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Nambiquara leadership
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In 1945, Claude Levi-Strauss published an article entitled The Social and Psychological
Aspect of Chieftanship in a Primitive Tribe: The Nambikuara of Northwestern Mato
Crosso. Two years later this essay was published in French, slightly modified, under the ti-
tle La Theorie du Pouvoir dans une Societe Primitive (1947). The substance of the article
appeared yet again in La Vie Familiale et Sociale des lndiens Nambikwara (194836-90)
and in Tristes Tropiques (1955:350-365). The original article was reprinted in 1967 in a
reader, Comparative Political Systems, edited by Cohen and Middleton. The accessibility of
the analysis and the eminence of the author have given the article a central place in the
literature of comparative politics. It has become a classic study in primitive leadership,
assigned to students and cited in other articles whenever an example of the worlds
simplest political institutions is called for.
Martin E. Spencer (1972) provides an excellent synopsis of the Nambiquara case as
presented by Levi-Strauss. In order to minimize my own bias, I will cite this resume rather
than precis the article.
Among the Nambikuara are found the most primitive forms of social and political structure. In the
words of Levi-Strauss: No social structure is weaker and more fragile than the Nambikuara band.
The Nambikuara abandon their semi-permanent dwellings at the end of the rainy season in April or
early May and divide into bands which are formed on the basis of free choice. The nucleus of the
band is a leader who directs the movements and the hunting, fishing, and food-gathering activities
of the group for the duration of i t s nomadic life during the dry season. The leader, however,
disposes of no coercive power: he must derive his authority from the continual active consent of
those subject to it. The price of leadership is the welfare of the group. If the band is badly managed
and food i s scarce the individual members of the group may leave t o join other, more prosperous
bands. Thus bands are always in the process of organizing and growing, or fragmenting and disap-
pearing, with the vicissitudes of leadership In return for his services the chief enjoys the privilege of
having two or more wives, a prerogative shared only with the shamans (1972:18).
M y own experience with the Nambiquara has led me to a different interpretation of their
social and political life. When I went off to begin fieldwork in 1967, I had no intention of
checking up on Levi-Strauss. Until a few weeks before my departure, I intended to work
with the Panare of Venezuela, and only a remarkable set of coincidences sent me to Brazil
instead. Owing to the last-minute change of plans, I began my fieldwork poorly versed in
A study of Nambiquara leadership carried out to overcome preconcep-

tions left by earlier ethnography shows an egalitarian system grounded in
a social structure that emphasizes the ties between siblings. There i s a
slight tendency for authoritarian leaders to emerge in situations of con-
stant danger. Extra wives are not so much a reward for leadership as an ad-
ded responsibility. Men do not lead in return for compensation, but to en-
sure the well-being of their kin. [egalitarian society, leadership, polygyny,
lowland South America, ethnographic restudy]
Copyright 0 1981 by the American Ethnological Society

0094-0496/81/040686-23$2.80/1
686 american ethnologist

the Nambiquara literature. I did know Levi-Strauss's article on chieftainship, however, and I
expected that it would help m e get m y own ethnographic endeavor under way.
I spent considerable time searching for a village where the traditional social organization
was still more or less intact. I finally found a group of Indians in the Upper Sarare who had
resisted all overtures from foreigners until quite recently. Following peaceful contacts with
missionaries at the nearest Brazilian settlement, the villagers permitted a man named
Henry t o set up camp in their midst. He had spent a few weeks there when m y wife and I ar-
rived in May 1968. Through Henry we met Tito, the capita'o (captain), as village headmen
are called in this part of Brazil. The initial phase of fieldwork was rather slow since the In-
dians were completely monolingual and had little patience with foreigners too stupid to
learn phrases after one repetition. Thus, many things that might have become clear with
adequate communication remained opaque for a long time, and it was not until November
that I seriously began t o question Tito's status in the community. I suddenly realized that
practically the only evidence I had that he was the village leader was that Henry had
presented him as such.
M y wife and I made a casual visit to Henry's camp, and after passing the time of day I
asked how he had first discovered that Tito was captain of the group. He thought for a
while and finally said that a colleague had told him so. He said, moreover, that he had met
Tito's father, who was clearly a captain in that he had led expeditions t o the nearest
Brazilian community and was shown great deference by the other Indians. After further
consideration, he said that one could tell that Tito was the captain because he told others
what to do. When I asked what sort of things he told them t o do, Henry admitted that he
didn't speak Nambiquara, but added that the other Indians shut up and listened when Tito
talked. Finally, he said that Tito had presented himself as captain; that is, he had pounded
himself on the chest and said katita'u. I asked about wives and Henry said that Tito origi-
nally had two, the younger of whom had died.
"If Levi-Strauss's article on chieftainship i s anywhere near the mark," I wrote in my
fieldnotes, "most of these arguments are entirely spurious." Nambiquara leadership was
not supposed t o be characterized by patrilineal succession. We had seen Tito attempt to
tell others what to do, although mainly, it seemed, at the behest of outsiders. But according
to Levi-Strauss, Nambiquara leaders were just as likely to be told what t o do by their
followers. I had never noticed that people shut up and listened when Tito talked, any more
than they did for anyone else-the Nambiquara do not, as a rule, interrupt someone who is
delivering an opinion. As for calling himself katita'u, Tito was undoubtedly telling the name
of his group, not his status. All of the villagers, I had found, called themselves katitqulhu.
The only bit of evidence that seemed t o point toward Tito's being a leader was the fact that
he had once had two wives. "It i s clear that he would like t o be a captain," I wrote, "but I
have no indication that his judgment i s respected."
Looking back, I find my confusion amusing. After months of fieldwork I realized that the
supposed leader I knew best did not conform to Levi-Strauss's characterization of the Nam-
biquara chieftain. Rather than doubt the ethnographic account, I doubted whether the man
in question was, in fact, a leader. My knowledge of prior ethnography had prejudiced m y
interpretation of evidence. Later, when I realized that i t was not possible t o interpret m y
observations in a manner consistent with Levi-Strauss's account, I was tempted to conclude
that he must, therefore, be wrong. I had to concede, however, that many of his observa-
tions rang true. Finally, I realized that my concern over whether Levi-Strauss was "right" or
"wrong" interfered with m y ability to understand Nambiquara leadership. I determined t o
amass a body of relevant evidence and draw my own conclusions.
It was not possible, however, t o study Nambiquara leadership as if Levi-Strauss had never
written on the subject. But for his paper, I might never have become interested in leader-
Nambiquara leadership 687

ship, and his categories of analysis were those which came most readily to mind. M y inter-
pretation grew out of his interpretation, and my account can best be understood in relation
t o his account.
In the course of time I came t o work for varying periods in several different Nambiquara
villages (see Acknowledgments); and because the issue of leadership had become impor-
tant to me early on, I paid reasonably close attention to it. I found that there was very lit-
tle to observe, however. By Western standards, the institution of leadership was poorly
developed among the Nambiquara. I suspected, moreover, that the sketchy evidence of
leadership that I was able to unearth might be more a sign of acculturation than the
vestiges of a traditional institution. In hopes that a larger sample might reveal tendencies
not apparent in individual cases, I compiled material on as many Nambiquara leaders as
possible. I supplemented my own experience by drawing on published and archival
sources, eventually collecting the names of YO men known as leaders, for each of whom
there was at least a bit of pertinent information (see Figure 1 and Appendix).
The interpretation of Nambiquara leadership that I have come t o hold differs in many
ways from that of Levi-Strauss. Since students of political systems continue t o find the
Nambiquara case significant, it seems well t o set forth my interpretation and examine some
of the ways in which it differs from his. Nambiquara leadership should be particularly in-
teresting to those who wish to understand egalitarian society. The Nambiquara are com-
parable in this respect to the Pygmies of the fturi Forest and the !Kung Bushmen, and it is
this quality of their political life that attracted the attention of Levi-Strauss over 35 years
ago.
the social context
The American Indians known as Nambiquara speak various dialects of three mutually
unintelligible languages that belong t o an apparently independent linguistic family (e.g.,
Price 1978b). While there i s some cultural variation within the Nambiquara region, much of
the basic social structure is uniform. The Nambiquara were known to the Portuguese in the
early part of the 18th century (e.g., Price 1975), but they only came into permanent contact
with Western society during the present century, a village at a time, between 1909 and
1977. In this paper I treat the Nambiquara as if their social and political institutions were
homogeneous throughout the region and during the entire historical period, pointing out
exceptions as necessary.
The Nambiquara live in many small villages, scattered over an area of some 50,000
square kilometers. The average village size is approximately 25 individuals (Price
1972:150-161). The region i s transitional between the savanna of the Brazilian Plateau,
which predominates t o the south and east, and the Amazonian forest, which occupies a
lesser proportion of the total area and i s concentrated mainly in the north and west. There
are small headwater forests in the savanna and patches of savanna in the larger forests. In
all regions, the Nambiquara prefer to build their villages in the savanna but near the forest,
where they plant their gardens.
The Nambiquara economy i s a mixture of hunting, which i s the only traditional source of
animal foods, and gardening, which i s the primary source of vegetable foods.3 The per-
manence of villages is primarily associated with the productive capacities of nearby
gardening lands. While a village may occasionally be abandoned from other motives, the
usual reasons for i t s removal are economic. Although it i s difficult to secure reliable infor-
mation, it would seem that most villages are inhabited for ten years or more, their locations
being moved once in the tenure of each village leader. Historical materials make it clear
that these reasonably permanent villages are not a recent innovation (cf. Price 1978a).

