family and started telling about her siblings and children.]
I have one sister Jq and I had a brother A who died. All of his children died; there is no one
left. He has no descendants. I also had an elder kinsman xuxyã A, but he died. My elder
kinswoman xukux also died, the one who gave birth to T. In my kin group is K who is my
sister’s [or parallel cousin’s] son. She died; I don’t remember her Portuguese name; it was
Mary White in our language. You know O, he was my sister’s child. My sister—J’s wife—
died. And Mother, her mother also died. My sister was called J. My big sister was called
Mary White. She had other children but I only remember the name of one, my brother
[parallel cousin] Y. They belonged to my kin group. One of them was my ‘brother’ MR.
There were other children, such as a ‘brother’ with a name something like N and V. There
were many descendants, I don’t remember their names. K had few siblings. They [K and L]
have married children but I don’t know their names. My daughter O is grown up and her
sons’ names are M, B, I. Her daughters are M, I, J, the sick one, and JQ’s wife called E. A
brother is growing up, I, and the youngest brother A. Her sister had few children but O has
many. I don’t know the names of the children. I didn’t give them their names.
We knew a lot of outsiders in the past. One was called MM, an old man. He planted a lot and
shared food with us. There was another old outsider who couldn’t see very well. He was
there when we killed a monkey. I skinned it myself and hung up the skin. It stank.
There was another outsider whose name was A. His daughter was fair-skinned and
promiscuous. She kept hanging around our men. There was a black woman who did the
same thing. When we moved over to the Post [Água Boa] they went right along. The men
would do the rituals and then sneak food to the women and have sex with them. When a
snake bit one of the men, one of the promiscuous women killed it with a club.
[J went on to tell that the black whore became pregnant and the baby subsequently died,
which made many Maxakalí happy.]
JL’s Story
You ask me to talk about my life. Before I existed my mother lived with my father, and
when I was born here the ancestors called this place Hãm ‘ĩhã ‘Foreground.’ The outsiders
call it Água Boa, ‘Good Water.’
We went to Pradinho and returned when I was very small and knew nothing. I grew and
learned. The outsider Y killed a jaguar. I saw it when the ancestors came back.
When I grew up there were many ancestors and they built a kuxex ‘ritual center.’ We lived
in Pradinho and many ancestors became sick and died. I lived with my xuxyã ‘elder
kinsman,’ CA, and he died. My mother also died. We lived on here and now many of the old
people are gone: CA, C, and A are gone; M, JA, and my own father are gone, too. The
outsiders also caused many changes among us. They even sold and bought the land on
which Pradinho stands. We were forced to leave but in time we came back here. I was born
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and grew up here. I was married here and now I will stay here. I don’t want to move to
Pradinho; I cling to this land. I have lived here a long, long time. My kin group lives here and
T’s kin group.
Today other kinds of people live at Tatu [Batinga, BA]. My relatives live here. We Maxakalí
always lived here; our ancestors lived here and so did the outsiders’ ancestors. Now there
are young Maxakalí and young outsiders and both are bad, including the Post employees.
The Maxakalí raided from the outsiders’ fields and killed their cattle. They were angry but
we [my kin group] were not. The outsiders were also bad. They did bad things with the
Maxakalí. Those at the Post [Água Boa] did not do good, either.
We were living here when H came and he made his home at Hãpxanep for a long time. We
lived at Mĩkax Kaka and he taught us. Now we are believers and we are good, but only we
few believers are good. The others drink alcohol. Even some who have become believers
drink it. I am the only believer who does not drink. I am truly a believer; I don’t drink and I
don’t smoke or chew tobacco. There are also believers over there at Mãkpa, where T lives.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, I go to the religious house with the believers there. H baptized me
and I baptized the Maxakalí including my brother T and many other believers. I know all
the believers’ songs and we come together to sing. I made one song; he [H] made believers’
songs [here he sings a snatch of a hymn translated from the Portuguese]. That’s right.
The Maxakalí know nothing; they show this by the way they go to Itanhaem, Texeira,
Barracão, and Bananeiras. Those who live over here go to Rubim, Machacalis, Águas
Formosas, Santa Helena. They search for cachaça which good outsiders will not sell to them
[it is illegal to sell it to Indians]. The government’s employees also deny them alcohol. The
ranchers don’t make it, nor do the military officials. The outsiders sell alcohol secretly, lest
the soldiers find out about it and arrest them. The Indians say, “They are good outsiders;
they sell alcohol to us,” but they are not good. Good outsiders do not sell it to them.
