The Canela (Eastern Timbira), I: An Ethnographic Introduction.
By William H.Crocker
Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology,
Number 33, 487 pages, 11 tables, 51 figures, 78 plates, 1990.

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The Religion may be defined as broadly as the relational system that ties man into the world in which he lives, or as narrowly as what is seen in each culture as being supernatural in contrast with what is natural. In this monograph, the broad relational approach, including ceremonial and belief systems that tie individuals to each other and to the world they live in, is used. Thus, Canela religion can be found in their festivals, individual life cycle rites, mythology, cosmology, shamanism, witchcraft, and positive chanting, as well as in their concepts of pollution, of purgative medicine, of affirmations, and of transformational practices.

There are few generally accepted, recognizable forms of religion or religious practices among the Canela: no obvious praying, no worship, no services led by priests, and no attempts to influence supernatural forces to intervene on behalf of the people. (Nimuendajú, 1946:231–234, also found little evidence of the existence of formal religion.) In earlier times, supernatural phenomena were recognized by the Canela and brought into their daily lives mainly through contacts with ghosts [IV.D.1.c.(1)]. These supernatural spirits were of the recently deceased and were not considered superior or supreme beings to be venerated. On the contrary, they were placed on the same level with humans but were very much pitied.

The ecological niche that the Canela occupied in precontact times and at present is relatively benign, which may account for their this-worldly oriented religious system, along with other factors. The Canela and Apanyekra, as culture carriers, project relatively few of their ideas onto the supernatural, but rather onto the physical world. There are no earthquakes, droughts, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, volcanoes, fires, or other natural disasters around which religions have often been formed by peoples seeking help or solace. The worst Canela disasters are rattlesnake bites and rare invasions by plagues of caterpillars. Formerly, there was seasonal intertribal warfare [IV.C.1.c.(2)], but this only occasionally had drastic results. The 18th and 19th century pioneer incursions and their consequent diseases were far more devastating [II.B.1.b] but probably occurred too recently to be formative factors in the evolution of the traditional Canela religious system. The Canela messianic movement of 1963 was an exception to their reliance on largely this-worldly religious solutions and must be understood through the analysis of acculturative factors. The increasing involvement of the Canela in the backlander’s folk Catholicism is another exception.

[IV.A] FESTIVAL SYSTEM

The Canela are well known for their vast festival system in the South American ethnological literature through Nimuendajú’s monograph (1946). The complexity of the many moieties and their interlocking nature are crucial aspects of the festival system, and notable when found at the Canela’s technological level of development (Carneiro, 1967). The purpose of this chapter is to present a comprehensive view of this system. Outstanding aspects of each great dry season festival and some obvious interpretations are presented. Comparisons with the festivals of other Eastern Timbira tribes are not attempted here.

[IV.A.1] In and Out of the Festival State

Many of the festival performances look the same as daily activities to an outsider, but the Canela know whether a particular performance is an aspect of the ongoing daily life cycle [II.E.1.b] or whether it is part of a festival. The expression amyi-?khin nã (self-liking in: euphoria) means roughly “festival in” but might be more accurately translated as “being in a festival state.” Among all the festival groups, only the age-set moiety system to a major extent and parts of the Red and Black Regeneration season moiety system to a smaller extent transcend the festival system and operate outside as well as inside it. As such, the age-set moiety system may well be the most important component of the festival system, uniting the real and model worlds [II.E.1]. When assembled in their village, the Canela may have daily races between the age-set moieties, and may work or hunt in their age-set moiety divisions. In addition, the Wè?tè girls (Glossary), representations of high festival honor, are treated with prestige outside the Wè?tè festivals. Thus, on the same day that these nonfestival activities take place, the Canela may also go into a festival state.

[IV.A.2] Festivals as Pageants and Role Models

Canela festivals, which are really pageants sometimes lasting several months, portray the Canela way of life as well as most of its beliefs, values, and roles. Models of traditional behavior are provided in these festival-pageants for all Canela individuals to see, learn, and eventually internalize. A sister rushes to aid and comfort a brother hit by a firebrand, pouring water on him. Mothers-in-law parade holding strings attached to their sons-in-law (Plate 40a,c,e).

A festival’s acts and scenes are very much like the sections of a Western play, except that there is no obvious plot that holds the many performances together. One scene follows another (singing, dancing, and sometimes athletics) with no obvious continuity except to the Canela or to the person who has studied and analyzed the dramas. Viewed as a whole, most scenes, almost every act, and all the festival-pageants make sense, have a certain continuity, and can be seen as an understandable totality. For instance, as the Pepyê novices come out of their long internment, they let the villagers see a little more of their bodies in each successive act. First they live away from the village for several weeks; then, they appear marching behind mats around the village for several days; later, they file through the village at dusk; and finally, they take their position in the plaza in full sunlight.

During their internment, the health of the novices is considered fragile, but as they emerge they become progressively stronger. If, nevertheless, a villager with an evil eye (an antisocial kay) views them just after their emergence and before they regain strength, this evil might hurt them. Thus, they emerge from their internment gradually, in stages. Knowledge of the novices’ weakness while secluded and of the potential “dangers” [IV.B.2.c.(1)] they might encounter as they emerge from internment, facilitates comprehension of a series of nonconsecutive acts occurring on different weeks and days.

All the kinship roles, consanguineal and affinal, and almost all other roles in the society, are acted out at one point or another in these festival-pageants. These traditionally repeated dramatic festival roles define how individuals in such roles should ideally behave. The enactment of the roles reaffirms traditional values and operates against social change.

Special roles in the pageants are provided for a number of individuals, giving some of them high ceremonial status and therein a strong basis for satisfaction in the society. The status acquired through carrying out festival roles is often transferred to private life, thereby structuring some relationships in an otherwise classless society. Such transferences apply to the roles of the hàmren girls [III.C.9] and to a larger number of males, such as age-set file leaders, commandants (Glossary), deputy commandants [IV.A.3.c.(1).(c)], Ceremonial-chiefs-of-the-whole-tribe, and the leader of the Visiting Chiefs. (The expressions “high” and “low” ceremonial honor are mine and are meant to describe the relative ranking the Canela give to the various hàmren positions [III.C.7].)

The festivals of the annual cycle [II.C.4] occur as follows (Table 4): Regeneration season (Ayrën, Katàm-re, Wakmê-re, Katàm-ti, Wakmê-?ti), Sweet Potato, Corn Harvest, Pàlrà, Opening Wè?tè, one of the five great Wè?tè festivals, Closing Wè?tè, and again the Regeneration season. The five great summer festivals are the Khêêtúwayê, Pepyê, Pepkahàk, Fish (Tepyalkhwa), and Masks (Ku?khrùt-re-?hô). The Wè?tè season is presented first in this chapter, since it epitomizes festivals, and the annual cycle festivals and rituals are placed afterward.

[IV.A.3]  Wè?tè (Dry) Season

The Wè?tè (Glossary) season is the time for one of the great festivals, beginning during the late spring or early summer of the Western calendar year and ending in the late summer to early fall. It might be called the “extramarital” or the “self-enjoyment” season. The great festival interrupts the domestic continuity of the married couple. Wives partially give up their husbands and husbands their wives to the gaiety and fun of this season. The five great festivals of the season are the only ones that can be referred to as an amyi?khin (state of euphoria).

The sexes are supposed to move somewhat apart during the Wè?tè period so that a woman can mix and have sexual relations more easily with her “other husbands” (më mpyê-?nõ: they husband other: a woman’s other husbands) and a man can do the same with his “other wives” (më ?prõ-?nõ: they wife other: a man’s other wives) [III.E.3.a.(6).(a)]. Certain men are sometimes removed from the daily scene by festival internments, so that in principle they cannot have sexual relations at all. This makes it easier for their wives and the noninterned husbands to associate freely. In the Pepkahàk festival mature men are secluded away from the village, in the Masks’ festival a men’s society is removed from daily circulation, and in the Pepyê festival novices are restricted to cells in their maternal houses. Sex is prohibited for all the individuals of these special groups.

[IV.A.3.a]  OPENING WÈ?TÈ FESTIVAL

The Wè?tè season is opened with a log race (Wè?tè Yõõ-Pï ) between the age-set moieties. Sexual freedom and the opposition of the sexes is very apparent in the symbolism of the Opening Wè?tè festival (Nimuendajú, 1946:163–166). Female and male groups march separately to the center of the plaza, shouting hostile phrases at each other. The following day, 30 to 40 women who are in the opposite Wè?tè houses from their husbands go out “hunting” into the woods and take several male associates (më kuytswè) along, chosen so that each woman will have at least one man, other than a relative or a Formal Friend, with whom she can have sex. The male associates hunt meat for the women. When the women return in the late afternoon, after having had sexual relations with the men, they put on the Hat-re act (Nimuendajú, 1946:165–166) (Plate 52d), in which women demand and take the meat, hung on a tall pole, from the men in a disorderly dash (më ?prõt) [IV.B.2.d.(6)] that is expressive of extramarital sex and hostility between the sexes. (For a discussion of far sharper antagonism between the sexes in a tribal society, see Murphy and Murphy, 1974:136–140.)

Prior to the beginning of the festival, the tribal political chiefs lecture their followers extensively on how each husband must control his jealousy and let his wife move freely with her other husbands. Although extramarital sexual relations may occur outside the Wè?tè festival, both in festival situations and informally [III.F.8.a], the structured emphasis is very clear: during the Wè?tè season spouses must “look the other way” and accept what happens. During the rest of the year, the sexes are supposed to be more serious in their attitudes toward each other, to work harder to maintain their household for their children, and to make every effort to be closer personally. (For more extensive information on the Canela extramarital relationship system, see W. Crocker, 1964a, 1974a.)

[IV.A.3.b] STRUCTURE OF THE FIVE GREAT WÈ?TÈ SEASON FESTIVALS

After the Opening Wè?tè festival of two days’ duration, one of the five great Wè?tè season festivals commences in late March through May. The diachronic structure of each great festival is strikingly similar: (1) an opening period (in which the theme is presented, the festive groups of men segregated, and the girl associates selected); (2) a middle period (which includes the performance of characteristic daily acts and several “great days”); (3) the hunting phase (to provide and prepare meat for the terminal phase), and (4) the terminal phase (which includes the most dramatic and ceremonial events of the festival).

