|
All the Asuriní currently reside in a
single village, located about three kilometres from
the shores of the Tocantins river. In 1988, the village
was formed by thirty houses, which sheltered the different
nuclear families.
The houses are built from caryota rufflepalm
wood, used for the walls and flooring, and ubim straw,
employed for the thatching and sometimes also for the
walls. The architecture of the houses follows the regional
pattern, while some are built on raised platforms. Although
more rare, some mud hut are also made. Some 4 or 5 years
ago new houses were constructed from wood and roofing
tiles, paid for by compensation received for the Trans-Cametá
road.
Dwellings are usually divided into three areas:
living area, kitchen and sleeping area. Found to the
rear of the house are small constructions such as sanitary
holes. Some dwellings have more than one sleeping area,
one for the couple and the other for children, but most
possess just one large room where all the family sleeps.
This area is used for sleeping and afternoon naps, as
well as for performing tasks such as preparing ammunition
and mending clothes, which require some privacy or distance
away from children.
Most of the time a house's residents remain
in the kitchen-living area. Some houses have a kitchen
built a slight distance away, usually in a more open
construction without side walls. The kitchen contains
a raised worktop and a stove, generally built from an
arrangement of bricks, wood and clay. Some families
formed by younger couples use gas stoves. The worktop
is used to prepare game and other food and to clean
dishes. These are hung in a window on the outside of
the house so that the water does not drip inside the
dwelling.
Domestic utensils are kept on shelves or stuck
into the thatching of the walls and roof of the kitchen:
plates, knives, cutlery, cups, toothbrushes, fishing
line, etc. The area also contains the most sophisticated
furniture in the house: the tables and chairs. This
is the area used for meals and receiving visitors. Visitors
may also be received on the patio in front of the house.
In terms of domestic objects, the Asuriní also
usually own hammocks (and more rarely beds), cupboards,
radios, phonographs and, in some houses, television
sets.
Houses are built by men who usually perform
the work alone. Construction of a new house may be spurred
by the age of the old dwelling or by the desire to change
location due to reasons such as a fight with neighbours.
The creeks close to the houses are almost taken
to be a domestic space, an extension of the village.
The women use these creeks to wash clothing and collect
water for the houses. This is also where people bathe.
Children spend a large part of the day playing in the
rivers. Each residential section uses a particular point
on the river course. In the areas between the dwellings
and the creeks, small swiddens are usually cultivated
with maize, yam, potato, banana and pineapple.
The village's dwellings are constructed in a
line along the path running from the FUNAI post to the
flour cabin - the latter is located on the village outskirts,
that is, on the periphery of social space. Certain clusters
of houses making up the residential sections are also
found along this main path. Each of these residential
units possesses a communal patio, generally in front
of the oldest couple's house. In day-to-day terms, these
patios mark the spaces of interaction at the village's
internal level.
 |
::01 |
 |
|
Only
one space exists for the interaction of the whole
village: the Tekataua - the permanent ceremonial
house. It is in this ritual space that the village
is enacted as a unit. There is no pre-determined
site for building the Tekataua, the only
stipulation is that it must be built with its front
facing the east, where the Jaguar-Spirit resides.
Thus its localization refers not to the Social (the
village), but to the Supernatural. |
The Tekataua is used only on ritual occasions
and therefore does not comprise a political space. Political
decisions are taken 'informally' within the sphere of
the houses, without the village as a unit being activated.
Politics is a dispersed activity. Occasionally a meeting
between the Indians and one of FUNAI's employees visiting
the village may take place in the Tekataua, but
it is more usual for this to be held in the vicinity
of the FUNAI post.
The FUNAI post amounts to a non-traditional
space of social interaction, predominantly involving
meetings to discuss matters concerning the indigenist
body and the school. The latter involves the social
interaction of children from numerous residential sections
who would otherwise not live with each other on a daily
basis within the village context.
Another non-traditional space is the collective
flour house, built by FUNAI. This structure houses the
ovens used to toast the flour, the manioc grinder, the
grater and the tubular manioc presses. Traditionally,
each nuclear family or residential section performed
this task in its own space. Some families still follow
this custom, but only for processing the flour consumed
by themselves. Production of manioc flour for commercial
ends has entailed the need to use the new infrastructure.
The Asuriní village is structured around
residential sections modelled on the uxorilocal extended
family. Its paradigmatic composition is therefore the
head-couple, their unmarried children of both sexes
and their married daughters and incoming husbands.
Each residential section makes up a spatial unit, but
above all an economic and political unit. Within these
sections there is a regular exchange of foods, co-operation
in economic activities, daily living together, and solidarity
in moments of crisis, such as illnesses, fights and
political disputes.
The residential section usually corresponds
to a spatial configuration: clustered houses sharing
a common patio. The residents of a section also share
the same bathing spots on the creeks surrounding the
village. This is a space of daily conviviality mainly
for women who spend a good part of their day there washing
clothes and eating utensils.
The location of the swiddens usually corresponds
to the residential units. The residents of a same section
habitually locate their swiddens close to each other.
FUNAI's 'community swidden' projects slightly modified
this spatial organization since, today, there is a single
large swidden of manioc, rice and cacao, intended for
commercial production of these crops. However, the subsistence
swiddens (dedicated to the cultivation of yam, potato,
banana, pineapple and maize) continue to be organized
following the logic of the residential sections.
The distinctive feature of these sections is
economic and political autonomy. In this sense, the
Asuriní village appears to be no more than the
juxtaposition of these residential units, which in daily
terms operate independently. The only occasion on which
the residents of different sections act in conjunction
is during rituals. It is as though each residential
section comprises its own village. Siblings of the opposite
sex have an important role in establishing the continuity
between the various residential sections. Though belonging
to different units, they maintain a network of informal
relations that in practice comprise the connecting link
between the sections. It is these relations that, by
passing through the distinct residential sections, contribute
to the institution of a larger unit, namely the village.
It is also important to stress that the residential
sections are fairly fluid; their particular arrangements
vary over time. One of the factors behind this re-structuring
is precisely the tendency for siblings of both sexes
to remain united. Thus, if sister exchange or marriage
of sibling sets do not lead to this situation, re-arrangements
unforeseen in the formal system may take place.
Whether the head-couple is alive or not is a
critical factor in such reconstitutions of a section.
While the father-in-law or mother-in-law are alive,
they continue to exercise power over their sons-in-law,
which is reflected in the maintenance of uxorilocality.
The break-up of marriages, as well as misunderstandings
between residents of a section and the wish of siblings
to remain united, comprise the more common factors for
the re-arrangements of the residential units - they
institute a movement toward dissolving uxorilocality.
|