Fig 1 The Nambiquara Region Numbers mark the villages of leaders listed In the Appendix

Since the better-known sources on the Nambiquara state that they inhabit their villages
only during the rainy season and wander nomadically during the dry season (Levi-Strauss
1948:14, 54, 126-127; 1955:312-314; Oberg 195337, 91) i t i s well to contradict this notion at
the outset, While i t i s true that the Nambiquara have a period of relatively free time to go
off and visit other villages in the dry season, after the gardens have been cleared, they also
have a visiting period during the rains, when one year's gardens have been planted and i t i s
not yet time to clear gardens for the following year. Except when visiting, they tend to live
continuously in the village and leave i t only as necessary to hunt, gather, or procure various
raw materials. Aspelin (1975:119-123) shows that on an annual basis they spend about half
their time in the village and half away, with individuals coming and going every few days.
The Nambiquara relationship system divides all members of adjacent generations into
two unnamed categories, which we call consanguines and affines. This distinction does not
extend to noncontiguous generations. All categories except "child" and "grandchild" are
divided in accordance with sex. Recruitment to these categories is through what might be
called noncumulative patrifiliation: the men whom a child calls "brothers" are the sons of
the men whom his father calls "brothers," and the men whom he calls "brothers-in-law" are
the sons of the men whom his father calls "brothers-in-law." That is, the Nambiquara
calculate through males when possible, but ignore genealogy and only pay attention to
relationships between categories. There are no patrilineally constituted moieties, clans, or
lineages, nor are there any special roles, rights, or obligations that descend patrilineally. In
fact, relationship categories could as well be calculated through females, except in the
case of the progeny of improper marriages, whose position i s disambiguated by reckoning
exclusively through males.
There is a strong feeling that consanguines should get along together and help each
other out. This ethic of consanguineal solidarity is extended t o members of both sexes of
contiguous generations who live in the same village. Most important, however, is the rela-
tionship between coresidential consanguines of the same generation, who can count on
each other for support throughout their entire lives. The special character of this relation-
ship i s pointed up by different kin terms. Male and female consanguines of one's own
generation are - w p t a s u and-wptatasu, wherever they may live, but those who live in one's
own village are -16nsu and -haljnt'isu.
The solidarity of men who are -/Onsu (real and classificatory "brothers" who live in the
same place) i s very important in village politics. Decisions on matters of general concern
are arrived at through discussions aimed at reaching a consensus among the adult men,
who represent the interests of their wives and children. In such negotiations, the largest
group of adult "brothers" in the village constitutes a common interest bloc that is in a good
position to maintain political predominance. The average village in a sample of 18 for
which I have adequate evidence contains as i t s nucleus three men who are related as
"brothers." Together with these -/6nsu are two men related t o them as "brothers-in-law"
and an additional three men distributed among the categories o f "father," "father-in-law,"
"son," and " s o n - i n - l a ~ . " ~
Marriage i s a major threat to the group of "brothers" that has the decisive voice in village
affairs because i t threatens to separate them. Much of their political maneuvering is aimed
at maintaining their preeminent position by arranging marriages for themselves that enable
them to stay together.
The ground rules for choosing a spouse are simple: one should marry an affine, but stay
with one's close consanguines. It i s only possible for both of the prospective spouses t o
realize this ideal if they already live in the same village. Thus, the Nambiquara prefer to
marry endogamously, in spite of the fact that it i s frequently impossible to contract an en-
dogamous marriage. Within their own village, many men cannot find women in the proper

category who are approximately the right age and not already married to someone else.
These men must either resign themselves to remaining single for a long time while waiting
for a very young "wife" to reach a marriageable age, contract a marriage with a woman
who i s not in the proper category, or look for a wife elsewhere.
Waiting for a little girl to grow up puts a man in an awkward position with respect t o his
fellow villagers, for a man in his sexual prime with no legitimate partners spells trouble. An
unequal number of adult men and women also puts the village economic system out of
balance, as an extra man increases only the amount of male work that the village can ac-
complish, while he eats food produced by both males and females.
Marrying a woman who i s not a "wife" if frowned upon. I t is sometimes done when there
i s no other alternative, and in this case there is a gradient of acceptability. Women in the
category of "grandchildren" or "daughters-in-law" are fairly acceptable; "mothers-in-law"
and "sisters" are less so; and "mothers" are the least acceptable. The primary objection to
marrying women from categories other than "wives" is that the man who does SO con-
founds the system by taking a woman who would have been marriageable by someone
else. Thus, there i s generally considerable social pressure for a man to marry in the ap-
propriate category; and when there i s no "wife" in the village, he looks elsewhere.
The problem in marrying elsewhere i s that the groom would prefer t o stay with his
brothers, if he has any, and the father and/or brothers of the bride would prefer that their
daughter or sister remain close, under their protection. This situation would be an impasse
were it not for the fact that the father of the bride generally has the upper hand. The Nam-
biquara say that the father of the bride i s typically "stingy" about his daughter-that he
just won't let her marry unless his son-in-law comes to reside with him. The edge that he
wields in bargaining may be a result of the fact that women tend to be in short supply, ow-
ing to a higher rate of mortality related to the dangers inherent in their contribution to the
process of reproduction. The Nambiquara themselves believe that women are weaker and
more susceptible to illness than men, and m y data show that the life expectancy of the
Nambiquara woman who passes puberty i s 38.9 years, as opposed to 45.8 years for men
(based on known deaths, 1969-75) The resulting shortage of women would seem to give
the father of the bride a considerable bargaining advantage, for postmarital residence i s
almost always uxorilocal when he is alive at the time of the marriage. The Nambiquara say,
however, that there is no specific rule as to where the newlyweds should reside.
When a person moves because of marriage from one village to another, reciprocity
becomes necessary. If one man leaves the average Nambiquara village, it loses an eighth of
its adult male work force. To compensate for this loss, the villagers require that another
man enter the community in a reciprocal marriage. The Nambiquara conceptualize
reciprocal marriages as an exchange of opposite-sexed siblings between families. That is,
marriages are thought of as occurring in reciprocal pairs, with the groom in one match giv-
ing his sister in marriage to his brother-in-law (from a male point of view), or with the bride
in one match giving her brother in marriage to her sister-in-law (from a female point of
view). But it is really the villages, and not the families, that require the exchange. In fact, it
would be disadvantageous for two men to exchange real sisters, as each would then have
authority over the other through control of his sister, which would be a structurally
untenable impasse. I know of no cases of such "perfect" reciprocity.
When a man who wishes to stay with his "brothers" (-/onsic)i s unable to marry a woman
from his own village or unwilling to wait for a very young "wife" to grow up, he may look
elsewhere for a woman who will come and live with him. A woman who i s willing to move
will, of course, be one who has no close male consanguines to look out for her in-
terests-whose father i s dead and who has no "real" brothers who are adults. She will also
be a surplus woman in the group where she has been living-a woman who is not needed as

