article

Guajiro social structure: a reexamination

Antropológica / Sociedad de Ciencias Naturales La Salle20 • Published In 1967 • Pages: 3-36

By: Watson, Lawrence Craig.

Abstract
In this paper the author has attempted to show that Guajiro society, rather than being the relatively undifferentiated and uncomplicated entity suggested in the literature, is in reality articulated by a complex hierarchy of social groups encompassing the nuclear family, the matrilocal family, the minimal matrilineage, the maximal matrilineage, and the matrilineal sib. Each of these groups performs a different configuration of institutional activities although there is some overlapping of particular functions. The nuclear family is a domestic unit which produces, distributes, and consumes basic resources like food, clothing, and shelter and educates children; the matrilocal extended family represents an extension of these functions, and it is also an agent of mutual aid and support; the minimal lineage is the unit in which property is transferred and where mutual defense and support are given, and where primary collective responsibility is taken for individual actions; the maximal lineage is the unit of political and military functions as well as the vested owner of natural resources such as pasturelands and wells; and finally, the matri-sib is a group whose members share a common name, a 'totemic' animal and spiritual ties, but does not itself have corporate functions (p. 33).
Subjects
Lineages
Clans
Family relationships
Nuclear family
Extended families
Community heads
Residence
Ethnoanatomy
Ethnophysiology
Avuncular and nepotic relatives
culture
Goajiro
HRAF PubDate
2012
Region
South America
Sub Region
Northwestern South America
Document Type
article
Evaluation
Creator Type
Ethnologist
Document Rating
4: Excellent Secondary Data
5: Excellent Primary Data
Analyst
John Beierle; 2011
Field Date
no date
Coverage Date
not specified
Coverage Place
Venezuela, South America
Notes
Lawrence C. Watson
Includes bibliographical references (p. 34-36)
LCCN
65004908
LCSH
Goajiro Indians