[IV.A.3.b.(1)]

For any one of the five great Wè?tè season festivals, the opening period lasts two to four days, depending on the particular festival. The special male group of the festival is designated and set apart from the rest of the society, and the girl associates are either chosen by the Pró-khãmmã or by the groups they are to join. Then, the special festival performers are selected by the Pró-khãmmã or, if they are traditional name-set or haakhat performers, they are reminded by the Pró-khãmmã that their participation will be expected.

During the middle period, daily festival acts occur each day. In the Masks’ festival, these daily festival acts take place each morning directly after the council has finished its meeting. In the Fish, Pepkahàk, and Pepyê festivals, the characteristic daily acts take place in the late afternoon. During the Khêêtúwayê festival their principal daily act occurs at any time, as many as six times a day. Thus, the festival acts continue to be enacted daily during the whole (1 to 3 months) middle period.

All of the festivals have characteristic 1 to 4 “great days” (dias grand: amkro kati: day great), which usually require considerable preparation and expense on the part of the principals, and special performances by the designated male festival groups. These performances take place several weeks apart and tribal spirits build up to these dramatic high points of the mid-Wè?tè season.

[IV.A.3.b.(2)]

After six weeks to three or four months, the Pró-khãmmã or the leading festival men’s group decide to terminate the middle period and begin the terminal one. For this, they put on the A?tu ?Pôk (grass it-burns) (Plate 44a) ceremony during which villagers burn the grass between the village radial pathways. This activity is reminiscent of a cerrado hunting practice used to scare game out of protective cover to encircle it. The hunters sing Waytikpo (Glossary) songs [II.F.1.c.(2)] (Plates 43a,c; 44a,e) in the plaza, shooting their shotguns into the air at dramatic points. They also hunt “game,” by “shooting” at various “animals” enacted by the boys near the flames in the grass. The boys pretend to be killed as the prey of the hunters, who carry them back to the plaza. This enactment is intended to bring success in the real hunting that follows.

To provide enough meat for the terminal period, the two age-set moieties hunt for two to three weeks away from the village (më hõt wèl: they sleep go-toward: they go on overnight hunting). Each moiety takes four to six female associates with them to maintain the daily housekeeping, smoke the game, and have sexual relations with after the game has been caught and cooked. These women smoke the meat over a very low fire. Each piece is suspended separately on thin, weak platforms made of green sticks of wood that will not burn. I could place my hand between the coals and the meat because the fire was so low. This smoking is an entirely traditional method for cooking and preserving meat. (The backlanders do not preserve meat this way; they cut it into thin continuous strips which they salt thoroughly.) This Canela smoked meat becomes black on the surface and well done inside, and is, in my opinion, the most delicious form of cooking the Canela practice.

The hunters celebrate the last night before returning to the village with great hilarity. They paint themselves black, dance all night, and have sex with the women. The two moieties return separately the following morning, filing into the village from different directions at sunrise, carrying smoked game in baskets on their backs. They march along the boulevard to their respective Wè?tè houses where they leave the game. That afternoon or the following evening the formal activities of the terminal period of the festival begin.

[IV.A.3.b.(3)]

The terminal periods (hikhul tsà: ending thing) of each of the five great Wè?tè season festivals are characterized by a series of dramatic acts, the Pepyê and Pepkahàk ending in a particular climactic performance, the Waytikpo sing-dance [II.F.1.c.(2)] (Plate 43a,c, Plate 44e), followed by all night singing by the principal group involved. One of the purposes of all night singing and the ensuing log race is to test the endurance of the performers. These are spectacular occasions.

After these several climactic acts, high drama gives way to low comedy, including extramarital intercourse arranged within the context of the festival.

[IV.A.3.c] FIVE GREAT FESTIVALS

The Khêêtúwayê and Pepyê festivals, called the Nkrel-re (Glossary), are the initiation or socialization festivals which introduce the practice of food and sex restrictions [IV.D.3.f] to the youths. The Pepkahàk festival continues this practice for mature men and portrays high honor roles and their values and restraints [III.B.1.d.(3)]. The Fish festival, in sharp contrast, portrays defiance of high honor values and emphasizes individuality. The Masks’ festival is foreign in origin (Krahó) and, therefore, not integrated into the socialization and restraint versus individuality themes of the four principal festivals. Social leveling and economic distribution are epitomized here through emphasis on goods being dispersed to all through the legitimizing of “begging” [III.B.1.a.(4)]. (For more comprehensive and detailed descriptions of these festivals, although less structural, comparative, and interpretive, see Nimuendajú, 1946:163–230 and W. Crocker, 1982.)

[IV.A.3.c.(1).] Khêêtúwayê Festival (Nimuendajú, 1946:171–179)

This festival begins during a late afternoon sing-dance with the sudden presentation to the plaza by a Pró-khãmmã of a ceremonially painted staff partly covered by pea green parakeet down. People recognize it as the Khêêtúwayê (Glossary) symbol and thereby know this festival has begun (Plate 41).

[IV.A.3.c.(1).(a)]

Immediately after the showing of this ceremonial staff, “catchers” previously designated by the Pró-khãmmã catch [II.D.3.d] the members of the youngest age-set and place them in two rows in the plaza (Plate 41c) [II.F.1.c.(1)]. Each boy is placed in a northern or southern row according to plaza moiety affiliation [III.C.5], which is determined by name-set transmission. All these young males, who range from infants to boys of 7 or 8 years old, are to be members of the same age-set [III.C.3]. The catchers (më-hapèn-katê: them catch master: those who catch them) then march the novices (in two single files and in opposite directions) from the plaza into rooms of internment ( Plate 41a). These rooms are prepared for them on either side of the plaza in two traditional matriline locations, one in the east, the Upper plaza moiety (Khèy-rum-më-nkàà-tsà), and the other in the west, the Lower plaza moiety (Harã-rum-më-nkàà-tsà) [III.C.5,6.a]. The novices may remain interned for as much as two months before they are released during the terminal period.

[IV.A.3.c.(1).(b)]

Every day these novices are called upon to present themselves in the plaza ( Plate 41b) a number of times and to sing a traditional set of songs. The length of time singing in the plaza varies with each appearance. Sometimes they remain in the plaza singing for more than an hour and sometimes only for 10 minutes. When performing, they face each other in two rows (each composed of a plaza moiety) in the center of the plaza, one row with its back to the north and the other with its back to the south [II.F.1.c.(1)]. They have headbands on the backs of their heads with two or three, or sometimes even five, macaw tail feathers pointed upwards [II.G.3.b.(1)] (Nimuendajú, 1946, pl. 35a) ( Plates 41d, 61a). Behind the novices is a row of female relatives, each one holding her male relative by his ribcage while he is singing to save him from ghosts, from which these songs come and attract. Behind the varied female relatives (Z, “Z,” M, M “Z”), several meters away, is a group of “uncles” (MB, M“B,” B, “B,” MF) (Glossary) of the novices who sing along with their nephews and their female relatives [III.A.2.n]. (See diagram of positions of all parties in Nimuendajú, 1946:174,fig. 12.)

[IV.A.3.c.(1).(c)]

Each row is led by a sing-dance master, and also by a file leader (mam-khyê-?ti: front-pull-great) who was appointed by the Pró-khãmmã. Each file has one girl associate (kuytswè) and one messenger boy (më ?krat to-ipa katê-re: their bowl it-going master-dim.: their bowl-carrying person). The two file leaders (Glossary), messenger boys (Glossary), and girl associates (Glossary) form a group of six who always eat together and do not freely associate with the rest of the novices. They are seen as being somewhat “superior,” because the two girls and the file leaders are appointed by the Pró-khãmmã and, therefore, are hàmren in status [III.C.7]. There are also two commandants (më-?kapõn-katê: them-sweep-masters), one for each file, who come from higher and opposing age-sets, and two deputy commandants (më-?kapõn-katê-?kahàk-re: them-sweep-master-lesser-dim.: the lesser sweepmasters, or caretakers) who are selected from the age-set of the novices by the Pró-khãmmã. The commandants and deputy commandants are not hàmren, being more political than ceremonial [III.D.1.i.(2)], but eat and associate with the elite group.

[IV.A.3.c.(1).(d)]

During the course of the two to four months duration of the festival, there are two or three ceremonially great days during which the novices sing a special series of songs (Ayèk) that they do not sing in their many daily outings in the plaza. As they sing the Ayèk songs, they kneel and sit on their ankles in two rows facing each other, rubbing the palms of their hands back and forth on their knees. Since all of their songs are believed to attract ghosts, the female relatives and uncles, as well as the macaw tail feathers worn by the boys, serve to protect the boys from these dangerous ancestors from the world after death [III.A.2.n.(1)]. (According to a myth, the daily songs and the Ayèk ones were brought from the world of the ghosts by a Canela youth.) When research assistants were asked if any songs could not be sung casually in daily life, they invariably spoke of these Khêêtúwayê songs, almost their only sacred ones in this sense [IV]. Almost any other festival song can be sung casually, they said. I have often heard the Waytikpo songs sung by women grating manioc.

[IV.A.3.c.(1).(e)]

During the terminal phase of the Khêêtúwayê festival, the novices gradually come out of seclusion. After an all night sing, the Waytikpo high ceremonial chanting takes place on a late afternoon, after which the artifacts of high honor of the Waytikpo performers are bestowed on the great singers and dancers of the festival [II.D.2.f,3.e], [II.F.1.c.(2)], [II.G.3.a.(1),(2),(6),(7),b.(7)], [III.A.3.b.(3)]. The following day a race with heavy logs (Krówa-ti: buriti-large) takes place in which the Khêêtúwayê novices are too young to participate, except for the older novices during their second or third Khêêtúwayê performance. Then comes the Wild Boar festival day for adults during which extramarital sexual favors are exchanged [IV.A.3.f.(1)]. After two more days of such activity, the festival is terminated.

[IV.A.3.c.(2)] Pepyê Festival

There are likely to be two or three Khêêtúwayê festivals and two Pepyê festivals (Nimuendajú, 1946:179–201) to complete the training of an age-set over a period of 10 years [III.C.3.a]. Thus, a Pepyê festival in this sense is a continuation of the Khêêtúwayê training. Instead of protecting the novices from ghosts and teaching them to appreciate the roles of their female relatives and their uncles, a Pepyê festival trains a young person in self-discipline through the observance of food and sex restrictions.

[IV.A.3.c.(2).(a)]

The Pepyê novices are interned (formerly in a beehive-shaped cell) in their maternal houses and fed by female relatives according to prescriptions ordered by their uncles. At first, they are given very little to eat until a specified period is over. Then for several weeks they are fed great quantities of a few kinds of foods that are thought to be almost entirely free of pollutions [IV.D.3.d, f] so that they will grow robust in size and be enhanced spiritually.