a wife by anyone in that group, nor as a "sister" to trade for a "brother-in-law." Since she
has neither father nor brother, no one violates the ethic of solidarity among close con-
sanguines by letting her leave. Moreover, since she i s a "surplus" woman, the insistence on
reciprocity will be low, and it is usual in such cases for the two villages to simply agree that
a reciprocal marriage ought to occur in the future. If the woman has a widowed mother and
immature siblings, or if she herself has children by a previous marriage, these people will
move with her.
The village nucleus, then, comes to be formed of a group of "brothers" who manage to
stay together through their manipulation of the marriage game. If the "brothers" from one
village were to all marry "sisters" from another village, they would be able to stay together
even though they all moved. This seems to be a preferred solution to the problem among
the Shavante (Maybury-Lewis 1974:88), but I have no evidence of its practice among the
Nambiquara. I t i s possible that the ability of brothers to stay together in the same village
has been greater in the historical period than formerly, as rapid depopulation has resulted
in there being many persons without close relatives, whose marriages are more easily
manipulated.
When a group of "brothers" manages to retain numerical superiority over their coresi-
dent "brother-in-law," they increase the odds that their children will be in the same posi-
tion. Their sons, who are -/bnsu among themselves, will be likely to retain control of the
village after their fathers' death. Thus, it frequently happens that political predominance in
the village passes from "fathers" to "sons" through two or more generations, and the
village comes to have an agnatic core, even though i t is not formed in accordance with a
patrilineal ideology.'
eligibility
We would expect, in the light of this discussion, that the village leader would be one of
the -/Onsic who form the nucleus. Since this group i s politically predominant, a leader would
find it difficult to retain control unless he was a member of it. In fact, I was told in the
village of Serra Azul that the leader "came here and settled with his brothers." Moreover,
in 13 of the 18 villages for which I have adequate data, the leader belongs t o a group of
-/bnsu that i s equal to or larger than any other group of -/6nsu in the community. In two
other cases, the group of -/dnsu that i s larger than that of the leader i s composed of his
"sons"; and in only three cases does the leader have to contend with a numerically superior
group of affines.'
Since there i s a tendency for the predominant group of -/bnsu t o be succeeded by their
sons, and since there i s a tendency for the village leader to belong to the predominant
group of -/6nsu, we would expect there t o be a tendency for leaders t o be succeeded by
their "sons." This has in fact happened in about half of the 28 cases of succession for which
I have data; in another 3 cases a leader has been followed by his "brother."' The Nambi-
quara recognize this tendency but do not generally give it any great importance. Some in-
formants, if questioned directly about succession, will describe certain men as ''just
caretakers," because their fathers were not leaders. This tendency to legitimate leadership
through patrilineal succession seems more common in the northern part of the region and
among more acculturated informants.' No one ever told me spontaneously that leaders
ought to be the sons of former leaders.
I t is never so important who a leader's father was as whether he i s worth following. As
Levi-Strauss observed, a leader will not long retain his followers if he makes foolhardy deci-
sions. People drift away from a bad leader and attach themselves to other villages where
they have kin. The village of a good leader, on the other hand, will grow and prosper. I

learned the personal qualities thought necessary for a good leader in the course of inter-
viewing several middle-aged men about villages they had known in their youth. First, I
asked what villages they remembered and where they were located; then I asked who had
been the leader of each and who else had lived there. The informants often made un-
solicited comments about the leaders they were asked to recall. By generalizing from these
comments, as well as similar material from other contexts, it became possible to enumerate
seven qualities that should characterize a good leader. He should be capable, wise, in-
itiatory, a worker, not stingy, cheerful, and big and strong.
In the southeastern part of the Nambiquara region, the leader i s called hikdntisu (the
capable one). The root hikdn- i s used more broadly t o describe the age relationship of sib-
lings. The Nambiquara do not say that one brother or sister i s older than the other; they
say that one i s [more] capable. The use of the term for the leader is especially ap-
propriate since he generally is, in fact, the most capable of the set of brothers that con-
stitutes the political core of the village.
Among children, an older brother is comparatively wiser, more initiatory, and a harder
worker; he i s almost certainly bigger and stronger. If he is stingy or mistreats his little sib-
lings, he has committed the only two offenses for which a Nambiquara mother may lose pa-
tience enough t o slap him. Children are taught almost from birth that food must be shared
with anyone who asks for it; and older children who hit younger children are chastized,
regardless of provocation. Younger children are not considered responsible for their actions
because they lack judgment. Older children, however, know the meaning of their ac-
tions. They are responsible for what they do.
When the Nambiquara say that a leader should be wise (dholhi-), they mean he should
know the relation between actions and their results. The Nambiquara take great pride in be-
ing able to survive in the wilderness with the most minimal material culture. In place of ar-
tifacts (yenkisu) they substitute knowledge (kbtyutsu), and the Nambiquara leader should
be he who makes best use of this knowledge.
It is not necessary, however, for the leader to have a knowledge of the supernatural. Of
30 leaders for whom I have adequate data, only a third are shamans; clearly, many can
maintain their position without supernatural aid. Many nonleaders, on the other hand, find
good reasons t o become shamans. In fact, their special calling seems to compensate, in
many cases, for politically inferior positions resulting from physical disability or affinal
standing with respect to the village nucleus. Thus, the vocation of shaman i s often a means
of strengthening a relatively weak position, and it is only really advisable for the leader
when his strength might otherwise be open t o question. When, for example, Saulo succeed-
ed to leadership at a very young age, his fathers brother counseled him t o procure spirit
power (wanTn-) to fortify his position.
The leader should be an initiator (asiyautyalhosu; literally, he who i s at the bottom of
things). In Nambiquara thought, processes start from the bottom and continue until
they finish by coming to a head (nekkison-). Thus, the leader initiates by being at the
bottom, in contrast t o the leaders of many societies whose authority proceeds from their
being at the top. The Nambiquara leader initiates discussions of matters that are impor-
tant to the community. By influencing decisions through his wisdom, he attempts to bring
about a group consensus, without which communal action would be impossible. The leader
also steps forward and represents his village in dealings with other groups. This aspect of
his role is memorialized in the term walekhantu (the all together), used in the
northwestern part of the region.
The fact that the leader should be a worker bulinasu) implies that he does not just tell
other people what to do, but does things himself. Ideally, he should be both a good hunter
and a good gardener. In a period of 77 days during the rainy season, Capita0 Elijah of

Camarare participated in 20 out o f 30 hunting expeditions. Not including the results of
communal hunting that preceded a puberty festival, he bagged five deer, two greater
anteaters, three armadillos, two monkeys, and one fox. Other men in the village at this time
bagged four deer, two monkeys, three peccary, one tapir, one large turtle, and one iguana.
Prefestival hunting in which Elijah participated produced more meat than hunting in which
he did not participate. During the same period, Elijah was one of the first t o begin clearing
the forest for his following years gardens. Other men helped him in this so that they would
have rights to the produce, should their own gardens fail or prove inadequate,
Being big and strong (kgin-1 helps a man t o be a worker, and being a worker means that a
man will have much t o share with his followers, since a big, strong worker can be generous,
For the Nambiquara-as for the Parintintin (Kracke 1978:20)-generosity is not a virtue, but
a necessary condition of mankind. Thus, there is no word for it; there i s only a word for i t s
absence, stinginess (a/;-).The leader should be the leading example of unstinginess; he
should produce much, and he should share (wanyt-1 what he produces with his group of
followers (dnyttesu). At one point I found Elijah going naked while everyone else in his
village had clothes. Similar observations were made about bodily ornaments in contexts
where all of the villagers customarily went naked (Aytai 1980: personal communication;
Roquette-Pinto 1935:254).
Finally, the leader should be cheerful. One of the first things that was explained to me by
the Indians in the Sarare was that men are, or should be, cheerful (wilhin-), in contrast t o
women, whose nature it i s to grumble (jyaih-). Womens anger i s not considered important,
but men who become angry may fight. Thus, men should keep fluctuations of emotion
under control and maintain an even disposition. There are, of course, culturally constituted
situations in which men may work out their grievances, but in general they should maintain
a constant good humor. This is especially important for the leader, who thus makes himself
likeable and provides an example for others to follow.
influence and authority
In 1955, Miller placed two different types of authority in formal opposition by

