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Grupo de Trabalho 1
Gender and Sociality among the Enawene Nawe

Marcio Ferreira da Silva [1]

Introduction

With the advance of ethnographic research in Amazon and Central Brazil over the past thirty years, two distinct and apparently irreconciliable versions of gender relations have emerged. I refer to these in “male domination” and “sexual equality.” [2] The first centers on the structural-functionalist distinction between the public and private domains and privileges phenomena such as dual organization, political economic control over reproduction, and relations between communities. Within this perspective, “masculine” and “feminine” are associated with the (encompassing) political or the (encompassed) domestic spheres of these social formations. The other position, arising from the cultural-feminist critique of the public/private distinction, seeks to demonstrate - based on the intimate character of native economies, the internal relations of the local group and the mutuality - the perfect equilibrium between the masculine and the feminine within these societies. In sum, gender relations are defined either as hierarchical (male domination) or symmetrical (sexual equality), according to the point of view which corresponds to evidently irreconciliable positions.

The present communication intends to defend an analytical path that permits the passage from one conception to the other. I seek to show that genders in the societies of lowland South America are defined vis-à-vis one another in terms of kinship  (consanguinity/ affinity). In synthesis, I suggest that gender and kinship correspond to a system of interdependent signs in the social philosophies of Amerindian societies. In other words, I propose that a consideration of sexuality that is sensitive to the intuition underlying the structuralist theory of kinship formulated some fifty years by Lévi-Strauss. Let us recall that in this model gender relations are not formulated in terms of an opposition between “masculine” and “feminine” as absolute and substantive notions related hierarchically or symmetrically but rather as a bundle of complex oppositions of relations between individuals of the same sex and individuals of the opposite sex. Precisely in this sense, in the feminist contestation of the model of marriage alliance in which men exchange women, Lévi-Strauss underlined that the structure of alliance that ground and organize the sociality, function in the same manner with women exchanging men. The consideration of an exemplary ethnographic case may allow us to dimly discern the possibility of circumventing the debate between the alternatives of “male domination” and “sexual equality” in South American indigenous societies. We may observe how the Enawene Nawe, an Aruak people of the Southern Amazon define “masculine” and “feminine” within their social universe.

The sexual emblems

Among the Enawene Nawe, the trajectory towards adult life is socially marked in both sexes by emblems of sexuality and reproductive capacity: the penis sheath and tatoos on the belly and breasts, decorations of immense value in the symbolic economy of the Enawene Nawe are acquired in the course of what we might call “rites of sexuality.” [3]

During puberty, boys should wait for the growth of pubic hair in order to have access to a sexual life. This physical transformation of the body is the necessary but not sufficient condition for the exercise of their sexuality. In addition they are required to wear a penis decoration. This decoration consists in a strip of Buriti palm leaf of approximately thirty centimeters of long by one centimeter of wide that is tied around the foreskin, with a knot similar to that of a necktie with the penis forced back into the pelvic region. One day before the affixing of this ornament, the boy’s mother cuts his hair and substitutes his childhood body ornaments. Assisted by her daughters, the mother prepares a fairly large amount of beiju manioc cakes to be offered to the brother-in-laws of her child (the husbands of his sisters or brothers of his future spouse) who will officiate at the ritual.

During the daybreak that precedes the awarding of the ornaments, the officiating brother-in-laws stationed within the clans’ cerimonial house, located in the centre of the village, begin the final preparations for the ceremony: the fashioning of a series of items that will be used by the boy during the course of his initiation, such as arrows, palm strips used to make the penis sheath, achiote red coloring, palm mats, and palm strips comprising part of the costume of the yakwa (ritual that celebrates the clan system). Simultaneously within the boy’s parent’s house, the boy lying in his hammock is painted with a light layer of achiote over his entire body and dressed with only a part of the ceremonial costume: the complement of the part to be offered by his brother-in-laws.

