I

ui..
,

,~rA~

,~

...

V-

~OO~r~.~~iW

,1~80.

'"['he Social Skin

Mt\N

1:- l.ll jl(N

NAKEl> but is everywhere

III

dOlhes

(or Iheir aym-

bdlic l:'1ll1V.lIClllS). We call1lot tell how thil. came to be, but we about why iI.hould be so and what it mean . Ikcor.lllllf:h...~!_lyE!}lIg. 1J1\('(lv('rillfi (Ir nll\l'l'\~ise ~~!!CI:~I~K._t-'!.t~ 1:11111.111 k'lll~ ill' aCt:Ol dillH..C \\ilh ~Oli.ll /lotiulIS of everyday jll Upl iel)' or san'cd dress, l.ll:auly or solemnity, status or
C.III ;:,.1 Ysomething \ ll.ll'~\;:' in stallls. or 011 occasion of theviolation~ndin\lcrsion ~.~~.~I,~_t~J2~!!2.!!.s, sc~~;~~to-};-a~:e'i;~~~~ ~-~;~l ~~;n c~~ry-Ill"l'man',0, i"ty uf '..hidl wc have knowledge This objectively universal t.!, t i:-. ".",i.lll:d with another of a fIIo~e subjective nature \ 1.i..1t ~. ~till.II~~ olJ!!E.!>.~Y seems c.:verywhere t~be treatc~ not \ (t.l) .1:' die boulld.uy of Ihe individual as. a (biologicjll and I !'~)\ !'l""il.d l'nlily but as the fWlllier ofthe\sociahaf~s well. \~ tli.,,, 1,,0 l:IItilies are quite dilfarot, and h-ciiltur~s differ

of

---,---_

._---~.~-_._~.--,-.,.-.-;";,,.~-"'~"""~~,.,.:!.._."----'-'-',

il. II:. W..I) S 111n' ddine bOlh, the relation between the~ ! ,.I/lull.Hie. '1'1,,: proolems involved, howc;~;'-;;:;' (.'.<;:, ,; j.1l .ill ~ociclics lIIust solve in one way or another, because "I" ,Ii dl<':~(,"Ilklll m\l~t rest ~!()<:ic;t~'s.\\,aY~.c>f '~o"iali~ing' Il,,!i'llbl!ds, lhal is, uf integrating them into the societies to' \\lilll. the) t.dllll~, lIu[ ollly as children but throughout their ll,\'s. Tilt Sur!;'lq; of the body, as the 'cornmon frontier of ~,,,illy, Il,,- SUll.d :.ell', ~;~(f the p:.ydlQ-oiological individu.ll. lo'l '!~=-'I~?Jb.~_~LIlll lU.~I'.:>lagel~pyn wh ich.t!!.e~~a.ll1a of SiJCi~lis.a_I.('-!!_'2~!'~t-:d,.. \lId Lodily adorument (in all its ~ulturally m\lllrl(arlo(.;\ 1!lIIlIS, frum b(~ay.pall\ting 10 clothing and from feather neild<!l e~sn 10 cosmetics) becomes the J.~!~Ji~ throuch which if is u.pns;:,ed. The adornment J.IIJ public prt~t'lliation of the body, how~ inconsequCll:i.ill'l I:\,("nfl ivoluus ii Lu~illl::ili it.p~y apEcar to 15 'O.I~~~~lI . s a sl.:.~iuu:;matlrl: Jt la Li.: Ji,jmJl, as ~ .
. I':l )
I,

illd.i)

individuals.,

:\ Ama.wnian Kayi1.P0 tribc:;man, wearing a lip-plug of b' "unt! .IIlJ p"li,llt:u rock crystal:,oaltc:nds tQ the eoiffur(~ 01 clllUlhcr, ~b.\\'i".~ IllS L.lil' 10 ..I pi/illt al Iht: crown. The hcaddrl's~ will h.H l'1I 1'1ll01l1.d ;fJr.lti,jIlS of fcathl'rs and' oth"r colllull'ul J.d'lIIlIlHIJ{~. (.\l.Ul fi;l.hisOI\ Library)

Durlhcil!l said of religion. Wilde observed that the feeling of1 being in harmony with the fashion gives a man a measure of :'.>l'lurity he rarely daives from hili rdigion. The seriousness with whid, we t.tke questions of dr<"ssand appearance is bell'.lyed by the way we regard not taking them seriously as an iudex, dther of a 'serious' disposition or of serious psychological problems. As Lord Chesterfield remarked: Dn:ss is a very foolish thing; and yet it is a very foolish thing for a man not to be well dressed, accolding to his rank and w..Iyof life; ilnd it is so far from hring a dbpara~emcnlto any man's understanding, that it is rather a proof ofil. to be as well drcssed as thosc whom he lives with: the dilTerenee in this Ci\:'.>e, between a lIlall of sense ilnd a fop, is, that the fop vallll'S himsdfupon his drelts; and the llIan of sense laughs at it, .Itthe same time that hc knows that he must not neglect il/ (cited in Bell 1949, p. 13). 'lhe IIIUlttsignificant point of this passage is 1101the cxplicit ..Is:icrtion that a man of sense should Iegard dress with a mixtulC of t.:ontcmpt and attentiveness, but the implidt claim that by dlJill~ so, and thus maint~inillg his appearance in a way (ullllMtible with 'those he lives with', he defines himself as a Illoln llf ~l:lIse. The uneasy ambi\'at~D,~~.Efl~.e~~D".2I~~tl~e. ::.!~L~~' c~)nsi_s!.~i!!.Q!~~E!!,i nlLtga.E!,~Jj.!"~J~.!!gh!.U,

::~i:; \;:1~~~~~~J~~i~~'~\~~i17i~~1:s t~~l~~~~:I~\~~~y ::

lIeither understand 1101'cuntrol: is not only (he necessary meJium through which we communicate our s0cial status, attiludes. desires, beliefs and idt:als (in short. our identities) to uthns, but also to a laq~e extent COI~tilut~~~cs.!=,,!9~1~!.!.!L<:.s, in '\'..IY~ with which we are cumpelkd to callfurlll regardless of our ,~df.collsciouslless or eWIl uur COli tempt. Drt'~s and bodily riduillmnit COllstitute one such cultural medium, perhaps the 1 \tIlC must :E.~~.discd in the st~ins ~.I~~.':.~~1i~~_,!~_~~~.i~):~, of ~l ~ulI.d <lIldso~ial identi..!Y. ,?~.-

