article
Acquiring status in Guajiro society
Anthropological quarterly • 33 • Published In 1960 • Pages: 115-127
By: Santa Cruz, Antonio.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This work is based on field research undertaken by the author, a professional anthropologist, during a twenty-six day trip to the Goajira Peninsula in august and September of 1958. The author shows in this study how the acquisition of social, economic and political status in Goajiro society differs from its traditional form, based on a cattle oriented economy, compared to the present-day method of acquiring such status. As an illustration of the above, two case histories are presented showing the traditional means of obtaining a position of high status and prestige in the clan organization of the society, one through the inheritance of such a position, and the other through appointment to leadership by a council of elders. These are then contrasted to the case history of a modern Goajiro who obtained a ranking political post in the society through his own efforts and irrespective of clan organization. This illustrates clearly how leadership and its attendant status roles may be attained today without affiliation with any clan—a definite break with the traditions of the past.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Life history materials
- Status, role, and prestige
- Polygamy
- Community heads
- Clans
- Manipulative mobility
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Goajiro
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2012
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- South America
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Northwestern South America
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- article
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- John Beierle ; 1961: John Beierle; 2011
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1958
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1958
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Guajira Peninsula, Colombia and Venezuela, South America
- NotesAdditional notes
- Antonio Santa Cruz
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 127)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 32029126
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Goajiro Indians