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In the Asurini village, there are different types
of dwelling-places, the most common, where different domestic
groups reside, are like the houses built by the regional
population, that is, with mud walls, wooden structure,
and thatched roof. The largest house of the village (aketé,
tavywa), measuring approximately 30 meters in length,
12 meters in width and 7 meters in height, corresponds
to descriptions of dwelling-places characteristic of the
Tupi: the layout of the house is rectangular. The placing
of the poles, beams, and crossbars follow the pattern
necessary for the construction of the basic domed- shape
structure. In this sense, it differs from the others in
having a more elaborate structure. For the covering, only
the sprouts of palm leaves are used and for the structure
specific species of trees are used for each support. The
whole group participates in the construction of the house,
under the leadership of those who will eventually live
in the house. The dead are buried in the ground inside
the house and there also, the main cerimonies of the Asurini
are held.
Traditionally, the aketé or tavywa was
the collective dwelling-place of a local group. However,
while they were together at the FUNAI Post, the Asurini
reorganized into a group formed by individuals of different
local groups with a population demographically imbalanced,
due to the population decrease. As Soares (1971b:23)
observed, since the time of contact the deaths of more
elders has weakened the political structure of the group,
since it was amongst the elders that the Asurini chose
their leaders. The majority of the men are shamans (pa(z*)é)
and the intensification of shamanistic rituals must
be related to Asurini efforts to reorganize their group.
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The composition of the domestic groups reveals
a social structural tendency typical of Tupi groups, but
also one observes an instability resulting from demographic
imbalance. There is a certain similarity between Asurini
and Tenetehara social organization, for whom, according
to Wagley and Galvão (1961:39), "in essence,
the extended family is a group of women related by kinship
under the leadership of a man”. The residence rule
is uxorilocal and the men who belong to a domestic group,
through marriage to women related by kinship, maintain
relations of cooperation in subsistence activities. In
the nuclear families, there are several cases of polyandry.
In these cases, the eldest woman has already passed the
age of procreation and the youngest devotes herself entirely
to ritual activities (they are the singers who accompany
the pajés), to the learning of graphic art (body
painting and decoration of ceramics) and helping their
“mother” in basic activities such as gardening,
gathering, cooking, weaving, and ceramics).
The Asurini woman marries in adolescence but
she will only have her first child when she becomes
a young adult (approximately 25 years old). Until then,
she will be learning and perfecting her abilities in
subsistence tasks, in such a way that she will participate
in the rituals as a singer. The making of ceramics,
highly valued among the Asurini (both aesthetically
and from a utilitarian point of view), also can be defined
as an activity that excludes a woman’s procreative
functions. There are Asurini women who have never had
children (today they are over 45 years of age), among
whom there are highly accomplished artists.
Another condition for procreation is the existence
of two husbands, one young and one old. During pregnancy,
up to the fourth month, various men participate in the
formation of the fetus and have frequent sexual relations
with the woman so that the child is “born strong.”
During seclusion, only the two fathers married to the
mother will maintain sexual relations with her. The
elder father will have the main responsibility for educating
the child, if it is a boy. For the younger father, the
birth of the first child marks the passage from one
age category to another (this passage is not formally
ritualized by the Asurini). One of the justifications
the women make for marriages without children is the
absence of the younger father (iau n´ative).
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