systematically contrasting the political life of the Fox Indians and the traditional societies
of Western Europe. Subsequently, Fried (1967) discussed the theoretical attributes of
egalitarian and authoritarian types of society in an evolutionary frame of reference. Begler
(1978) sharpened this distinction, making it into a conceptual tool of considerable preci-
sion. She sets power and influence in opposition to each other: power depends on the
threat or use of sanctions; influence, on persuasion. Authority involves the legitimate
utilization of power, while leadership involves the utilization of influence.
The egalitarian character of Nambiquara leadership i s suggested by the personal
qualities of the ideal leader described above. In addition, most of the 70 leaders on whom I
have information seem t o conduct themselves in an egalitarian way. They do not give
orders, but lead by example. The typical leader begins making a garden and other men join
him; he announces his intention to hunt peccary and other men go along. Decisions affect-
ing the whole group require a consensus. The leader can only influence this by promoting
discussion and attempting to persuade dissidents. Similarly, the leader may attempt to
mediate a dispute. But with no ability t o invoke sanctions, his powers are severely limited.
The most serious quarrel I ever witnessed happened one evening in Camarare when the
natural father of a 14-year-old girl sought to take her away from her mother and stepfather
in order to arrange her marriage to suit his own ends. The two men belonged to different
factions that probably would not have lived in the same village except for their mutual in-
terest in the material benefits to be gained by residing near a missionary. The natural father

inadvertently stepped on his daughters foot; she screamed, and a nearby woman picked up
a cane and began to hit him with it. Infuriated, he lashed out with a piece of rope at a man
who tried to intervene, whipping him across the face. Elijah, the village leader, was in his
house eating dinner when he heard the fracas He rushed out and told the disputants t o
break it up. He urged the natural father, who was a member of his own faction, t o leave the
scene. He then went home himself, and a third member of his faction, a brother with a
penchant for rhetoric, appeared at the girls house and declaimed for the rest of the night.
The problem was not really solved until several weeks later when the girl married a young
man from another village, thus eliminatlng the tensions that had led to the quarrel.
In contrast to the generally egalitarian tenor of Nambiquara leadership, i t would seem
that a few leaders have attempted to affect a more authoritarian posture. The evidence i s
meager, but it suggests that 9 of the men in our sample of 70 sometimes tended to give
orders.12 While this number i s small, the availability of an authoritarian option would seem
to be neither spurious nor recent. An apparent inconsistency between statements made by
Levi-Strauss (1945, 1948) indicates that he observed both types of leadership He says, on
the one hand, that the chief has no coercive power at his disposal (1945:23), but
elsewhere he writes:
Each band recognizes the leadership of a chief , i t IS he who commands the group, or better, the
assemblage of adult men who are his companions. , these see to it that their orders are

respected by their wives, who are rarely consulted (1948:86).
The first statement would be apropos of an egalitarian leader whose followers respect his
opinions because they acknowledge his greater wisdom; the second seems to describe an
authoritarian chief whose followers obey his orders because they acknowledge his right t o
corn m and.
Three of the nine apparently authoritarian leaders have been unable t o retain a signifi-
cant number of followers. O f the remaining six, five live along the northern limits of the
Nambiquara region.14 The tendency for the more northerly leaders to be more
authoritarian was noted by Roquette-Pinto (1935) in 1912. He refers to one man as the sup-
posed chief of the village of Urutau; and while characterizing him and another man as
sharper, more intelligent and daring than the norm, he says that nothing indicated that
they were real chiefs, recognized as such on all occasions. They were transitory chiefs.
However, he says that in more northerly groups there exist temporal chiefs, perfectly well
defined. One of them distinguished himself by always going without ornaments. Effective-
ly, he commanded, and everyone obeyed (1935:253-254).
The tendency for successful authoritarian leadership to correlate with the extreme north-
ern part of the region seems to hold irrespective of differences within the Nambiquara
linguistic family. The two languages that Levi-Strauss called a and b are not mutually in-
telligible and are only about 70 percent cognate in core vocabulary (Price 197813). Some
speakers of both languages live in the extreme north, facing the Tupian-speaking Cinta
Larga, while others live behind them in the Nambiquara heartland. The more northerly
speakers of both languages seem willing t o accept an authoritarian style of leadership,
while those farther south employ the egalitarian model. Mrs. Tylee (1931), a missionary who
knew the Nambiquara in the 1920s. gives her impressions of two leaders who spoke
language a . O f one, who lived to the north of the telegraph line, she says: Young, tall and
powerfully built, he i s a man of unusually strong personality. He seems to have absolute
authority over his men . . . . N o one ever saw an Indian question his authority or fail to give
him respectful obedience (1931:44-45). Of another, who lived to the south, she says:
H e . . . does not have the strong personality usually found in a chief nor does he seem t o
exercise very great authority over his men (1931:44). As for b-speakers, an informant from
one of the most northerly groups approvingly described a former leader in these terms.
The captain told the men t o work in the gardens, told them when to stop and eat, and told

widowed leader could long retain his position, as Kracke (1973:159-160) points out for the
Parintintin. Pyreneus de Souza (1920:401) describes an instance in which a Nambiquara
leaders wife undertook his ritual obligations in his absence: a group of Brazilians visited a
village while the leader was away and his wife made them welcome. I t i s not clear,
however, that having more than one wife i s a special privilege of the leader or, indeed, a
privilege at all.
As a general rule, plural marriages seem to occur among the Nambiquara as a way of tak-
ing care of women who would otherwise be without male economic support. For example,
when a man dies, if there is no single brother in need of a wife, an already-married
brother may take in the widow, who will usually be a sister to his first wife. Similarly, a
man may take a young girl as a second wife if no single husband i s available for her, par-
ticularly if his first wife is old. A special case occurs when a man who i s unable to find a
wife his own age takes in a widow with a young daughter in the category of wife.
Although sexual relations with a mother-in-law are theoretically disapproved, a man in
these circumstances will sometimes have children first by the mother and then by the
daughter, and will continue to care for the mother after the daughter i s grown.
The moral and sentimental reward of having two wives is probably outweighed by the
disadvantages. Because of the division of labor by sex, the polygynous household
represents an unbalanced productive unit. Normally, men clear away jungle for gardens
and hunt to provide meat, while women do most of the gardening and are responsible for
the lengthy preparation of vegetable foods. Although two women can theoretically do
twice as much female work as one, they can also consume twice as much food and pro-
duce twice as many children. Thus, their husband will theoretically have t o d o twice as
much male work t o complement them. The tomboy tendency of second wives, which
Levi-Strauss (1945:27) points out, may reflect their efforts to help their husbands in the extra
work which they occasion. I saw an instance of this behavior in the Upper Sarare when the
village was invaded by a stray Brahman cow, which the Indians killed as an evil spirit. Dur-
ing the chase, Atlas was accompanied by his second wife, who handed him arrows as he
needed them.
Still, it is no ordinary man who can support two wives. Since the village leader i s big,
strong, and hard working, the responsibility of taking in a surplus woman often devolves on
him, provided, of course, that the woman i s in an acceptable category. A third of the
leaders in a sample of 40 have two or more wives, a rate of polygynous marriage that i s
many times the rate for the society as a whole. But from an economic standpoint, the extra
wife would seem not so much a reward t o the leader for services rendered as just another
one of the responsibilities his position e n t a i l ~ . ~
Proceeding from the contrary premise, however, Levi-Strauss (1948:76) indulges in a
fascinating bit of sociological speculation:
Because of the partial polygamy which occurs within the group and causes the youngest and
prettiest women t o be periodically withdrawn from the marriage pool by the chief or the shaman,
the young men often find it hard t o marry, at least during a part of their adolescence, as no poten-
tial wife i s available. This problem i s resolved by homosexual relations
Unfortunately, this ramification of Levi-Strawss model does not seem t o be acceptable.

