The Meaning and Message of Symbolic Sexual Violence in Tukanoan Ritual

Author(s): Jean E. Jackson

Source: Anthropological Quarterly, Vol. 65, No. 1 (Jan., 1992), pp. 1-18
Published by: George Washington University Institute for Ethnographic Research
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 THE MEANING AND MESSAGEOF
SYMBOLICSEXUAL VIOLENCE
IN TUKANOANRITUAL*
JEAN E. JACKSON
MassachusettsInstituteof Technology

Tukanoan rituals involving symbolic physical violence towards women (metaphorical gang
rape, ceremonial bride capture, and the death threat represented by Yurupariflutes) are
analyzed in the context of Tukanoan social structure. It is argued that Tukanoan female
symbols represent not only woman but also heterosexuality and affinity, and that since all
three categories challenge Tukanoan cosmology's premise of male centrality, self-suffi-
ciency, and invulnerability, females must at times be ritually depicted as needing to be
controlled, punished, or banished. [sexual violence, lowland South America, ritual, gender
roles]

Introduction sexual oppositionand antagonism.3The Vaup6sis

often a focal pointin this debatebecauseit offers
This articleis aboutritualsin the Vaupesregionof the very spectacular,and by nowwell described(S.
the NorthwestAmazonthat involvesymbolicphys- Hugh-Jones1979) Yurupariritualcomplex.If all
ical violence towards women.' I am specifically properbattlesare foughtboth in the trenchesand
concerned with three topics: metaphoricalgang with propaganda,the Yurupariritualcan be seen
rape, ceremonial bride capture, and the death as a masterfulexampleof the latter.Yuruparirites
threat that sacred flutes and trumpets,knownas are the highest expressionof Tukanoanreligious
Yurupari,pose to any womanseeing them. I am life. A restrictedcode conveyinginformationand
consideringonly ritualsinvolvingsymbolicviolence sustaininga particularsocial formof sexualantag-
againstwomen,manyof whichoccurin the context onism (Douglas 1970:79),4they communicateand
of rites of passage.Otherbehaviors,bettercharac- sustainmuch else besides.
terizedas acts of violenceagainstwomenthat con- However, Tukanoansare far less blatantly
tain ritualistic elements (for example, genuine male dominant,in eithereverydaylife or theircer-
bride capture),are discussedhere only insofaras emoniesthan some other Amazoniangroups.Ya-
they illuminate symbolicallyviolent acts. I offer a nomamo men actively raid for women. Whereas
social structuralexplanationof why collectivemale the Mehinaku,the Munduruc(l,the Shavante,and
violenceis symbolicallystressedin ritual,and why the Waura have institutionalizedgang rape,"
these violentthemesare linkedto sexuality.2 neither I nor other Vaup6sresearchershave en-
I also argue that to understandwhat these counteredany formsof institutionalized rapein the
rituals mean, we need to understandthat the fe- Vaup6s.Furthermore,during my period of field-
male symbols in them representnot only women workI personallydid not hearof any casesof rape,
per se but two other dimensionsconnectedto, but institutionalizedor otherwise.6However,although
not coterminouswith, women:heterosexualityand the actualfrequencyof male physicalviolence,sex-
the agnatic/affinesplit. Not all femalesymbolsre- ual or otherwise,againstfemales is lower than in
fer to the core meaningof woman;they can and some otherAmazoniansocieties,the idea is hardly
often do haveotherreferents.I arguethat the ritu- a foreignone to Tukanoans.
als discussedhere also at times symbolicallyrefer This articledefinesritualas a socialcommuni-
to and controlcertainclasses of peopleand other cation that is highlightedor dramatizedin some
beings which womencan (and do) symbolize. way. Ritualsare repeated,they involvespecialists,
Lowland South America, particularly they are enactmentsof mythsor otherstories,and
Amazonia,is famous for ethnographicstudies of they manipulatesymbols.Ritualsare often both a

* An earlierversionof this article,"RitualesTukanode ViolenciaSexual,"appearedin the Revista Colombianade

Antropologia,
vol. XXVIII, pp. 25-52, Bogota, 1990-1991.Permissionto publishthis Englishversionis gratefullyacknowledged.
1

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2 ANTHROPOLOGICAL
QUARTERLY
type of politicalactionand an expressionof belief,
and most of the time they are concernedwith
"statementsin metaphoricaltermsabout the para-
doxes of human existence" (Crocker 1973: 47).