During the great days of the middle period, each youth is inspected for his progress or “growth” by an older man who is playing the role of his naming-uncle. This man is in theory a member of the youth’s and his naming-uncle’s plaza moiety group [III.C.5.b]. This “uncle” screeches at each novice in turn, as done in the hààprãl act [II.E.7.b], asking the Pepyê internee if he is ready to go out to kill the enemy [IV.C.1.d.(1).(c)], if such a force were to appear nearby in the cerrado. (The term pepyê means warriors or warrior people, though the Canela do not know this meaning themselves anymore. Cognates of the word pep (or pëp) are found among the Kayapó, and other Northern Gê tribes; T. Turner, personal communication.)

[IV.A.3.c.(2).(b)]

Later, the Pepyê novices come forth as a group and carry out a number of specified activities, including living outside the village in a campsite where they practice singing ( Plate 32c) the great songs for the terminal part of the festival. Every morning a sing-dance leader (Glossary) walks out to their campsite to train them in this singing [II.F.1.a.(1)]. They also try raising logs out of water to develop strength and balance, and they foot race to improve these abilities. They make Formal Friends and Informal Friends by either entering the water looking away from each other in shame ( Plate 39a), or by going into the water together, coming up facing each other in Informal Friendship ( Plate 39b) [III.E.5,6]. Their commandant and his deputy march them around from place to place to instill group discipline [II.D.3.d] [III.B.1.d].

[IV.A.3.c.(2).(c)]

When it is decided to start the Pepyê terminal phase, the novices are summoned by their “catchers” from their campsite and approach the village in stages ( Plates 36c,d), moving closer with each daily act (Glossary) and gaining strength and resistance against pollutions (Glossary) at each stage. In the terminal phase, all-night singing once more tests the endurance of the novices and other performers, and the festival climaxes in a Waytikpo ceremony [II.F.1.c.(2)] at which awards are given [II.D.2.f,3.e] [III.A.3.b.(3)]. The next day a great log race (Krówa-ti) is put on to test the strength gained by the novices during their internment. This test of endurance is especially important during the race of the final graduating festival. This log race is also important to those Pepyê individuals who want to demonstrate their newly gained strength to relatives and “other wives” [III.A.3.c.(3).(j)].

Next is the Wild Boar day (which includes arranged extramarital sex for the novices [IV.A.3.f.(1)]), which is followed by a solidarity day [III.B.1.d] when the novices go off together into the woods to decorate each other in a jocular manner with black paint (Glossary) (aràm hôk). When the novices return to the village after this final day of fun, the girl associates and messenger boys are dismissed. The following morning the novices are given a new age-set name, and after the performance of their last Pepyê festival, are considered a newly graduated age-set [III.C.3.a] ( Plate 40b). They are novices no longer.

[IV.A.3.c.(3)] Pepkahàk Festival (Nimuendajú, 1946:212–225)

This festival is a continuation of the Khêêtúwayê and Pepyê festivals. This time, however, the festival is oriented around the catching and internment of grown men who have already graduated as part of a formed age-set. One of the purposes of the festival is to make it possible for the internees to experience once again the practice of supervised food and sex restrictions.

[IV.A.3.c.(3).(a)]

The Pepkahàk troop is interned in a hut that is about 150 meters outside the village. The troop is under the leadership of a special file leader appointed by the Pró-khãmmã for the whole festival. During the day, the Pepkahàk are supposed to undertake jobs that serve the whole tribe. However, they must first make paths for themselves from their hut to the village and to their swimming spot ( Plate 5a). These paths, wide enough for two people to walk side by side, have to be arrow straight [III.B.1.f.(1)].

As Pepkahàk (Glossary) individuals, who are persons of high ceremony (hàmren), they must carry out jobs to perfection and experience great shame when faced with certain undignified (and therefore affronting) activities of the non-Pepkahàk villagers, called põõ katêyê (cerrado people). They are never supposed to leave their hut to return to their wives and families, but most of them do so occasionally. In theory, if it is known that they have had sexual relations during this period, the troop’s file leader can order them tied to a post in their hut by the troop’s messenger boys and whipped several times with light wands.

[IV.A.3.c.(3).(b)]

The dramatic daily act of the Pepkahàk troop is to file counter clockwise around the village ( Plate 44c) just outside of the circle of houses (a?tùk-mã) to collect food in the late afternoon. They march by with great pride, looking neither to the right nor left, nor up or down, and keeping very serious faces. As they pass by, they are given food by the women of their affinal or natal houses. When they return to their hut, the food is redistributed and shared.

Around nine o’clock in the evening when all is quiet, the Pepkahàk start their series of songs, which in theory are sung every night of the middle festival period. These songs start very low, proceed with a distinctive and precise rhythm, and increase slowly in volume. When the troop stands up, they sing with such great volume that everybody in the village can hear them well. According to their haughty reputation, however, if there is any interference on the part of anything in the village (that is, if a dog should bark intermittently, or if somebody in the village should begin to sing) the Pepkahàk instantly cease even if they are in the middle of a song. The haughty Pepkahàk do not brook competition. They are either accepted as they are or they withdraw.

[IV.A.3.c.(3).(c)]

During the several ceremonial great days (Glossary), each separated by a few weeks of regular daily events, each of a Pepkahàk’s several other wives [III.E.3.a.(6).(a)] tries to find and take small hidden cords from his body. These wives wait in a group all day for the Pepkahàk file’s surprise appearance in any direction from the cerrado, and upon sighting it, dash in its direction in a disorderly manner (më ?prõt), falling on their other husbands to feel for and retrieve as many tiny cords of fine buriti bast as possible from hidden places on their bodies. The dignity of the Pepkahàk is not respected by their other wives.

[IV.A.3.c.(3).(d)]

Finally, after a hunting phase, the terminal period of the festival begins. Again, a number of increasingly dramatic acts culminate in the honor ceremony of the Waytikpo sing-dance [II.F.1.c.(2)]: its awards for good performances given by the Pró-khãmmã [II.G.3.a.] and its slow sunset-lit procession to the plaza. This daily, progressive rise in drama begins with acts of low ceremonial honor during which the Clowns harass the Ducks (Glossary). Then the Pepkahàk sing all night while their Formal Friends protect them from the cold of the early morning. These Formal Friends form a circle around the singers, standing with mats encircling their backs and bodies against the cold ( Plate 45e). Then on the same day, the following acts represent high ceremonial honor [III.C.7.a] and increasing drama: (1) the Ceremonial-chiefs-of-the-whole-tribe (Glossary) intervene between the Falcons and the Pepkahàk (Plate 44b), preventing mock warfare [II.B.1.d.(1)]; (2) the Visiting Chiefs (Tàmhàk) parade down all radial pathways to the plaza (Plate 44d), demonstrating their hàmren-level style, and (3) the hàmren and non-hàmren status persons (Wetheads/Dryheads) separate and march past each other in parallel files marking this distinction. Finally, culminating the rise in degree of drama portrayed, the Pepkahàk girls perform the celebrated Waytikpo sing-dance (Plate 44e), which they and male sing-dancers had practiced daily in the cerrado campsite (Plate 32c). After the dramatic procession to the plaza of this special sing-dancing group, the Pró-khãmmã present awards to the best festival performers of the whole tribe [II.D.2.f,3.e] [III.A.3.b.(3)]. The next day the Wild Boar ceremony occurs with its extramarital sexual exchanges, this time with the Wetheads in the field’s hut and the Dryheads in the village. After several more days of athletics, fun, and low comedy, including log races, taking each other’s pots, painting each other with black paint, and conducting an arrow-shooting contest (i?têk) [II.F.2.c.(1)], the festival ends.

[IV.A.3.c.(3).(e)]

The internees in the Pepkahàk are not the only important group performing in the festival, as they are in the Khêêtúwayê and Pepyê . The Pepkahàk festival might even have been named, “The Hàmren,” their role is so central to the overall meaning of the festival. Although the Pepkahàk troop is cast in the principal daily role during the middle period of the festival, the hàmren (Wetheads), share a very important act with the non-hàmren (Dryheads) in the terminal part of the festival, completely excluding the Pepkahàk. Likewise, the Visiting Chiefs (Tàmhàk: tàm-hàk: raw/uncultured-falcon) play the important role in a festival act during which no Pepkahàk appear. These chiefs are all hàmren in state and status just because they are Tàmhàk members, whereas the Pepkahàk, as individuals, may or may not be hàmren.

[IV.A.3.c.(3).(f)]

Comparing the three internment festivals, the Khêêtúwayê teaches novices about the dangers of ghosts (the unknown) [IV.C.2.c] as well as about the supporting roles of relatives. The Pepyê festival teaches them how to use food and sex restrictions as aids [III.A.3.b.(2).(a)] for developing their athletic skills, their endurance, and their personal abilities in many activities [IV.D.3.f]. Both of these initiation festivals inculcate in individuals the desire and need to move in groups [II.D.3.d.(1)], like wild boar. The Pepkahàk festival reenacts the practice of restrictions through the internment. Moreover, additional protective devices are emphasized in the Pepkahàk. Instead of relatives protecting, Khêêtúwayê novices against ghosts, and food and sex restrictions protecting Pepyê novices against pollutions, Formal Friends protect the Pepkahàk internees against almost any of life’s social dangers [III.A.3.c.(2).(b)]. Thus, the three festivals parallel each other in the sense that they serve to teach methods of protection to prepubertal, postpubertal, and adult individuals against the particular dangers of their respective ages. (An analysis of this parallel structure of the three internment festivals is presented and developed in W. Crocker, 1982:147–158.)

[IV.A.3.c.(4)] Fish Festival (Tep-yalkhwa: fish mouth/talk/language) (Nimuendajú, 1946:225–230)

This festival contrasts starkly with the three internment festivals. In Canela dualism, these three internment festivals are each paired (Glossary) in a complementary relationship with each other. In contrast, research assistants see each of the three internment festivals as paired in an oppositional relationship with the Fish festival, with the Pepkahàk being in the most striking opposition [V.A.5.a.(1).(c)]. The Clowns are Dryheads (më ka?khrã-nkràà) [III.C.7.b], which means they have little ceremonial prestige, whereas the Pepkahàk are a high honor group, although as individuals they may be either Wetheads or Dryheads.