"po .11 e a Il.ltive tribe of the S,HHhl:11lburdets of the AIlI.1WIl fort:sl. They live' in widdy SL',lltered villages which f11.,! ..lI.lin pn\Jul.ltiollS ofst:\'lT.d hUlldrcd. The ccollomy is a
K..I)

nil'

mixture offorest horticulture, and hunting and gathering. The social organisation of the villages is based on a, relatively complex system of institutions. ,"which are. clearly de~lIed ~n~ uniform for the population as a whole. 1 he baSiC soctal unit IS the extended family household, in which residence is based on the principle that men must leave their maternal households as boys and go to live in the households of their wives upon marriage. In between they live as bachel.ors in a 'men's housc', generally built in the centre of thedrcular village plaza, round the edges of which arc r:lI\gcd the 'women's houses' (as till' extended family households are called). Womell, on the other hand remain from birth to death in the households into which they are born. 'n,c KClyapo possess a quite c1aboraH' code of what (oull! Ill' c4llled 'drcss'. 4l fact which might (:scapc notice by .1 C;ISlIolI. Westcrn observer because it docs not involve the use 01 clothing. A well turned out adult Kay.lpo lIIale, with his I..Iq;e lower-lip plug (a saucer-like disc some six centinll:trcs acro~s), penis sheath (a small cone made of palm leaves covering the glans pfnis), large holes pierced through the eM lulll) fl dill which hang small strings of beads, overall budy paint in red and black patterns, plucked eyebrows, eyelashes ;1110fMial hair, and head shaved to a point at the CroWIi,\ ilh the hair left long at the sides and back, could on the other h.wL! hardly k.lve lhe most insensitive traveller with the impression that bodily adornment is a neglected art among the Kay.q)(). Then: arl:. however. very few Western ohservers, including anthropologists. who have ever taken the trouble to go beyond the superficial recording of such exotic paraphcl'llaliJ. to inq uirc \ into the system of meanings and values which it c\,o!-.Ls for its ;'''4--wearers. A closer look at Kappa bodily adornment disdoses / v that the apparently naked savage is as fully cO\'efcdin a fabric of cultural meaning as the most daboratd)' dl<lpl'd Victorian lady or gentleman. The first point that should be made about K~yapo IlDtions of 0) propriety in bodily appearanct" is the import.lnce ofck.l1llincss. All Kayapo bathe at leas~ once a day, Tu he dirty, .lnd e~pecially to allow traccs of meat, blUI)d \lr olher anilll.d substances or food to remain on the skin, is cllllsi(krld nOl Illerely slovenly or dirt)' but activdy i\l1ti-slJci.d. 11 IS, nllll"O\'I'f,

N
I\J.

P'nvv."re-

{::.$>'/~ :

.k. l",..- v" ",-t 'tv, e)~g; \j.L-<-~'r~

d.lllgC:fUl1S to the health of the unwalihed person. 'Health' is Wllcdvcd ali a state offull and proper integrationint~ial world, while illness is conceived in terms of the encroachment DIII,llural, a~ticularly animal forces upon the domain of social relationli. Cleanliness, al the removal of all 'natural' excrescence from the surface of the body, is thus the essential hrst :.tcp in 'sndalising' the interface between sclfand society, t~lIlbodic:din .~:lOc . ete terms by the skin. The removal of facial .Hld blJdil~~) carr~t:s out this Sclme fundamental pdnciple of 11.lIIsfoflnlng the skan from a mere 'natural' envelope of the ~ l'hY:>I~,.&I body into a 50rt of liodal filter, ble to contain within a s;)~lal form the biological fon:Cll and libidinal energies that lie beneath, The mention of bodily hair leads on to a consideration of the lrt,ltnH:nt of the hair of the head. The principles that govern wilrurc are consistent with the general notions of cleanliness. hygiene. and 1I0ciaiity, but are considerably more developed, and .H.cord with those features of the head-hair which the Kayapo emphasise as setting it apart from bodily hair (it is ,'Veil called by a dilTercnt name), H.lir, like :iI-in, is a 'natural' pall of the surface of the body, but unlike skin it continually gruws outwards, erupting from lhe body into the social space ~)eyond it. Inside the body, bllll~<\th the skin, it is alive and growing; outside, beyond lhe :.\..ill it is dead and without s(~nsation, although }.ts growth m.l1lifcslS the unsocialiscd Liological forces within{fhc hair of the head thus focuses the dynamic and unstable Quality of the [lUllti,or lid"n'n tht~'natural'. hiolibidil\(l\ls Corn's (If the inlln body .lIIJ tht: eXlcrna~e of sodal relations. In this Conlel\.l, hairolTas ilsdfas a symbol oflhe ifbidinal energies of the self .~nd uf dH.:. never.e.ndi~g strug~le to constrain within aC~tplablc '- l.jflns thell eruption 1OtOSOCialspace. . So important is this symbolic function of hair as a focus oCthe sllll.t1isillg function, not only among the Kayapo but among Cnltlal Bratilian tribes in general, that variations in coiffur~ J) lI;&v(: Ot:come the principal visible means of distinguishing one II lI)l' fl(Jlll anuther. Each people hall its own distinctive hair:>lylc,which st.lnds as the emblem of its own culture and social lllllllllllOity (and as such, in its own eyes. il11' the highestlevcl of ~u(\.lIilY to have been attained by hUlTldnity). The Kayapu
, I

tribal coiffure, used by both men and women, consists of shaving the hair above the fon~head upward~ to a point at the crown, leaving the hair long at the back and sides of the head (unle!'s the individual belongs to one of the special cate~ories of people who wear their hair cut short, as described below). Men may tease up a little widow's peak at the point of the triangular shaved area. The sides of this area arc elten painted in black with bands of geometrical patterns. Certain categoJics of people in Kayapu sodety ",rc privileged to wear their hair long. Others mUlit keep it ClIt short. Nursing infants, women who have borne children, and men who have received their penis sheaths and have bten through initiatillll (that is, those who have been socially certified as able to carry on sexual relations) wear their hair long, Children and adolescents of both sexes (girls from weaning to childbirth. boys h'U1ll weaning to initiation) and those mourning the death of tl member of their immediate family (for example, a spouse, sibling or child) have their hair cut short. To understand this social distribution OflOllg and ~horl hair it is necessary to comprehend Kayapo notions about the nature offamily relations. Parents are thought to be ('onlll'nnllO their children, and siblings to one another, by a tic that gu('s lkl'l)l'f than a mere social or emotional bonel. This tit~is imali.!ncd a:. ,l ~ort of !E!t~u~! continuCltioll ofth~ C()I!.llll~II~, eh)'sical substa,~('e'~ that they lIhare through conception .tlld thc womb, This relation of biological participation lasts throughout life out is b.ro~en by death. The death of a person's child or sibling thl!~ directly di~~~ ..his or her own biological being and l'nergil's. AlthQllbh spouses lad. the inhinsic biologic.lllin\( of blood rdations, their sexual relalionship constitutes a 'natural' procreative, libidinal community that is its counterpart. In as much as both sorts of biological relationship are cut 011'by death, cutl~ns: off tile ha~~, concei.ved as thc.ex!,~~~i(~I:~~~lCbiological Energy of the self mto SOCialslMce, IS the symhollc,lIly appropriate response to the death of a spouse as well as il child. The same concrete logic .accounts for the treatment of childrcn's hair. While a child is still nursing it is still as it wcrc an extension of the biological being and energies ufits parents, dnd above all, at this stage, the mother. In these terllls nursing constitutes a kind of external and attenuated final stage of,
t J .