The contention that the polygynous leader withholds women who might have been wives
to other, single men in the group i s not supported by Levi-Strausss (1948:40, 52) own
genealogical diagrams, nor could the leader maintain his position if he thus deprived his
brothers. I know of one leader who lost his position for the stated reason that he kept
going off by himself, and he took other peoples women. The villagers ceased t o seek his
advice or make him their representative in dealings with outsiders and turned t o another
man who took their welfare more seriously.

Moreover, the practices referred t o are not well characterized as homosexual
relations. They only occur between brothers-in-law; they occur in public; and they do
not result in sexual gratification, as Levi-Strauss points out. They are better understood as
cross-cousin joking behavior, a kind of institutionalized horseplay that converts into public
mirth the tensions inherent in the relationship between men who control each others ac-
cess to women. There is a strong, aggressive component, as when one cross cousin grabs
anothers cigarette, farts at him, or yanks his penis. This aggression i s often masked behind
a mock eroticism in which one cross cousin treats the other as if he were a woman. The ag-
gressor attempts to put his knee over the other persons legs, in imitation of the sleeping
position that characterizes a married couple. The cross cousin who i s put in the womans
position resists, but in a coy way (as a woman resists a mans advances) and not with anger
(as a man resists the aggression of another man). The couple sometimes rolls around on the
ground, murmuring endearments and pantomiming different sexual positions. Both cross
cousins and bystanders soon break into fits of giggling.
Such joking behavior seems to occur most frequently among young unmarried men,
perhaps because they are at a time in their lives when access t o women i s a pressing need
that i s not easily taken for granted. But i t also takes place among boys under the age of
puberty, where the aggressive element seems less developed, and it occurs among married
men as well. I have seen two happily married fathers of teenage children rolling around in
the most typical manifestation of joking behavior (see Figure 2).22I have, in fact, seen two
men who were themselves leaders engaged in joking behavior. It is an activity that i s clear-
ly not restricted t o single men who are deprived of women by the polygyny of their leader.
I t is practiced by all men.23
discussion
Levi-Strausss account of Nambiquara chieftainship is often cited in general studies of

political institutions. These citations show what it i s that other scholars have found impor-
tant about the Nambiquara case, as Levi-Strauss presents it. I have made a brief survey of
citations to the chieftainship paper in order t o see how Nambiquara leadership appears to
Western scholars who know it through LCvi-Strausss ethnography. What these people see
as significant about the Nambiquara case can be stated as four interrelated propositions.
1. The Nambiquara are simple or primitive, so human universals are more easily
seen (Arensberg 1972; Clarke 1978; Wassner 1979).
2. The leaders authority is derived from ability, not power (Adams 1973).
3. The group led i s a voluntary association, whose members are recruited by joining
(Watson 1970; Brown 1974).
4. There i s a social-contract-like reciprocity between leader and led (Spencer 1972;
Clarke 1978: Wassner 1979).
As I understand the Nambiquara, none of these propositions can be accepted without
qualification. The second and third, however, are more nearly acceptable than the first and
last.
There is no doubt but that a leaders authority-or better, influence-is derived from his
ability. A person is a leader only if other peoplefollow him, and a Nambiquara is not fol-
lowed unless he is capable. But membership in the villages agnatic nucleus constitutes a
distinct political advantage. Men who are equally capable have different prospects, de-
pending on how many brothers they happen to have. Thus, the leaders influence i s not
derived solely from ability, but i s also subject to social constraints.
A similar point can be made about the proposition that the group led is a voluntary
association. There i s no doubt but that the size and composition of the group varies with

Fig. 2. Cross-cousin joking between mature men. Camarare, 1976
the expertise of the leader. Leaders who can arrange favorable marriages and attract
dissidents from other villages will prosper, while those who cannot do so will see their
villages shrink away.24 But links of kinship and marriage are prerequisites for membership
in the village group and provide the social framework within which the leader exercises his
expertise. People do not simply join a leader and leave him whenever they like. Thus, i t is
probably misleading to call the Nambiquara village a voluntary association.
The notion that one society i s "simpler" than another depends on a comparison involv-
ing something that can be quantified. For example, one society may be seen as consuming
less energy per capita or having less economic specialization than another society. It is
clear that whichever society turns out t o be "simpler" depends on the parameters of com-
parison. As energy users or economic specialists, the Nambiquara rank rather low. But we
could as well decide to compare societies in terms of the number of feedback mechanisms
that serve to keep them in ecological balance with their environment, or the percentage of
economic goods necessary for survival that the average member can produce by himself.
Compared in these parameters, the Nambiquara would rank fairly high.
Although Levi-Strauss (1945) uses the word "primitive" in his title, he quickly points out
that a society may be seen as "simple" whether or not the dubious assumption i s made that
it i s therefore archaic (1945:16). Pierre Clastres (1974) develops this position further. He
argues that the tendency to classify societies as "stateless," "acephalous," or "developing"
is ethnocentric. It implies that they lack something-something with which Western socie-
ty is replete. Unfortunately, Clastres does not really deny that these societies lack
something, but suggests instead that the absence is intentional. The members of egalitarian

societies understand authoritarian rule, but reject it. The history of peoples without
history, Clastres (1974:186) says, is the history of their struggle against the state. This
view i s salutary but romantic. Egalitarian societies do not maintain liberty and justice
through eternal vigilance. Both egalitarian and authoritarian forms of organization persist
because they work-quite apart from the intentions of the people they work for.25
Once the Nambiquara are defined as simple, however, i t is an obvious step t o ask
whether a people with less culture than Westerners might not be but little removed from
Rousseaus Natural Man. It seems clear that Rousseau (1965 [I 755]:33) originally meant
his Natural Man to be a parable of that which i s natural in man, for he says that the state
of nature no longer exists, may never have existed, and probably never will exist. By the
time he finishes recounting his imaginary prehistory, however, he seems to forget that the
account of diachronic process was meant as a metaphor for synchronic structure and at
least half believes in the actual historicity of his own invention. When Levi-Strauss
(1955:335-336) visited the Nambiquara, he found himself among a people who used neither
clothes nor beds, but lay crushed ... against the hostile earth . _ .naked and shivering beside
their flickering fires. As a cultural heir of Rousseau, he could not help but ask whether
their political institutions would tend to support Rousseaus model. He found that in fact
they did. The network of relations between the Nambiquara leader and his followers ap-
peared similar to the basic idea of the social contract theorists, which is, in Spencers
(1972:18)succinct formulation, that the earliest form of social organization i s based upon
a voluntary compact in which obedience to authority i s exchanged for the advantages of
communal life.
In my own view, there are several difficulties with this formulation, and i t i s dubious
whether it really serves to illuminate the Nambiquara case. The fact that the compact i s
seen as voluntary makes it appear that people can choose t o accept or reject the advan-
tages of communal life. O n the contrary, it seems to me that the extent t o which a species
i s communal i s a product of biological evolution, over which individuals have no control.
Hippopotamuses lean together in tropical ponds, while the eagle clasps the crag with
crooked hands/ Close to the sun in lonely lands (Alfred, Lord Tennysons The Eagle).
Hippopotamuses cannot choose to be solitary, nor can eagles choose to be gregarious. Peo-
ple, for their part, may live in communities organized in a variety of different ways, but
they always live in some kind of communities. The basic parameters of human sociability
are set; man cannot choose between accepting communal life and rejecting it altogether.
Quite apart from this difficulty, the exchange of obedience to authority for the ad-
vantages of communal life supposes that authoritarian leadership i s necessary for social
order. O n the contrary, the Nambiquara are one of several societies that generally manage
to maintain order without the need for authoritarian leadership (see, e. g., Miller 1955; Turn-
bull 1962; Dole 1966; Leacock 1978; Lee 1978).Only in situations where there i s a constant
threat of attack does Nambiquara leadership take on an authoritarian cast. This suggests
that authoritarian leadership is not a prerequisite of communal life, but of preparedness for
war.
Finally, social contract theory supposes that there i s some kind of exchange between
leader and followers. To reap the benefits of communal life, a person must give something
up-whether it be a woman delivered over to a polygynous chief or, more significantly, the
freedom to make ones own decisions and do whatever one likes. But a Nambiquara would
not appear to have given anything up when he seeks to maximize his own interests by giv-
ing special consideration to the opinions of a man he perceives to be wise. It is, in fact, the
leader who gives things up t o the community.
The idea of exchange i s well developed in Western culture. We say, You cant get some-
thing for nothing, You cant have your cake and eat it, too, and Theres no such thing

