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Social Norms Among the Bakairi of Brazil
| Article
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18259 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
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10 / 1990 |
3,929 Words |
| Author
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Debra Picchi
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South American Indian cultures differ in important ways from Western cultures. One way they vary concerns the nature of their social norms; another difference pertains to what happens to violators of such rules.
This article examines the behavioral standards that regulate a Brazilian Indian society. A written code of conduct and a formal legal system are absent, so other agents communicate guidelines for behavior. It also investigates the manner in which individuals and groups retaliate when norms are disregarded. The process whereby people identify a violation and reach a verdict on what to do about the transgression is illustrated by a case study. This example describes the importance of reliance on informal resolutions of conflict and punishment of violators, relating this tendency to such key characteristics of Indian villages as small size, egalitarianism, and the presence of powerful kin groups.
The work draws on materials gathered during research with the Bakairi Indians of Mato Grosso, Brazil. These Indians live in settlements of about one hundred people each on a reservation administered by Indian Foundation agents. They have been in sporadic contact with non-Indians since the 1920s, and although interaction with Western people has altered their culture, they still retain a significant number of their traditions. For example, they continue to speak Bakairi and celebrate their own rituals, such as the mask and capa dances. Additionally, they live in wattle and daub huts with palm-thatch roofs and make a living in the traditional manner by cultivating gardens in the forests along the rivers.
Teaching Bakairi norms
Socialization of Bakairi children is primarily the responsibility of parents and other members of, or visitors to, the extended household. Mothers' sisters and parents in particular enjoy the right to teach and discipline children. However, all elders have some responsibility in this area, and, to a certain extent, the villagers also share in this obligation.
Sometimes village participation consists of providing a necessary audience. For example, a child dawdled on his way back from the river, where he had gone to help his mother wash clothes and collect water. The mother became increasingly annoyed with his slow pace because children are expected to do assigned chores with alacrity. First she nagged at the boy, then she berated him, and finally she took a switch and began to swat his legs with it. He ran home through the village with her at his heels. Cries of outrage from the boy brought villagers to the doors of their huts. The laughter and chatter that ensued when they realized what was happening both validated the mother's actions and communicated to the boy that he would receive no sympathy from them.
Adults continue to learn the norms of Bakairi society through their interactions with older members of the family and through the process of raising their own children. It is at this juncture that they are forced for the first time to articulate what they themselves experienced as young people. Closely supervised by their parents and grandparents, young couples begin to socialize their own children, assuming more control as time passes.
The Bakairi do not depend on myths or stories to affirm
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