pregnancy. ,\' caning is the decisive moment of the 'birth' of the child as a scparate biological and social being. Thus nursing illf.UllS' hair is never cut, and is left to grow a. long as that of sexually active adults: infants at this stage "" lIil1 the extensions of the biological and sexual being of their long-haired parents. CUllin the infant's hair at the onset of wean in aptly symbolises the severance 0 thiS Io-sexua contmulty or, as we would say, its repression). Henceforth, the child's hair remains shon as a sign of its biolo~ical !cE~ation from its parents, on lhe one hand. ~~,~U!!~.~ndcvdoped state of its own bio-sexual powers on the other. When these become strong enough to be socially extended, through sexual intercourse and procreation, as the basis of a new family, the hair is once again allowed to grow to fullicnglh. For men this point is considered to arrive at puberty, and specifically with the bestowal of a penis sheath; \\hich is ideally soon followed by initialion (a symbolic 'marriage' which signals marriageability, or 'bachelorhood', rather than being a binding union in and of itself). The discl'I~pallcy in the timing of thc rClUrn to long hair for the two sexes reflects a fundamel1lal difference in Kayapo Ilotionll of their respective social roles. 'Society' is epitomised for the Kayapo by the system of.~mun~l s~iE!ies~~:.~.~ge~ ~!~C.<:~l!~~c! on t!,lellIen'stl~uS~, These collective organisallons .He primarily a male domain. as their association with the IIICII'Shouse suggests. although wOlllcn have cerl~lin soCieties of lheir own. The communal societies are ddincd in terrns of the criteria for recruitment, and this is always defined as a corollary of some imporlant transformation in family or household structure (such as a boy's movin~ out of his maternal family household to the mcn's house, marriage. the birth of children, etc.). These transformations in family relations are themselves a~~ocialed Wilh key points in the process of growth and seAual dl:vdopmenl. . The strudurc of communal groups, then, constitutes a sort of ~llciological mechanism for reproducing, not only itself but the ; Slrlll'lUrC of the extended family households that form the lowCf /Vl.-~J level or persollal Iophere of Kayapo sodal organisation. This : CUlllmlln,d institutional s_~r~!I:.~r..eJ. ou the <>ther hand, is itself 1 ddincd ill tCflns ._Q.LI!!~._v.~!~~lJ.s_.~la~_,2r..J.b...<: __ ~.l!::~t.~~~~1_ i lkydoprnClIlllfmen (and to a much lcslicr eXlent. women). :\11

this comes down to the proposition that men reproduce society through the transformation. of their 'natura,l' biolugical and libidinal powers into collective social form. This conception can be found elaborated in Kayapo mythology. Women. by contrast, reproduce the natural biological indi- "-. vidualt and, as a corollary, the elementary family, which the Kayapo conceive as a 'natural' or infra-social set of essentially physical relations. Inasmuch as the \~hole Kayapo system works on the, principle of the cooption of 'natural' forces and their channelling into social form, it follows th'll women's .biological forces of reproduction should be exercised only ;) within the framework of the structure of social relations repro'; duced by men. The effective social extension of a woman's biological reproductive powers therefore occurs at lhc momellt of the first childbirth within the contcxt of man iagc. hushand and h~hold. This is, accordingly, the moment at which a woman begins to let her hair grow long again. for men, as we have seen, the decisive social cooption of libidinal energy or reproductive power comes earlier, at Ihe point '!t which lhose powers are publicly appropriated fur purposes uf lbe reproduction or the collective social order. This is lht: mUlllelll symbolically marked by the !>~.~~_"Yal_()i~!!.~_.Eenis she'! th .It 1>U beE~i:: The penis sheath, thcn-, symbolises the wllective apPlOpriation of male powers of sexual reproduclion for lhe purposes of social reproduction. To the Ka}'Oiih), the .tpEropri'!lion of '.~t~_!'~~:~E_~iol()Si,<:~lE~,wers for__ social purposes implies lhe suppression of their 'natural' or sodJ.lly unrestrailll.:d forms of expression. The penis sheath works as ,I .~Y.!.l..1_b_()JC!Lt!~~<:-'.!.i:l!!.lld!!-J!.{_~r.Il1.~_l~.~~.~i_~i~al~!,~!~es into social form uy dTectivcly restraining the spontaneous, 'natural' expression male scxuality: in a word, erection. The sheath. the 10111.111 (Olle of woven palm leaf, is open at-both the wide and narrow end:.;, The wide end fits over the tip of the penis, while lhe nanow clld has an aperture just wide enough to enable the foreskin lo be drawn through it. Once pulled through, it bunches up ill a W.lY that holds the sheath down on theglam P(/liI. and pushes the peuis as a whole back into the body. This obviously renders erection im~~~~ibl~. A public ~r(ction, or eVeJIlh~ pll~lidy visiul~ pr~truslOn oftheglans penIS through the forelokln Wilhout acclion. IS as embarrassing for a Kayapo male as walkillg n.lknl lhrough
()I'

one's lO\~n or "w'orkplace would be for a Westerner. It is the action of the ~heath in preveming such an eventuality that is the ba~is of its liymbolic meaning. Just as the cUlling or growing of hair be~ome5 a code for defining aud cxpr('~sing a whole aystcm of ideal about the nalUre of the individual and society and the relations between the two, so other types of bodily adornment are used to express other modalities ()[.!hc.-l3me basic relationships. Pierced. ca!'~tar:~jl~, and lip-plugs comprise a similar dislin~c()m!.~X:~ meanings. Here the emphasis is on ,,~;.'7;ciaiisalion, not of sexual powers, but of the faculties of D ulldersl~nding and active self-expression. The Kayapo distinguish between passive and active modes of ~ Passive " ') lllHlcrstilmlillg is associated with h{'aring,~ knowledge I1mv to make and do things with sssing. Tlli-inost important aspc:ct of the socialisation of the passive faculty of understalldin~ is the development of the ability to 'hear' language. To be able to hear and understand speech is spoken of in terms (if'having a hole in one's ear'; to be deafis 'to have the hole in Illle's car dosl'd off'. The car lobes of infants of both sexes arc pinced, ancl large cigar-shaped car-plugs, painted red, arc illSl'Itcd 10 stretch the holes to a diameter of two or three u:lltimetres (I shall return to the significance of the red colour). .\t weaning (by which time the child has learned to ~ and understand language) the ~~plugs are removed, and little :'IJings of beads like earrings are tied through the holes 10 kc~p tlwm open. Kayapo continue to wear Ihese bead earrings, or simply kave Iheir car-lobe-holes empty throughout adult life. I suggesl thai .lhe piercing and stre"~~_i"~Il~ __ ~I"~~~secon~~a.~y, ~~~)_":b~!~~7.!,'!~.t~~.:E~' through the: early use of the ear-plugs fi.H" infants is a metaphor for the socialisation of the under~ta_n.~i.(~.t~c opening o(the ~~ars --io"hnguage an~~lf that Illiplles, }"hk;.1l.takes place durmg the first years of IlIlancy. Thc/~J?-pl.ll$.~) which reaches such a large size among older Illc:n, is incOlllestably the most striking piece of Kayapo finery. Unly Ill,dell ha\'(: thdr lips pierced. This happens soon after ~~b.J uut at flrsl only a string of beads with a bit of shell is pl.lI.:cd in the hole to keep it open. After initiation, young lJ.lchclors bCslll to put progressively larger wooden pins thrllllgh the hllle to enlarge it. This gradual process continllt'::i

or

through the early years ofaduh manhood, but acct:leratelli when a man graduates to the senior male grade ofl~athers-of-manychildren'. These are men of an age lO have become heads of their wives' households, with married daughters and thus sonli-in-Iaw living under their roofs as quasi-dependents. Such men have considerable social authority, but they wield it, not " within the household itself (~hich is considered a woman's domain) but rather in the public arena of the communal men's house, in the form of political oratory. Public Betaking, in an ornate and blustering stylc, is the most cFiaractensuc attriulitc of senior manhood, and is the essemial medium of political power. An even more specialised form of speaking, a kind of metrical chanting known as ben, is the distinctive prerogative of chi<{li,who are called 'chanters' in reference to the activity that most embodies their authority. Public speaking, and chanting as its more rarified and potent form, are the supreme expression of the values of Kayapo society considered as a politically ordered hierarchy. Senior men, and, among them. chiefs, arc the dominant figures in this hierarchy, and it can therefore be said that ora lOry and chanting as public activities exprelili thi:; dominanc(~ as ~y~luc implicit in the Kayapo social order. The lip:phlg of the senior male, as a physical expression of the oral assertivcllcSS and pre-eminence oflhe orator, embodies the social domin.wce and ~EI.<:~s~y~~~~"~_'?Lt.~~ ..s"e!1!ormales of whom it is the di~tinctive badge. The senior male lip-plug is in these term:. II\(: cornpicmenl of the pierced ears of both sexes and the infantile ear-plugs li'olll which they derive. The former is associated with tht"~.-/ expression and political construction of the sCJcialorder, \"hile the latter betoken the receptiveness to such exprcs~ions as the attribute of all socialised persons ..Speaking and 'heal'inlL (that is, underlitanding and conforming) are the complement,lry and Interdependent functions Ihat constitute the Kayapo polity. 'j'hrough the symbolic medium of bodily adornment, the body of ~Y~EYJ~:.ay~P9 becOl~les.Cl microcosm of the Kayapo bod)' politic. As a man grows old he retires from active~l~i~!}if~; H c speaks in public less often, and on. the occasions when he docs it is to .1ssumc an elder statesman's role of appeallllg to common v;t111es and interests rather than 10 take sides. The transformation

