• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

Brenton Willhite 1. Description 1.1 Name of society, language, and language family: Cabécar, Chibchan, Talamanca 1.2 ISO code (3 letter code from ethnologue.com): cjp 1.3 Location (latitude/longitude): 9°59′47″N 84°7′0″W 1.4 Brief history: The Cabécares are believed to be of Talamancan descent. In fact, much of their language is of Talamancan origin (5). There are three Talamancan groups located in southeastern Costa Rica, of which the Cabécares are one. The other two groups are the Bribri and Boruca. “The Bribri and Cabécar are in the townships Buenos Aires, Turrialba, Matina, and Talamanca.” (5). Currently, there are six Cabécar reservations: “on the Atlantic, Nairi-Awari, Chirripo, Tayni, Telire, and Talamanca-Cebécar; on the Pacific side, Ujarrás.” (2). Additionally, many Cabécares live among the Bribri due to intermarriage (2). The earliest possible date of contact could have occurred in 1502 when Columbus landed in Limón (5). However, the Spanish conquistador, Juan Vásquez de Coronado certainly contacted the Talamancan Indians by the mid 16th century (2). At which point the Indians were organized into chiefdoms (2). They managed to retain traits of their ancestral chiefdoms until the mid 20th century (2). In the 20th century land disputes arose, and in response, the establishment of reservations by the Costa Rican government (2). 1.5 Influence of missionaries/schools/governments/powerful neighbors: Until the 1970s, the Cabécares did their best to isolate themselves from the developing schools, churches, businesses and foreign people around them (2). But today, Cabécares have begun to acculturate into modern Costa Rican ways of life: “They are people in varied stages of acculturation, but many are now taking part in the national environment and life of the republic.” (1). This includes attending mass (1). Additionally, Cabécar residences have begun to transform: “With the increase in population and the shortage of land for cultivation, as well as the reduction of the forests, the patterns of Bribri and Cabécar settlements more and more resemble those of the Spanish towns.” (2). 1.6 Ecology: “ For about 1,800 meters above the plain of Talamanca is rain forest where many edible fruits, nuts, and medicinal plants are found. Inland, behind this zone and extending over the continental divide, is an area of cloud forests broken only by small patches of paramo on the highest crests. It is extremely rugged country with the south side being steeper than that of the Caribbean.” (1) 1.7 Population size, mean village size, home range size, density: Population of 9,860 in 2000 (2). The Cabécar do not live in “villages” in the European sense of the word (1). In fact, there is no term for “village” among these people (1). “The Bribri and the Cabécar traditionally preferred a more dispersed pattern of homesteads than did the Boruca. Until the 1970s, they did not really have a “village” because they distanced their homes from schools, chapels, and other public buildings.” (2). With regard to density, “They live in neighborhoods; they cannot be called villages, the houses being scattered over an extensive area and at distances of from one to several hundred yards apart.” (3). 2. Economy 2.1 Main carbohydrate staple(s): The Cabécares depend on maize, beans, manioc, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, peach palms and cocoa (2). 2.2 Main protein-lipid sources: Hunting and fishing supplement their highly agricultural lifestyle (2). Additionally, since contact, Cabécares have relied on domesticated pigs, chickens, turkeys and ducks to supplement their diet (2). 2.3 Weapons: Bow and arrow, blowguns?: They utilize bow and arrow technologies: “Their bows and arrows are described as similar to what I have seen elsewhere, except that the arrows are not supplied with any harder points than those furnished by the pehi balla wood.” (3). Blowguns are also used: “the blow gun, a tube longer than the person, is in constant use.” (3). 2.4 Food storage: Baskets are used to store some forms of food in the house: “Suspended from the roof are baskets of from one to three cubie feet capacity. They are usually made of a peculiar, very hard, and very flexible vine. These are the trunks of the people, and in them are kept their clothing and all of their little personal treasures and ornaments. They are also used for storing corn or other seeds, like beans, the basket being then lined with leaves to prevent spilling. The women also use them for carrying water calabashes.” (3). 2.5 Sexual division of production: Men are in charge of clearing the land, and raising the livestock (2). Women are expected to participate with men in planting, harvesting and transporting crops (2). Typically, as men clear land, a woman will follow close behind often carrying goods (2). 