as a free lunch. The basic metaphor is economic: Youve got t o pay the piper. But the
Nambiquara economic system i s predicated on an avoidance of immediate reciprocity. I t s
primary function is to maintain social links, not t o permit the acquisition of scarce goods.
Haggling over relative values would undermine the social relation that the transaction i s
supposed to sustain. There is no overt comparison of values (see Price 1977). Western ideas
of exchange reflect a market mentality and are not particularly appropriate t o the Nambi-
quara economic system. They seem even less suited t o the Nambiquara political system.
Social contract theory treats the security offered by communal life as a scarce good that
can be bought with personal freedom. By contrast, the Nambiquara might be seen as at-
tempting to purchase security through the expenditure of real goods.
Fried (1967:35) calls attention to a general correlation between egalitarian political
systems and economic systems involving generalized reciprocity. Lee (19782389) makes
the matter immediately intelligible: To give orders from A to B but not from B t o A is like
taking goods from B t o A but not giving anything in return. Conversely sharing of food and
sharing of power seem to go hand in hand. From what I know of the Nambiquara, it would
seem that there i s not merely a formal analogy between economic and political systems,
but that there is no difference between them except in the eye of the beholder. If A wants
something from 6, whether a good or a service, he asks for it and B gives him what he
wants. B must give him what he wants. Since B cannot refuse, it would be pointless for A to
say please or thank you, and in fact these expressions do not exist in Nambiquara (see also
Lee 1978:888). It would not be wise, however, for A to ask B for something with which he
would rather not part, for then A would incur 6s resentment. Since the transaction is in-
tended to affirm an amicable relationship, the arousal of resentment would be counter-
p r o d ~ c t i v eWithin
. ~ ~ the range of contexts traditionally regarded as appropriate for give-
and-take, every person has a right t o play A-type roles and may reasonably expect his alters
to accept B-type roles. If the analyst focuses on goods and services, he sees an economic
system in which people give things to each other and do favors without expecting im-
mediate or direct reciprocity. If, on the other hand, the analyst focuses on the ability of
people to exact goods and services from each other, he sees a political system in which
every individual has the same potential powes.
There seems to be a common belief that egalitarian politics and generalized reciprocity
are characteristic of societies that depend on foraging for their subsistence (e.g., Leacock
1978; Lee 1978). While the Nambiquara do hunt and gather wild foods, they also have a
well-developed agriculture that supplies a large part of their diet. Thus, a primary depen-
dence on foraging would not appear t o be a significant criterion. What i s more significant, I
think, is the size and character of the largest groups to which the members of the society
feel they belong. The traditional Nambiquara did not feel they belonged to any political en-
tity larger than the individual village, which averaged only 25 people and was essentially a
kin group. The members of the group were highly dependent on one another, and i t was ad-
vantageous for them t o cooperate. The only recreational activity the Nambiquara com-
monly engage in i s a game that Theodore Roosevelt called headball, which stresses
cooperation rather than competition.
Such a group can benefit from an individual who knows how to precipitate a consensus,
but there i s little need for leadership to become institutionalized. Lee (1978:882-884)
reports that the !Kung vigorously deny that they ever had headmen. Turnbull (1962:108)
states simply, There were no chiefs. Leacock (1978:249) says, What is hard to grasp
about the structure of the egalitarian band is that leadership as we conceive it i s not merely
weak or incipient, as is commonly stated, but irrelevant. Do the Nambiquara have
leaders? Do they just appear to have leaders because we have been looking for them? I s it
possible that leadership was irrelevant in the traditional context, but is beginning to be

institutionalized because of the expectations of the Westerners with whom the Nambi-
quara must now interact? None of these questions have easy answers, but it would seem
fruitful t o distinguish between native recognition of a general tendency and shared criteria
for legitimacy. The Nambiquara recognize, for example, that leaders are often the sons of
former leaders, but they do not seem t o believe that this is a necessary precondition for
leadership. They say that good leaders are big, but they do not make the biggest man
leader. They call the leader the capable one, but this may be only an appropriate descrip-
tion and not the name of a socially recognized status.28 As Levi-Strauss suggested,
natural leaders may exercise their influence in the absence of any institutionalized tradi-
tion of leadership.
The relationship between the man who i s most influential and other members of his
group can be understood better when it i s removed from the domain of politics and
viewed as kinship. The Nambiquara leader is an elder brother who cares for his less com-
petent siblings-that i s the basic metaphor and often the actual fact. The bond between
brothers-rather than between fathers and sons-is at the root of Nambiquara society. A
similar situation seems to hold among the !Kung, for Lee (1978:880) says that being the
oldest member or surviving member of a sibling group puts one in a position of respect
within the family. Consistent with emphasis on the sibling link i s the nongenealogical way
in which the Nambiquara reckon their kin relations. Doles (1966:83) comparison of the
Kuikuru with other societies led her to a similar conclusion, which she phrased as an ap-
parent correlation of lineal kinship with effective political organization among Tropical
Forest tribes of South America, [suggesting] that political authority may be functionally
related to lineality. In at least some cases, emphasis on the sibling link and an absence of
lineal reckoning may be related t o a lack of valuable, inheritable property. The Nambi-
quara have long been noted for the simplicity of their material culture, and among the
!Kung, Lee (1978:886-8871 tells us, an individuals personal property weighs less than 11 kg.
While lineal reckoning may be involved in many institutions other than inheritance, in the
absence of valuable property there i s one less reason for it to develop.
Psychoanalytic theory supposes that the father-son relation i s preeminent in the devel-
opment of political institutions. Levi-Strauss saw that this was not the case among the Nam-
biquara and proposed, instead, that leadership depended on a voluntarily assumed agree-
ment or compact between leader and led. Unfortunately, this formulation minimizes the
importance of kinship at the same time that i t rejects the prototypical authority relation be-
tween father and son. I believe that Nambiquara leadership is, in fact, a family respon-
sibility. It does not depend on a fathers ability to coerce, however, but on a mans recog-
nition that i t i s in his own best interest to be his brothers keeper.
notes
Acknowledgments. Research among the Nambiquara was carried out under fellowship 1-HI-MH-31,
735-01Al BEH-B from the National Institute of Mental Health and grant GS-1839 3-5631-xx-I650 from
the National Science Foundation in 1967-70, as well as a grant from the Programa de Pos-GraduaCIo
em Antropologia Social, Universidade de Brasilia. from December 1973 through March 1974 From
August 1974 through July 1976 I worked with the Nambiquara for the FundaCIo Nacional do Indio. I
visited the Nambiquara again, at my own expense, in July 1977. I wish to thank Alba Lucy Giraldo
Figueroa for help in organizing the material on which this paper I S based, and Desiderio Aytai, Paul
Friedrich, Ken Kensinger, Waud Kracke, Claude Levi-Strauss. Bruce Mannheim, Alcida Ramos, Joanne
Rappaport. and Kenneth Taylor for their constructive criticism of earlier versions
AII citations from foreign-language sources are my own translations
In evaluating ethnography having t o do with women, it i s often helpful to know the sex of the
researcher. Similarly, in evaluating a description of egalitarian leadership, it may be useful to know the
ethnographers tolerance for authority. In 1963, I received the draft classification 3-Y on the basis of a