frum the politically active .-ole of the senior man to the more hunorific if less dynamic role of cider statesman is once again signalled by a change in the~._a_1l4,sha~_~L!!~e !tll~.!lbThc simplest form this can take is a diminution in the sizc ufthe familiar wooden disc. It may, however7'iake the form of the most precious and prestigious object in the entire Ka yapo wardrobe - the cylindricallie=pl ug of g.-ound and polished r~ crystal worn only by elder males. These neolithic valuables, which may r~ach six inches in length and ant: inch in diameter, with two small flanges at the upper end to keep them from sliding through lhe hole in the lip, re.Juiceimmense amounts of time to make and are passed down as heirlooms within!~es. They are ge~lerally clear to milky white in colour: ~is a:':'oClatcd with old age and with s.ho~t~t and thus In general tLrlllS with the transcendence of the social divisions and trans1{)III;dtiO~lS v.hoseql:1alities arc evoked by the two main Kayapo wlullrs, ,lac9 an~(~This qualit~ of transceudence of social (.HlllJll, am of darect lIlvolvcJ1ll:nt III the processes of suppres:.1011 and appropriation ofliLidin&11energies and their transforllu,ion into social form which constilute Kayapo public life in its political and ritual aspects, is characteristic of the content of tlll.:oratory of old men. ,\nd is what lends it its gre t ifrclalively illlhKUUUSpreslige. Once again, then. wc find that the symbolic qu .. dities ofthc lip-plug malch the soda I qualities oCthe speech of its wearer. HerOICthe::;ld\'Cllt of \Vesteru duthes, Kayapo of both sexes alld 411 ages constalltly wcnt aLout Wilhlh(ir bndies painted (m,llIy ~till du, especially III the 1I10re 1<:I\IOlevillages). The Kay.lpu h~vc::raised body paintin~ to all art, nd the variely and cbboratclle~s uf the designs h apl lO secm overwhelming UpOIltlrst acqllaintance. AIl&1lysis,huwevcr, rc\'cJ.ls lhat a fcw ::.ill1plc:: pr~ncil?J?Jult lhrough the v.Hi.ltion of forms and styles &1IH! knd cohercnce to the whole. Thl'se principles, ill turn. can [,C seen to add a further dimension to thc total system of Illcallillgs cOllve>I,d by Kay po bodily adorumcnt. Thert' arc two Iil in aspects to the Kayapo an ()f body p.lIlltlllg, Olle l'olllel'lllng the::associaliun uf the IwO main col~~~~ Ibcd (rcd allli black) 011 distinct zones of the body, the-'(jlha Ulllceruin~ the two basic strl~ employed in painting that 1)1[( d tlle blllly for \\'hidl bl.l( k is used.

To begin with the first aspect, the use of the tWO colours, ~/and ~nd their association with differ~nt regions of the body reveal yet another dimension of Kayapo ideas about the make-up of the person as biological being and social aClor. :p:Black is applied to the trunk of the body, lhe upper arms and thighs. Black designs or stripes arc also painted on the cheeks, forehead, and occasionally across the eyes or mouth~Red is applied to the calves and feet, foreanhs and hands, and face. especially around the eyes. Sometimes it is smeared over black designs already painted on the face, to render the whole face red .. Black is associated with the idea of transformation betwecn society and unsocialised nature. The word fo~~As applied ..to the zone just outside the village that one passcs through to enter the 'wild' forest (the domain of nalure). I t is also the word _ for death (that is, the first phase of death, while the body is still decomposing and the soul has not yet forsaken its soci ltics to become a ghost: ghosts are whil'~). In bOlh ofthcs,' usages, the term for black applies to a spalial or temporal :wne of Ira liSit ion between the social world and the world of nalural or iufrasocial forces lhat is closed off from SOciel)' propcr and lies heyond its borders. It is thcrefore applOpri.llc that t,l.Id. is applied to the surface of those parts o~t~.c;:~()st:t~i\ Sd tol~ the seat ofils 'natur~l' owers and energies (lhe trunk, internal and reproductive organs, major muscles, etc.) that arc illlhcm- ~ sdves beyond ~he reach of socialisation (an analogy might oe / drawn here to the Freudian notion of lhe id), The black skin ") becomes the repressive boundary betwcen the natural powcrs of the individual and the external domain uf sucial relatiuns. Red, by contrast, is associated with notions ofdtalil) energy and intensification. It is applied to the pcriphclal points of the body that come directly into conlact wilh lhe ou tside \\ (.dd (the hands and feet, and the face with its scnsoryOlgans, especially the eyes). The prillciple here seems to be lhe iIItcnsillc..i lion of the individual's powers of 1~lat~"~lL!.~_~!~:~c>!~~lIal ~Ihat is, primarily, the social) world. Notice tllat Ihe opposition between red (intensificatio~ vitalisOllion) lid M,IC); (1(~pression) coincides with that between Ihee0.P!!f!'!La_l~d~~~i_II~~I~ parts of the body, which is itself treatr.d as a limll ,If the relationship between the surface "1!..<!.JwiJc of lhe Iud y rlspeclivcl y. The
t

C(Jlltrasting use of the two colours thus establishes a binary c1"s:lification of the human bodt and its powers and relates that da,~iilc . tioll back to the cOllcepbual oppositions, inside: surface: "uljlJe that underlies the system of bodily adornment as a wliolk.
J

Tumi.ng. now to ~he SC~~ _'!!~2.-:asPiect of the system of Ludy pamllng, that IS, the~o nliuns.!yJt~'Pfpainting in black, the best place to begin is withtl1e-observalion that one st.xlc is used primarily for children and one primarily for adults. The (hildren's style is by far the more: c.:Iaborate. It consists of illlficate geometrical designs traced in black with a narrow ::.tylu::. made from the central rib of a leaf. A child's entire body flOIll the neck to below the knees, and down the arms to below thl' dhows, is covered. Tu do the job properly requires a couple of hours, Mothers (occasionally doting aunts or grandmothers) slcllJ much time in this way kceping their children 'well
dl (:~scd'.