Clown (Glossary) society members control the festival rather than the Pró-khãmmã. Once the Pró-khãmmã agree to have the Fish festival put on, they remove themselves from the day-to-day governing and directing of festival acts [III.B.1.d.(3)].

[IV.A.3.c.(4).(a)]

Six plaza groups [III.C.5], three in each plaza moiety, are the performing societies: the Tsêwtsêt-re (Stingray-dim.), Têt-re (Otter-dim.), and Tep (Fish) are stationed on the east side of the plaza, while the Teprã-?ti (small fish species), Apàn (Piranha), and Tep (Fish) are on the west. (Two of the Tep groups do not have specific names.) The Clowns constitute the seventh grouping, and are the principal performers of the festival.

Each of these six plaza groups erect well-made huts on the eastern and western sides of the plaza. The huts face each other in parallel formations in sets of three (Figure 17). Five of these plaza groups have two girl associates, but one, the Têt-re (cf. Nimuendajú, 1946:225) or river Otters, has just one. The Otters’ hut is also different from the others; it is high and conical instead of rectangular like 20th century Canela backland-style houses. The one Otter girl associate is high in ceremonial honor [III.C.9], though not hàmren. This festival has the fewest hàmren persons of any of the great festivals.

Finally, after a delay of several days, the Clowns erect their own hut on the northern edge of the plaza facing south. In contrast to the six other finely constructed and squared houses, the Clown’s hut is an incredible sight. No straight lines exist throughout its structure [III.B.1.f.(1)], and it has no complete walls nor a full roof. In theory, everything that could possibly be wrong is built into this house. Following the same spirit, the girl associates wear grotesque fake pigtails with straw wrappings extending their hair to reach their buttocks (Plate 46b).

[IV.A.3.c.(4).(b)]

The daily act occurs in the evening during which each plaza group separately sings its special song. Then the Clowns usually sing the special Pepkahàk songs of the Pepkahàk festival, but often the Clowns choose to be absent. They sing them well and correctly, however, but between each song several Clowns separately add hideous commentaries. They shout them in loud, descending voices so that everybody can hear the offensive remarks and feel apprehensive. These derogatory cries [III.B.1.g.(2)] are often sexual or about deformed human beings such as dwarfs and hunchbacks or certain particularly reprehensible backlanders [III.A.3.a.(2).(d)].

When Clowns finish their Pepkahàk songs, they wander back to their homes singing these same songs separately and out of key, unlike the Pepkahàk, who do everything in unison. This simple act characterizes the Clowns as individualists (amyiá-?khôt: self-following) who will not take commands from the Pró-khãmmã or from the tribal chief during the festival. The Clowns have a troop leader of their own, who invariably is the “worst” of them all in humor, improper behavior, brashness (Plates 77b,d), and surprising initiatives (Plate 46d).

During one of the special great days of the festival’s middle phase, the girl associates of the Clowns put on a special act. One of the girls nurses a baby doll (Plate 46c), which she proceeds to drop on the ground, causing it to cry. The girl then does everything a good mother should not do, such as slapping her “baby.” In one of the scenes in this drama a girl associate is caught in an act of mock incest with her “brother.” All of these dramatic events are carried out in hilarious gaiety and with comical gestures. Of course, most of the village is watching and expecting more amusement and looking for funnier performances each time.

[IV.A.3.c.(4).(c)]

When the terminal phase of the Fish festival begins, the Fish (Glossary) sing for most of the night, and the Clowns build a weir into which the Fish are herded. The Clowns symbolically capture the Fish in this way. The Fish, however, try to escape and run for one of the houses on the boulevard where they will be safe. As they sprint to escape the weir, the Clowns try to capture them individually by snatching a small meat pie shaped in the form of a fish off their shoulders. The game is a crafty one, with Fish dodging in and out of the weir, and cooperating with each other to tempt the Clowns out of position to gain an advantage in a race to one of the houses on the village circle. Then they may also run from house to house taunting the Clowns. Finally, however, all the Fish are caught—their meat pies [II.G.3.b.(9)] are snatched from their shoulders as they run from one base to another. At dawn, more singing occurs and the festival ends.

[IV.A.3.c.(5)] Masks' Festival

Nimuendajú (1946:201–212) called the fifth and final Wè?tè season festival the Mummers’ festival. For simplification, I call it the Festival of Masks or the Masks’ festival, as the Canela say in Portuguese: A Festa das Máscaras (Plates 48, Plate 49).

The Canela also call this festival the Ku?hrùt-re-?hô these days, but more traditionally it was the Kô-?khrit-re-?hô (water monster-animal diminutive its-hair). In this case, “its-hair” really means “its-straw” since ?hô refers to whatever is pendant on a body or on an object, and the masks are made of buriti palm straw [II.G.3.h.(10)]. Research assistants say the Masks’ festival came from the Krahó when a Canela who was visiting there saw it and brought it home.¹⁵

The members of the men’s society of Masks have received their membership, as well as their right to make certain kinds of masks, through name-set transmission. The masks are painted in a variety of ways (Plate 48a); each of the designs represents a set of different personality traits that the Mask assumes while performing in the village.

[IV.A.3.c.(5).(a)]

At the opening of the Festival of Masks, the Mask society members walk out to a spot 2 or 3 kilometers from the village where they build a lean-to, which shelters and houses the masks while they weave them.¹⁶ Women are prohibited from the area, except for the Masks’ two girl associates. If other women were to appear, the men could not make the masks properly.

Each morning in the village, Jaguar society members (Rop) pounce upon Agouti (Glossary) ones (Kukhên). If however, the particular Agouti happens to be hàmren, a Jaguar cannot pounce upon him and “eat” him. If the Agouti is not hàmren, he is pushed to the ground, sat upon, and generally abused, as everyone laughs.

To begin the terminal phase of the Festival of Masks, a grand parade of all Masks is staged (Plate 49a). They march in single file with great dignity from the cerrado hut into the village itself. The masks are head high and about three-quarters of a meter wide, so the owners inside are well concealed. Users support masks by carrying a traverse beam on their heads. Owners weave the front and back mats of the mask so that they cover their bodies from head to waist, below which a skirt of pendant palm frond leaves reaches almost to the ground. The front mat is slit so its user can see but go unrecognized. He opens, closes, and shapes the slit by pulling strings, giving the face of the mask various expressions (Plates 48c).

Arriving in the village, the Masks perform a number of traditional acts (Glossary). One is a dignified single file procession of Masks at twilight, another is a hilarious drama with Clowns dragging and insulting Masks, and another is a show requiring skill in which Masks enter doors of houses while running (Plate 48b). The difficulty in this last act is that each mask has “horns.” These are pointed poles made of purple wood which would pierce a person in the way. Nevertheless, Masks run through a low and narrow doorway, one after another, ducking the front pole to enter and lowering the back one when inside, demonstrating a high degree of skill. The crowd goes wild when a Mask misses, piercing a house wall or splintering a horn.

[IV.A.3.c.(5).(b)]

The chief occupation of Masks, when free from carrying out traditional performances, is “begging” (Glossary) from villagers (Plate 48e). The Masks are seen as strange, almost human animals, who have emerged from river waters (kô-?khrit: water-beasts). They are supposed to have certain personalities consistent with how they are painted. For instance, the tall Khen-pey (hill-beautiful), never runs. He just parades everywhere serenely and sedately and is leader of the Masks’ troop. The Tôkaywêw-re and Espora (Spur) Masks, in contrast, are always running after one object or another. Masks do not speak, but each kind of mask has its own way of grunting. Specific body and facial movements are also significant. One posture indicates shame (Glossary) (pahàm) (Plate 48c): head bowed to the ground, backing away. A gesture implies begging (a-?nã wè: something-on beg): repeated jerking of face slits, up and out impatiently. A number of additional expressions, such as anger (in-krùk tsii: she/he/it-angry inherently) are part of the repertoire.

As the Masks arrive at the entrance of the village on the day of their great procession, they are chosen by women to be “pets,” but to fill this role the women must be “other wives.” Thus, the Mask will give a sign for the woman to avoid him or these women peek into the masks before choosing in order to avoid Formal Friends, relatives, and certain affines. These women, once having chosen and accepted a Mask, refer to them as their “pets” or their “children” (to disguise the “other spouse” relationship), and the Mask calls this woman his “mother.” At the end of the festival, the Mask members leave their masks with their mothers.

[IV.A.3.c.(5).(c)]

The most important purpose of the Masks’ festival is to sanction “begging” [III.B.1.a.(2),f.(4)] (Plate 48e). All of these immense palm straw “beings” have strong desires and feelings and are easily pleased or hurt. They all “beg,” some with dignity and some without. This is their principal activity during the two terminal days of the festival.¹⁷

The system of begging (almost nonexistent by the 1970s), which the Masks dramatize, ensures a swift distribution of foods coming into the village, whether from hunting or agriculture. When the Canela were a hunter-gatherer people, only somewhat dependent on food production, it was important for foods, especially valued meat, to be passed around to any people in need. This was not done automatically except for certain relatives. Hungry people had to go to where food was and ask for it without shame [III.B.1.a.(4)]. The Krahó of the mid-1960s gave food only to relatives (J. Melatti, 1967), but the Canela and Apanyekra extended this generosity to any hungry person [III.B.1.b]. The Canela even gave food to non-Canela persons and backlanders of the region.

Food distribution through “begging” (Glossary) was a significant factor in maintaining Canela morale and social cohesion at a relatively high level. It was also an expression of the intensity of their feelings and caring for each other, especially in the late 1950s. It is consistent with their greatest traditional good: generosity (hà?kayren), and with their greatest traditional evil: stinginess (hõõtsè).

The Canela are a very loving people, but they are losing this generosity of spirit to the extent they become ashamed of begging and desirous of building up stores of material possessions. Today they have to be at least somewhat “stingy” to be in accord with newly established customs.

[IV.A.3.c.(5).(d)]

The Festival of Masks is different from the other four great festivals because it is really part of the Closing Wè?tè festival. The Opening Wè?tè festival continues directly into the Festival of Masks without a break, and the end of the Festival of Masks continues directly into the Closing Wè?tè festival. The Masks, Jaguars, and Agoutis of the Masks’ festival continue their performances with similar behaviors in the Closing Wè?tè festival.

[IV.A.3.d] ORIGINS AND RETENTION OF FESTIVALS

The origins of all Canela festivals, as reported by research assistants and Nimuendajú (1946:202–203), are introductions by individuals with special experiences in “other worlds.” The Masks’ festival and Arrow Dance [II.F.2.c.(4)] came from the Krahó in postpacification times.