At a given time, one of the initiate’s brothers-in-law (preferably his sister’s husband) will go and fetch him at his house and lead him to the center of the village. After this point his close consanguines (parents and siblings) remain in their house to assemble the gifts which will be offered to the officiating affines immediately after the bestowal of the penis ornament. A straw mat is placed in the entranceway of the clans’ cerimonial house where the initiate will remain lying down until his penis ornament is bestowed, when he will also receive the remainder of his ceremonial costume. One of the older brother-in-laws will hold the initiate by his hands while the others beat him lightly. After a few minutes, the brothers-in-laws offer bows and arrows to the boy as well as an extras stock of Buriti palm thatch used to make new ornaments since ornaments deteriorate with time and need to be substituted. Two or three brothers-in-law will solemnly lead the boy back to the his close consanguine relative’s residence compartment. His biological parents and siblings await his return while laying in their hammocks. When the boy is returned, his parents pay the brother-in-law with the gifts they have prepared beforehand. With this transaction, the intitiate comes to potentially enjoy sexual access to the sisters of his “others.” In sum, if the consanguineal relatives (especially the mother and father) are responsible for the manufacture of the physical person of their child (the body), from his conception until puberty, his “others”, that is, his real or virtual affines are responsible for the manufacture of his social persona, which is immediately endowed with sexuality.

Some time afterward a “co-brother-in-law” invites the initiate to accompany him to a spot in the forest that surrounds the village - that is to say in the opposite direction from where he was led by his brother-in-laws during the initiation - where he will exchange the showy ceremonial penis ornament for a more discrete model used in daily life. In contrast to the boy’s brothers-in-law, the co-brother-in-law receives nothing for this service. There is only exchange between affines; one does not exchange between consanguines or between affines of affines as is the case with co-brother-in-laws.

Following this, the boy returns to his hammock in the company of his co-brother-in-law where a newly initiated girl offers him two large gourds of a drink prepared by her mother. The boy drinks this beverage until he vomits the entire remainder of any food he has ingested previously. After this, his first meals should be made with brand new utensils unless a person apt to perform blessings blows over all of the used utensils and the food prepared with them. From then on, the boy begins a new life characterized by sexuality, by responsibility for productive activities -agricultural, fishing and collecting - and by his obligatory participation in ceremonial life.

With females initiation occurs differently, although events are also heavily ritualized. Since they are very little, girls wear a red-dyed cotton miniskirt. After her first menstruation a girl is considered ready for sexual activity, which may only begin after her second period. Her tatoos are performed precisely in this one month (or one moon) interval. The visible social signs (which are openly discussed) of the imminence of the transition from child to adult life are the growth of breasts and the darkening of the nipples. These signals are taken as indications of the occurrence of all the other relevant bodily transformations in the same way that the growth of pubic hairs signals these in a boy’s case. On the first day of her first menstruation, the girl initiate remains in her hammock. Informed of the event, her mother asks her husband (the father of her child) to construct a new partition in the house where the girl may remained secluded for the length of a single lunar cycle. As their first precautionary measure the family solicits the aid of a blesser who is charged with blowing of the kitchen fire of the domestic group to which the girl belongs as well as her hammock. Simultaneously, new bottle gourds,  pestle, and pots are procured for the girl’s use.

On the following day, the girl’s father collects a certain vine with which her mother will prepare an infusion to be offered to the girl by a newly-initiated boy wearing a ceremonial penis adornment.  The infusion has strong emetic properties which results in the girl vomiting “all the old food” she has eaten previously which had remained in her body. Afterward the blesser blows over the girl’s head in order to prevent headaches. The activitiy of the blesser with the girl extends to the dawn of the third day at which point he [or she] leaves the girl in order to blow over the rest of the houses in the village.

When the menstrual flux subsides, a tatoo specialist, preferably a sister of her mother or a mother’s mother scratches a series of vertical lines colored with Genipapo dye on the belly and breasts of the initiate. After she is tatooed her hair is cut and all of her childhood ornaments (necklaces, belts, earrings, bracelets, etc.) are substituted with new items. Following this the blesser blows over the house where the girl resides as well as the places where she bathes and goes to the bathroom and finally over the clans’ house and a few trees on the outskirts of the village. In this case we can see that a girl’s initial period of fertility has consequences not only for her own body but for the entire social universe. At the beginning of the second menstruation, the girl returns to her seclusion and begins again to observe food taboos. Once again the blesser comes to blow over her house and the other houses in the village. In contrast to the penis ornament, the girl’s tatoos are not paid for since one does not pay for the services of consanguines.