The stY,lei~l~olves E.~.~!dinL~p.a..E~.~.~.~~~.,-?~!~.~l!J~Th~rE out of many lIldlvldually insignificant lines, dots, etc .... ~JinaL. ,f.l:~~I_t !s.unigue, as a snowAakCls-uni<lue. TheJdiosyncratic .. - 1I.lture orille design reflects the relationship between the pall ilera n t e c I d being decorated. Only one child is pailltcd at a time, in his or her own house, by his or her own Illolha or another relation. All of this reflects the social positioll ur tbe yuung child and the nature of the process of socia lisat ion it i" undergoing. The child is the object of a prolonged and inlt'llsive process of creating a socially acceptable form out of a myriad of individually unordered elements. It must lie still and )IJlHllit tl) this process, which requires a certain a~nl of dl~IC. The finished product is the unique expression oftlw LbilJ') relationship to its own mother and household. It is not a culkctivdy stereotyped pattern establishing a common idenli lYwi III children from other families. This again conforms with the s,)..:i.lI..!ilu.a_!!~!1_ ~fthechild, which is not integrated into l'JllllTlllllal society above the level of its particular family. Euys l.cas_~ t~ be l!aiuted in thi,s style, except for rare CerellloIll.t! "eLisions, when thqJ.C:~~~_~~lll~to I~n !~e men's hOl~St, ( >Ida glrlS allli women, however, continue to paint one another mlTil~W.lY as all occ-asional pastime. This use of the inlillltile ~I j it' hy \"o(IIllCIlfeftt:ct:> the l'Xtcnt to which they remain

identified with their individual families and households, in lj contrast to men's identification with collecti,:,e groups at the communal level. The second style, which can be used for children when a mother lacks the time or inclination for a full-scale job in the first style, is primarily associated with adults. I t consists of standardised designs, many of which have names (generally ~ names of the animals they are supposed to resemble). These ) designs arc simple, consisting of broad strokes that can be applied quickly with the hand, rather than Ly the timeconsuming stylus method. Their social context of application is typically collective: men's age sets gathered in the men's house, -(-or women', societies, which meet fortnightly in the village plaza for the purpose of painting one another. On such occasions, a unif~m style is generally used for .~~~.~hol~ gr~up (differem styles may be used to distinguish structurally distinct groups, such as bachelors and mature men), The second style is thus typic.111yused by fully socialised adults, acting in a collective capacity (thal is, at a level ddi ned by common participation in the structure of the community as a whole rather than at the individual family level). Clll1cclivc acuon (typically, though not necessarily, ofa ritual character) G's-;;~blising' in the higher sense of directly constituting and reproducing the structure ofsodety as a whole: those pililllt:J in tlie adult style are thus acting, not in the capacity of jJ~j((Js of ~0cialisation, but as its agents. The 'animal' yuality of the Jesi!~~,~~s.!vo~_~ti\'c:._?f_~,~!s._role; the Kayapo conceive uf collccllve society-constituting activities, like thdr commuJ);t1 ceremonics, as the tr~~.for!!!~~iE).!L oL~ or animal qualities into social form by means of collective social replication. The adult-Si-yfe, with its 'animal' designs applied colleClivdy to :locial groups as an accompaniment to collective activity, epitomises these meanings and ideas. The contrasts bel ween lhe children's and adults' styles of body painting thus model key contrasts in the social attributes of children and adults, specifically, their relative levels of social inlcgr'llion or, which comes to the same. thing, their degree of 'socialisation'. The greater part of Kayapo communal activity ClJl1sisls pC the celebration of long and complex ceremonies, which

/l'VcC9C-;

0'

generally take the form of collective dallcrs by all the men and boys or all the women and girls of the village, and occasionally of both. These sacred events are always distinguished by colleclive body-eainting and renewed coiffures in the tribal pattern, as well as by numerous special items of ritual regalia, such as feather head-dresses, elaborate bracelets, ear- and lip-plugs of special design, bellS and leg bands hung ~ith noise-making objects like tapir or peccary hooves etc. The more important ceremonies are rites either of'baptism', that is, the bestowal of ceremonially prestigious names, or initiation. Certain items of regalia distinguish those actually receiving names or being initiated from the mass of celebrants. In a more fundamental sense, the entire repertoire of ceremonial costume marks cere-' monial activity in contrast to everyday activities and relations; \ In the ceremonial context itself, the contrast is preserved. bet\\'(;en the celebrants of the ceremony and the non-participating L ~pcctators, who wear no special costume. An important group in the lauer category are the Earents"~f the children being n.llueU or initiated in the ceremony, who may not take a direct part ill the dancing but must work hard to supply the many dancers with food. In this role they are treated with great rudeness and disrespect by the actual celebrants, who shout at thelll to bring food and then complain loudly about its quantity iUld ljuality. K.t) apo budily adornment in its lIecular and sacred forms cunstitute: an intl:gral system uf diflerentiatedcates.0ries of social status, together with the rolrs, or modes of activity and relationship characteristic of each status. This comprehensive social classification is represented in Table IA. The various forms of bodily adorument that distinguish each category, together with the roles or modes of activity they symbolise, are :;ummarised in Table I B. Note that the distinctions among the various forms of sacrrd and secular 'dress' in Table I B generate the full structure of Table lA. The namc:s bestowed in the great naming ceremonies belong to a special class of 'beautiful' names which are passed down frolll c~'rtain categories of kinsmen (mother's brother, and both llIatCln .. d .wd paternal grandfather:! for Loys, father's sister and both gl;ludmothers for girls). In keeping with the ritual pr~ :>l1gc of thc nallles being transmitted to them, the children

being honoured in the ceremony are adorned with special regalia, notably elaborate bracelets with bead ~nd feather pendants. Initiands are similarly distinguished by bracelets, although they are so huge as to cover the whole forearm, and are exceptionally heavy and bulky in construction. The initiation ceremony itself is named after these bracelets; it is known as 'the black bracelets', or literally 'black bone marrow'. The name at first strikes one as odd, since the bracelets are painted bright red. It may be suggesied that the symbolic appropriateness of bracelets as the badges of initiands and haptisands derives from the same set of ideas about the connot,ltions of different parts of the body and the associated colour symbolism. If the extremities of the body represent the extension of the" e!Y_~~.~E~~fiLc.aiTCVclOfthe-sef.f into soCia.! ~p~ce, ~nd if the hands are In a sense the prototypical extrenuues In thiS regard, elaborate bracelets are an apt symbol for the imposition of social form upon this extension. This is, of course, what is happening in the ceremonies in question. In the case of~~j.t~~ tion into manhood, which involves a first, symbolic marriage, both the repression of childish. merely individualistic libido and the accentuation of sexuality and procreativity in the service of social reproduction are involved. Black and red, as we have seen, are the symbols of repression and sensory accentuation, respectively, and the accentuation of sexuality and procreativity in the service of social reprod uctiol1 arc invol\'cd. Tha t what is 'blackened' or repressed is the inner substance of the . bones aptly conveys the idea of the suppression of the presocial. biological basis of social relatedness, while the: <letual redness of theso~caned 'black' bracelets through which this is ~chicved sim~itan~~~~iy ~cliva ~i2!'.ot~I!~"~.ba~is" tll~~_~_Qfial.JQ~rnrepresented by the bracelet;) themselves. The initiation bracelets thus condense within them:.d\'cs a number of the fundamental principles of the whole system of bodily adornment and the social concepts it expresses. Among the ordinary ritual celebrants, there is consider,\ble varilltionwithinthe standard cate[orits of ritual wear, su .h as feai"he-;: head.drcsses;-ear-PIilgs:neckracts,--bl:acel~is nd belts or leg bands already described. ~lallY of these varialiulls (for example, the use offeathers from a particular sort of bird l()r a head-dress, or distinctive materials such as wound colton

-e~pr-~sesili_~_

SAClU:D

SECULAR

(mort prestigious)

(less prestigious)

SOCIAL

initiands, baptisands

-- - ---

senior men

junior men

-- ---

(relatively socialised)

women ritual celebrants

ADULTS

CHILDREN NATURAL

spectators

older children

(relatively unsocialised)

parents of initiands

infants

Undergoing initiation, Receiuing names

Spectator or parent-'worker'

