P. Aspelin the Ethnography of Nambicuara Agriculture In
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P. Aspelin The ethnography of Nambicuara agriculture In: Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 135 (1979), no: 1, Leiden, 18-58 This PDF-file was downloaded from http://www.kitlv-journals.nl Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 09:51:55PM via free access PAUL L. ASPELIN THE ETHNOGRAPHY OF NAMBICUARA AGRICULTURE In his recent contribation to !&e controversy over Lévi-Strauss' eho- graphy of Nambicuara subsistence and residence (Aspelin 1976, 1978; Lévi-Strauss 1976, 1978), Price ( 1978) cites additional useful information from some of the few smces which deal with the Nambicuara during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He also presents one version of one of the Nambicuara myh regarding the origin of agriculture. In dl of this, he may have missed the point, however. The question is not whether or nat he Nambicuara grew anyrhing at al1 at &e .time of Lévi-Strauss' visit, nor for exactly how long they had done so, nor where thair cultigens originally came from, since Lévi-Strauss (e.g. 1955:332, and 1978), Price (e.g. 1978) and myself (e.g. 1976) al1 agree that the Nambicuara have for metime been to at least some degree dependent on domestimted plant foodstuffs. Rather, the question before us is relatively how important was agriculture in their dier in the recent past, specifically at the time of Lévi-Strauss' visit in 1938? In his basic works on the subject, Lévi-Strauss (as cited in Aspelin 1976) originally stated that Nambicuara agriculture was simply supplementary to their gathering and hunting and that their agricdtural efforts and production were concentrated in the rainy season and essentially non-existent during the dry season. I have taken and continue to take issue with these and with several other specific (but important) points in Lévi-Strauss' Nambicuara PAUL L. ASPELIN took his Ph.D. in anthropology at Cornell University in 1975. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Cleveland State University, and currently Visiting Professor in the Post-Graduate Program in the Social Sciences at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (Florianópolis, SC 88.000, Brasil). His main interests are South American ethnology, economic anthropology, and the anthropology of tourism. Recent publications include: 'The anthropological analysis of tourism', Annals of Tourism Research IV/3, 1977, and Projeto Uruguai: Os Barramentos e os fndios, with Silvio Coelha dos Santos, Aneliese Nacke, and Regina W. Schmjtz da Silva, Florianópolis: UFSC, 1978. Prof. Aspelin's regular address is: Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio, 44115 U.S.A. Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 09:51:55PM via free access The Ethnography of Nambicuara Agriculture 19 ethnography, finding his statements regarding these specific items gener- ally misleading. Price's article, as I have mentioned, doesn't really speak effectively to many of [these concerns. This present article attempts to place Professor Lévi-Strauss' account of Namlbicuara subsistence in &e context of the rest of the ethnographic record over a relevant pericd of time, in the spint of our continuing mutual attempt to perfect ow extant ethnographic information insofar as possible? As Professor Léd-Strauss himself has recently wriitten: Should it be proven lthat the rhythm of Nambikwara economic life was more complex athan it then looked to be, that lthey were more agriculturalist and less nomadic than they appeared during the single dry season that I spent among them, I would have nothing to object (1978:157). It would seem to me that the most useful manner in which to approach this particular task would be to establish the relative importance and quality of Nambicuara agriculture from &e time of their fint effective contact with neo-Brazilian society in 1909-11 (depending on the area in question; see Anonymous 1916:289ff.; Magalhäes 1941:189, 481, 490; Rondon 1922:103; and Rondon 1947:47) up mtil the present. In order to do his, I have compiled and analyzed in chronological order al1 of the qualified reports available to me regarding he relative importance of Nambicuara agriculture from 1908 rhrough about 1973, ~thirtyyears both before and after Lévi-Strauss' own field research among hem in 1938. This period seems to me to be much more relevant to a discussion of these aspeuts of Lévi-Strauss' account than lthe much earlier periods represented by the accounts of Joäo Leme do Prado and the others mentioned by Prke. The published accounts of 5the "Rondon Cornmission", as Coronel clater General) Rondon's organization was generally known, are particularly useful in this regard since they were written by those 'with firstdhand and often extensive knowledge of the Nambicuara, whom they first effectively contacted in their explorations of northwestern Mato Grosso at the beginning of rhis period. Rondon first discovered the farm plots or roças