The Dual Organizations of the Ramko'kamekra (Canella) of Northern Brazil

Abstract

American An th ropologist NEW SERIES VOL. OCTOBER-DECEMBER, 1937 THE DUAL ORGANIZATIONS OF THE RAMKO'KAMEKRA (CANELLA) OF NORTHERN BRAZIL By CURT NIMUENDAJU AND No.4 (Part 1) ROBERT H. LOWIEI HABITAT AND AFFILIATIONS T HE Ramko'kamekra (Canella) occupy2 the village of Ponto, situated in the steppes of Maranhao, Brazil, about 78 km. south of the town of Barra do Corda. Linguistically, they represent the southern dialect of the Eastern Timbira division of the G~ family. A simplified scheme of this stock is appended herewith, with the proviso that Snr Nimuendaju is not yet clear as to the affinities of the Eastern branch (E). In this stock linguistic, geographical, and ethnographic classification happen to coincide to a striking degree. G2 Stock A Northern and Western Ge I Timbira branch (a) Eastern Timbira (1) Northern Dialect Timbira of Rio Gurupy, et at. (2) Southern Dialect Ramko'kamekra, et at. (b) Western Timbira Apinaye' ------- of the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of California, Under the auspices Snr Curt Nimuendaju of Belem do Para has during the last two years synthetized some of his previous observations (in German) and undertaken two supplementary expeditions to ~ tribes in the interior of Brazil. The present paper presents primarily data bearing on dual organizations; his extremely ample material on ceremonialism has been rigidly excluded ex­ cept when too intimately interwoven with social structure to permit segregation. Even so it is not easy to summarize clearly the characteristics of a society simultaneously recognizing four distinct principles of dichotomy, two being of tribal scope, the other two limited to males. The data here presented supersede Nimuendaju's brief notes in Anthropos, Vol. 24, pp. 670­ 72, 1929 and E. H. Snethlage's relevant statements in his article Unter nOf'dostbrasilianischm lndianern (Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie, Vol. 62, pp. 111-205, 1931).-R. H. L. 2 The epidemic of 1935 and the death of the oldest chief led to disorganization and a schism into two separate hamlets, but in 1936 Snr Nimuendaju effected a reconciliation and a joint celebration of the Tep-Yarkwa' festival in a new village.-R. H. L.