;I

string or perhaps fresh-water mussel shells for ear-plugs, or the breast fJlumage of the red macaw for bracelets, etc.) are passed dO\'dl like n.llnes themselves from uncle or grandfather to Ill:pbew or gr;lIldson (or the corresponding female categories). They thus denote an aspect of the social identity of the wearer that he or she owes to his or her relationship with a particular kinsman. These distinctive items of ritual dress make up the 'paraphernalia' mentioned above that is bestowed, in parallel to, but separately from, names, in the ritual setting. The Ka) apo call such accessories by their gcneral (and only) term for 'valuables', 'wealth'. or 'riches'. Ask a Kayapo why he is wearing a certain sort of head-dress for cl. ceremonial Jance, and he will be likely to answer, 'It is my we,dth.' Ask him why he ~anc~, or indeed why the ceremony is being performed, and he will almost certainly answer, 'To be bralltiful' ('For the sake of beauty' would be an equallyaccu:I.He EngHshing of the usual Kayapo cxpression)~nd \J}caut~re closely cOl\llected notions among the Kayapo, and ~f.:r to aspects of the person coded by items of prestigious ritual dress. Certain 'beautiful' names ~!e, in fa~ as~ia.,te<!. ~\_~~~dfi"c forms of adorE!!'~l (that is, with certain types of 'wealth') such as car-plugs. 'Beautiful people' (those who have rl:ltived 'hraulif\ll' Ilames in ceremonies) generally possess more we.dlh' thall 'common people' who have not gone through a ritual baptism, and thus possess only 'common' names. The connceti"n of'beauty' with 'wealth' in the form of bodily .ldornmcnt is strikingly expressed in the J):rics of the c~or~1 h1!'l!~ sung L)' the massed ritual celebrants as they dance, with uniform steps which vary with each song, the successive rites that constitute a 'great' or 'beautiful' naming ceremony. These . ~I}KS are almost invariably those of anima~:spec~.!!Y.!>!~Qs, the museS of Kayapo lyric and dance, who have communicated them to humans in various WeiYS. Two verses from the vast Kayapo repertoire may serve as eXCimples. A bird proudly bO;\SISto his human lilitcner, Can we (birds] not reach up to the sky? \\'hy, we [;I/l snatch the very clouds, \\'ind them 101ind our legs as bracelt-ts, And sit thll:i, ,cg;,lt:d by their thul1llcr.

fiy among the branches (rays) of the sun; I fty among the branches of the sun. perch on itl. branches and Sit gazing over the whole world. Throw yourselves into the sky beside me! Throw yourselves into the sky beside me! Cover yourselves with the blood and feathers of birds And follow after me! The admonition about blood and feathers refers to the technique of covering the body of a dancer with his or her own blood, which is then used as an ad~~si""~.. to.~~icht~et>~_e~~!.E!!:!mage or down of macaws, vultures or eagles is fixed. This is perhaps the most prestigious ('beautiful') form of sacred costume. These verses may help one to grasp the connotations of the fact that danc~ng (~nd by extension, the celebration of any ritual) is called 'fu:!Eg' an Kayapo, and of the tcrlll for the most cOlllmon item of ceremonial adornment, the feather head-dress, ,.hich is the ritual form of the word for 'bird'. Birds fty, and 'can scan' the whole world. They arc not con~.~.~~by its divisions, but transcend them ill a way that to a Kayapo seems the supreme natural Illeta.~or fur thr direct ~~r.~~ _c.eof totality, the integration of the, :ie~ftlll:oll?h the percepuon oTiliCWTlOleness of the world. fhls prtnClple of wholeness, the transcendental inte~ation of what ordinary human (that is, social) life sepapaC'---' uls at odds, is the essence of the Ka a 0 notion of caut " wo aspects 0 this notion, a$ cd in itenls of ritual costume and the sacred activities in which they are wurn, seem incongruous and even contradictorj' in the context of what has already been said about everyday Kayapo 'dress' alld ilS underlying assumptions. First, whereas evcry'd~ax bod}!r,.adornmeOl , stresses the imposition of social form upon the 'natural' mergies and powers of ,the individual, ritl~~50S!~.f!1_t; (:.uch as fcather head-dresses, body painting with 'animal' (ksigns or the covering of the body Wilh blood and fC.ithall) sel~IllSto represent the opposite idea: that is, the imposition of 1I<1ll1ral

L
': .

lurm upon social actors engaged in what are the most important social activities of all, the great sacred performances that periodically reconstitute the fabric of society itself. Secondly, sacred costume, together with the notion that the ritual longs and dances themselves originate among wild animals and birds, seems to reverse the meaning of cveryday bodily adorn~ The latter is implicitly based upon" relation between a 'natural' core (the human body, or on the spciologicallevel, the \~'elnentary fami!yy and a 'social' periphery (the Ipace outside the 60uyhrwhich sodal interaction takel place, or if! the structure of kinship;'-t1te mure distant blood relati.oArOutside the immediate family whoofsl()W names and ritual parapherlIalia upon the child). Ritual.pace, in contralt,leeml based on the rclatiollship between a 'natural' pcrie~ery (the~s.<. beyond the village boundary, as the abode of the birds and ,tIIimals that are the sources both of ritual costume and of the rilUals themselves) and a 'social' cc.nt!:.e(the central.plaza,ofthc village, where the sacred dances are actually perfonnea). This inversion of space and the fundamental relationship of .!l!~~re to ~~i"~ty encoded in sacred costume turns out ueon doser examination to parallel two other inversions in the orgauhation of everyday social relations which form the very bilsis of till: sacred ceremonial system. The fint of these involves the lypes of kinship re4ttions involved in the key ritual relalions of IMme giving and the bestowing of ritual 'wealth' (sllch as special paraphernalia), as contrasted willi lhose involved in~ the <_!ransfoLlllations of fa~.~lx.. relatio~s marked by lhe everyday complex of bodily adornment (penis ~heath, car- and lip-plugs, etc.). The latter typically involve unmediate t:,mily relations like parent-ehild, husband-wife, or the key extended-family relationship ofson-in-law to father-inlaw. These relaliolis have in common that they directly link ~tdtus within thc family, or two families by marriage; they may thcl cfOl'e bl' thouglit of as direct relations. Ritual rdations, on the olher hand, connect grandparent; and grandchildren, unclcs and nephews, aunts and nieces: they skip over the ((Jnnc<:lin~ rdatives (the parents of the children receiving the ritualn;ulIo or paraphernalia, who arc themselves the children or siLlillgs d'the name-bestowing rdatives) and may thus be dc~.:ribcd a. iI/direct relations.