Nevertheless, the Maxakalí long for alcohol. They talk about “good” outsiders who sell it to
them, who make them pay huge sums for a single liter of it, for a bottle or a half-bottle of it.
When the soldiers find out they beat them. The outsiders sell it and the Maxakalí fight
because of it; they drink it because they know nothing. They are ignorant like children. This
way they will never be strong. They drink alcohol and then they fight among themselves.
On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday they drink [a long Independence Day weekend] and they
can hardly walk; they move very slowly and heavily because of their drinking and partying.
They habitually fight among themselves.
M’s Stories
We Maxakalí traveled on foot. We walked a long way and were very hungry.
“Let’s stop and eat,” we said.
We stopped, cooked a big meal and ate it. When we finished eating we went on and at
nightfall we stopped and slept on the road. In the morning we continued our journey and
kept on until we arrived at the town. All the townspeople [outsiders] were happy to see us
and asked,
“Why have you come? Are you all just passing through?”
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And we answered,
“Yes, we came to see this big town.”
The people were good to us. They fed us; they gave us both food and clothes. They gave the
children and us money to buy something to eat. The children bought bread and bananas
because they were hungry. The people said,
“Yes, we will give you money,” and they did. They were good, happy and generous people.
We spent the night in the town. In the morning we went on to another town and arrived
there. The people said,
“Give us the little children; your children are beautiful! Give them to us. We will trade you a
jeep for them.”
We answered,
“No! We will not give our children to you. The Big Daddy [government Indian agency] will
not let us do that.” We wanted to keep our children, so at sundown we slipped away and
started for home.
There was plenty of fish.
“Look at all the fish!” we exclaimed. Let’s catch some so we can eat them as we travel.” We
fished [with hook and line] and had plenty of fish to eat.
We returned here, and when we arrived, the Maxakalí said,
“Let’s dance, let’s hold a big dance!”
So we held a big dance and people got married, fought, and danced. We drank coffee and
cachaça ‘sugar cane alcohol.’ We danced well because we were drunk. When we are sober
we dance badly because we are ashamed [inhibited] but when drunk, we dance very well
and enjoy ourselves.
Second Story
Now I will tell another story. I demanded the use of the government tractor, which is ours. I
insisted that they [the government employees] must plow our land so that we can plant
manioc, sweet potatoes, and rice to eat so that we will not go hungry. I demanded it from
Antonio [the Post agent] and insisted that they must plow our fields today, now. We sold all
our food to the outsiders who wanted our potatoes. We want to plant manioc, sweet
potatoes and rice for the children to eat. The children want it, too. If the outsiders are really
sorry for us they must bring food here quickly so we can eat: rice, sugar, beans, manioc
flour, for us to eat and coffee for us to drink.
Third Story
We Maxakalí wanted to do the Hemex ritual. We invited our relatives to come with all their
children. We made a big meal [feast] for them. In the morning everyone went to make
things ready for the rituals. Wherever the spirits were the people went, too.
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Soon another ritual was held and again we made a feast. At night all the women wore their
best clothes and reddened their lips to dance. They celebrated joyously with the spirits,
singing, joking, and teasing.
Fourth Story
I teach the children [the children in the domestic group] so they will be wise and good. I
exhort them, “Be good, stay home, and be careful. When people come to see you, don’t do
bad things. Don’t take things. Don’t steal food—leave it alone,” I tell them. “And don’t swear
at our relatives.
“It isn’t good to kill pigs. Sell a pig to an outsider so he can butcher it and give half to the
Maxakalí to eat. Then we can be happy and satisfied, then our relatives won’t be hungry.
Share the meat. When relatives come to your home, give it to them. If they don’t come, don’t
give it to them.” That is the way I teach my children.
“When your relatives come to visit you, and say,
“‘Oh, our relatives have butchered for meat!’ divide it with them so they can share it. If they
don’t ask for it, don’t give them any. They are angry; that’s why they don’t come for you to
feed them.” This is how I teach my children.
I teach adolescent girls like this:
“Don’t you fool around. Do good things, be good. Don’t swivel your head back and forth and
giggle. Don’t fool around. That is not good. Sit quietly, silently, and think. Look well and be
wise.” This is what I teach the adolescent girls.
“When a man sees you, a potential husband, a young man, and wants you, he tries to talk
with you. If he says, ‘Come, let’s go over there,’ you must say, ‘No, I don’t want to go. I want
to stay here, in my own home. I don’t want to go out in the tall grass/jungle.’ It is better to
stay in your own home.” I teach them so that they will be wise, so they won’t do what is
bad. I tell them, “Be alert and wise, lest your mother and father blame me. Respect your
father and mother and don’t do bad.”
