Culina

ETHNONYMS: Kulina, Madiha, Madija

Orientation

Identification. The origin of the name "Culina" is unknown; it was already in use in the 1860s when William Chandless became the first English explorer to penetrate their region. The term may have combined the Culina with a distinct Panoan group called the "Kolina." The Culina refer to themselves as "Madiha" (people) and distinguish seventy or more subgroups, usually by an animal name such as the "Pitsi Madiha" (pitsi -monkey people) or the "Kurubu Madiha" (kurubu -fish people).

Location. Most of the Culina live in villages scattered along the rivers of the Purus-Juruá region of western Brazil, from about 7° to 10° S and 70° to 73° W. The upper Purus and its affluent, the Rio Chandless, are the southern limit of their area, and the Rio Juruá is the northern limit. There are two Culina villages on the Peruvian side of the upper Purus. It appears that, prior to their movement into this region, they may have lived in the area around the current town of Taruacá, but the Culina believe that they may have migrated from the region around the city of Manaus.

Demography. The total Culina population is difficult to establish but appears to be no more than about 3,000 individuals. Of these, approximately 2,500 live in Brazil, and perhaps 500 or fewer live in Peru.

Linguistic Affiliation. The Culina speak an Arawak language closely related to that spoken by the Deni. There are minor dialect variations among subgroups.

History and Cultural Relations

The prehistory of Arawakan Indians is hotly debated; their homeland has been identified variously as the Orinoco Basin and as the area between the Ucayali and Madre de Dios rivers. According to one theory, the original Arawakan speakers lived near the present city of Manaus about 3000 b.c. and moved up the Amazon River and, ultimately, up the Juruá and Purus rivers under pressure from the TupíGuaraní groups moving up the Amazon from the east. In the absence of archaeological research, little can be said of the prehistory specifically of the Culina.

The Culina were already in the Purus-Juruá region by the early nineteenth century and are mentioned as being there by the explorer Castelnau and by the naturalist Bates in the 1850s. During this period the Culina lived in the forest and avoided the rivers; Chandless did not meet any Culina during his ascent of the Purus in the 1860s, but reported that they were feared by the local riverine groups. Culina ethnohistory includes references to a recent past in the deep forest, without canoes; elderly Culina still remember these villages from the early part of the twentieth century. It appears that the Culina first avoided contact with rubber tappers who entered the region in the late nineteenth century but ultimately were attracted to the major riverways by the availability of sugar, metal tools, guns, and other Brazilian manufactured goods.

By the early decades of the twentieth century the priest and linguist Constant Tastevin had found some Culina working for rubber tappers, performing the harder manual labor around rubber-tapping camps, and hunting game for the rubber tappers. This contact with Brazilians proved dramatically destructive for the Culina, who were subjected to virtual slavery, torture, and murder. In common with other indigenous Amazonian peoples, the Culina also suffered severely from infectious diseases brought by non-Indians; as early as 1877 a measles epidemic decimated a large group of Culina on the Rio Juruá, and a similar epidemic struck as late as 1950, killing most of the young children and older Culina in the village of Cupichaua on the upper Purus.

The Culina have continued to work for rubber tappers and farmers along the rivers, although several groups have resisted extensive contact with non-Culina. Among the former, and in particular among groups living along the Juruá and Envira rivers, there is considerable contact with Brazilians and partial reliance on the local Brazilian economy. At the frontiers of Culina expansion, for example on the upper Purus, there is but occasional contact with non-Indians. In such areas missionaries are the primary Culina contacts with non-Indians: the Summer Institute of Linguistics (a Protestant group) has been active in the Peruvian village called San Bernardo, and the Brazilian Catholic mission, the Conselho Indigenista Missionário, has been active on the Brazilian Purus, Envira, and Juruá rivers. The Culina are struggling to have their territories demarcated officially as indigenous areas (areas indígenas ) to guarantee their exclusive access to and use of these lands. The large area comprising the villages along the upper Rio Purus has already been established as the Area Indígena Alto Purus, and other territories are in the process of being demarcated.

Settlements

It appears that until the end of the nineteenth century the Culina built their villages deep in the forests between the major waterways of their territory. These villages consisted of a single, large structure, similar in design to an A-frame: two sloping roofs that extended to the ground in the classic maloca (longhouse) style. Inside these structures, family members occupied discrete sections, forming two rows of family areas along the two sides of the house. The central space inside the structure was used for rituals and other communal activities. The population of these malocas is difficult to determine, but could have been as large as 300 individuals or more.

The movement to the river banks produced changes in settlement patterns. Individual extended families built separate houses raised about 1 meter from the ground in the Brazilian style and consisting of a single enclosed room for sleeping, with an open, roofed platform in front for social gatherings and a small attached platform for cooking. These houses are built in two rows parallel to the river, and are essentially modeled on the pattern of family areas in the aboriginal malocas. Currently, large villages may have 150 to 200 residents, but smaller settlements may consist of a single extended family of as few as 8 or 10 individuals. The Culina prefer the larger villages, calling the two parallel rows of houses a "complete" village.