The structure of Jimt rclationli functions as a sort ofladder or series of steps up wh'i~h the deveioping indi~idual moves from status to status within the structure of the families, extended families and households to which he or she belongs in the course of his or her life. The first step in this process is the 'natural' domain of immediate family relations, within which the individual is at first defined as merely an extension of his or her parents' 'natural' powers ofreproduction. The course of the lifecycle from there on is a series of sleps by which the individual is detached from this primal 'natural' unity and integrated into the social life of the community. As a corollary of this process, his or her own 'natural' powers develop until they can in tUfJ~ become the basis of a new family. The highest step in the socialisatioll process, however, wmes wheu this second 'natural' family unit is dispersed, and the individual becomes a earent-in-law, thus moving into the prestigious role of extended family household head at home and, in the case of men, political leader in the community allarge. Each major step in this process is marked, as we have seen, by modifications of bodily adornment of the 'everyday' sort. The overall form of the process is that of a progressive evacuatio~~~natural' CIIC,:Y and powers from the 'central' sources of body and elementary family and its extrapolation into social forms and powers litand ing in a 'peripheral' relation to these sources in physical and social space. The result is that 'S?_~~!'<~~<~1lc.~u~~.~~5a!-ed at the expense ofthe evacuation and dispersal of the 'natural' powers an~ relational units (elementary families) that comprise its foundation. The 'natural' at any given moment is the sociall~ u'lir~!egrat~. embodied at the beginning of the process by the newborn infant or new family, as yet not completely absorbed into the wider community of social rdations, by the end of the process it is represented by the scattered members of dispersed families, whose younger members have gone on to form new families. Th~ integration ofsocicty m<ldc possible by this t1a~~ formation is achieved at the cost of the dis-integratiun of the I primal natural community of thc immediate family and the \ extemalisation and social appropriation of the 'natural' powers of thc individual. ---Secn in this perspecuve the ritual system represents a balancing of accounts. The dispcrsed diTtct, 'natural' rdatiuns of the

C{)i-~_'I

t'!

' -'

U(;
i'l

ItUl
!

I'
cY

parents (their parents and siblings from the family they have lc:ft behind) now become the key indimt relations whose identification with the children of these same parents becomes the point of the ritual. I use the term 'identification' deliberately, for this is what is implied by the sharing of personal names and idiosyncratic items of ritual costume. The point or this identification is, of course, that it reasserta a connection between, or in other words reintegrates,the dilpersed, disIntegrated or 'natural' relations of the parenti' previous families with the not-yet-socially-integrated relations of thc parents' present family (their children). This integration, however, is achieved, not on the basis of direct relations as is characteristic of'natural' groups like the elementary family, but on a ne\'!.. .i~di,ectfooting with no_natural b~sisj in short, on a purely I 'sociiV basis. The ncw integrated 'whole' that i, establiahed " >throl~h ritual action is thus defined simultaneously as reinteg,;. rating and transcendin the 'natural' basis orsocia.1 relations. It i relat~eref~re becomes the uinteucniiitr-rolotype()t tionship, and as such, the appropriate ve I cot e'liiirc"<::;: components of individual social identity, personal ~distinctive ritual dress and other personal 'wealth'. . In terms of s~ what has happ~c;m the point of View of the central namc-recdving individual and her or his fJmily is that 'socialisatinn' has been achieved through the transference of attributes of the identity of 'natural' relations IOl:ateJ on the perip'''!.!.l. of the family to the actor located at its E!!!!!.. In terms of tile equilibrium of'natural' and 'social' forces .1IId qualities, the prospective evacuation of natural powers 11 um the individual and family has been offset (in advance) byean infusiun of social aUributes, which arc themselves the products of the reintegration, through the social mechanism uf mUdl action, of elements of the 'natural' infrastructure dispersed dS the price of social integration. The symbolic integration of 'natural' attributes from the periphery of social space as aspects of the social identity of actors loCalt'd at its centre, can flOW be understood as a metdphorical embodiment of the integrative ('beautiful') struclla.11 properties of the social relaii'O'ilS'evbraroy the rituals. '1 he rC.llia, of course, does more th.tn simply encode this pI ore~:.. I I is the concrete ,~~iu~J~I.~I!~~ 'tit!1 names) through

'sOcial

which the identity of the ritual celebrants is simultaneously redefined, 'socialised't and infused with 'beauty'. The foregoing analysis should help to clarify the full meaning of the Kayapo notion of beauty as wholeness. integration or completion. In ill primary context, that ofsacred ritual, it is the value associated with the creation of a social whole based on intli"" (mediate) relations, capable of reintegrating the dismembered elements of simpler natural wholes (elementary families) constituted by direct (immediate) relations. 'Beauty' is~~al .. El'eress.ion of society itselfin its holistic capaci~y. It is, as such, one of the primary values of Kayapo social hfe. Just as the value of beauty is associated with the complex of social relations and cultural notions involved in ritual action, so the complex of relations and categories that constitutes the social structure of everyday life is focused upon another general social value. This value is in a sense ~~_~Eposite of. beauty, since it pertains to relations of !,eparation! opposition, and ~ ineguaJity. We may call it 'dominance', meaning by that the combination of prestige, authority, individual autonomy and ability to control others that accrues in increasing measure to individuals as they move through the stages of social development, passing from lower to higher status in the structure of the extended family and community. It is doubtless significant that the Kayapo themselves do not n~m .. ~_!.~J.sJ!l_~~~,r.a.s~.~iill~ivisi\'e value with any term in their own language, whereas they . continually employ the adjective 'beautiful' in connection with the most varied activities, including those of a divisive (and ~thus 'ugly') character which they wish to put in a better light. '""",,,,,,- The lack ofa ter~ notwithstandi~~~ere_ca!!~ no doub~of .._ the existence of the value in question and its importance as the organising focus-of Kay;po social and political life outside the ritual sphere. It reaches its highest and most concentrated expression in the public activities of senior men, for example their characteristic activit y of aggrcssi vcly fla mboyant oratory. 1.E.c=lie-elug, and particularly the senior man's lip-plug as the { largest and most spectacularly obtrusive in the entire agegraded lip-plug series, is directly associated with this value as a quality of male, and parti~ularly senior male, social identity. 'Dominance' is, however, to be understood as a symbolic andb~-:- ~ 'c~lturally imputed ~uality expressing a person's place

in the: hierarchy of extended family and community structure, (.tlher than as a relation of naked power or forcible oppression. It is, as stlcll, an expression of the whole edifice of age, sex, ~lily and communal status-categories marked by d~e whole system of everyday bodily accoutrements described earlier. Younger men and women can acquire this quality in some measure within their own proper spheres, plaking due allowance for the fact that in the context of co~munity-wide relations they are subordil1 e domin nior males. ~hese .t~~ valuelt"dominanc 'an 'beaut" inform the SOCialacllvIUes and gOlds llf Kayap , constitute the most general purposes of .ocial action and the most important qualities of erlonal identity. The identity of .ocial acton i. CU/lSlJ(ute as mue y t e.ell towards which they direct thcir activitics, as by their ;'~~ification according to stat':ls, sex, age, degree of socialisation,cic. I have tried to show that bodil adornment encode. these values as well as the other sorts of categories; it may t us e said to define the total social identity of the individual, meaning his or her subjective identity as a social actor, as well as objective identity conceived in terms ~f a. s~t of social categories. It docs this by mediating between Illdlvl~uals, considered both in their objective and subjective ("apac~lies, and society, also considered both)n its objective l:.tpacHy as a str~ture ~~rc::!ationsand its subjective capacity as a s~tem of values. fnave attempted to demonstrate that the symbolic mediation effected by the code of bodily adornment in ~oth these rc:>pel:tsis, in the terms ofKayapo culture, systematIcally a,nd finely alluned to the nuances of Kayaposocial rdations, The Slructure of Kayapo society, including its highest values and its most fundamental conceptual presuppositions (~uch as the ~~r~~J.e relationship, the modes of expression and understandillg, the character of 'sodalisation', etc.) couId be read from the E~!lt and ornaments of a represen tative collection of Kayapo of all ages, sexes, and secular and ritual roles. Ho?ily ~dofllmmt, considen'd a . a symbolic medium, is not llmq,ue III these rc~pccts: evay S',C1Ctyhas a number of such !!lnlia ur ~.lII~Ud.!;i.CS, the nH.st illlpUI t.llll among which is of i.~UISt: IdllSll.lge lIsdf. The distillctive place of the adornmt.:l1t ul the budy ,tim,ng these III that it is the medium most Jirectly