The origin of the Khêêtúwayê festival is attributed to a youth who learned it from the ghosts while wandering alone in the cerrado (Nimuendajú, 1946:171–172). He watched the ceremony, and was allowed the privilege of taking it back to the Canela as a presentation from the ghosts [IV.C.2.c]. However, one result was that the singing of the Khêêtúwayê songs would attract ghosts who would come and remember the old songs that they used to sing.

The Pepyê festival was brought to the Canela by the youth Khen-ku?nã (hill/rock grating-instrument), who, with his younger brother, Akrêê, lived with their grandparents away from the tribe (Nimuendajú, 1946:179–181). Their grandfather put them in an internment cell that was built over the waters of a stream, where they underwent a high level of food and sex restrictions [IV.D.3.a]. Thus, they grew rapidly and acquired great strength. When they came out of their internment, they realized their special task was to kill the two great birds who were carrying away and eating their people one by one. Every now and then the large birds passed overhead carrying one of the tribe’s members in its claws. Akrêê was killed by one of the birds, but the older and stronger boy killed both birds and returned to his village. He brought with him the basic experience of the Pepyê festival and its internment to ensure the proper use of restrictions and bathing in water for rapid maturation. In this case, the surviving youth was not cured of any disease and did not become a kay.

The Pepkahàk festival was brought back to the Canela tribe by a youth who had a seriously infected ear and had remained behind alone in the cerrado while his people were on trek (Nimuendajú, 1946:247). In this condition he was visited by one of the great birds out of the skies. After being cured, he was taken to the skies to visit the great birds. They taught him their Pepkahàk festival, which he later brought back to his tribe.

The Pàlrà ritual (not a great festival; Glossary) was learned by a youth, Khrúwapu, who was sick and weak from eating clay. Feeling especially ill, he went down to the stream to get some water. As he sat there he saw a large alligator come to the surface. The alligator, Mĩĩ-ti, talked to him kindly, and invited him to go on a trip to the underworld of alligators. While there, Khrúwapu saw a number of festivals, including the Pàlrà ritual and the Red and Black Regeneration moiety racing styles. When the alligator returned the boy to the Canela world, he cured him of his sickness and also made him a shaman. He was then able to show his uncle and the tribe how to sing and dance the Pàlrà ceremony in a “stronger” more affirmative way [IV.D.5] than they had done (W. Crocker, 1984b:195–203).

Other than the Masks’ festival, there is little likelihood that any great Wè?tè festivals will be lost in the near future. The two novice-forming festivals, the Khêêtúwayê and Pepyê, are too necessary for training young people. The Fish festival is not likely to be lost because its participants have so much fun in it. Furthermore, a majority of girls win ceremonial belts through the Fish festival because it offers more positions for girl associates. The Pepkahàk festival however, is the hardest to prepare for and requires the most food. This festival could be lost, especially since it was traditionally performed only once every five years. During my time, closer to ten years elapsed between performances (1958, 1970, 1979, 1988). The Pepkahàk series of songs are likely to survive however, because they are performed in the Fish festival which takes place more frequently. They are also sung on Good Friday evening every year as part of the new folk Catholic customs developed by the Canela in Sardinha and Escalvado.

The Festival of Masks, probably will be lost because of the large amount of work necessary for weaving the 40 to 50 body-size masks. Many men have lost the technique of making the masks and have to ask other men to do it for them. Time spent on fabricating these masks is in direct competition with time devoted to clearing and preparing farms, and acculturation is giving farm work an increasingly higher priority over festival participation. In addition, while older men still retain the power and influence to intern younger ones, the older men do not like the daytime internment they have to undergo when the membership goes out to their cerrado hut to weave masks for about six weeks.

When a great festival ends, the Canela seem to want to linger in the Wè?tè season, even without the daily acts of a great festival to enjoy. Thus, except after the Masks’ festival, when the Closing Wè?tè follows immediately, two weeks to two months pass before the Closing Wè?tè festival is put on, usually in September or October. The higher priority of preparing fields accounts for delays and for the occasional omission of the Closing Wè?tè festival. This is the annual festival most likely to be omitted in the future.

[IV.A.3.e] CLOSING WÈ?TÈ FESTIVAL

In contrast to “manifesting” the two Wè?tè girls, as the Canela say of the Opening Wè?tè festival (Wè?tè to-aypë: Wè?tè manifested/shown), the Closing Wè?tè festival (Wè?tè to-amtsu: Wè?tè hidden) hides them or puts them away. Thus, married couples must return to relative fidelity and work, and singing and dancing can take place only in the plaza, not along the boulevard by the houses, though a man can sing while jogging up and down the radial pathways. The two Wè?tè girls (Figure 45) represent the spirit of the Wè?tè season, during which they are said to be “out” in the boulevard so that everybody can “play.” When they are back “in” their houses, life becomes serious again.

These two girls also represent the ceremonial elite; they are pep-khwèy, or hàmren, in rank (Glossary). Thus, without the example of the Wè?tè girls’ model behavior and their potentially restraining presence—they can and do stop excessive male activities [II.F.2.a.(3)]—full enjoyment cannot be risked. The lack of their ceremonial presence places the responsibility for the control of excesses more on the individual and on the political leaders.

[IV.A.3.e.(1)]

The Wè?tè girls reflect the stability of family life rather than the playful sexual life of the girl associates (më kuytswè) (Glossary). Each Wè?tè girl’s family has the responsibility to hold “open house” for and to act as “relatives” for the age-set moiety opposite to that of the particular Wè?tè girl’s father. Thus, whether in festivals or in daily life, the two Wè?tè families provide food and shelter to half of the male adolescent and adult population of the tribe. They even provide platform beds for extramarital sex on certain ceremonial occasions, with two to six women having sex with the men of the opposing age-set moiety to their husbands [IV.A.3.f.(6)].

Age-set members address their Wè?tè girl’s family members in kinship terms, both on certain ceremonial occasions and in some daily situations [III.E.10]. Thus, one of the roles of the Wè?tè girl and her family, in and out of the festivals, is to provide for age-set members a respected, “family-oriented” place away from home for food, water, rest, and sometimes even sex, when the Wè?tè girl is “out” in the boulevard. Her presence restrains male jealousies and antagonisms.

One of the principal acts of the Closing Wè?tè festival is called the Híwa?kèy by the Canela, after the artifact worn in the occipital hair of each of the men ( Table 8, item 49) of the age-set moieties who perform in this act. These moieties form two rows in the center of the plaza facing each other along a north-south axis. The eastern Wè?tè girl stands in the northern end of the eastern row of men and the western Wè?tè girl stands in the southern end of the western row of men. While the entire repertoire of Híwa?kèy songs are being sung, the men perform various dancing maneuvers. At the termination of the singing and dancing in this formation, the two Wè?tè girls return to their respective houses on the eastern and western rims of the village circle.

As the two Wè?tè girls walk slowly back to their houses, they are accompanied by the ex-Wè?tè women and also by their rejoicing Formal Friends. The latter are attached to the Wè?tè girls by long ropes by which they are pulled along. The Wè?tè girls' Formal Friends perform grotesque comic acts (Plate 39c-e) to demonstrate the joy they are experiencing because the Wè?tè girls, their Formal Friends, are being honored through their performances in the Híwa?kèy ceremony. The summer Wè?tè season is essentially closed when the two Wè?tè girls enter their respective houses, where they will symbolically remain until they are ceremonially brought out again at the Opening Wè?tè festival the following year.

[IV.A.3.e.(2)]

During one of many the acts of the Closing Wè?tè festival, a “cage” (Figure 46) is erected before the house of a Wè?tè girl. The cage is shaped like an early cerrado forager’s hut (ikhre yirõn: house rounded [the top]; W. Crocker, 1978:5). This cage is made of stripped and curved sapling branches about 1 to 2 centimeters in width, which are tied together in the form of a hemisphere about 1.5 meters high, with a strong pole (6–10 cm in width) placed vertically in the center, 4 to 5 meters high. A vine is tied to the top of this mast, and the Little Falcon, standing on the cage, swings on the vine, holding onto it with his hands. He throws himself off the cage into the air, hanging onto the vine (as if trying to fly) falling back onto the cage for other foot thrusts out into space (Figure 46).

If a girl has become pregnant before being chosen a girl associate, she can win her belt only by climbing onto the cage with the Little Falcon as he attempts to “fly,” and later by running behind him in the boulevard as he dashes out and back to his cage, trying to escape the harassment of members of the Agouti men’s society. In this fashion, she wins her belt the quick way without having had the “maturing experience” of multiple extramarital relations [II.D.2.e.(3)] [III.A.2.j.(6).(c)]. One to three girls obtain their belts this way every year.

[IV.A.3.e.(3)]

The fact that the Wè?tè girls have been taken away, ending the season, is symbolized by the erection of the Kô-?khre log (water its-hole: a spring) in front of one of their houses (Figure 45). This log is their replacement. It is erected vertically and placed directly on a line from the center of the plaza to the front door of the maternal house of one of the girls to show that both girls are now “in” (their houses).

The log is made of a buriti palm trunk cross-section and stands about 1.5 meters high, with its base dug into the ground. A vertical trough facing the plaza is cut through the bark into the core of the log, and the pulp of the sides and flat bottom of this hole are blackened by fire. The emptiness of the opened space inside the log symbolizes the absence of the Wè?tè girls and the termination of the Wè?tè season.

According to Darrell Posey (in Hamú, 1987), people of the Kayapó nation (all the Kayapó communities together) call themselves the Mbênkôkre, or “people from the water’s source.” The Canela cognate of this expression is më pê kô ?khre (we[people] are water’s hollow[source]), which is paralleled by më pê Apàn-yê-?khra (we are piranha-pl.- children: we are Apanyekra). Thus, the Kô?khre log may be referred to as a water’s source, or a spring.

[IV.A.3.f] OCCASIONS FOR SANCTIONED EXTRAMARITAL SEXUAL RELATIONSHIPS

The pleasure derived from the extramarital network of sexual relations engendered by the Wè?tè season is one of the most important factors maintaining the characteristically high Canela social cohesion. Information on the extramarital system was not given me during my first year of fieldwork because the Canela were very embarrassed about the extent of these practices [I.B.2.a] and wished to avoid an anticipated negative reaction on my part. They think the backlanders and urban dwellers are shocked even to hear about such practices and look down on them for their “animal-like” behaviors. The Canela are right in sensing that these non-Indians do not appreciate the generosity [II.D.2.e.(3)], the feelings of solidarity, and the expressions of generalized mutual affect, or love, that are generated among the members of the group, and in the society at large, through these practices [III.B.1.a.(4)] [III.F.8].