Economy

Subsistence and Commercial Activities. The Culina practice shifting slash-and-burn horticulture, which they supplement with hunting, fishing, and gathering. The most important crops are sweet manioc, bananas, and plantains. The most common animals hunted are collared peccaries, tapir, and deer. Fishing is an important source of protein when "real meat" is unavailable, and a wide range of wild fruits and vegetables provides considerable variety in the diet. Some Culina work for small-scale rubber-tapping operations or farms, where they earn money to purchase manufactured goods such as knives, metal pots, soap, shotguns, and ammunition, as well as sugar and salt. More isolated Culina earn small amounts of money by tapping rubber trees of their own or by selling or trading meat to Brazilian boats that sometimes pass by villages. Catholic missionaries in the region have encouraged the Culina to produce traditional handicrafts for sale, such as featherwork, hammocks, baby slings, and carved wooden figures. As yet these produce only small amounts of money. Overall, the Culina continue to maintain a largely subsistence economy; surpluses are small and irregular.

Industrial Arts. The Culina make a variety of craft items, including canoes and paddles, clay pots, and bows and arrows. Women are adept spinners and weavers of native cotton, producing hammocks and baby slings; they also weave baskets of palm fibers. Having become skillful seamstresses, women make almost all the clothes worn by their families. There is no metal or stone in the region, and the Culina have no traditional crafts using these materials.

Trade. Little trade appears to take place among the indigenous groups in this region. The Culina trade actively with Brazilians for manufactured items, however. Buying and selling are less common than barter: latex, meat, and traditional crafts are traded for manufactured goods.

Division of Labor. Men's and women's roles are sharply distinguished among the Culina. Men clear land for gardening, but women tend gardens and harvest their products. Men hunt to provide raw meat and fish, which women cook. Men serve as shamans and ritual leaders. Women's roles are thought of as domestic, located within the household or within the village and its immediate environs, whereas men's roles are thought of as extravillage, performed in the forest (as in hunting) or in the world of the spirits (as in shamanism). Men and women tend not to share the proceeds of their handicrafts or trade. For example, women who make feather ornaments or hammocks will trade them for metal pots that they consider their own property, and their husbands will trade latex or meat for, say, knives or shotgun ammunition that they consider their own.

Land Tenure. The Culina Madiha groups traditionally occupied more or less distinct areas, and any member of the group's village had access to land for horticulture and hunting. Gardens were owned by the senior adult man of the extended family, who acquired rights to the land by clearing it. Villages were moved perhaps every five to ten years, when new gardens had to be cleared farther away than people cared to walk. Today, under pressure from Brazilian settlers, many Culina groups are restricted to single, much smaller areas. Under Brazilian law these groups have exclusive rights to their traditional lands, but Brazil's National Indian Foundation (Fundação Nacional do Índio, FUNAI) has been slow to designate these areas. Like all indigenous Brazilian peoples, the Culina are technically wards of the Brazilian government.

Kinship

Kin Group and Descent. The Madiha subgroups comprise bilateral kindreds, within which everyone is said to be related by ties of kinship, and the subgroup is normatively the widest extension of kinship. Marriage outside the Madiha subgroup results in the extension of kinship ties to individuals in other subgroups, but these ties rarely last for more than one or two generations. Subgroups are associated with geographical areas, but lack any other corporate characteristics. Descent per se is not reckoned by the Culina; membership in Madiha groups, for example, is determined by filiation and residence.

Kinship Terminology. Culina kin terminology divides kin into two groups, parallel kin and cross kin. Nonkin may be incorporated under cross-kin terms.

Marriage and Family

Marriage. Marriage is preferentially between cross cousins within the same Madiha group, that is, between individuals who are cross kin of the same generation. Cross kin of approximately equal age but different generations may also marry. Marriage is normally monogamous, but occasional polygynous marriages are found. Postmarital residence is uxori-neolocal for husbands; the couple initially lives in the wife's natal household but is expected to move into its own by the birth of a third child. Divorce is fairly common and simple; either the husband or the wife may move out of the household and take a new spouse. Aside from elderly individuals who are cared for by adult children, all Culina adults are expected to be married. The Culina attribute this to the critical domestic and economic tasks performed by each spouse in a system with a sharp division of labor.

Domestic Unit. The typical domestic unit is an extended family household of three generations, including the senior male and female heads of the household, their daughters, daughters' husbands and children, and unmarried sons.

Inheritance. The Culina do not specify rules of inheritance. Personal property is buried with a deceased individual or is distributed among village members.

Socialization. After infancy, children join same-sex groups to engage in play that models adult roles. Young boys make tiny bows and arrows to hunt small rodents and lizards; young girls make small cooking fires and play at domestic games. By early adolescence girls have begun to assist adult women with daily tasks and their skill at these is monitored by the parents of adolescent boys. Adolescent boys are taught to be "wild" and uncontrollable; this allows them to sharpen their hunting skills and also excuses their constant mischief making. Adults are indulgent and punishment of children is extremely rare.