of the Nambicuara during lhis second expedition, in 1908. His rist expiorations, in 1907, had brought him to the Jumena River from the east. Although he saw some Namlbicuara from a distance at that time, and was attacked by some of them as well, he did nat encounter any of itheir villages or roças that first year. This fitexpedition ended at the Juruena (see, for example, Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 09:51:55PM via free access 20 Paul L. Aspelin Rondon 1922:7-29). Appmaching the Juruena from the southeast in 1908, however, Rondon found several Nambicuara villages, most of which had been evacuated only a few hours or a few days before he reached them. Those whose agricultural characteristics are discussed in sufficient detail cto merit au attention here are shown by Roman numerals in Figure 1. The first two suoh sites (I and 11) were reaahed on August 23, 1908. They are known in Rondon's accounts as the Aldeia do Mandaguary and the Aldeia do Roceiro, respectively. Between 'the first, where he found some evidence &at it was its inhabitants ahat had attacked his party in 1907, and the second, he found an old, overgrown roça, showing the use of steel tools apparently obtained by force from some rubber-gatherers who had attempted to enter the Juruena basin a few years previously (Rondon n.d.:121). Next to the sectmd village or aldeia, a new roça was found. Rondon was clearly impressed with both &e size of (&is new roça (relative to the size of its correspondent village) and &e quality of its execution: it was clean, neat, and better-done than those of most Brazilians he had seen (Rondon n.d.:12lf.; cf. also Rondon 1922:32ff. and Anonyrnous 1916:311). After crossing the Juruena, Rondon found several more villages, in- cluding one directly to lthe west which he narned the Aldeia do Ranch50 (VI); it also showed signs of the use of steel tools (Rondon n.d.: 138). Although he came across yet another village (VII) between the Aldeia do Rancháo and the teminal point of lthe 1908 expedition just beyond Campos Novos, no description af tihe roças at that village is available. In 1909, Rondon complated his exploration of the tenitory to be transversed by the telegraph line he had been commissianed to build from Cuiabá to Santo Antônio do Madeira, through 1415 kilometers of virtually unknown territq (as measured from his supply depot at Tapirapoan; Rondon n.d.:339). Rus, lhe continued in the direction of his initia1 explorations, beyond Campos Novos, through the regians where he would later, between 1911 and 1914, establish the telegraph station of Vilhena, the pastures of Tres Buritís, and the telegraph stations of José Bonifácio and Baráo de Melgaço, and then, having at ehat point left the territory of the Nambicuara, on to the Madeira River to the northwest (Magalháes 1942133237-239). The Campos de Commemoraçáo de Floriano, where the telegraph station of Vilhena was later established, is sthe watershed for drainage basins running southwest, west, north and northeast. In attempting to Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 09:51:55PM via free access The Ethnography of Nambicuara Agricdture [After Price 1972:23 and Rondon 19521 Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 09:51:55PM via free access 22 Paul L. Aspelin determine which route to pursue from that point on, given that at this time no one knew for sure where any of those rivers would ultimately lead, Rondon called a halt for 51 days to reconnoiter the area more fully (Magalháes 1941 :289). Wlhile doing so, several Nambicuara were seen from a distance and several smal1 hunting-shelters discovered, since this was apparently a favorite hunting-spot for some nearby village(s). The only village discovered at this time, however, was one found in the second week of August, 1909, by Lt. Lyra, some fifity-five kilometers to the northnortheast (on the (headwatersof ,&e Rio Ananáz, later called the Rio Tenente Marques). This village, called the Aldeia do Mangabal (VIII), was sunounded by fourteen roças containing large-scale plan- ting~ of manioc, beans, corn, cará (Discorea sp.), potatoes, peanuts, araruta (Saranthe rnarcgravii Pickel; Mors and Rizzini, 1966:144), and catton. It had been evacuated only a few hms before the explorers actually reached it (Rondon n.d.:23Of.). Before Lyra had set out on his exploraitions to the northeast, several Nambicuara had been surprised wMe hunting near Rondon's main camp in &e Campos de Commemoraçáo. Later that day, July 6th, two Nambicuara baskets were found in that Same area, containing, in addi- tion to &e usual items of dmestic use such as boûtle gourds, resins, and stone axes, several [oodstdfs including a gourd full of manioc soup, a clay pot full of refined manioc starch (called \tapioca in English and either rnaniquéra or rnainicuéra or, more recerntly, polvilha in Portu- guese), half a ~baskedulof fresiily grated manioc dough, tobacco, unicum (Bixa Orellana), several kinds of beans and potatoes and a few other objects (Rondoli 1922:52f.).