I teach adolescent boys,
“Don’t fool around. Get firewood, work in the fields. Take the hoe and work in the soil and
you will be rich and have your own money. Don’t fool around with girls.”
[Asked what advice her own xukux ‘elder kinswoman’ gave her when she became
pubescent, she said,]
My aunt warned me, “Don’t steal someone else’s husband.”
MK’s Story
We live together here at ‘the foot of the rock’ Mĩkax Kaka. Long ago the ancestors came.
They settled down here. That was a long time ago. I grew up here and learned about things.
I cleared land, planted beans, manioc, and potatoes. I married and had a child—the first
one—and it grew up. I went to the field and cut down my fruit trees and ate the fruit.
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Once, long ago, sickness struck and we went away so that our child would not get sick.
When we returned here I became very skillful in making bows arrows, and bodoques. I sold
them to buy meat, rice, and coffee. I brought the things home and made coffee for the
children to drink. They were full and satisfied. I hunted rabbits and brought them home,
took my bow and arrows and went long distances among the outsiders to get clothes. The
government did not give us clothes and we needed them. I made bows, arrows, and doublestringed bows. I took them to town to sell, along with beads. We sold them to the outsiders
for meat, clothes, and money. We would stay in the town for five days and then come home
and rest. After that we would pick up our hoes and clear land—lots of it—to plant beans,
squash, sugar cane, and papaya so that the children would have food.
Some said,
“Let’s hunt capybara.”
We stalked the capybara and killed so many of them that we had to cut poles to carry them
home. We brought them home to use in the Souls-of-the-Dead rituals and put them in the
kuxex ‘ritual center.’ We sang the rituals. At midnight we threw some of the meat to the
women. They cut it up for the rituals, to eat in the ritual center. In the wee hours of the
morning the spirits were very happy. They laughed a lot, saying,
“Let’s do it again tomorrow.”
Someone said to my daughters,
“Make the spirits laugh,” but they were shy and did not want to do it. The spirits were left
alone so they went away. The next night the rituals were not for my ritual groups, but I
said,
“I will make a feast for the spirits.”
Lots of people came and ate the feast. They were full and fed their children, too. They fed
even the littlest ones; no one was left hungry. Mĩmãg [spirits] said,
“Don’t feed the children!”
I argued,
“Topa’s people do not act that way. Go ahead: feed the children. At Topa’s feast you must
feed the children until they are full. Feed the Mĩxux [spirits] until they are satisfied, too.”
At night the Souls-of-the-Dead [spirits] arrived. The women danced along with the men. We
were happy and danced until we were sleepy. Someone said,
“Let’s dance until the rooster crows.”
Another said,
“Bring the milk here,” and they brought it to the women, huge jars full. A jaguar came and
took charge of first one jar and then another. It was the Jaguar Spirit. He took one jar after
another into the ritual center. Some worried that he would curse us because he took so
little of all the food that the Female Spirits had prepared. The people ate a lot and
wondered which spirits would come that night.
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The Maxakalí will sleep tonight because tomorrow will be the Hawk Spirits’ ritual, and
there will be a feast. The feast will end in the evening and when the food it gone we will
have to go to the forest to kill some more animals, such as armadillos or monkeys, to bring
to the ritual center to eat with the spirits. The women can cook the manioc. We’ll put all
the food together and divide it among the children. Don’t scold the children even though
there are so many of them. Topa does not want us to scold the children. Let’s feed them
until they are satisfied.
Soon I will tie together bows, arrows, and bodoques to take to town and sell for cash and
clothes. Once we tied up a large bundle and carried it as far as Teixeira [in Bahia State]. But
out there we drank a lot of cane alcohol, got drunk, and lost the bundles of bows and
arrows. The next day people accused each other of stealing those bundles. They were not
stolen at all, just lost when we were drunk. We looked all over for them but could not find
them. The outsiders had them. I wanted to go home because it would not do any good to
look for them but some people went across the river to search anyway. Some of the women
were so drunk they would have lost their own babies if their elder kinswomen had not
rescued them.
After we recovered from this, I said,
“When you are finished breast feeding the babies, let us go among the outsiders and scold
them for taking our bundles before we leave. Feed the babies and forget about trying to get
our things back. Look around for something to feed the children until they are no longer
hungry.”
