Mashco - Settlements



All Mashco groups favor the large communal dwelling, which houses a group of nuclear families that are related to each other by kinship. The house has an elliptic form, with an entrance at each end. The two entrances are connected by a central corridor on whose sides families arrange themselves on their platforms. The size of the dwelling is approximately 30 meters in length by 10 in width. Some fifteen nuclear families, with about eighty members, could find room in such a house. In it the most important social events took place, like the Amaracaeri male-initiation ceremonies or the Wachipaeri and Zapiteri feasts at which masato (a fermented drink brewed from sweet manioc) is consumed.


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