Book
The Trumaí Indians of central Brazil
J. J. Augustin • Locust Vally, N.y. • Published In 1955 • Pages: xii,108
By: Murphy, Robert Francis, Quain, Buell H. (Buell Halvor).
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This brief but well organized monograph on the Trumaí Indians of the Upper Xingu River area in Brazil is a posthumous analysis and interpretation of Quain's field notes of 1938 by an equally competent fellow anthropologist, Murphy. It contains keen analyses of the personality, ethos, life cycle, and interpersonal attitude and behavior of the Trumaí, and adequate but less extensive accounts of their material culture and religion. This source mainly relies on the data gathered by intensive participant observation techniques but is also supplemented by library research of Murphy. Although Quain did not learn the Trumaí language until he reached the field and could not therefore use systematic interview techniques to gather his data, his keen perception, sophisticated observation techniques, and cordial relations with the natives resulted in interesting and seemingly reliable data on psycho-cultural aspects of the Trumaí people. Both Quain and Murphy frequently comment on possible bias of their data when there was any doubt about its reliability as well as on the natives' reactions to the ethnographer, which are helpful in interpreting data. This is one of the few sources available on the Trumaí, a disappearing culture, and may be the best on the social structure of the Trumaí.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Tillage
- Vegetable production
- Fishing
- Community structure
- Community heads
- Settlement patterns
- Collecting
- Dwellings
- Weapons
- Normal garb
- Inter-ethnic relations
- Regulation of marriage
- Exchange transactions
- Labor and leisure
- Real property
- Extended families
- Nuclear family
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Trumai
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2010
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- South America
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Amazon and Orinoco
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- Book
- 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.
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Hesung Chun Koh ; 1965
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1938
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1884-1955
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Trumaí village, Culuene (Kuluene) river and general headwaters of the Xingu, central Mato Grosso state, Brazil
- NotesAdditional notes
- [by] Robert F. Murphy and Buell Quain
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 107-108)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 57001091
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Trumaí Indians/Indians of South America--Brazil