The evolution of social classification: A commentary on the Warao case

Abstract

The paper that follows is the English original of a preface written for a monograph by Dr. Mar?a Matilde Su?rez, Terminolog?a, Alianza matrimonial y Cambio en la Sociedad Warao (Caracas, 1972), and published there (pp. 7-38) in a Spanish translation made by Isabel Bacalao. This introductory note provides an explanation of its appear ance here, and outlines enough of the background to make its concerns intelligible. After field research among the Warao of the Orinoco delta, Vene zuela, Dr. Su?rez, who had already published one book on them (1968), came to Oxford in order to make a deeper and more theoretical analysis of her materials. We worked together in the academic year 1968-69, and the results of the investigation were published, under the title Terminology, Alliance and Change in Warao Society, in the Nieuwe West-Indische Gids for April 1971. A Spanish edition of this study was then undertaken, and Dr. Su?rez kindly proposed that I might supply a preface. I readily consented, and her book, with my Pr?logo, appeared in Venezuela in 1972. Dr. Su?rez's monograph was thus deservedly made available in English and in Spanish, but the quite lengthy preface was accessible only to those who could read Spanish. There was the possibility, too, that the place of publication might mili tate somewhat against a wide dissemination of the arguments presented in the monograph. So since the preface embodied an independent ana lysis, and in my view could also have theoretical consequences outside the field of Amerindian studies, I thought it might usefully be printed in English. The Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Landen Volkenkunde generously agreed to publish it. The English text is reproduced here virtually unchanged from that which was translated into Spanish: the only noticeable alterations are that footnote references to the literature