The penis sheath and tatoos on the breast and belly are not merely symbols of sexuality but parts of the newly initiated person acquired as perpetual aspects of their being and imbued with a profound cosmic meaning. On the occasion of their death, on the path to the eno (empyreal heaven, located behind the visible sky) where the vital essence is destined to reside, the Enawene Nawe will cross swollen rivers inhabited by gigantic spiders. These rivers are crossed by means of bridges which are, in fact, huge non-poisonous snakes. To the living these bridges are the rainbows. Only people wearing the proper ornaments that mark sexual difference may safely cross from the earthly path to the sky. Men without penis ornaments as well as women lacking tatoos are summary devoured by the gigantic spiders when they attempt to cross the serpent-bridges.

Finally, it is worth noting that pushing the penis shaft partially back into the body cavity has the effect of considerably increasing the volume of the scrotum which is the locus of male fertility which enhances its visibility. In the same fashion, if the vulva is always hidden by the mini-skirt or by leaves held in place by one or several belts of tucum beads during the bath, the tatoos visually and tactilely call attention to the potential for conception, gestation and lactation.

This brief communication regarding the rites for the production of sexuality in both men and women shows that, in both cases, such events exercise an influence over much more than the individuals submitted to them. The fabrication of men and women is a matter that centers fundamentally around their social “others” and, in its broadest sense, involves the participation of the entire group. There is no question of opposing “man” and “woman” rooted in the “public” / “private” or in the “center” / “periphery “ domains. Although girls are tatooed within the family compartment while boys receive their penis ornaments in the “clans’cerimonial house”, the blesser does not only blow over the girl initiate and her hammock but also over all the houses of the village and even on the “clans’ cerimonial house.” Moreover, we should not forget that the boy receives ritual paraphernalia not only in the clans’ house but also within his domestic compartment. In this particular ethnographic case, the public/private opposition seems to obscure a more fundamental socio-cosmicological dichotomy, that is, the relation between consanguinity and affinity.

The definition of sexuality proves to be a fundamental principle of social order. The paths leading to adult life for both males and females are, however, defined in opposed directions. Among the Enawene Nawe the articulation between gender relations and kinship relations associates the categories of masculinity and femininity with those of affinity and consanguinity, respectively. Tatoos are produced by consanguineal relatives, others-of-the-same-kind (mother, mother’s sister, grandmother ,etc.) under the auspices of mutuality, while the penis ornament is bestowed on a boy by affinal relations--by others-of-a-different-kind (brothers-in-law) according to a formula of reciprocity.  The opposition between consanguinity and affinity corresponds to an ordering principle of the public, domestic, and cosmological spheres, which always manifests itself as a relation between relations rather than as a relation between two terms: in sum, a system of signs in the saussurean sense. The gender opposition, here understood as that derived from the relation between individual of the same sex and of the opposed sex corresponds to an analogously ordered system.

Rituals of construction of the opposition and complementarity of the genders make clear the immediate social character of sexuality. During male initiation, the relations between individuals of the same gender and same kind show themselves between the boy initiate and his father; between individual of the same gender and different kind, between the boy and his brother-in-law; between individuals of the same kind and different gender, between the boy and his mother; and between individuals of gender and kind different, between the boy and the newly initiated girl who offers him the medicinal beverage which induces him to vomit all the food present within his body ingested during his time as a child. During female initiation, on the other hand, a similar set of contrasts are thematized: between individuals of the same gender and same kind, between the girl initiate and her tatooer; between individuals of the same kind and different gender, between the girl and her father; and between individuals of different gender and kind, between the girl and the newly initiated boy who furnishes her with the emetic. We can observe in this sense that, despite their differences, both initiation rites reserve identical roles for relations between individuals of distinct gender and kind who are males and females in a potential marriage relation to one another, which immediately evokes a notion of symmetry and complementarity between the sexes. Nevertheless, female iniciation apparently do not thematize the opposition between individuals of same gender and different kind, like husband’s sister/brother’s wife or husband’s mother/son’s wife.

The acquisition of the penis ornament and tatoos on the breast and belly marks the beginning of a phase of sexual life which is especially intense, in some cases, with serval partners who are not limited to the same age but also with those who are much older. These sexual affairs both before and during marriage are characterized by a different dynamic than the sexual life between spouses. There are times when women acquire trade goods from men and other highly coveted items, such as belts, necklaces, bracelets, fish, etc. which are literally “exchanged for the vagina.” The ostentatious use of these goods as well as their quantity corresponds to the visible signs of a woman’s sexual activity. As marriage approaches men and women tend to concentrate more fully on sex with their future spouse, although, they may, in some circumstances, seek out other sexual partners.