WhileI concentrateon ritualas expressivecommu-
nication, clearly rituals such as those described
here can also function as regulatorycommunica-
tion (Wagner 1984 discusses the difference)--a
means of social control of women's (and men's)
behavior.
One of the functionsof ritualis that it invites
interpretationby the participants.My interpreta-
tion of the ritualsbeing discussedhere is one that
probablyno Tukanoanwouldaccept.7 But all ritu-
als to some degree are obscureand mysteriousin
their referentialmeaning;in most, if not all cases,
peopledo not knowwhat theirritualsmeanin their
entirety(see Gulliver1963;Bloch 1980). Following
Charsley(1987: 91), I see my interpretationas a
meaningratherthan the "real meaning"of these
rituals, especially given the multivocalic,
polysemousnatureof ritual meaning(see Wagner
1984: 144-145).
Introductionto the Vaupes
Tukanoansare the riverineindigenousinhabitants
of the culture area knownas the CentralNorth-
west Amazon, a tropical forest region straddling
the borderbetweenColombiaand Brazil, on and
above the Equator. Tukanoans number about
20,000, and the populationdensityis at most .3 per
k2 (PRORADAM1979: I: 372). Tukanoansspeak
EasternTukanoanand Arawaklanguagesand par-
ticipate in a regionally integratedsocial system
characterizedby extensivemultilingualism and lan-
guage exogamy.Traditionalsettlementsconsist of
a singlepatrilocalmultifamilylonghouse,but these
have mostly been replacedby nucleatedvillages.
The men of a settlementhunt,fish, and clear swid-
den fieldsin which the womengrow bitter manioc
and other crops.
Tukanoanshave developedan unusual mar-
riage networkin whicheach communitybelongsto
one of sixteen differentgroupsthat speak sixteen
differentlanguages,and marriagesmust take place
between individualsnot only from differentcom-
munitiesbut with differentprimarylanguages.The
mainunitsof Tukanoansocialstructure,in ascend-
ing orderof inclusion,are the local descentgroup,
the patrilinealclan (also known as the sib), the
(ideally)exogamouslanguagegroup,and the shad-
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owy and poorlyunderstoodphratry.The language
group, referredto in much of the ethnographic
literatureas tribe, is a named patrilinealdescent
unit composedof from six to more than thirty
clans. Distinguishingfeaturesare (1) the language
and name;(2) separatefoundingancestorsand dis-
tinct rolesin the originmythcycle;(3) the rightto
ancestralpowerthroughthe use of certainlinguis-
tic propertysuch as sacredchants;(4) the right to
manufactureand use certainkinds of ritual prop-
erty; and (5) a traditionalassociationwith certain
ceremonialor near-ceremonialobjects. Member-
ship is permanentand public;the one fact known
about an individualbefore anythingelse is his or
her languagegroup."
VauphsSocial Structureand Male Dominance
Virtuallyall authorsconcur that the Vaup6sfits
the mold of a ratherclassic male-dominated hunt-
ing-gathering-horticulturalsociety,and many have
shownhow the local variantsof patrilinealdescent
and patrilocalresidencehelp to assurethe political
subordinationof women. As noted above, Tuka-
noansocietycan be said to be basedon an assump-
tion of male centrality and male superiority.A
powerfulmystiquesurroundshunting,male sexual-
ity, and male-controlledreligion and cosmology.
Only men are thoughtof as true spiritualbeings;
G. Reichel-Dolmatoff, C. and S. Hugh-Jones,and
others have arguedthat a fundamentalTukanoan
social divisionis betweeninitiatedmen on the one
handand womenand childrenon the other.Male-
focused ritual dominatesTukanoanreligion,and
men rituallycontrolmany female areas of life, in-
cluding menarcheand birth. The basic metaphor
for the ideal society is the longhouse unit of
agnates:brotherswho periodicallyinteractwiththe
ancestorsand theirlife-givingenergy,who hunt to-
gether,raid together,and reproducethe patrilineal
clan duringthe Yurupariritual.
Needlessto say, realitydivergesfromthis pic-
ture in some respects.Tukanoanwomen are the
proverbialfly in the ointment.I argue here that
Tukanoanritualsdepictingviolenceagainstwomen
exist becausethese rituals'imageryadmirablycap-
tures the consequencesof the discrepancybetween
the male never-neverland depictedin ritual and
myth and the actual state of affairs.