During the Wè?tè season all the young girls in the tribe have to earn their belts by serving as girl associates to a men’s festival group in one of the five great Wè?tè season festivals [II.D.2.e.(3)] or by climbing on the Little Falcon’s cage and running with him in the boulevard in the Closing Wè?tè festival (Figure 46). Thus, to win their “maturity” belts [IV.B.1.h.(2)] (Figures 48, 49), they should have had multiple sexual relations as part of their socialization [III.A.2.j.(6).(b),(c)].

Wè?tè season extramarital relations (even when carried out privately) are sanctioned or encouraged in festival acts, and play an important role in the operation of the entire sociocultural system. Only one of these sanctioned occasions must occur during the Wè?tè season (the Wild Boar Day), but I am presenting all of the occasions here because the positive attitude toward extramarital relations is best dramatized in the Opening Wè?tè festival and is carried out generally and informally in all five of the great Wè?tè season festivals.

The Wè?tè season encourages informal extramarital relations and makes it easier for individuals to carry them out, but the opposite is true for festival internees who are forbidden to have sexual relations and who are punished if they do. The Apanyekra have a special ceremony in which Pepyê internees have to sit in the center of the plaza opposite their partners in sex, whether their wives or not, for all the tribe to witness their shame if they have broken the internment rules (Plate 37b,c). During the Pepkahàk and Pepyê festivals the interned men are not supposed to have sexual relations, so other men find it relatively easy to have sex with these internees’ wives. During the Masks’ festival, the Masks spend most of the day away at their camp, so other men may take this opportunity to have sex with their wives. In the Khêêtúwayê, the interned boys are usually too young to be concerned about sex; and in the Fish festival, the men are not interned, but extensive extramarital sex is available for most of the plaza group members and the Clowns, within the formal context of the festival.

[IV.A.3.f.(1)] Wild Boar Day

This day (Krôô-yõõ-pï: boar its racing-log) occurs in each of the three internment festivals, that is, in the Khêêtúwayê, Pepyê, and Pepkahàk festivals. This day occurs after each of the climaxes of the three festivals in the Waytikpo ceremony during the late afternoon of the preceding day. Thus, a day of enjoyment and relaxation follows the day of high ceremony and tension.

On this day of relaxation the tribe is divided into the Upper and Lower age-set moiety dichotomy for the Khêêtúwayê and Pepyê festivals and by the wethead/dryhead dichotomy for the Pepkahàk festival. The males of one moiety go out to a farm plot while the males of the other moiety remain in the village. The wives of the males in the farm plot stay in the village, while the wives of the men who remain in the village walk out to the farm plot. Thus, a clear separation exists between any formal spouses and Lower age-set moiety dichotomy for the Khêêtúwayê and Pepyê festivals and by the wethead/dryhead dichotomy for the Pepkahàk festival. The males of one moiety go out to a farm plot while the males of the other moiety remain in the village. The wives of the males in the farm plot stay in the village, while the wives of the men who remain in the village walk out to the farm plot. Thus, a clear separation exists between any formal spouses.

[IV.A.3.f.(1).(a)]

The people of both sexes in the village dance around the boulevard most of the morning in the Më Aykhë manner [II.F.1.b.(2).(c)] and then go to the stream to bathe. They have refreshments in the Wè?tè house of the male age-set moiety that has stayed in the village. Here, partitions are erected between raised platform beds or between platforms on the ground with mats. A woman is installed in each, and men come to them, in turn, for sexual intercourse. The position is the usual one for quick encounters: the woman lies on her back, and the man squats between her raised and partly folded legs; her calves rest on his thighs. This extramarital activity may also take place down by the stream near one of the bathing spots.

[IV.A.3.f.(1).(b)]

After a light early-afternoon meal, the men walk or run from the village to where the Wild Boar log race is to be held. The moiety that went to the farm plot in the morning has been preparing the two racing logs, which are fashioned from one buriti palm trunk.

[IV.A.3.f.(2)]  Ayrën Day

On the morning after the Wè?tè season is closed by the terminating of the Closing Wè?tè festival, the Ayrën (Glossary) ceremony begins.¹⁸ Women and men walk along one of the roads that leads out of the village to where a barricade of dense foliage has been erected.

The hedge is a little more than a meter high, so that when people are sitting on the ground, no one can see through or over it (khwèk). Members of the Red Regeneration season moiety sit between the fence and the village, while members of the Black Regeneration season moiety sit beyond the fence along the road (Nimuendajú, 1946:168–170) (Figure 47).

FIGURE 47—Red and Black Regeneration season moiety membership sitting locations during the Ayrën ceremony. The two Red Regeneration season groups (the two sexes) sit on the village side of the fence while the two Black groups sit on the cerrado side of the same fence to prevent husbands from seeing who their wives have chosen. Red women choose Black lovers and Black women choose Red lovers.

Out in the woods the designated male leaves the woman at some spot where she can sit out of the sun, maybe in a temporary hammock made of buriti fronds, and goes off to hunt for several hours. As soon as he has killed some suitable game, he returns and presents it to her as her reward for having chosen him. Then, she is supposed to have sexual relations with him [III.C.4.c.(2)], although I have heard that some women do not choose to go through with the exchange. In any case, she is not obligated to do so, and cannot be forced [III.F.9.a]. Thus, even though the Wè?tè season is over, extramarital relations in a ceremonial context are sanctioned.

Whether or not sexual relations have occurred, the couple separate and go to the site where the great log race of the afternoon, the first Katàm-ti, has been scheduled to begin. At this site the women sit in one place while the men gather in another spot, working at preparing the logs that have already been cut by designated log cutters. At three to four o’clock in the afternoon, the men return to the village, racing with logs, while the women walk together with the game they have received from their chosen males of the day. This first log race of the Regeneration season is with large Katàm-ti logs and is done only once. The following race is with small Katàm-ti logs, which increase in size with each following race until the original size logs are attained again.

That evening the young woman makes a small meat pie using the meat of the animal her lover had killed for her, and takes it to her mother-in-law. This acceptance by the mother-in-law of her daughter-in-law’s meat pie, made with the meat killed by her daughter-in-law’s lover instead of by her son, demonstrates the mother-in-law’s full acceptance of her daughter-in-law’s sexuality and extramarital interests [III.F.4.f].

The Apanyekra have three or four of these Ayrën days, each about two or three weeks apart, but the Canela have only one. For the Apanyekra, the Ayrën days are the principal occasions when they can experience festival-sanctioned extramarital relations, because their Wild Boar days and other festival occasions do not sanction extramarital sex.

[IV.A.3.f.(3)] Male Work Groups on Tribal Projects

Maybe half a dozen times a year, the agent of the Indian service or the chief of the tribe organizes work groups by age-set moieties [III.D.1.c.(2)]. The two age-set moieties go out more or less to the same place but work apart. In this way, repairs and improvements are done on the road connecting Escalvado with Barra do Corda, and the reservation boundaries are cleared to keep them free of shrubbery. This age-set moiety activity is a modern correlate of former times; the Canela actually had racing courses, which were like roads with the small trees and shrubbery cleared. Thus, two whole teams could run parallel to each other within the track pa-?khre (our hollowed-out-space) without having the intermittent interference of trees and bushes hindering their progress. Moreover, separate age-sets rather than whole age-set moieties performed similar tasks.

Such a work day might be considered a secular daily activity rather than a ceremonial one, but such distinctions are difficult to make among the Canela. Before going out to the work area, at least two age-sets of the opposing moieties usually sing-dance around the boulevard in the Më Aykhë manner thus making it a ceremonial day if not a festival one.

Traditionally during the morning council meeting, the chief designates certain women to walk out to where the work is being done and make themselves available for sexual relations early in the afternoon before the log race back to the village. These days, women without husbands are usually chosen [III.F.4.b.(2)]; but it is hard to oblige them to go, and they often do not obey, even when designated by the chief [II.E.5.f]. It was felt by research assistants that women without husbands and without children really should go out on such occasions. In former times, any woman, except one with many children, was asked to help the men work on various projects and keep their morale high.

While these work days are relatively few, the general log racing days are many, and the village chief may appoint women to serve in this way for any log racing day. But again, it is much harder to find women who will cooperate.

[IV.A.3.f.(4)] Moieties Hunt During Great Festivals’ Terminal Phases

The terminal period of the great festivals lasts from five to ten days, depending on the particular festival. For this relatively long period of time, enough meat has to be collected so that everybody in the village can pass the time enjoyably, eating meat as they desire. In preparation, both age-set moieties file out in different directions to go hunting (më hõt wèl: they over-night[hunting] [go]toward) for two or three weeks to accumulate enough game to last the required period of time [IV.A.3.b.(2)]. Female associates are designated by the chief to go out with the opposite moiety from their husbands’, which means that these women will be away from their husbands for two to three weeks. Each day, while the men hunt, these women stay in camp and tend game collected on earlier days.

Sexual relations are prohibited on evenings of hunting days. It is thought that sex will bring bad luck to the hunt. However, on the night before the return to the village, when hunting has been completed, sexual relations occur with the women who have been cooking the meat. Then everyone dances and sings special songs.

In the morning the troop marches back to the village and enters single file. Each person is loaded with the blackened meat which they carry in fresh green baskets made of buriti palm fronds. This allows everybody to eat well and have a good time during the festival without doing much daily maintenance work.

[IV.A.3.f.(5)] The Festival of Oranges

This festival does not have a certain place in the annual festival cycle, nor does it have a name in Canela. It is simply called A Festa das Laranjas (The Festival of the Oranges) (Glossary) and is put on for entertainment at any time, once or twice a year, usually during the late spring or early fall months. Sexual antagonism is more fully and formally expressed here than in any other ceremonial context, including the Opening Wè?tè festival [IV.A.3.a].

Zarur (1979:650) writes that sexual antagonism is more fully expressed and sexual opposition more obviously concrete among the Xinguanos than among the Gê, citing J. Melatti (1978) on the Krahó. I agree with Zarur. Murphy (1973) writes about antagonism between the sexes among the Mundurucú and the symbolism involved. In contrast, such antagonism among the Canela is muted, like any other hostility. A pertinent question is whether sexual antagonism was greater in earlier times when men without children slept in the plaza, which was therefore almost like a men’s house. However, women without children also slept there, having sex with the men of the opposite age-set from their husbands’, if they had one [III.A.2.s.(2)]. Symbolically, such extramarital exchanges neutralize the mutual antagonism [II.B.1.c.(1)].