At home we went to work planting crops. Our elder kinsman was old but he could work
hard in the field. We planted manioc and lots of potatoes; we were not lazy. Some accuse us
of stealing from the outsiders but we don’t. We hunt for rabbits and go fishing. Our
ancestors had it easy. They hunted and dried the meat and fish. The husbands killed a lot of
capybaras. We brought them home and ate them on the bank of the river. We returned
home at night and found shelter from the storm under a curral roof. An ancestor said,
“Let’s stop to drink some cane alcohol.”
Others protested,
“We are weak enough without that!”
I knew we were weak. We pulled up stakes and went to town, but some were drunk when
we arrived at Umburaninha. We went back to the place we had celebrated the rituals
earlier. The ancestors drank liquor again and got so drunk that they spoiled the rituals, so
we stopped early. Some Maxakalí acted better than others because Topa helped them. They
cooked on several fires and invited others to dance until daylight on Friday, to dance until
they were tired.
We stayed at home. Others called us to travel with them but I stayed at home to take care of
my duties. When the food was gone we decided to go to the forest to hunt. An outsider
butchered a steer and shared the meat with us. They treated us like friends and we ate. We
stayed near them and did not steal from them. Some wanted to steal from them, but I said
that it was bad to steal from them when they had been good to us. It might make them very
angry.
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We all left the city together. The outsiders filled our bags with money and clothes, but then
we got drunk again and we lost everything they had given us; we dropped it all in the
water.
Long ago the ancestors made bows and arrows to sell to the outsiders. They didn’t take
anything else with them but the outsiders were good to them and gave them lots of things.
Their sacks were full when they started out for home. That is the way it was with the
ancestors. I don’t know how it was long ago; I only know about recent times. We carry
things to the towns around here. We visit many towns and come home to plant squash,
manioc, beans, and corn. Saturday I went to Batinga to get meat, sugar, and rice. We
brought them home to eat. I did not lose my money; everything went well.
D’s Story
Many years ago my mother married and gave birth to my siblings. I was the youngest child.
My father still lives and he is very old. My sister is much older than I and still lives. I am
now twenty-nine years old.
I was very small when I was born. The people who lived around us saw me, all the elder
kinswomen of our people. When I grew up and was married, my father was still alive but
my mother was among those dead. I lived here at the Água Boa Post. My father still lives at
Mĩkax Kaka on his own land.
When I was small my parents carried my brother and me while we moved into the dense
forest. We lived there and planted sweet potatoes, bananas, and manioc. There were many
game animals: monkeys, wild pigs, and tapirs that we Maxakalí killed and ate. We had
sweet potatoes, bananas, and manioc and worked in our fields.
We returned again to our homes here in Mĩkax Kaka. My elder kinswoman, father’s mother,
became ill when I was sick and still very small. She was very old. There was a cold drizzle
on the day she was sick and I was there when she died, although I was still very young.
I grew until I was old enough to marry and everyone urged me to get married. My parents
ordered me to marry and so did my grandparents. All of my father’s relatives and all of my
mother’s wanted me to get married. I married here at the Post and gave birth to my son, my
first child, the oldest. Now he is sixteen years old and his sister is only fourteen. I have
another son almost ten years old and my youngest son is two. I had only five children; one
daughter died.
I am an unmarried woman and do not want to marry again. I have to do things for myself. I
make artifacts to sell: necklaces, net bags, and clay pots. I work in the bean, sweet potato,
and manioc fields with a hoe in order to have something to sell so I can get money. I was
married but my husband died. He was sick and died, and I was angry. “I will not marry
again,” I said, and I have remained single. I have to work hard in the fields to get food for
my children to eat. I have to sell things to get money to buy my own food: rice, sugar, lard,
macaroni. I buy manioc flour to eat.
We Maxakalí believe on Jesus who loves us and we love Him, too. Jesus lives up in the sky to
build a beautiful home for us. God wants the Maxakalí to baptize their relatives to become
his own people, and to take part in God’s feast [communion]. He wants to cleanse our
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hearts and look after our sick ones so they may be healed. We Maxakalí love Jesus. We are
not sick, but when we get sick He heals us. The end.
AJ’s Story
I want to talk about old times, when the ancestors lived here. Once there was no food: no
manioc, no sweet potatoes, and no bananas that we now have. In the distant past there
were only tubers for the ancestors to eat. They grated, peeled, cooked, and ate them. They
also made juice of them. Today we have bananas, manioc, sweet potatoes, rice, and corn.
The outsiders came and brought food like manioc.
Long ago many ancestors lived right here, in Pradinho. They settled here and then moved
away again. My father married my mother here and they lived together. My mother gave
birth to me; she breast fed me, and I grew up to adulthood. I grew up among my relatives,
living with my parents and working in the field when I was older. My father planted food
and ate it with my mother. They planted manioc. We lived together, my parents and I.