I have previouslyanalyzedthe relativelyhigh
amount of female power among Tukanoansin
termsof Vaup6ssocial structure.9The cessationof
 SYMBOLICSEXUAL VIOLENCE 3

raidingand feudingfor at least seventyyears has group, and her own local descent group. Accom-
broughtabouta reductionin the emphasison male plishing a marriage is made a more difficult
warriorroles and values, althoughthese are still achievementby the institutionof direct exchange,
abundantlycelebratedin oral narrativesand my- which meanstwo marriageshave to be negotiated.
thology. In addition,women'sabilities to produce Aside from gaining the services a wife provides
and distributevalued items and renderimportant (which her spouse reciprocates), a man also
servicesclearly gives them economicand political achievesthe statusof marriedmale and can estab-
clout. In a provocativepaperon genderpoliticsin lish a separatecompartmentin the longhouse.Fur-
small-scalesocieties,Collierand Rosaldoobserve: thermore,he is on the way to achievingfull adult
status,whichcomeswhenhis wife growsmaniocin
... it is preciselybecausewomenareproducers, whose the fieldshe has clearedfor her and bearschildren.
marriagesdo establishrelationsof inequalitybetween
bachelorsand marriedmen,that exchangesof women A woman's status will improveon becoming a
can providethe basicmetaphor for socialorder(1981: mother,but in terms of the realpolitikof a long-
299). house community,her new position-althoughher
presenceis greatly desiredby the affinalcommu-
Arhem makesa similarobservation: nity she movesinto--is weakand fraughtwith ten-
sion. She must adjustto her husbandand new sur-
In the tropicalforestenvironmentlandis abundant and roundings, and to spendingmost of her day with
women'slabouris the majorconstraint in the economy.
new mother- and sisters-in-law.
Women,in a sense,representa scarceand valuedre-
source.Apartfromritualparaphernalia, thereis noother Her affinesbenefitbecausethey havea daugh-
tangibleformof socialvalueamongthe Makuna(1987: ter-in-lawto contributeto their communityeco-
138).
nomicallyand help provideit with sons and daugh-
ters. And herownlocaldescentgroupbenefitsfrom
Collierand Rosaldogeneralizethat the social rela-
her marriagebecause,althoughit is losinga close
tionsof the sexes are not createdfromequalor bal-
agnatic kinswomanand the benefits of her eco-
ancedexchangesof male and femaleproducts,even
nomiccontributions, her brotheris therebyenabled
thoughone might see such exchangesoccurringin to obtaina wife whowill makeequivalenteconomic
strictly materialterms (1981: 282). For this and contributions.
other reasons, the way in which marriagesare
made leads to womenbeing perceivedas necessary Finally, by leaving one group as sisters and
and valuable.In the Vaup6s,marriageis a male coming into anothergroup as wives, womenwho
achievement,enablingmen "to attaina publicposi- marryare the meansfor maintainingongoingreci-
tion not generallyenjoyedby their wives"(Collier procitybetweengroups.A marriageexchangeoften
and Rosaldo 1981: 280). Indeed, I have argued helps create or strengthenan alliancebetweenthe
(1983) that in some respectsthe beginningstages two local descentgroups.
