article
Guajiro social structure: a reexamination
Antropológica / Sociedad de Ciencias Naturales La Salle • 20 • 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).
- 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