psychiatrist's letter stating that I was "completely unable to accept authority" and "subject to severe
panic under military conditions."
Gathering i s also an important activity, but it provides much less food than hunting and gardening
do. Honey, fruits, nuts, and edible insects are commonly gathered, although they add more variety
than bulk t o the Nambiquara diet.
Unless otherwise specified, all native terms are cited in the Southern Nambiquara language, which
Levi-Strauss (1948:9-11) calls "language a." The orthography i s explained in Price (1976).
These 18 villages are those of leaders, 9, 10, 13, 14, 16, 18. 20, 21, 22, 29, 31, 45, 50, 56, 65, 68, 69,
and 70, as numbered in the Appendix.
This system should be compared with that described by Ramos (1972) for the Sanuma. Although
she uses the term "lineage" for what I call the agnatic nucleus, the principles of formation seem t o be
the same. Ramos says that the Sanuma "lineage" i s named for i t s founder; the Nambiquara agnatic
nucleus may also be referred to as "the people of so-and-so," or "the grandchildren of so-and-so,"
although it is not clear that this constitutes a name. The main structural difference between the
Sanuma and the Nambiquara i s that the Sanuma have exogamous, patrilineal sibs. Whether the
"lineages" are systematically related to these sibs or are an epiphenomenon of male consanguineal
solidarity remains to be clearly demonstrated.
' Leaders 9 , 1 0 , 1 3 , 1 4 , 1 6 , 20, 21, 31,45, 50, 56, 65, and 69, as numbered in the Appendix, belong t o
groups of -Idnsu that are equal to or larger than any other group of -/Snsu in their village; 18 and 70
have more "sons"; 22 and 29 have more "brothers-in-law"; and 68 has more "sons-in-law."
Leaders 23, 26, 38, 39, 43, 46, 48, 58, 59, 61, 65, and 66, as numbered in the Appendix, succeeded
their "fathers"; 12 and 55 were succeeded by their sons; 31, 32, and 60 succeeded their brothers; 1 3 , 1 4 ,
16, 17, 32, 33, 41, 54, and 64 succeeded neither fathers nor brothers; 1 9 and 42 have conflicting
evidence.
Peter Kingston, a member of the Summer Institute of Linguistics who has worked for many years
among the Mamaind6. one of the more southerly and less acculturated groups of Northern-
Nambiquara speakers (Levi-Strauss's "language b"), writes: "1 have never seen linear succession and
have severe problems with the whole concept of succession t o leadership.. . . [The leader is] often
merely the oldest man" (1980: personal communication).
l oLeaders 16, 29, 40, 42, 43, 47, 58, 59, 68, and 70, as numbered in the Appendix, are shamans;
leaders 13, 14, 15, 17, 20, 25, 28, 31, 34, 35, 38, 39, 46, 57, 62, 64, 65, 66, 67, and 70 are not.
,
' ' I am indebted t o Peter Kingston of the Summer Institute of Linguistics for this term (cf. ydika'de in
Levi-Strauss 1948:86).
12
Leaders 6 , 7 , 1 2 , 33, 36, 38,42,43, and 65, as numbered in the Appendix, seem t o have an authori-
tarian style of leadership.
l 3 In fact, Nambiquara men frequently consult their wives, or hear their wives' opinions whether
they want t o or not. Women are very influential but are generally represented by their husbands in
public debate (cf. Aspelin 1975:92).
14
Leaders 7, 12, 33, 36, and 42, as numbered in the Appendix, have an apparently successful
authoritarian style and live in the north; leaders 38, 43 and, 65 have authoritarian tendencies, live in
the south, and have been notably unsuccessful in attracting or retaining followers and extending their
influence. Leader 6 lived in the south and was apparently successful.
lS Lourenco Lacond6 thus described Capitlo Afonsinho; interview of 21/5/69.
l 6In the Guapore Valley, Brazilian extractivists from the town of Vila Bela raided Indian villages
until quite recently (cf. Cabral 1942). The apparently successful authoritarian leadership reported for
Tito's father, in the Sarare, may have been a response t o these conditions.
l 7 Levi-Strauss (1955:364) indicates elsewhere that he considers polygamous marriage t o be only a
secondary compensation for the burdens of leadership and that a leader's primary motive for holding
the position is the satisfaction of his drive t o lead.
18
Leaders 4, (9). 10, 17, 18, 21, 28, 32, 33, 42, 45, 51, 57, 64, and 65, as numbered in the Appendix,
have more than one wife; leaders 2, 3, 5, 13, 14, 16, 19, 20.22. 26.30, 31, 34, 38, 40, 43, 44, 46, 47, 52, 53,
56, 59, 68, 69, and 70 do not.
Kenneth Kensinger (1981:personal communication) reports a similar situation among the Cashi-
nahua. He says
Many of the polygynous males have no political ambitions, and not all leaders are polygynous.
Polygyny i s seen by the males as requiring them to work harder since they have t o make separate
gardens for each wife. A new wife added t o an already-existing marriage is rarely one of "the
youngest and prettiest women." More often than not she is the widow of a deceased brother or
somebody else's disgruntled wife who wants t o escape an unhappy marriage. It i s clear that for the
Cashinahua polygyny is not seen as a prerogative of a chief, nor as a reward for leadership.
*' Shamans do, in fact, have two wives, but one is a "spirit wife" who is responsible for the shaman's
special abilities and is invisible to the laity.

2 1 This statement assumes that the group led by the man whom Levi-Strauss (1948.40) refers t o as A1
contained only the persons indicated in his Figure 11 I think it would be a mistake t o contend that A1
enjoyed ascendancy over all 75 of the people he was able to muster in response t o the ethnographers
promise t o bring presents and engage in barter (Levi-Strauss 1977.332) Even if this contention should
be accepted, however, my statement would stand. Only 11 members of the larger group were single
males; 9 of these were under the age of 13; and neither of the remaining 2 would have been an ap-
propriate husband for Als second and third wives, as A15 apparently regarded them as sisters and
A27 as daughters (Levi-Strauss 1948:40-46).
2 2 Levi-Strauss (1955:361) made similar observations, but he seems t o differentiate between the
adolescent and adult experiences, suggesting that the former involves socially accepted homosexual
relationships, while the latter is more an indulgence in nostalgia. In defense of this distinction, he af-
firms that these relationships provided unmarried young men with their only sentimental outlet
(Levi-Strauss 1981:personal communication). This statement is not consistent with my observations. In
villages where I have been privy to current gossip, it would appear that discrete young men can usually
find sentimental outlets with members of the opposite sex
2 3 I find it amusing that Levi-Strauss explains supposed homosexuality among Nambiquara
followers as a result of their leaders heterosexual appetites, while Kracke (1978:230-232) explains the
Parintintin headmans motivation t o lead as a working out of his own repressed homosexual impulses.
2 4 Some former leaders seem to have had a range of influence that extended beyond the confines of
the individual village. As Kracke (1973.114) concludes for a similar situation among the Parintintin,
The picture is probably one of a number of group headmen of varying stature, some of the lesser ones
perhaps acknowledging the ascendency of one or two particularly effective leaders, but none really
acknowledging their authority over himself.
2 5 Needham (1962:25, note 10) finds Levi-Strauss guilty of the same error when he imputes inten-
tionality to the exchange of individual advantages for collective security in the chieftainship paper
He points out, however, that this must be taken as a figurative usage since it is inconsistent with the
main thrust of Levi-Strausss argument.
2 6 It i s noteworthy that the threat posed by an authoritarian society can make an egalitarian society
authoritarian; thus, there i s a tendency for systems that treat all men as equals t o disappear. Fried
(1967:107) observes: The threat t o this very successful level of sociocultural development was less a
hostile, untamed environment, niggardly resources, or fierce predators, than the emergence of new
forms of society.
2 7 Since A i s not likely t o receive anything from B unless he asks, but will anger B if he asks for too
much, this system simultaneously fosters individual autonomy and sensitivity t o others, as Leacock
(1978:249) points out in discussing the Naskapi.
2 8 Silbene de Almeida, Indian Agent in the Cuapore Valley, customarily referred to his superior, the
president of the National Indian Foundation, as tdhikantisu (my capable one). After a visit from this
dignitary on 1 August 1980, the Indians were incredulous. The president doesnt know anything, they
told Silbene. You are much more capable than he.
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appendix
Statistical statements in the body of this paper refer t o subsets of the following sample. Included in
this sample are all men, past or present, referred t o as leaders, chiefs, headmen, caciques, or capitaes

