Both endogamy and exogamy, with a preference for the former, exist so far as the tribe is concerned; but with regard to the social unit of the tribe, the community that shares a common house of assembly, the rule of exogamy is very strictly enforced. The reason for this is that all within a household are held to be kin. The one exception for this law among the tribes is also the one exception to their patrilocal customs. In the possible instance of a chief having a daughter but no sons to succeed him, the daughter may marry a man of the same household, who would probably be an adopted son. Any other exception would be most unusual, and could only be attempted with the permission of the tribe after thorough consideration of the case in tribal council. Otherwise any son and any daughter of a household, no matter though they be of different parentage, are barred from marriage by the blood-tie; yet what we should look upon as an equally close relationship on the spindle side is regarded by the Indians as no such thing, only the most intimate relations of the mother ever being so much as counted kin.[60] A man may marry into the household from which his mother came without transgressing any recognised law, because the mother, having left her original household to join that of her husband, has become one of his household on marriage, and has ceased to belong to her own. In all probability she will have had little or no intercourse with it. Marriage between two individuals does not establish any admitted affinity between their respective households. It follows that the children of two sisters might possibly intermarry, but the children of two brothers never could.
Woman’s lot among all the tribes of the Amazon is commonly regarded as a hard one. It is true that the steady grind of the day’s work falls to her share. Men work intermittently, but the work that falls to the women to do is incessant. In addition to the natural functions of the mother and the housekeeper, the duties of an Indian wife include the bulk of all agricultural labour. The husband’s energies cease when he has cleared and broken up a patch of land, reclaimed a field from the surrounding forest, an arduous task that needs more physical strength than women possess. The ground once freed of trees and undergrowth, and roughly dug, the husband considers that his share in the toil is at an end, and he will lie in his hammock, eat, and sleep, while his wife, the baby slung behind her, tills the field and harvests the crops. It is for her to plant the slips and in due season dig the manioc. She must attend to the growing plant, and eventually prepare the roots for use. But it would be wrong to infer that the Indian husband is a lazy slave-driver. If his work is occasional it must be confessed that he does undertake all the heaviest labour. Each sex has its own pursuits. The man is the hunter and the warrior, the woman is helpmate, agriculturalist, and staple food-provider. The differentiation of work is very clear, bounded by the law of Pia—it is our custom, which is like unto that of the Medes and Persians. A man will on no account plant manioc, but he has a reason for this rule: he says that women, being able to produce children, can produce manioc; production is her province, not his.
The subjection of wives, if subjection it can be called, is due to economic conditions. The woman holds a recognised, if subordinate, position. She rarely quarrels with her husband, though she is certainly not afraid of contradicting him when necessary; in fact I have met such anomalies as hen-pecked husbands.
There are, as will be seen in detail subsequently, certain definite restrictions imposed upon the women of the tribes, food they may not eat, ceremonials they may not share, sacred objects they may not even see. Coca and tobacco they may neither prepare not partake of, a law as rigid as that which debars men from planting or preparing manioc. In some tribes women are not permitted to see or be seen by strangers, but, as a rule, the married women are remarkably free in this matter, though young girls are more restricted.
Taken as a whole, women are well treated among all the tribes. A woman is so far respected that her husband will consult her, but there is nothing approaching to chivalry on the part of the man. The Indian does not idealise. He weaves no romantic dreams about the Sex, but looks upon a woman from the most material standpoint, pays her no small attentions, never thinks of saving her trouble or any exertion, and in no way attempts to lighten her lot in life. Yet everywhere, owing to conditions of existence, women’s influence is very great. The tribal reputation of a man rests largely in the hands of his wife; she can so easily leave him if badly treated, and once the forest is gained she is lost to him, and may without difficulty secure the protection of another tribe, or, should public opinion be strong enough to drive the guilty husband away, of another man in his household. The onus of her disappearance will lie heavy upon the husband who has forced her to such—in Indian opinion—extraordinary action. But cruelty on the part of a husband is rare, as rare as infidelity on the part of a wife. A man who ventured to ill-treat his wife would soon be the scorn of the tribe, for the other women would promptly make a song about him, and the ridicule to which he was exposed would be an effectual deterrent from further ill-doing in a country where adverse public opinion is more efficient than any police force in the prevention of recognised wrong.
The right of women to personal possession appears to be allowed. At death her domestic implements are buried with her, and I have often wanted to buy some article of adornment from a woman, but when I asked the husband what he would like in exchange, have invariably been referred back again to his wife, and had to conduct the barter with her. Also, though the children belong absolutely to the father, it would be the mother and not the father who would negotiate the exchange of any ornament worn by a child.
Finally we come to the last and lowest section of a tribe, the slaves. Slavery among the Indians themselves is little more than a name, for a slave belongs to the chief, and soon becomes identified with his family. Though slaves have frequently a chance to run away they seldom do so, for they are usually treated with kindness, and probably are nearly as well off in the house of their victors as in their own. Captives of both sexes under the age of seven years, or thereabouts, are kept as slaves by the conquering tribe; above that age they are destroyed, as they possess intelligence enough presumably to betray their new tribe to their old one. When a slave reaches man’s estate he is permitted to identify himself with the warriors as any other boy would be; and thereafter is looked upon as free; but the chief would consider that he had a lien of sorts on such a man, and this would be commuted by payment of perhaps half his shooting bag, probably until the time that he married. If the chief dies, the slaves become the property of the new chief, but a man, if already a warrior, would no longer feel himself bound to a new chief, except in so far as tribal discipline might enforce on all the warriors. A woman slave may be purchased from the chief by the gift of some small present to his wife. After this the girl is free.
Maku slaves have little huts of their own in the forest, where they live apart, and are never in any way familiar with their masters. They are permitted to keep their own women. These slaves are generally despised. They act the part of the “proverbial cat,” and are held to blame when anything goes wrong. A medicine-man may accuse a Maku if a death takes place, or any crime is committed, and the wretched slave is then destroyed unhesitatingly. There are no Maku south of the Japura.
PLATE VIII.