The social cosmological context

According to their native ideas, the Enawene Nawe reside on the intermediate level of the universe, between a level containing celestial spirits and the level of subterranean spirits. The celestial spirits are beautiful, generous, playful, of good character, and healthy, living in a world of sexual and alimentary abundance within a perfect sociological order. The Enawene Nawe refer to these spirits as their “grandfathers” to whom an almost absolute power to prevent and cure infirmities is attributed. The celestial spirits are the owners of honey and of some flying insects and accompany the Enawene Nawe when they travel on fishing or collecting expeditions, protecting them from the dangers of the world beyond the village. The sociological perfection of the celestial world is reflected in the absolutely perfect architectural symmetry of the “grandfathers’ village” and the luxuriant nature that surrounds it, which is a inexhaustable source of all sorts of gastronomic pleasures.

On the other hand, the spirits of the subterranean level are ugly, implacable, avaricious, insatiable and vectors of disease and death. They are owner of almost all of the resources found in nature, such as fish, wood, fruits, and the principle cultivated products. While the celestial spirits share a reasonably homogeneous physical appearance between themselves, the subterranean spirits assume extremely variable forms, all hideously disfigured. Moreover, they are extremely lazy. Since these spirits are the owners of existing natural resources the Enawene Nawe depend on them for their food and consequently for the reproduction of their social life. Thus, while the celestial world is defined fundamentally as a world of the “self-relations,” the world of humans -  as an imperfect reflection of this world - corresponds to the “relations between others,” since human reproduction is dependent on the subterranean world (the world of alterity) .

Within the Enawene Nawe cosmos, the celestial and the subterranean worlds correspond, respectively, to the archetypes of consanguinity and affinity in their pure state. The human world, on the other hand, corresponds to an arena in which these two principles are combined. Therefore the social structure defines its constitutive units (nuclear family, extended family, residential group, and clan) precisely in terms of the articulation of these parameters with the parameters of gender.

The Enawene Nawe ceremonial sphere is notable for its complexity. In general terms we can observe that the native calendar distinguishes two well-defined ritual “seasons,” one related to the celestial spirits, coinciding with the period of high waters and another much more extensive season devoted to the subterranean spirits. The latter season encompasses the period of the rising and falling waters and the dry season. If both of these seasons are essential, the first is marked by much less formality  than the second. This informality can be so extensive that, in stark contrast to the ceremonies for the subterranean spirits, celestial spirit ceremonies may be greatly abridged for purely pragmatic reasons.

The ritual complex dedicated to the subterranean spirits is basically characterized by a dynamic in which the “hosts,” all the women and the men of one or more clans, remain in the village while the “others”, men from the other clans, organize large fishing expeditions. While the men who have left are responsible for gathering fish, those reamaining in the village, together with some of their sisters (the “hostesses”), process a large quantity of manioc flour and vegetable salt. The radical separation is symbolically constructed between those who stay and those who leave, the fishermen return to the village dressed as threatening subterranean spirits where they are received by the hosts who are adorned only with their human emblems of gender.

The hosts, furnishers of manioc and salt porridge, conceive of themselves as humans and metonymically represent the social whole. At the same time, the men who have arrived from the fishing expedition metaphorically  represent the subterranean spirits who aggressively invade the village. Little by little the group of hosts domesticates the group of spirits by making them lower themselves to grab salt with their hands. The meeting of these two groups is marked by a series of ceremonies that include ritual oratory, dances, performances of both instrumental and choral music by the fishermen, representatives of alterity. The hosts, that is those representing humans, limit themselvs to remain seated around the dance circle where they keep stoking the fires that illuminate and heat the central patio and to serve food and drink to the singing and dancing spirits represented by the fishermen.

The hosts are defined as a community united by consanguinity in opposition to the fisherfolk who are related to one another as affinal spirits. In this regard it is important to note that the hosts are ideally members of both sexes of a single exogamic clan or clans who do not practice spouse exchange (being, therefore, “functional consanguines”). Simultaneously, the fishermen constitute a contingent composed of individuals of the same gender but of different kinship groups  - that is, as affinally related amongst themselves - representing all of the other clans. The men who have remained in the village represent the female role in opposition to men who have arrived from without (representatives of the spirits) since, during everyday life, women offer porridge to men, while men reciprocate with fish for the women.