2.6 Land tenure: Villages in the European sense of the term have never existed for all Talamancan groups (1). Instead, clans control land and provide for their members (1). Although families formerly owned all land, individual ownership has become the norm due to government administration (2). Reservation land is held by the Indian development associations, but individual property rights of Indians is recognized (2). “Keeping land in Indian hands has been a very complex and conflictive issue.”(2). 2.7 Ceramics: These people do use ceramic pottery (3). 2.8 Specified (prescribed or proscribed) sharing patterns: There are two prescribed feast occasions: “The feasts are of two classes; the death feast already described, and re-unions for labor. In the latter case; when a person wants to do an extraordinary piece of work, like clearing a piece of forest for a plantation, he provides a suitable quantity of food, and especially of chicha. On the day appointed his neighbors unite early at his house, or at the spot designated, and work industriously until about noon. All then repair to the house, and, after a good round of chicha drinking, food is served, followed by more chichi.” (3). 2.9 Food taboos: Various food taboos apply to pregnant women, these include: eating from a pot, leaf or plate. Failure to adhere to these taboos can cause the death of the unborn child (2). Tapir meat is also taboo, and is to be avoided by pregnant women, lest their child be “stricken dumb” (2). Additionally, three periods of fasting are observed: “The first is only when ordered by the U-se'-ka-ra on great public occasions. This is general and simultaneous over all the country. Sufficient food is prepared beforehand to last for three days, the usual time fixed. During those three days, no fires are lighted; the food is served and eaten in silence; no unnecessary conversation is allowed; the people stay strictly inside their houses, or if they go out during day time, they carefully cover themselves from the light of the sun, believing that exposure to the sun's rays would “turn them black”; no salt or other condiment is used in the food; no chocolate is drunk, and even tobacco is forbidden. The second kind is similar, though less rigid than the first, and is voluntary; the same restrictions are observed with reference to fires and food, but the people may talk and go out, avoiding, however, carefully all chance of contact with bu-ku-ru'. The third is still more limited, and is the individual fast already referred to for cleansing from bu-ku-ru'.” (3). 2.10 Canoes/watercraft? These people use canoes to hunt fish (3). 3. Anthropometry 3.1 Mean adult height (m and f): Anthropometric data for this group proved hard to come by in the ethnographic record, but one source did include some measurements: “The following measurements taken from my servant, a full grown man, who is not more than an inch, if so much, under the average height, will give a fair idea of their build. He measures in height, 5 ft. 1½ in., circumference of chest, under the arms 35¾ inches; of hips 34 inches, of waist 33¼ inches, length from axilla to tips of the fingers, 24½ inches; leg, from the groin to the ground, 29 inches.” (3). 3.2 Mean adult weight (m and f): This is not mentioned in the ethnographic record. 4. Life History, mating, marriage 4.1 Age at menarche (f): Menarche typically occurs between the ages of 12 and 14 (2). 4.2 Age at first birth (m and f): Birth statistics (inter-birth interval, average age of parents at birth) are not covered in the ethnographic record. 4.3 Completed family size (m and f): No exact numbers are present in the ethnographic record. However, most sources provide a summary of the family along these lines: “Bribri-Cabécar children are welcome, and children of relatives are easily adopted, but, as with the Boruca, the traditional preference may have been for small families.” (2). 4.4 Inter-birth-interval (f): Birth statistics (inter-birth interval, average age of parents at birth) are not covered in the ethnographic record. 4.5 Age first marriage (m and f): Age at first marriage arrives with the onset of menarche in females (thus, on average between the ages of 12 and 14) (3). 4.6 Proportion of marriages ending in divorce: Either party can initiate divorce: “the marriage lasts as long as it suits the convenience of the parties. In case of infidelity on the part of the woman, or undue cruelty on the man's part, they may separate. Sometimes, if the woman is unfaithful, the man whips her severely, and perhaps returns her to her family, or she, in a fit of resentment, leaves him.

Load more

  7

Copy Link