of marriagesignal a decline in an individualwo- AlthoughTukanoanwomen definitelydo de-
man's status and autonomy.The fact that many rive benefits from marriage, and virtually all
young Tukanoanwomenare ambivalentabout be- women expect eventuallyto marry,the costs are
coming a wife increases the significance of a man's significant.No matter how close her husband's
havingachievedthe status of marriedman. longhouseis to hernatal longhouse,it is the woman
who must leave. In the traditionalVaup6s, the
Youngmen needwives,youngwomendo not perceive emotionalstresses that accompanythis move are
themselves as needinghusbands-and so marriage is cast, and in some cases extreme. Residential
overwhelmingly, as a matterof a man'sestablishing many,
claimsto the moralcommitment and dailyservicesof are
groups isolated,autonomous,and for the most
someparticular bride(CollierandRosaldo1981:284). part tightly knit, makingit difficultfor a daughter
to leave or a daughter-in-lawto enter. Further-
In short,Tukanoanssee marriageas difficultto ac- more, not all affinallyrelatedlonghousesare near
complishfor men, but believethat almostany wo- one another,resultingin those womenwho marry
man could get marriedif she really wantedto. into distantsettlementsbeingable to visit theirna-
All Tukanoansrecognize that women make tal longhousesonly sporadically,if at all. Evenif a
more sacrificesupon marryingthan men. A wo- woman moves into her mother'snatal longhouse,
man'smarriagebenefits,besidesherself,threepar- she nonethelessmoves into a house with people
ties: her husband, her husband's local descent whom she does not know nearly so well as those

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4 ANTHROPOLOGICAL QUARTERLY
with whomshe has lived all her life. These new in-
laws speak a differentlanguage from her father
language.The anthropologicalliteratureis replete
with examplesof difficultiesexisting between in-
laws, eventhosewith the best of intentions,and the
Vaupesis no exception.Such built-instressesare
broughthomeforcefullyto the youngwomanwhen
she permanentlyleaves her agnates and begins a
new life with these in-laws.'0
That new wives are "strangers""in their new
homes and remainnon-membersin some respects
throughouttheir lives is a crucial theme in tradi-
tionalTukanoanculture.The idea of a unitedpat-
rilinealcore and peripheralfemaleunits is symbol-
ized in the longhousearchitecture,in ritual, in
everydayinteraction,and in conceptsof space and
time (see C. Hugh-Jones1977: 197). The male ag-
natic core is opposedto the separate,structurally
equivalent units represented by the incoming
wives-an oppositionbetweeninsidersand outsid-
ers. This oppositionis constantlyhammeredhome
by the fact that in the majorityof longhousessev-
eral languages-representedby the necessarybut
intrusivefemaleaffines-are spoken.The themeof
antagonismbetweenaffinallyrelatedpeopleis ever-
presentin the Vaup6s.For example,even though
raiding for women has ceased, the ideology of
"don'ttrust youraffines"continuesto have a great
deal of currency.This cannot fail to affect a wo-
man'sattitudetowardbecomingand being a wife,
as well as to influenceTukanoanconceptualizations
of womenand female elementsin general.
The ideology of Tukanoan social arrange-
ments,therefore,is that men live togetheras a po-
litically and socially dominant community that
they own and identifywith. Womenare conceptu-
alized as outsiders, peripheralto the longhouse
group,relatedto each otheronly via the links they
sharethroughmen. Anotheraspectof the ideology
is that females shouldnot be overlysolidarywith
one another.I wouldarguethat one messagein the
ritualsunderdiscussionconcernsthe dangersto so-
ciety and the cosmos of women becomingoverly
unitedalong genderlines.12
There is no doubtthat men are the agentsar-
ranging marriageand that Tukanoanssee things
this way. An associationcan be foundbetweencon-
tinuityof growthof the longhousecommunityand
its destructionby women,becausemarriagebreaks
up the sibling groups of an establishedgenera-
tion.13Women are thus seen as both destructive
and creative. The one evolves into the other
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throughthe exchangeof women,whichmeansthat
marriage, and, more broadly speaking, women,
must be supervisedand controlled,both practically
and ritually,by men.
Much evidencecan be found in myth as well
as ritual for expressionsand justificationsof male
supremacy.Femalesare at times depictedas dan-
gerous, selfish, treacherous,and barely human.
They are enemies who can never really become
friends,destructiveto "good"male interests,and
threatsto male solidarity.The Bardiversionof the
Yuruparimyth makesit clear that womendid not
want to use their nature-specifically,their sexual
nature-appropriately:to have childrenand thus
reproducesociety.Althoughthis is hardlythe only
kindof femaleimagecontainedin Tukanoanmyths
or rituals,the overallpictureis not one of equality,
where male and female spheres are separatebut
complimentaryand equallyvaluable.
Whenspeakingof all of Amazonia,if we won-
der why men and women should be construedin
opposedtermsat all, probablyseveralkindsof ex-
planationsare needed.Surelyone of them applica-
ble to the Vaup6sand otherunilinealsocietieshas
to do withwomennot only representing"not-us"in
terms of genderbut also "not-us"in terms of de-
scent. Womenare depictedas immoralbecauseof
their greedy sexuality, trickery,and self-interest,
but note that this is also how, in Tukanoanmyths,
a given unilinealdescentgroup'saffinestend to be
seen. Women, especially sexual women, are de-
pictedas not wantingto act for the collectiveinter-
est. But, then, we might ask how could womenact
in its interest? For example, why should women
want to have childrenwho belong to anotherde-
scent group, and thus make that group strong?