Beyond the formal and rigid aspects of the ritual, other notable differences distinguish the ceremonies dedicated to the celestial and subterranean spirit legions. In contrast to what has just been described of the relation between the Enawene Nawe and the subterranean spirits, the rites that focus on the celestial spirits are never accompanied by a climate of tension or simulated hostilities. Moreover, the chants aggregate all of the men or all of the women in the village center without any further disposition to differentiate people in terms other than gender. Bodily ornaments and painting are not used: people are represented as gendered humans and nothing more. During this period of the Enawene Nawe yearly cycle, all the men go together to gather honey and fish while all the women apply themselves to the task of making porridge. With the return of the men to the village, the gender complementary and sexual equilibrium is stressed. On these occasions, men exchange honey (“masculine vaginal mucus”) produced by men for women for porridge (“feminine semen”) produced by the women for men.[4] The men run after the women in order to smear honey all over their bodies. According to the Enawene Nawe, honey smells like the vagina. On the other hand, the analogy between porridge and sperm is equally evident if one focuses on the color and consistency of these two substances.

In summary, during the ritual season that focuses on the relation between the Enawene Nawe and the subterranean spirits (the “Different Others”), kinship relations are brought forward through the inversion of the opposition between genders. On the other hand, during the season in which the relationship between the Enawene Nawe and the celestial spirits (the “Identical Others”) are foremost,  gender relations are emphasized by neutralizing the opposition between kinship.

 In sum, gender and kinship distinctions do not only cross-cut the domestic kinship sphere  but correspond properly speaking to fundamental cosmological categories through which the social and cosmological universe is organized. We may now return to the starting point of our consideration of gender. Based on Enawene Nawe ethnography we may formulate two hypotheses about gender relations, one emphasizing “masculine domination” could rest, for example, on the notion of “control of the social order”, based on the universe of affinity and, therefore, of masculinity. The hypothesis of  “sexual equality”, in its turn, could be anchored in the production and dynamics of the social life of this system in which “masculine” and “feminine” correspond to complementary roles is strict equilibrium. Enawene Nawe ethnographic data provides support for both of these hypotheses as long as we realize that they are two faces of the same coin.

We have already noted that rites that produce sexuality associate feminity and masculinity with consanguinity and affinity, respectively. We then saw how consanguinity and femininity articulate internally with one another to identity and to gender relations while affinity and masculinity and masculinity articulate exxternally to difference and to kinship relations. Finally, we noted that gender and kinship correspond to cosmological organizing principles that hold not only between living beings but also in organization of the entire universe. The Enawene Nawe operation in such a manner that gender opposition is most visible in the world of beings in “self relations” when represented in terms of the relation between the Enawene Nawe and their “Identical-Others” (humans and celestial spirits) while the kinship opposition appears to be most what is highlighted in the world of difference of the “relations between others” (between humans and subterranean spirits)

 The Javaé of Bananal Island, a Karajá subgroup studied by Patrícia Rodrigues provides an extremely interesting counterpoint to the Enawene Nawe case. According to the Javaé, time may be divided into two periods - an anterior period marked by the absence of sexual relations and a present period characterized by sex and procreation. Javaé cosmology centers around the opposition between two beings, the aruanã and the aõni. The first are the original humans who have been unsuccesful in escaping from the primitive aquatic world. Among these reigns the empire of consanguinity in a world in which neither aging nor death exists and food is abundant. Although they are endowed with sexuality and beautiful physiques, there is no sex life because all are brothers and sisters to one another.  During rituals their movements are controlled and contrained while they sing beautiful and rhythmically well defined melodies.

