Wayãpi - Marriage and Family

Marriage. Among all Wayãpi groups, preferential marriage is between cross cousins. For example, a female has two ideal spouses, mother's brother's son or father's sister's son, both called erne (my husband). In fact, 55 percent of present-day marriages respect this rule, a relatively high percentage considering the demographic crisis of the last 100 years. Following the logic of this system, levirate and sororate are also relatively common. Marriages take place without any particular ceremony and are arranged by parents according to kinship rules. Since the middle of the nineteenth century, there has been a marked tendency toward village endogamy, but when a surplus of marriageable girls is available, village groups try to grow through accretion, by attracting external sons-in-law as permanent residents. The future bride takes beverages to her intended, whereas he, in return, supplies her family with fish and game. This period of exchange may last several years if the bride is still very young. It ends when she takes her hammock and goes to live in the house of her parents-in-law. There are no strict rules of residence, and a year or two later, when the husband builds his own house, it may be located near that of his parents or that of his in-laws.

Female puberty rites are considered very important, for without them, a woman cannot hope for a good procreative life. Girls usually marry at about age 15 and boys at about age 20, but a number of marriages between young girls and much older men can still be observed.

Polygynous marriages exist but are uncommon, mostly owing to the demographic crisis. They are, nevertheless, well regarded. Divorce is almost unknown in older generations and is still very rare in younger ones. Although permitted, but it is recommended only in the case of female sterility.

Domestic Unit. Oral tradition recalls a past with collective houses ( tapui ), but for the last 150 years nuclear-family households have been the rule. Within a village, extended families tend to form a cluster of households all using the same manioc-processing house ( kulata letä ).

Inheritance. Wayãpi "own" sex-specific articles, such as bows and arrows (and today, shotguns) for men and cassava squeezers for women. Each sex avoids touching the possessions of the other. But no such rule holds for many domestic items, like knives, calabashes, or spoons. When a person dies, he or she is interred in a special burial place in the bush, where people are forbidden to go. Formerly, the deceased was ornately dressed, and the most prestigious of his belongings were buried with him. His house was abandoned, and possessions too large to go into the grave with him were destroyed. Today, however, new value has been placed on some of these goods: the high cost of such Western articles as shotguns and outboard motors has singled them out for collective family inheritance and use, and the settling process has given new value to the houses, which are reoccupied by kin or lent to foreign visitors. Only traditional burial rituals and sites are still respected, despite administrative pressure.

Socialization. Birth is an important affair among the Wayãpi, and there are numerous pre- and postnatal prescriptions, taboos, and rituals for father, mother, and the newborn infant. They are meant to insulate the baby from the dangerous spiritual forces of the natural world. Most prominent among these rituals are the couvade ( yekwaku ) for father and the moon-long seclusion for mother. With increasing medical assistance, evacuations for in-hospital deliveries have given rise to psychological traumas because hospital-born babies cannot be protected from these spiritual assaults. Infants enjoy constant physical contact with the mother and very often are not weaned until they are 3 or 4 years of age. This is followed by a period of fearsome autonomy, characterized by total liberty. Initiation to subsistence activities, crafts, and other knowledge and skills takes place only at the initiative of the child and never by invitation or pressure from an elders' directive; techniques are learned by imitating adult gestures, and knowledge is gained by listening silently to their talk. On the other hand, social codes, particularly kinship rules and obligations, are inculcated early, mainly by the mother's designating other community members by their kinship terms. Rebukes and corporal punishment are rare, but irony is a frequent resort. Today, there are schools for both the northern and southern groups, but not in all communities. Of these, only the Brazilian mission schools is bilingual (Portuguese/Wayãpi); all others teach in French or Portuguese. The high value placed on schooling in the 1970s is increasingly questioned by some parents.