 |
::01 |
 |
The Canela have a set of ritual cycles based on the
extended family, in which matri- and patrilateral kindred
participate, although the former predominates. The principal
rituals for both sexes happen at birth, puberty and marriage(several
stages), the afterbirth restrictions (couvade) and mourning.
The rites of passage for adolescents consist of ear-piercing
for the boys and seclusion for the girls, at the time
of their first menstruation. Both sexes have post-puberty
practices. The naming of babies, shortly after birth,
is restricted to the name-givers; the birth of a male
was announced by the name-giver.
|
::02 |
 |
Another set of ritual cycles occurs during the
festivals and is based on the support and participation
of almost the whole society. Boys are introduced as
lifetime members into the age class through four or
five initiation festivals. As the first step to marriage,
the majority of the girls enter as associates in the
male rituals, in such a way as to receive their maturity
belts, which are necessary for being accepted by their
affinal kin. This division by age classes trains the
boys to become warriors, while sexual practice among
the male societies helps the girls to accept and like
extra-marital serial sex.
The holding of the Apanyekrá male initiation
rites (Khêêtúwayê e Pepyê)
has been irregular since the 1970s and, since then,
these rituals have been held only twice in order to
form an age class, instead of four or five times, as
happens among the Ramkokamekrá. In the 1990s,
the performance of these rituals among the Ramkokamekrá
had also become irregular. The Apanyekrá ritual
that ends the summer (Wè tè) was not being
held with regularity, and the ritual that begins the
same season (also called Wè tè) seems
never to have been practiced by them. The Apanyekrá
equivalent (Krokrok) of the Ramkokamekrá ritual
of the hawks (Pepkahàk) has been lost, and the
ritual of the masks was never acquired by the Apanyekrá.
On the other hand, the rainy season ritual practices
of the Red and Black cerimonial moieties were in a way
more effective among the Apanyekrá than among
the Ramkokamekrá, and the Apanyekrá version
of the Laranja and Pàlrà rituals were
similar to those of the Ramkokamekrá. The Apanyekrá
ritual of the fish (Tepiakwá) was not held for
several years around the 1970s, but it was still very
popular among the Ramkokamekrá in the 1990s.
Transmission of ritual property (haakhat) through matrilineal
descent found in several Ramkokamekrá cerimonies
and of the rights to fill certain roles, especially
in the ritual of the Fish, was not found among the Apanyekrá.
|
::06 |
 |
A notable difference between the two groups
exists in the rituals to introduce young boys and adolescents
into an age class. Among the Apanyekrá, the adolescents
caught leaving their seclusion for conjugal or extra-conjugal
encounters were lined up together with their sex partners,
and made to kneel face to face on the plaza, in such
a way that all publicly lived their shame. The severity
of this punishment for the same transgression was not
characteristic of the Ramkokamekrá, who did not
punish the adolescents who committed this infraction.
|
Print