Another pertinent question is why the Festival of Oranges only came into existence during post-pacification times, and a similar question is why women were only made ceremonial chiefs (Glossary) in recent times [IV.A.3.f.(6)]? I suggest that the relative balance of control over the other sex is shifting closer to equality with acculturation, so that women can now express the difference in the balance more openly.

While all the other festivals are run by men, this is the women’s own festival. It is a remnant of the ancient practice of going on trek. The women choose four or more male associates (më kuytswè [the expression is the same as for female associates]), and one of the young sing-dance leaders, to accompany them and go off to some backland settlement, usually Leandro (Map 3), where they “gather” foods, such as oranges, babaçu nuts, brown sugar blocks, sugar cane stalks, and many other easily purchasable and transportable items. The male associates who are chosen by the women are in their late teens or early twenties, and are expected to have multiple sexual relations with the women during this period.

On their return, they camp just outside the village and sing all night, wearing body adornments of buriti bast identical to those of the Clowns in the Fish festival (Plate 47b). They behave like warriors about to attack the village the next day. All that follows is role reversal. At dawn they mock-attack the village. The defending men are in the plaza and the women march up several adjacent radial pathways. They throw food at the men who try to dodge it, especially the hard babaçu nut. Then they race in to tackle men (usually lovers) but are invariably “bowled over” instead. Then, a woman takes a gourd rattle and imitates a sing-dance leader. She stands before the line of men who bend their knees in time to the singing and the maraca’s beat just as women do for the daily sing-dances. This exchange of sex roles continues into other acts until a final dramatic performance symbolizes the reintegration: the women and men march parallel to each other (Plate 54b) and then sing in unison against other tribes (Plate 54 a).

[IV.A.3.f.(6)] Ceremonial Chief Days

When the Canela want to honor any individual, or make her or him a ceremonial chief (më hõõpa?hi: their ceremonial-chief) (Glossary) [II.D.3.i.(2).(b)], they put on a festive day during which they sing-dance frequently, eat well, and have extensive extramarital relations. The honored person’s family provides the food. Such occasions occur during the installation or reconfirmation of (1) a Ceremonial-chief-of-the-whole-tribe (Glossary), (2) a ceremonial chief from another tribe (Glossary; Plate 28 e,f), (3) a town crier (Glossary), and (4) a sing-dance leader (i.e., ceremonial chief) of an age-set. Distinguished city-dwellers (including some anthropologists and certain esteemed Indian service personnel) may be honored by the tribe in the same manner.

While foods (which must include meat) are being prepared in the morning, age-sets sing-dance around the boulevard in the Më Aykhë manner [II.F.1.b.(2).(c)] and go down to the several stream bathing spots frequently to refresh themselves (Map 5). The wives of the other age-set moiety brought into an age-set’s dancing line are taken to the age-set’s Wè?tè house or down to the stream for sex. The other age-set moiety uses their Wè?tè house and a different and hidden stream bank for the same purposes.

Log races usually take place between the age-set moieties in the early afternoon; meat pies are cut up and distributed by members of the moieties in the late afternoon; and well attended sing-dances are held in the afternoon, evening, and early morning. Meat is so scarce that a piece for everybody and a good supply of rice and manioc flour goes a long way toward providing sufficient energy and good spirits to make the sing-dancers loud and active. Extramarital sexual intercourse, which is often associated with meat, serves a similar purpose.

Sometimes women have log races on these ceremonial chief-making days, and on other festival occasions. When they do, they race in teams that are opposite from their husbands’ age-set moiety membership. Such racing, like the Më Aykhë boulevard dancing above, implies freedom from their husbands for sexual purposes. They are not members of the opposite moiety from their husbands’; they just group themselves in this manner for racing. It is notable among the Krahó that a woman belongs to her father’s Wakmeyê/Katàmyê moiety before marriage and to her husband’s after marriage (J. Melatti, 1979a:47). It seems from this difference that their festival system provides women with less formal freedom for extra­marital sexual relations [III.F.8].

The Canela made one of their women (Hômyĩ-khwèy) a ceremonial chief along with her husband (Rãrãk) in 1966, and they treated an Apanyekra woman (Tepù) similarly in 1975. They did not do this in the late 1950s, and research assistants considered this inclusion of a woman with her husband a change in 1966. This trend is reminiscent of Lave’s (1979:38) “second consistent difference between 1935 [Canela] and 1965 [Krĩkatí],” the “increasing participation of [Krĩkatí] women in ceremonial activities.” This trend is clearly the case because of acculturation, though less so, among the Canela.

[IV.A.3.f.(7)]

In Summary, there are six occasions on which ceremonially sanctioned extramarital sexual relations occur: (1) internment festivals’ Wild Boar day, (2) Ayrën day, (3) age-set moiety tribal work days away from the village, (4) age-set moiety hunting weeks to provide meat for the terminal phase of each of the five great Wè?tè season festivals, (5) Festival of Oranges, and (6) ceremonial chief installation and reconfirmation days. These practices are being lost or becoming covert if they are visible to outsiders (W. Crocker 1964a, 1974a).

The Apanyekra have Ayrën and Wild Boar days also, but they practice no extramarital sexual relations on the Wild Boar days. These practices do not occur even though the tribe is divided along age-set lines and the one moiety stays in the village while the other goes out to a farm plot area to prepare great meat pies before racing back to the village with logs, as do the Canela. The men who go out to the farm take their actual wives with them to make the great meat pies.

During the Ayrën ceremony, on the other hand, exchange of sexual partners is practiced, in fact more often among the Apanyekra than with the Canela, maybe three or four times during a Red and Black Regeneration moiety season.

I have tried to find reasons for the difference in frequency of extramarital practices between the Canela and Apanyekra. No doubt exists that the Canela extramarital system is far more frequently carried out (informally between individuals and formally in festivals) than the Apanyekra one. It is not clear whether the extramarital practices among the Apanyekra have been reduced because of earlier and more complete acculturation around the turn of the century or whether they practiced it less traditionally, since the system is not as principal a focus in their culture [III.C.10.b].

[IV.A.4] Red and Black Regeneration Moieties’ Season (Wet)

The Regeneration season (Glossary) moieties are literally “the continually changing ones” (Më-ipimràk: they continu­ally-changing) [III.C.4]. The Red Regeneration season moiety (Glossary) is called “The Indians of the plaza” (Kàà-mã-?khra: plaza-of-Indians) and the Black Regeneration season moiety (Glossary) is referred to as “the Indians from just outside the village” (A?tùk-mã-?khra: outside-the-village of Indians). Nimuendajú (1946:84) called them the “rainy season” moieties, but the central part of the rainy season occurs in January through March, well beyond the period when the Mëipimràk season is in operation (September into January). Although some rain may fall in October and November, the heavy rains are delayed by two to three months in this part of central Maranhão [II.C.1.a], unlike in western Maranhão and points still further west or north. Thus, an interpretation of the actual Canela expression will be used here. (I have capitalized “Regeneration” to make it clear that the word is a name as well as being a description of the time of the year.)

Similarly, with the “summer season,” June through August, the Canela have an exact expression that is easy to use: Wè?tè season, or Wê?tê ?nã (Wè?tè on/during).

[IV.A.4.a] EVENTS PRECEDING THE REGENERATION SEASON

The erection of the Kô?khre log marks the symbolic end of the Wè?tè (dry) season (Figure 45), although the brief Pyêk-re Yõ (roadrunner-dim. its-food) (Plate 52c) and Tsêp-re Yalkhwa (bat-dim. song) acts follow consecutively the same afternoon. Then, after a few minutes, the first event of the Black and Red Regeneration (wet) season moiety takes place. For all the activities of the Regeneration season (sometime in September or October), men will organize themselves according to their memberships in the Black and Red moieties rather than according to the age-set moieties of the Wè?tè season.

The second event of the Regeneration season is the Ayrën day ceremony during which women chose men of the other moiety to hunt for them and give sex in exchange for meat.

[IVA.4.b] ALTERNATION IN "GROWTH"

The day after the Ayrën ceremony the first of the regular Regeneration season log races takes place, with the Blacks the first moiety in ascendancy. The Reds hinder and harass them as they try to reach their log-racing sites. The Black logs (called Katàm-re, see Glossary), with their longitudinal black stripes, are small enough to be supported by one hand. Each day for several weeks a larger one is substituted until the logs become full-sized (Katàm-ti) [III.C.4.c.(1)]. Then, the Reds take their turn at domination, cutting small disc-shaped logs (Wakmê-re) of buriti that can be carried in one hand and are painted red with urucu at the center of each circular cross section. These Red moiety-styled logs are cut increasingly larger until after several weeks they are full-sized Wakmê-?ti logs.

Then the Blacks resume the ascendancy and cut logs in their style: the length being much greater than the diameter. This relationship between the dimensions is called irùù (long). The logs are made full-sized every day and painted with black longitudinal stripes with black axis points at the center of the cross-sections. After a month or more, the Reds take over the ascendancy again and cut large logs in their fashion, the diameter always being slightly larger than the longitudinal axis, but almost equal, a relationship called hayoo (round, square) [V.A.5.a.(1).(b)]. The central points of the axis on both sides are painted red in the form of a filled-in circle, the radius of which is about one-quarter the radius of the cross-section of the log.

[IVA.4.c] PRINCIPLE OF SOCIAL LEAVING

The Më-ipimràk (Regeneration season) activities are ori­ented toward social leveling, which is demonstrated in the continual ceremonial alternation of ascendancy between the Black and Red moieties. The men in ascendancy, instead of having their way and overpowering their opponents, are the ones who are harassed and have simple possessions taken from them by the men of the subordinate moiety. The situation is then reversed. This activity represents the new growth (sprouts, shoots, leaves) that overcomes the old established growth, until an exchange of relationships takes place. This replacement through regeneration continues until this year’s new growth has fully replaced the old vegetation.

[IV.A.4.d] MË-IPRIMÀK'S OCCURANCE IN EARLIER YEARS

There were different points of view among experienced research assistants about when the season of the Më-ipimràk system began and ended in much earlier times. Some assistants placed it between September and February and others between June or July and March. All agreed that its season had been longer (up to half the year) and had been emphasized far more in earlier times.