My father trapped armadillo and coati. I wove baskets to trap fish and brought them home
for my parents to eat. I helped feed the three of us. I was small but I helped provide food for
the family. When I grew up I always worked to produce food.
After I was grown up, my father got sick and died. I married, had children, and raised them.
These are my own children who are here. Sickness took the lives of many of our children,
mine and my relatives’. I have only five children of my own now. Many of my relatives also
died.
Long ago the ancestors lived here in a white-washed house and many outsiders were here
too, just like today. My parents and I lived here in a white house in the more recent past; I
was the youngest one. Outsiders who lived long ago settled here, too. M and his brother L
[both Indian agency employees] once lived here among the Maxakalí. I was inexperienced
then. Another outsider came to visit and lived here. They worked in the fields with us, built
houses with and for us, and they planted rice, corn, manioc, sweet potatoes, and bananas,
like us.
However, an outsider from Diyi wanted to fight with M when he lived in the white house.
He tried to kill him. The Maxakalí separated them but he would not give up. Those loyal to
M helped to escort him to the Post [Água Boa]. The powerful outsider from Diyi pursued us
with threats. He followed M on the trail, threatening him and refusing to stop. The Maxakalí
protected M, and separated them, but even so, the outsider would not give up. He was
furious; he searched for a knife among the Maxakalí.
“Give me a knife,” he begged, “I need it to take a thorn out of my foot.” But he meant to use
it to kill M. The Maxakalí said,
“Don’t give him a knife or he’ll use it to kill M!”
The outsider slipped next to an ancestor who carried a knife sheathed on his belt and
snatched it. The owner grabbed for the knife but the Diyi [the angry outsider] took it away.
He wanted to kill M. He took his own hat and slammed it down over M’s eyes, raised the
knife ready to stab and landed a blow on M’s forehead. He slashed at him and almost killed
him, yet M was not afraid.
118
As the Diyi repeatedly slashed around with the knife, M became afraid, and called,
“Where are all of you? This fiend wants to kill me! Those who were faithful to the ritual
groups came to defend M, ready to kill the outsider. Those from the Demon Spirit group,
from the Manioc Stalk Spirit group, and from the Hawk Spirit group killed the outsider and
hid the body.
M was wounded and his sister-in-law M brought him to the [Água Boa] Post at J’s place [the
Indian agent and M’s husband] where he was treated. They called the police from Águas
Formosas and Maria came with the police. The Diyi group, JR’s group, wanted to kill the
Maxakalí, but the police arrived and looked around for Diyi’s body. They couldn’t find it so
they said,
“There is no body here, [so there is no murder]; all we see is the body of an armadillo. You
killed an armadillo. Let them live.”
The outsiders said,
“Bury that armadillo!” but we didn’t. We had not done anything wrong and we had helped
M. He was taken to Bertopolis where he was treated by the doctors for his knife wounds.
Later he came back to live with us. Nothing wrong had been done. This is what the
ancestors said.
119
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VITA
Frances Blok Popovich was the third child born in Grand Rapids, Michigan to Anthony S. A.
Blok and Anna VanderWaal Blok, both immigrants from the Netherlands. Frances was
brought up in the First Netherlands Reformed Church of Grand Rapids where she is still a
member.
Mrs. Popovich graduated from the Pine Rest Sanitarium psychiatric attendant training
program in 1951 and from the Roseland Community Hospital School of Nursing in 1955. In
her final year, she met Andrew Harold Popovich and they were married in 1956. The
Popovichs have four children.
Following the wedding reception, they went to North Dakota to take the first semester of
linguistics at the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) in Grand Forks, North Dakota. They
completed the prerequisite training in 1957 and were assigned to Brazil.
In Brazil Popovichs were assigned in 1958 to the Maxakalí tribe in Minas Gerais. They
analyzed the language both phonologically and grammatically and began to translate the
New Testament into Maxakalí toward the end of the 1960s. In 1973 they were trained as
translation consultants at Ixmiquilpan, in Hidalgo, Mexico. They completed the final draft of
the Maxakalí New Testament translation in 1978. It was published and dedicated in 1981.
Mrs. Popovich graduated from Dallas Baptist College in 1979 with a Bachelor in Career Arts
degree in applied linguistics, and from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1980 with a
Master's degree in sociology. She is presently serving as the Translations Department
Coordinator for the Brazil Branch of the Summer Institute of Linguistics. She has also
taught courses in missionary anthropology, missiology, and phenomenology of religion to
Brazilian and American missionary trainees.