Sociopolitical Organization

Social Organization. The Culina describe their villages as organized around a group of siblings, their spouses, children, and children's children. All village members are felt to be related by ties of kinship, and for each individual the village may be further divided into two groups: parallel kin related by metaphorical "sibling" ties and cross kin related as "affines." Roles are not highly differentiated, except by gender.

Political Organization. The village is the broadest political unit, although villages sometimes join together in political action. Village leadership is vested in a senior man who holds this position as long as he can effectively maintain the support of the village; he leads by his personal power, not by any formal authority. Within villages there are often two or more political factions that may clear gardens or hunt in separate areas and that may have distinct leaders. Factions can emerge when two groups of senior adult siblings form a single village, and, ultimately, village fissioning occurs along these lines. Brazilian policy allows the Culina to maintain their traditional political system, but FUNAI has made efforts to designate a single, "official" headman, or tuxawa.

Social Control and Conflict. Day-to-day social control is maintained by a strong feeling that the close kin who comprise a village should live harmoniously, avoiding overt conflict. Gossip and fear of accusations of witchcraft also discourage antisocial behavior. Physical violence may be punished by banishment from the village. Nonetheless, social stress, anger, and tensions occur in the normal course of life. From time to time, Culina men drink small amounts of a Brazilian rum, cachaça, and, under its influence, become extremely aggressive and bellicose; open fighting occurs and serious injuries may be inflicted. In these cases, drunkenness reduces the personal responsibility of the individuals involved. Intervillage conflict has become rare but occasionally follows accusations of witchcraft.

Religion and Expressive Culture

Religious Beliefs. Traditional belief is in animal spirits who are collectively known as tokorime. A culture hero, Kira, lives in the sky above the clouds, whereas animal spirits live in the underground world called nami budi. Tokorime spirits include most animals known to the Culina plus a variety of other, monstrous tokorime who populate the forest. Kira is considered remote; having created the Culina, he retreated to the sky and has no more contact with this world. Protestant missionaries in Peru identify Kira with God but consider the tokorime satanic; a few Peruvian Culina profess to be Christian, but the Culina as a whole retain their traditional religious beliefs.

Religious Practitioners. Shamans are active in curing rituals and when a death occurs; they call white-lipped peccaries from the nami budi to the forest for hunting. Shamans are always men, and, traditionally, all adult men were shamans. Shamans may also be accused of witchcraft, particularly by members of other villages.

Ceremonies. Ceremonies are conducted in the dry season, roughly from April to September. The largest ceremony centers around drinking and then vomiting up large quantities of a fermented manioc beverage. This ceremony ritualizes themes of hunting versus horticulture and male versus female economic roles. Shamans also conduct curing rituals during the dry season, nighttime ceremonies in which the witchcraft substance causing a person's illness is sucked out of the body. Although the Culina say that formal rituals are only held during the dry season, rainy-season hunting is done collectively, and a brief ceremony of meat distribution follows.

Arts. The Culina make feather ornaments, necklaces and bracelets of small seeds or beads (when available), and woven cotton arm bands. Adolescent boys make small flutes. Singing is an important component of all rituals.

Medicine. A variety of leaves are used for minor cuts, scratches, aches, or pains; leaves said to "smell good" are thought to be curative. More serious illness is the result of a substance called dori injected into the victim's body by a witch. It can only be extracted by a shaman, who uses tobacco to induce trance, becomes transformed into a spirit, and sucks out the harmful dori. The Culina also turn to Brazilian medications if they are available but do not consider Brazilian medications effective against witchcraft-induced illness.

Death and Afterlife. Death occurs when the soul, korime, leaves the body. A shaman ritually leads the soul to the underworld, where it enters a village much like its former earthly home but populated by white-lipped peccaries. A ceremony is held for the soul, during which it is eaten by, and then transformed into, a white-lipped peccary. These peccaries are later called back up into the forest, where they are hunted, eaten, and finally transformed back into living Culina in a cycle of death and "rebirth." A witch who is killed in revenge will not be conducted to the underworld. The witch's soul wanders the forest for several days, and is finally eaten by a jaguar, into which it is transformed. Because the Culina do not eat jaguars, the soul is never reincarnated again.

Bibliography

Adams, Patricia (1962). "Textos culina." Folklore Americano 10:93-222.

Pollock, Donald (1984). "Looking for a Sister: Culina Siblingship and Affinity." In Sibling Retoionships in Lowland South America. Working Papers on Lowland South American Indians, no. 7. Bennington, Vt.: Bennington College.

Ruf, Isabell (1984). "Le 'dutsee tui' chez les indiens culina du Perou." Bulletin de la Société Suisse des Américanistes 36:73-80.

DONALD K. POLLOCK