The Canela: Bonding through kinship, ritual, and sex
I. Introduction This case study of the Canela is designed to represent how the Canela bond through ritual, kinship, and sex. Anthropologist William H. Crocker began field research with the group in 1957 and has since lived with the Canela for an accumulated total of more than five years during eleven field trips. Crocker graduated from Yale University in 1950 and completed his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1962. This ethnography was written over the course of Crocker’s trips to Brazil where the Canela live and was finally published in 1994. Crocker has written numerous articles on the Canela and there are few anthropological field studies that surpass his in duration …show more content…
They inhabit the area between the Amazon basin and the drier lands of the northeast in the state of Maranhão. Traditionally, they build their homes in the shape of a circle which are connected by pathways leading to a central plaza. The Canela speak a language that is only found in Brazil. Their language is called Gê, which is distinctly related to Carib. There are three different versions of the Gê language which are spoken in different regions of Brazil. There is Southern, Central and Northern variations of the language in which the Canela speak the Southern version of Gê. Since the Canela speak Southern Gê, they can only understand some words in Northern Gê but cannot understand any Central Gê. Around 1750, there were people like the Canela who lived in relatively self-sufficient and isolated villages called “nations” comprised if 1,000 to 5,000 people. Brazilian settlers called these nations the Timbira but were almost completely decimated by the Brazilian pioneer front in 1820. The Canela occupied one village out of many which had grown from less than 100 during the 1820s to more than 1,000 in population in 1993. The Timbira nations lived almost entirely in what they called “closed” savannahs, grasslands with widely spaced trees and shrubs, and had adapted their way of life accordingly to their environment. They relied mostly on hunting and gathering, …show more content…
Shamans are believed to have relationships with ghosts and because of that relationship, they know everything about an individual in the tribe. Thus, making secrets impossible. The aspects of Canela “religion” is “this-worldly” in its orientation as opposed to the “other-worldly” folk Catholicism of the backlanders. In other words, it is hardly recognizable as “religion” as we perceive it in major world religions. The Canela follow a folk Catholic religion to a certain extent, where there is a struggle between God and the Devil. Although it seems like the Canela have an excessive number of festivals and rites, they do not worship a supernatural being when practicing any of these ceremonies. Their ceremonies are this-worldly in the individual’s mental projection and is for self-development, not for supernatural intervention. The Canela’s “religion” is largely this-worldly and does not have worship or prayer in our usual Western
I. Introduction This case study of the Canela is designed to represent how the Canela bond through ritual, kinship, and sex. Anthropologist William H. Crocker began field research with the group in 1957 and has since lived with the Canela for an accumulated total of more than five years during eleven field trips. Crocker graduated from Yale University in 1950 and completed his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1962. This ethnography was written over the course of Crocker’s trips to Brazil where the Canela live and was finally published in 1994. Crocker has written numerous articles on the Canela and there are few anthropological field studies that surpass his in duration …show more content…
They inhabit the area between the Amazon basin and the drier lands of the northeast in the state of Maranhão. Traditionally, they build their homes in the shape of a circle which are connected by pathways leading to a central plaza. The Canela speak a language that is only found in Brazil. Their language is called Gê, which is distinctly related to Carib. There are three different versions of the Gê language which are spoken in different regions of Brazil. There is Southern, Central and Northern variations of the language in which the Canela speak the Southern version of Gê. Since the Canela speak Southern Gê, they can only understand some words in Northern Gê but cannot understand any Central Gê. Around 1750, there were people like the Canela who lived in relatively self-sufficient and isolated villages called “nations” comprised if 1,000 to 5,000 people. Brazilian settlers called these nations the Timbira but were almost completely decimated by the Brazilian pioneer front in 1820. The Canela occupied one village out of many which had grown from less than 100 during the 1820s to more than 1,000 in population in 1993. The Timbira nations lived almost entirely in what they called “closed” savannahs, grasslands with widely spaced trees and shrubs, and had adapted their way of life accordingly to their environment. They relied mostly on hunting and gathering, …show more content…
Shamans are believed to have relationships with ghosts and because of that relationship, they know everything about an individual in the tribe. Thus, making secrets impossible. The aspects of Canela “religion” is “this-worldly” in its orientation as opposed to the “other-worldly” folk Catholicism of the backlanders. In other words, it is hardly recognizable as “religion” as we perceive it in major world religions. The Canela follow a folk Catholic religion to a certain extent, where there is a struggle between God and the Devil. Although it seems like the Canela have an excessive number of festivals and rites, they do not worship a supernatural being when practicing any of these ceremonies. Their ceremonies are this-worldly in the individual’s mental projection and is for self-development, not for supernatural intervention. The Canela’s “religion” is largely this-worldly and does not have worship or prayer in our usual Western