for whom some information, beyond the mere mention of a name, was available. Although many of
my sources cannot easily be checked, I feel that listing the leaders is a gesture, at least, toward
replicability. The name of each leader i s followed by a Nambiquara or Brazilian regional designation
and the sources from which the information was gathered. The abbreviation AFC means that the
document referred t o is in the Archive of the Funai in Cuiaba, which was moved t o the Museu do lndio
in Rio de Janeiro in 1974. Pers. cont. means that I have had personal contact with the leader in ques-
tion; interv. means that I know about the leader through an interview with the person mentioned.
Dates are given in the European (and Brazilian) style: day/month/year.
(1) Anonymous Campos Novos: Albuquerque (ca. 1916):142. (2) Anonymous Corrego Capivara: in-
terv. Marcel0 dos Santos 2/10/80. (3) Anonymous MamaindC: Aytai 1979:personal communication. (4)
Anonymous Nagarottu: interv. Ariovaldo Jose dos Santos 17/12/75. (5) Anonymous njyalhosu: Souza
1920:402. (61 Anonymous Sarare: interv. Heinrich Berg 18/11/68. (7) Anonymous Tagnani: Roquette-
Pinto 1935:254. ( 8 ) Anonymous Manduca: Harmon 1940. (9) A1 (prob. I ulio) wakalitesu: Levi-Strauss
1948:40-41, 50. (10) A32 wakalitesu: L6vi-Strauss 1948:45. (11) AcururC Juina kithaulhu: Souza
1920:403. (12) Afonsinho LacondC: Franca 8/1945 AFC; Hugo 1959, 11:249; interv. LourenCo LacondC
21/5/69. (13) Americo Sarare: interv. Gerhard Pauck 06/1/76; pers. cont. (14) AntBnio halotesu: interv.
Lidio halotesu: 28/1/74; pers. cont. (15) AntBnio Juina kithaulhu: interv. Benedito kithgulhu 20/2/74.(16)
Aristides sawentesu: Aytai 1979:personal communication; pers. cont. (17) Atlas Sarare: pers. cont. (18)
B1 (Vilhena): Levi-Strauss 1948:50. (19) Bacana halotesu: interv. Lidio halotesu 28/1/74; pers. cont. (20)
Bibi yotynsu: pers. cont. (21) C20 SabanC: Levi-Strauss 1948:53-54, 90; Guiley 1938 (?), (22) CalmZo
lldntesu: pers. cont. (23) Casuso halotesu: McDowell 1929a; E . Tylee 1931:44; Lidio halotesu, interv.
28/1/74. (24) Cavagnac Manduca: Roquette-Pinto 1935:253-254; Noronha 26/9/30 AFC. (25) Chibim
Juina kithgulhu: interv. Benedito kithaulhu 20/2/74. (26) Chiquinho kithgulhu: interv. Benedito
kithaulhu 20-21/2/74; Meader 1939 (?I; Elton and Elton 1943 (?); Buckman and Buckman 1946 (?). (27)
Chiquinho wakalitesu: McDowell 1929b; E . Tylee 1931:45; Zatiamare 1959. (28) Coronel Juina
kithgulhu: A. Tylee 1931; interv. Benedito kithgulhu 20/2/74. (29) Domingao kithgulhu: interv. Benedito
kithgulhu 20/2/74. (30) Domingos Sarare: interv. Cerhard Pauck 06/1/76; pers. cont. (31) Elijah
kithjwlhu: pers. cont. (32) Fifano MamaindC: Aytai 1979:personal communication; pers. cont. (33)
Frederico Tawand&: pers. cont. (34) halatpulihalhosu njyalhosu: interv. Benedito kithgulhu 20/2/74
(35) hiwaluhalhosu kithgulhu: interv. Benedito kithgulhu 20/2/74. (36) JoZo wakalitesu: E. Tylee
1931:44-45, 70; McDowell 1930 (?I; Moennich 1937 (?I. (37) JoZo SabanC: Franca 9/1945 AFC. (38) JoZo
de Maxixe halotesu: pers. cont. (39) Joaquim Bicudo Juina kithaulha: interv. Benedito kithgulhu
20/2/74. (40) Joaquim Calite TawendC: pers. cont. (41) Josehalotesu: interv. Lidio halotesu 28/1/74. (42)
Julio (prob. A l ) wakalitesu: Anonymous (ca. 1940):16, Boglar 1961:39; 1962:626; 1969:241; FranCa
4/1951, 21/11/55 AFC; Oberg 1953:84, 96; Pierce 1949; A. Tylee 1930; E. Tylee 1931:74; Zatiamare 1959;
interv. Manezinho Preto wakalitesu 31/12/73. (43) Lourenco kithgulhu: pers. cont. (44) Lucio Ma-
maindC: pers. cont. (45) Maraca wasuhsu: Gregory 1964; Pedersen 1964. (46) Maxixe halotesc: Boglar
1962:626; 1965:45, 49; interv. Lidio halotesu 28/1/74; pers cont. (47) nakatytyalhosu Juinakithgulhu: in-
terv. Benedito kithgulhu 20/2/74. (48) nehotyalhosu halotesu: interv. Lidio halotes6 28/1/74 (49)
Nuchela (LacondC). Rondon 1916:144,147. (50) Papai qaljnsattesu: interv. Bibi yotgnsu 15-16/7/76. (51)
Paulo DocinarC TawandC: Franca 2/1946, 5/1949, 911951 AFC; Elton 1944. (52) Paulo MamaindC: pers.
cont. (53) Pedro MamaindC: Aspelin 1975:83-84; pers. cont (541 Pedro halotesu: interv. Lidio halotesu
28/1/74. (55) qziyalalhosu halotesu: interv. Lidio halotesu 28/1/74. (56) Raimundo qaljnsattesu: pers.
cont. (57) Ramao wlikatesu: pers. cont. (58) Rodrigues kithgulhu: interv. Benedito kithgulhu 20/2/74.
(59) Saulo kithgulhu: Buckman 1946; Buckman and Buckman 1951; Kinsman and Kinsman 1967,1969;
interv. Benedito kithgtrlhu 20-21/2/74. (60) sikanahalhosu halotesb: interv. Lidio halotesu 28/1/74
(61) sukayjulalhosu halotesu: interv. Lidio halotesu 28/1/74. (62) tisihalhosu Juina kithgulhu: interv.
Benedito kithgulhu 20/2/74. (63) tisiyalhosu wakalitesu: interv. Manezinho Preto wakalitesu 31/12/73
(64) Tito halotesu: interv. Manezinho Preto wakalitesu 31/12/73; pers. cont. (65) Tito Sarare: interv.
Heinrich Berg 18/11/68; pers. cont. (66) Vensncio njyalhosu: interv. Benedito kithgulhu 20/2/74. (67)
wayuwalhosu Juina kithgulhu: interv. Benedito kithjlulhu 20/2/74. (681 Yawe wasuhsu: Aytai, letter of
21/2/79 and pers. cont. (69) ydkuntyalhosu kithaulhu: interv. Benedito kithgulhu 20-21/2/74. (70) Zeca
Sara& interv. Heinrich Berg 18/11/68.
Submitted 21 March 1980

Revised version received 30 January 1981
Accepted 5 February 1981

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Nambiquara leadership

A study of Nambiquara leadership carried out to overcome preconcep-

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the social context

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influence and authority

In 1955, Miller placed two different types of authority in formal opposition by

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Unfortunately, this ramification of Levi-Strawss model does not seem t o be acceptable.

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Levi-Strausss account of Nambiquara chieftainship is often cited in general studies of

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