Krikati/Pukobye - Settlements

Krikati and Pukobye, as do all Timbira, position their houses in a circle, with a front door facing the village center and a rear door toward the cookyard area and bush. Multiple villages and even double rings of houses are said by them to have once existed in each of these tribes. In this century, no more than three villages have been known to exist at the same time. One is the principal village, which houses the majority of the population and in which the community ceremonies take place. Both tribes prefer places that are higher in elevation than the surrounding countryside and relatively clear of vegetation. In historic times they have chosen sites far from large rivers and, since midcentury, they have had easy access to roads. The relative placement of houses and their residents is an indicator of social and political alignments—as people's situations change, houses are rearranged to conform to the new social reality. In about 1970 government agents were stationed permanently in the main villages, and a set of special-purpose buildings surrounded by barbed wire (the agent's residence, a clinic/nurse's residence, a school, and a store) were erected. These make up a large arc of the village inner circle; from the time of their construction a double ring of houses has existed. In Krikati and Pukobye house building there is now more emphasis on adobe and mud-brick walls in place of frond.