Mundurucu People

1. Mundurucu People Cultural Universals Presentation By: Shanoon, Shariqa, Vivian, Loreen

2. Introduction Communication/Verbal Language Classification of Gender and Age Marriage/Relationships Family Settings Sexual Division of Labour Concept of Privacy Rules to Regulate Sexual Behaviour Body Ornamentation Jokes and Activities Arts Leadership Roles and Community Decisions Video Table of Contents 10/21/2019

3. Introduction • Also known as the Munduruku, Maytapu, and Cara Preta • An indigenous group that reside by the Amazon River basin. • They refer to themselves as Wuyjuyu which literally means ‘us’ • They got the name Munduruku from the Parintintin people which means "red ants" • that name was given to them based on the historical tactic they once used, attacking their enemies en masse • Munduruku were once fierce warriors, executing/beheading their enemies but they now live peacefully among the Brazilians.

4. Communication • Mundurucu language family branches from the Tupi-Guarani language family • Were originally Monolingual but many have adapted and learned to speak Portuguese as well • The Munduruku also have a different numeracy system from the modern Western world today • The Mundurucu only have number words up to five  • They use the logarithmic scale to approx. measure distance, which is a strategy all humans have been shown to use before more complex numeracy was discovered.

5. Classification of Gender and Age The Mundurucu use bifurcate-merging kin terms on the parental level Elders are most respected by the younger tribe members

6. Marriage/Relationships • Usually men or women have been married 2 or 3 times by the time they reach their 40s or 50s • Monogamy is the norm in Mundurucu society • Men journey to opposite moiety and choose a wife • each clan is grouped into either the "red" moiety or the "white" moiety • Their version of bride service involves a man bringing fish or game to the woman's household • Despite getting married, men will often times live apart from their wives and children, in a separate house with other males of the village • Exceptions are sons of headmen, who bring their wives to their father's villages • The divorce rate is High

7. Family Settings • Patrilinial descent, virilocal residence patterns • Children belong officially to the clan or moiety of the father. • If a child is fatherless, he is socially alienated and does not belong to the group • When a new child is born, sibling rivalry can result. This is usually due to the fact that Mundurucú women often have multiple children consecutively • Young children often try to hurt younger siblings. • They have much freedom, they wander around the village, and come and go as they please • Pretty large, families are composed of the father (husband) the mother, and any of the mother’s related elders, children, and unmarried brothers and sisters • Currently, it is common for one household to have about 20-25 residents (including the attached males whom live in the men's house)

8. Sexual Division of Labour • Hunting/clearing plots for houses/ building houses are male responsibilities • Basket weaving is also strictly a male activity as well • Processing manioc flour/washing clothes are female responsibilities. The planting of manioc is done mostly by women. • They take care of hearth responsibilities; women bring water up from the stream. • Women do most or all of the planting, and also clear land for garden use. • Women also do the butchering when the men bring back some game.

9. Concept of Privacy • Men whether they are married and single, often live in a large male house. • eksa = the men’s house, houses all males above the age of 13 • They often visit the families of their wives, where the children, elders, and unmarried brothers also dwell • There are no walls in the men's house, unlike the residential households of the families at times

10. Rules to Regulate Sexual Behaviour • Women are more likely to be submissive to the sexual will of their husbands or other males. • A woman may also be gang raped if she initiates too much sex, which may include about 20 or so of the village males dragging her out to the middle of the village plaza and violating her. • Also, if a woman is to view or play a karokó (sacred flutes historically made of fish bones), she may be punished through gang rape. • Women are not supposed to be the aggressors of sexual acts; those that do initiate sex are viewed as promiscuous or delinquent

11. Good and Bad Behaviour • Women are expected to be submissive, almost humouring the men into them thinking they have power • if she were to challenge any man of his power, see/touch the karoko or show any promiscuity, she can face serious consequences such as gang rape in the village plaza • This is meant to shame the ‘offender’ and scare/stop any other female from challenging their power • besides these exceptions, and their old traditions, violence and fighting are looked down upon.

12. Body Ornamentation • The Mundurucú, were once perhaps the most decorated and heavily tattooed of all indigenous groups living in South America at the time • They continue to live in Brazil today, but their tattooing traditions have long since gone extinct some time in the 40s. • Traditionally, tattooing began at the age of 6 or 7 and terminated about 10 years later, which after indicated they’ve reached manhood for boys and womanhood for girls.

13. Jokes and Activities • “Talk among the women continues whenever they are together. They gossip about the men and one another. The women exchange notes about the sexual escapades of others, or their laziness. A woman who has loose sexual morals becomes a butt of gossip, partly because she breaches the moral solidarity of the females as a group and invites the intervention of the men who may stage a gang rape which is an assault on the women as a whole, however a woman who engages only in occasional dalliance and protests seduction suffers only female gossip” • Both women and men socialized amongst the same gender group but found that women seemed to be more sociable with one another. • Both groups find sex an important part of humour • Men joke with one another about sexual endeavors; women are more likely to be submissive to sexual advances of men, and do notusually bring it up in conversations with other women unless men are not around

14. Arts Male Activities • Basket weaving (which is a male activity) is a common practice among the Mundurucú, who use them as backpacks • Mundurucu men also make necklaces of figures carved from Brazil-nut shells, and, infrequently, make bows and arrows. • They also make figurines include recognizable representations of turtles, alligators, fish, and various game animals. • These are worn or sold to FUNAI agents or missionaries for resale in Brazilian cities. • Female Activities • Ceramics (a traditionally female activity) has nearly disappeared except in villages of Kaburuá and Kató. • Women also sew clothes from purchased cloth, make small fishing nets, and, very rarely, weave hammocks and make clay pots.

15. Leadership Roles and Community Decisions • Each village has a headman; they hold the most influence and have integrated into the village by marriage. • The headman's sons and sons in laws often carry power and prestige in the community as well. • However, the headman does not have authority over others in the village • They do not have a central form of government. They have no concept of individual or group wealth other than differences between men and women pertaining to the sexual divisions of labour

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17. References • Long, Brittany. n.d. Walker-Questionnaire, Mundurucu. Retrieved from http://dice.missouri.edu/docs/tupi/Mundurucu.pdf • (n.d.). In Mundurucu - Kinship. Retrieved from http://libguides.gwumc.edu/c.php?g=27779&p=170342 • Krutak, Lars. (2006) The Mundurucú: Tattooed Warriors of the Amazon Jungle. Retrieved from http://www.vanishingtattoo.com/tattooed_warriors_of_the_amazon_jungle.htm • Munduruku people. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved September 19, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munduruku_people 10/21/2019