And, possibly, an additionaldoubt lurks behind
this one: if we (males) feel this way towardsour
affines,then perhapswomenfeel this way towards
US.
A Brief Description of the Rituals
With this backgroundwe can begin to understand
why male-focusedritualdominatesTukanoanreli-
gion, and why men areconcernedwith rituallycon-
trolling female areas of life. Male rituals are
neededto makerelationshipswith femalessafe, or-
dered,and moderated-keepingwomenat a proper
distancedescribesmuch of what these rituals are
intendedto accomplish.Ritualscontrolwomenand
manipulatefemale symbols in a variety of ways.
 SYMBOLIC SEXUAL VIOLENCE
For instance,sometimesthey neutralizepotentially
destructivefemale elements,while at other times
they limit the force of such elements.Some rituals
can be seen as appropriating femalepowerand cre-
ativity for male-orienteduses. An exampleof the
latter is the Yurupariceremony,whichfor most of
the ritual excludes noninitiates, particularly
women, yet which on the symbolic level utilizes
many potentfemale images,sourcesof power,and
kinds of creativity. Unlike Yanomam6 or
Munduructirituals,in which womenappear,if at
all, in cameo roles (Chagnon1968; Shapiro 1972;
Murphy 1958), women and female principlesare
fundamentalto Tukanoanritual. S. Hugh-Jones
commentsthat at times during the ritual women
are symbolically"sent back to where they came
from, outside and beyond male society" (1977:
210), and yet also notes that "thoughwomenare
excludedfrom the rites, female attributesand val-
ues forma majorelementof the ritualsymbolism"
(1979: 38). Tukanoanwomenplay many ceremo-
nial roles other than member-of-the-audience, and,
even whenthe flesh-and-blood womenare banished
to the fields,femalesupernaturalbeingsand princi-
ples are crucial. For example,Pird-parandTuka-
noansconnectthe very sacredbeeswaxgourd"with
female powers of reproductionwhich men lost
whenthey tookbackthe Yuruparyinstrumentssto-
len by the womenin the mythic past" (S. Hugh-
Jones 1979: 12).
HenceVaup6sritualsare bothan acknowledg-
ment of female powerand evidenceof male domi-
nance, for these male-centeredrituals utilize fe-
male power to promotewhat are predominantly
male interests,notablythe continuationof the pat-
rilinealdescentgroup.
Although this paper focuses on only three
kinds of ritual expressionsof violence towards
women,the theme is a pervasiveone. For example,
symboliclinks are made betweenplantand animal
fertility,male maturityand strength,and symbolic
expressionsof groupmaleviolence,often associated
with sexuality, toward affinal women. Cubeo
mourningrites end with playful sexual contests
(Goldman1963:238), and mostTukanoansengage
in tree-fruitharvestrites involvingsexualchallenge
and threat (see Arhem 1980;S. Hugh-Jones1979;
Jackson1983).
Ritual bride capture. The theme of bride capture
appears throughoutthe Vaup6s in many forms,
ranging from totally symbolic representationsto
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5
real occurrences,albeit with ritualizedelements.
As I noted above, we are not so much concerned
here with the actual act of stealinga woman,for
insofaras it is consideredto be one formof getting
a wife,"4and thereforea real ratherthanritualact,
the reasons for its existence are clear and un-
problematic-if you can get awaywith it, you have
obtaineda wife unaccompaniedby economicand
social obligations.However,stealinga wife is vio-
lence againsta woman,and insofaras all formsof
wife-gettingare linkedto feelings of anger or re-
sentment, and hostile, antagonisticbehaviorsbe-
tween affines,the institutionof bridecapturepro-
videsclues for understanding the symbolicformsof
violenceagainstwomen.
A symbolicform of raidingfor women,con-
sisting of a mock or ceremonialbride capture,is
reportedin the literatureon the Vaup6s.It consists
of a partyof men, with or withoutthe prospective
groom,"stealing"a youngwomanfrom her long-
house. Arhemnotes:
Apartfrom'real'bridecapture,thereis whatmightbe
called"ritualized" capture,whichis a dramaticenact-
mentratherthana realexpression of violenceandpoliti-
cal hostility.Theysymbolize thestereotyped relationship
of hostilitybetweenunrelated affinesthough,in reality,
themarriage mayhavebeenagreeduponbeforehand, or
may even formpart of an exchangearrangement-a
marriagetransaction in the guiseof a capture"(1987:
165).15
Goldman(1963: 142) actually witnessedceremo-
nial bride capture;it is also reportedby Bruzzi
(1962: 414).