and concretely concerned with the construction of the individual as social actor or cultural 'subject'. This is a fundamental concern of all societies and social groups, 'and this is why the imposition ofa standardised symbolic form upon the body, as a symbol or 'objective correlative' uf the social self, invariably becomes a serious business for all societies, regardless of whether their members as individuals consciously take the matter seriously or not. I t may be .uggested that the 'construction of the su bject', is a process which is broadly similar in all human societies, and the .tudy oflystems of bodily adornment is one of the best ways of comprehending what it involves. As the Kayapo example servelto illustrate, it is essentially a question of the confl~E,2!L~ certain basic types of social!totions and categories, among which can be listed categories of time and seace, m~de..~-~-l ~~ivitl (for example, individual or collective, secular or sacred), types of social status (sex, age, family roles, political positions, etc.), personal qualities (degree of 'socialis:ltion', relative passivity or activity as a social actor, etc.) and modes of .social value, for example, 'Qpminance' or '~aut~'. In any given society, or course, these basiC categories wtrrbc combined in culturally idiosyncratic ways to constitute tht: ~Yllll>olk medium of bodily adornment, and these synthetic paltnns reveal much about the basic notions of value, :ocial ~Llioll, ,lIId person- or self-hood of the culture in question. In the case of the Kayapo, ~~_broad synthetic d1l5Icr~[ ~~in~d va~s.~ of this type emerge from analysis, One is concerned with the Kayapo notion of socialis:ltion, conl'cived as the transformation of 'natural' pow~rs and allributt's into social forms. The basic symbolic vehicle for this nOlivn, after the general concern for cle,~nliness, is the form of body painling by which the trunk is contrasted with the extremitil":) as black . and rlod zones, respectivdy. This fundamental Ol'!EElIIg of lhe body's 'natural' and 'social' ~s is inflected, at a higher level of articulation, by h~i.rstylc. The contrast between long and short hair is used to mark the succes~ive phases of the development and social extension of the individual's libidinous alld reproductive powers. Final"',thc pcnis sheath (correlated with the shift to long hair for men) serVeS to mark the decisive point in the social appropriation of male reproductivc powers and,

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perhaps more important, the collective nature of this appropriation. A second major complex concerns the distinction and {)Luf;~ / relationship between the paSlii~':!~Lactivc:..~lities~L~pc!.~! agency. The basic indicator here:is again body painting, in this r~7rvc case the disunction between the i~J~'!~!~_~I1~,adlJltstrles. This basic distinction i. once again inflected by the set composed of pierced ears and car-plugs, on the one hand, and pierced lips and lip-plugs on the other. This set adds the specific meanings associated with the notions of~aring and ~!'..&' as passive knowledge and the active expressIon of deCISIonsand programmes of action, respectively. Finally, both these clusters are crosl~cu.!.~~-'?~d_~~!!.I1~t!~I1.~~~,~~_~I1"}'odes of activity. The mOlt strongly marked distinction here is between .ecular and s!crcd (ritual) action, with the latter distinguished frbm the former by a rich variety of regalia. This distinction, however, may be considered a heightened inflection of the more basic distinction between !..ndividual or family-Ieyel a(:.ti'yiti~ and communal activities, not all of which are ofa sacred character. Secular men's house galherings or meetings of women's i societies, for example, may be accompanied by collective I painting and perhaps the wearing of simple head-dresses of palm leaves, even though there is no ceremony. I An important structural pripdB'.i ('merges from this analysis of the Kayapo system -the hierarchical or it~rative structure of i 'I i\ the ~ymbolic coc!,e. Each major cluster-ofsymbolicmeaJllJlgsa i .I seen to be arranged in a series ofincreasingly specific modula! I tions or in~~tionsofthe seneral notions expressed by the most , basic symbol in the cluster. A second structural principle is the r multiplicative character of the system as a whole. By this I mean that the three basic clusters are necessarily simultaneously present or conflated in the 'dress' of any individual Kayapo at any time. One cannot paint an infant or adult in the appropriate style without at the same lime observing the concentric distinction between trunk and extremities common to both styles. "- The co'nflation first of the levels of meaning within each duster, secondly of each cluster with thr others, and finally of (he more basic categories of meaning and value listed above (hat are combined in dilTerent ways to furm each cluster, is ,- what I mean by !.!~~<:ollstrucliol1 of ttl~ culturill subkg' or

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~. (It i. sometimes necessary to speak in terms of colllcliul lubjects,luch as the class ofY!lung men, or of workers, but for the sake of simplicity I shall leave this issue aside here.) It is, by the same token, the construction of the social universe withiri which he or she acullhai'ls, an aspcciOfthai'constructioli}':Asthe Kayapo example suggests, this is a dynamic process that proceeds as it were in opposite directio'Diitihe same time, towards equilibrium or equilibrated growth at both the individual and social levels (it goes without saying that in speaking of equilibriun;a I am referring to cultural ideals rather than concrete realities, either social or individual). In the Kayapo case, the q~ernalisation of the internal biological and libidinoul ('natural') powers of individuals as the basis of social reproduction, and the socialisation of'external' natural powers as the basis of social structure and the social identity of actors otherwise defined only as biological extensions of their parents, are dearly metaphorical inversions of one another. Each complements the other, just as the social values respectively associated with the two a~peclSof the process, ~~ina!'. and '~uty~" com~lement each otherj a balance between the two processes and their associated values is the ideal state of Kayapo society as a dynamic equilibrium. I tis also. and equally, the basis of the unity and balance of the personality of the socialised individual, likewise conceived as a dynamic equilibrium. The point I have sought to demonstrate is that [his balance between 0 osi menta forces, which is the most fundament' structural princi of Kayapo society, is systematically articulatethnd, as it were, elayed out on the bodies of every member of Kayapo society through the medium of bodily adornment. This finding supports the general hypothesis with which we began, namely thatthe~rfa~$: of the body becomes, in any human society, a boundar~ of a peculiarly complex kind, which simultaneously separates domains lying on either side of it ,!-ndconftates dilTerclltlevels of social, individual and intra-psychic meaning.,:r4e 51-in(and hair) are the concrete boundary between thecsd( and the othe~L ~h,e-.indiyid~.!L~~,!l _~ __~!!~y0tis, however, a t'iruism tu which our o..-J investigation has also attested, thal the 'selr is a composite:: ~-. product of ~ and 'n_altural'(libidinoll5) components.

At one It:\d, the 'social skin' models the~al ~~..!i!"d!ry ;;) I.H:twccn tho-individual actor and other actors; but at a deeper level it models the internal, psychic diaphragm between the welocial. libidinous energies of the individual and"~~~_~nter- ) nalised others', or social meanings and values that make up what Freud called the 'ego' and 'super-ego'. At yet a third. macro-social level, the convcntionalised modifications of skin and hair that comprise the 'social skin' define. not individuals, but categories or classes of individuals, (for example. ipfants, senior males. women of child-bearing age, etc.). The system of bodily adornment as a whole <all the transformations of the 'social skin' considered as a set) defines each clasa in terms of its rdations with all the othen. The 'socialskio' thus becomes. at ' this third level ofinterprctauon. the boundary between social_~)
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That the physical surface of the human body is systematically modified i'n all human societies so as to conOate these) three levels of relations (which most modern locial science J devotcs itself to separating and treahpg in mutual isolation), :ihould give us cause for reflection. Are we dealing here with a mere exotic phenomenon. a primitive expression of human society at a relatively undifferentiated lcvel of development, or '\, is our own code of dress and grooming a cultural device of the S.ime type?