The Cubeo: Indians of the Northwest Amazon

Goldman, Irving

Book

The Cubeo: Indians of the Northwest Amazon

University of Illinois Press • (2) • Published In 1963 • Pages: x, 305

By: Goldman, Irving.

Abstract
This book was written after ten months' field work among the Cubeo (a Tucano subgroup living on the Vaupés River) during the years 1939-1940. The author was 'adopted' into the household of the headman of the Bahúkiwa sib, and much of the data presented pertains to this sib. At the time of Goldman's study, there were about 2500 Cubeo left with outside acculturative influences at a minimum, but since that time with the wartime rubber boom and with increased missionizing and colonizing activities, the population has dropped to around the 1000 mark, with the younger generation rapidly becoming acculturated. Emphasis in this work is on social structure and ceremonial patterns, with the remainder of the source providing a framework for the author's analysis. There is an introductory chapter on the Cubeo community, followed by chapters on economic life, the sib, kinship and marriage, leadership and authority, development of the individual, the ancestor cult, the mourning ceremony and religion. The introduction presents data on the general physical and cultural characteristics of the Northwest Amazon region, with a survey of its principal tribes. The final chapter presents his structural analysis of Cubeo society in which he attempts to depict not only what is Cubeo in content, but also to lay the bases for two successively broader typological characterizations, the tropical forest economics of South America as a whole, and 'simple' horticultural economics in general.

Fishing

Vegetable production

Settlement patterns

Visiting and hospitality

HRAF PubDate

1998

Region