I think of the Më-ipimràk season as formerly beginning in the first half of September, with their new environmental year. This is the time when the first dew (a?tàl) falls, and when the first wild flowers and green shoots begin to appear (Table 2). This season could continue until some time in February or even March, completing the growing and changing time of the year. If so, the Black and Red Më-ipimràk racing would have had to have taken place during the time of the Sweet Potato and Corn Harvest festivals, which it does not do now. Më-ipimràk racing comes from one origin myth (Khrúwapu) (W. Crocker, 1984b:195–203), while the sweet potatoes and corn complex come from another (Star Woman) [IV.C.1.b.(4)]. Perhaps the present ending of the Më-ipimràk season in January, well before the time of the Sweet Potato (February) and Corn (March) festivals reflects very early tradition, contrary to what some old research assistants have been suggesting.

On the other hand, in the origin myth of Khrúwapu, both the Më-ipimràk and the Pàlrà racing were brought from the alligator world to the Canela one. Since the Pàlrà ritual traditionally occurs in March or April, the termination of the Regeneration season could be extended even to these months.

[IV.A.4.e] COMPARISON WITH THE APANYEKRA AGE-SET MOIETY RACING

When the time comes to end the Regeneration season moiety racing in January, the Canela hold one big final Red moiety Wakmê?ti race. The day after this race, the age-set moieties make Corn logs (Põõhù yõõ pï: corn its-log) (Table 4) of buriti palm trunks and race back to the village më hakhrã khãm (in the age-set moiety style). All subsequent activities are organized by age-set moiety formations for approximately the next nine months, until just after the Wè?tè season is closed with the erection of the Kô?khre log. Then traditionally, they return to racing in their Regeneration season moiety formations. Thus, it is essentially two moiety groupings that race during the entire year—Regeneration season and age-set, the exceptions being the men’s society racing moieties (Pepkahàk and Masks’ festivals) and the Fish plaza group moieties.

Although the Apanyekra carry out the Regeneration season practices in a more prolonged manner than do the Canela, I do not know to what extent they still practice their Regeneration season moiety racing. The Canela have all but forgotten their Regeneration season moiety racing practices, and utilize the Regeneration season formations perhaps only three to six times a year: Ayrën day, the first Black moiety race, the final Red moiety race, and then maybe one or two Red- or Black-styled races.

[IV.A.5] Unnamed Ritual Period

Between the last Regeneration season race and the first day of the Opening Wè?tè festival is a period two to three months long for which the Canela have no name. During these months (February, March, and maybe April), three small rituals take place: Sweet Potato/Grasshopper, Corn Harvest, and Pàlrà. Conceptually, the first two have more in common with the Më-ipimràk season, because they express the concepts of growth and change. For the transmission of ceremonies, however, they are all “river”-oriented (Glossary) in that they are haakhat-oriented (Glossary) like the Fish, Masks, and Closing Wè?tè festivals [III.C.8.a,10.b]. The Pàlrà ritual, besides two name-set transmission roles, has the matrilineal haakhat of the Pàlrà log cutter, and thus is a river-oriented ritual. Its role performers (Tsù?katê-re) [IV.A.7.d], however, are more closely connected with the Wè?tè period and the three internment festivals in the incidence of their roles’ performances.

[IV.A.5.a] CORN-ORIENTED ACTIVITIES

Sometime in late November or December (before the end of the Regeneration season) the Corn Planting ceremony takes place. A sing-dance leader with a belt rattle (tsù or akàà) sits on a mat in the center of the plaza and sings before a large red-lipped (urucu) gourd filled with corn that is to be planted the next day (Plate 53a). Then just after the end of the Regeneration season a Corn-style log race opens the age-set moiety season. Finally the Corn Harvest ritual usually occurs in mid-February or near the end of March at the latest, at the time when the corn is ready for harvesting.

[IV.A.5.b] BURITI WET PITH BALL-THROWING CEREMONY

While reconstructing the Regeneration season practices, research assistants pointed out that a ceremony, the Hõõ Krówa-ti Yõõ-ti (massed-ball-of buriti-aug. inner-mass/mush-aug.: wet buriti pith formed into a ball), which I had seen during the dry season just following a Pepyê performance, took place in much earlier times just after the Regeneration season terminated and before the Sweet Potato ritual (Nimuendajú, 1946:198–99).

Early in the morning a sing-dance leader throws balls of the soft wet inner pith of the buriti tree at youths who have aroused him abruptly from his sleep beside a fire. In 1957, the same Pù?tô performed this ceremony as he had for Nimuendajú (1946:199) in 1933, and it was essentially the same.

[IV.A.5.c] SWEET POTATO AND GRASSHOPPER RITUALS

In early February, the Grasshopper (gafanhoto) and Sweet Potato (yàt: Batatas edulis) rituals (Glossary) take place. Both of these ceremonies (Glossary) occur during the same evening, and are referred to jointly as the Hô-tswa (leaf-pointed: the sweet potato leaf is pointed). The Canela refer to the Grasshopper ritual as their “carnival,” which approximates the Brazilian carnaval. The entire haakhat of Grasshopper performers paint their faces with white chalk [II.F.5.e] and hop and skip with great hilarity in a line before a sing-dance leader (Plate 47a,c). Then, late in the evening, maybe around 11:00, the Sweet Potato ritual act is put on. The women stand at the entrance of the radial pathways leading from their respective maternal houses to the plaza, while a sing-dance master goes from female house group to female house group, chanting a song to help increase the sweet potato harvest.

[IV.A.5.d] CORN HARVEST CEREMONIES

Some three weeks to a month later, usually in March, the Corn Harvest ritual (Glossary) (or simply the Corn ritual) takes place. The principal participants of the Corn ritual are virtually the same as the individuals who are involved in the Sweet Potato and Grasshopper rituals. It is the largest ceremony outside of the two Wè?tè festivals and the five great Wè?tè season festivals, requiring a considerable amount of preparation and a whole evening and part of the next day to perform. The first of the three acts of the Corn ritual is a race with a pair of Corn-style logs. The second act is a throwing event early the next morning during which men hurl lances padded with cornhusks at an opponent to test his dodging abilities [II.F.2.c.(2)]. The third and principal act of the Corn ritual occurs around noon of the same day when the sun is in its highest position. The objective of the act is to see how many times a shuttlecock can be batted up into the air with the palms of the hands without its touching the ground (Plate 53b,d), occasionally 40 to 50 times. The purpose of the ritual is to increase the corn harvest.¹⁹

[IV.A.5.e] PÀLRÀ CEREMONY

The next ceremony is the Pàlrà log race and its concomitant acts. This log race is said to bring on the Wè?tè festival. Thus, when it is more or less time to put on the great summer Wè?tè festival, the Pàlrà ritual is started.

After the evening council meeting on the day before the Pàlrà log race, a special Pàlrà ceremony is put on in the plaza, during which a master sing-dance leader sings on his knees surrounded by the men of both age-set moieties. The next morning the two age-set moiety teams go out 5 to 10 kilometers from the village to a place where the challenging team has placed two large (over 100 k), non-buriti logs in a rectangular area from which all grass and shrubbery have been removed. Ex-initiation festival, cloth-adorned female associates paint the coin-shaped logs red on their cross-sections (Plate 50a), and two Tsù?katê-re performers line up on either side of the logs (Plate 50c), the round sides of which are facing down track toward the village. An old ceremonial singer chants with a moving wand pointed at the logs from their village side, and a sing-dance master leads the singing of the two age-set moieties (Plate 50b,d). When the Tsù?katê-re give the signal, the two teams grouped on either side of the track rush up to the logs, raise them onto their chosen racer’s left shoulder, and follow their first log-bearers down the track (Plate 51a-c).

Halfway to the village, there is a second rectangle of bare earth prepared in the grass where the two logs are deposited side by side. The teams switch logs and race off again toward the village. Unlike most of the other races, the Pàlrà race requires the runners to pass across the boulevard, go down the nearest radial pathway, and drop the logs within the plaza.

The Pàlrà ceremonies are the only ones that can be repeated during the year out of their annual cycle’s traditional position (April, May). I have known them to take place in November, but when put on then, they are not meant to bring on the Wè?tè season.

[IV.A.5.e.(1)]

When asked why this ritual exists, and how it relates to the other festivals, Canela say that it “pulls” (puxa) the Wè?tè season festivals because the two Tsù-?katê-re (tsù-master/owner-diminutive) (Glossary) who perform in the Pàlrà ceremony are “relatives” of the Wè?tè girls. This means that they are similar in status and mystique to the Wè?tè girls and part of the Canela ceremonial elite. They are hàmren through name-set transmission inheritance and are controllers of ceremonies.

The Tsù?katê-re wear a tsù, a ceremonial belt-rattle with many hanging tapir hoof-tips (Plate 60c,d), which makes a precise percussion sound when shaken [II.G.3.a.(3)]. It is used to mark the rhythm of the performance, and is tied just below the knee or held in the hand and shaken. Wild tapirs no longer inhabit the area, but tapir hoof tips can be obtained from other tribes to the west. Undoubtedly the hoof tips were always a scarce commodity and highly valued. Thus the Tsù?katê-re had great prestige.

[IV.A.5.e.(2)]

A pàlrà is both a platform bed and a nonburiti log made for racing. A Pàlrà race is the only occasion on which the Canela race with nonburiti logs (necessarily hardwood (Nimuendajú, 1946:137, heartwood) for the special occasion) but often the racers cut logs of soft buriti (Plate 51a-c) for the Pàlrà race rather than of hardwood. At an evening council meeting, the Pró-khãmmã ask the special Pàlrà logs cutter, the Pàlrà yitep katê (Pàlrà-log cut owner/master), to try to cut the logs the next afternoon. This ritual is still held matrilineally in a haakhat (Glossary). Thus, year after year, the same traditional Pàlrà cutter, Paapol, age 43 in 1970, goes out to find a suitable tree and proceeds to chop it down with an axe and to fashion two segments of the trunk into racing logs. That evening, he is asked by the Pró-khãmmã in the plaza to report on any strange events that occurred, such as a wood chip flying into someone’s eye. If all the circumstances are auspicious, then that evening or the following one, they begin the ceremonial proceedings.

[IV.A.5.e.(3)]

After the Pàlrà racing logs are dropped in the plaza, an older man, usually the town crier [II.D.3.i.(4)], chants a ceremony through which new name-sets are given individuals who wish to change their names [III.E.4.d]. In the center of the plaza, he faces west with his back to the low morning sun (