In contrast, the aõni inhabit an invisible terrerstrial dimension and are strangers to one another. Although sexual differences cannot be observed among them, they are highly sexual and insaciable. They emit unintelligible grunts and are ugly, agitated, impulsive and profoundly avaracious. According to the Javaé, incest or miserliness with food results in humans being transformed into these creatures. Humans are situated at an intermediate point between the absolute consanguinity of the aruanã and the absolute affinity of the aõni. Javaé ceremonial life takes its central theme to be the control of the aõni by the aruanã. In this contexts, the lyrics of the songs of the aruanã stress the immeasurable sexual appetite of the aõni in contrast to their disinterest in sex. The Javaé say the aõni are the “wives” of the aruanã.  Beyond the ethnographic differences between the Javaé and the Enawene Nawe it is very tempting to draw parallels between their respective spirit worlds.

A comparison of the Javaé and the Enawene Nawe allows us to immediately affirm that gender and kinship categories are indissociable in both cases. However, the association between the two orders is not formed in the same manner in both cases. While the Enawene Nawe conjoin affinity and masculinity and consanguinity and femininity, the contrary occurs among the Javaé. For these people affinity is feminine and consanguinity is masculine. In summation, Amerind thought seems to present different possibilities for the combination of the signs of gender and kinship. We can therefore conclude that any ethnographic generalization based on the a priori association between a given gender and a given kinship relation will be untenable.

  A native model

This perspective on the analysis of gender relations enables us to grasp native concepts regarding gender. The spoken language of the Enawene Nawe contains categories that express sexual dimorphis: ena (“man, masculine, male sex”) and wiro (woman, feminine, female sex”) which can be used for humans as well as animals and spirits. The native terms for the genitalia are akositi and talasiti, “vagina,” and “penis,” respectively. Moreover, the language contains gender suffixes -re and -lo (e.g. yaya-re / yaya-lo, “masculine and feminine shame”).

With the association of gender suffixes and the terms that designate the genitalia, the Enawene-nawe generate a new pair of concepts in the field of gender relations, akosita-re and talasita-lo, in order to designate sexually active men and women, respectively. A morphological analysis of these terms results in the following literal translation:

akosita-re  =  “vagina + masculine gender suffix”

talasita-lo  =  “penis + feminine gender suffix”

The native classification thus appears to corroborate precisely the perspective of sexuality as a system of signs (of relation) rather than a mere opposition between substantive attributes. Moreover, the categories of gender define a system that articulates two assymmetrical oppositions (term and relation) and the inverse (according the to sexual perspective), whereby the term ena (“man”) is to the relation talasita-lo (“woman-for-a-man) as the term wiro (“woman”) is to the relation akosita-re (“man-for-a-woman”).  We can sum up by concluding that the genital organ of a gender is the sexual organ of its gender opposite.

References

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COSTA JR., Plácido. 1995. A pesca na sociedade enawene-nawe. In Estudo das Potencialidades e do Manejo dos Recursos Naturais na Área indígena Enawene Nawe. OPAN, dat.

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___________. 1983. Stocktaking 1981: affinity as a value. In Affinity as Value: Marriage Alliance in South India with Comparative Essays on Australia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 145-214

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__________. 1996. O princípio do ‘terceiro incluído’ no parentesco sul-americano: o caso enawene-nawe. m.s. Conferência apresentada ao ciclo 6a. do mês, USP/FFLCH, em 18 de outubro de 1996, dat.

VIVEIROS DE CASTRO, Eduardo. 1986. Araweté: os deuses canibais. Rio de Janeiro: J. Zahar Editor.

__________. 1990. “Princípios de parâmetros: um comentário a L’Exercice de la Parenté. Comunicação do PPGAS, Vol. 17.

__________. 1993. Alguns aspectos da afinidade no dravidianato amazônico. In Viveiros de Castro, E. & Carneiro da Cunha, M. (orgs.) Amazônia: etnologia e história indígena. EDUSP/NHII.

[2] These designations (“male domination” and “sexual equality”) must be understood as shorthand labels. Clearly, we are not dealing with a debate between supporters of an unchanging “primitive machismo” and defenders of a paleolithic “égalité.” Here it is only necessary to emphasize the distinction between perspectives that define, in Amerindian societies, gender relations as either hierarchical or symmetrical.

[3] For a vision of the relation between these rites and Enawene Nawe age categories, see the text by Cleacir Alencar Sá (1996). The ethnography presented here about these rites derives from this research which was conducted with my guidance.

[4] The symbolism of honey and of porridge, defined respectively as “masculine vaginal mucus” and “feminine semen” calls to mind the classic example of the Araweté (Viveiros de Castro 1986).