C. Hugh-Jones (1979), Arhem (1987),
Giacone(1949:21), and Goldman(1963: 141) wit-
nessed real bride capture occurringduring their
fieldworksojourns.I witnessedneither real nor
mock bride captureduringmy stay in the Papuri
region,and was told that bridecapturehad disap-
pearedfrom that area. But manymen and women
did discusswith me how dangerousmarriage-mak-
ing had been in earlier times, when raiding for
womenwas still practiced.Certainlybridecapture
as a themeand a fantasywas very muchalive and
well in Tukanoansocietyin the late 1960s.
Some of the confusionaboutjust how real or
feigned a bride-captureevent is may result from
situationswhere a marriageis approvedof by a
woman'skinsmenbut not by her-a very different
situationfromsimplystealinga womanwithoutthe
permissionof any of her kin. It was my clear im-
pressionduring 1968-70 that in the Papuriregion
6 ANTHROPOLOGICAL QUARTERLY
no marriage would last if a woman did not agree to
it. But this does not mean that in the past (or in
another part of the region in the late 1960s)
women were not initially coerced into going to live
with men they did not want, with the expectation
that they would adjust over time. However, a wo-
man could always try to run home, and my under-
standing of the mid-twentieth century situation is
that, while a lot of pressure might be applied by
her and her husband's kinsmen, no woman could be
forced to live permanently in an affinal longhouse,
no matter how convenient such an arrangement
was to her close kinsmen.16
None of the forms of Tukanoan marriage-
making involves a proper wedding, but there al-
ways are ritual elements. Among the Barasana of
the Pird-parandi a recently arrived bride is
shamanized and made "safe" before being incorpo-
rated into the longhouse. Both Arhem (1987: 137)
and C. Hugh-Jones (1979: 194) argue for an anal-
ogy between game brought back to the longhouse
and the bride, particularly if she was obtained in a
raid (see also Reichel-Dolmatoff 1971).
Metaphorical Gang Rape. In the Vaup6s gang rape
occurs only in myth and in symbolized form in rit-
ual.17 Goldman reports that many ritual elements
suggest gang rape in the Cubeo onye mourning cer-
emony. Flaming broomsticks attack the women as
jaguars; the chief female mourner, and then the
other women, are dragged across the floor violently;
masked dancers fall upon the women, roll over
them, and jostle them; women are pelted with
bark-cloth balls; and, during the wild peccary
dance the dancers "throw themselves upon the
women, forcing them to the ground and to the cop-
ulatory position . . . [t]hree or four men cover a
woman. . . ." Then comes the "dance of the po-
tent penises," and the next day the women are
beaten with switches, enough to draw blood (1963:
233-239). S. Hugh-Jones notes that in a Tukano
myth the women are gang-raped for stealing the
Yurupari: they have the flutes rammed up their
vaginas and are made to menstruate (1979: 266).
A Tukano variant describes the same act. S. Hugh-
Jones also notes (p. 5) that ritualized sexual ag-
gression is portrayed.18
Another example of the theme of gang rape is
Bidou's discussion of a version of a Tatuyo myth in
which all the jaguar agnates of a settlement "went
to copulate with her [Moon's sister] one after the
other .... Thus, 'rotten' with lovemaking, she
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died in the morning." In another version she is sim-
ply killed by the "handsome" jaguars she chose to
dance with, against the advice of their grand-
mother who said "you can dance with the ugly jag-
uars, they are good for 'making husbands,' but
don't dance with the handsome jaguars, they will
kill you. . ." (Bidou 1982: 149).
Yurupari. Yurupari1" rites found in Arawakan and
Tukanoan groups in the Northwest Amazon are
sometimes associated with wild (in particular mir-
iti, Mauritia flexuosa) or domestic tree fruit har-
vests and sometimes with male initiation.20 Women
and children are forbidden to see the instruments,
although they are supposed hear them. Ritualized
intersexual aggression, as well as whipping, are
often features. The instruments are normally kept
hidden in a river or creek at some remove from the
longhouse.
Among Tukanoans, Yurupari flutes and trum-
pets are the embodiment of clan ancestors and the
male-focused cult that maintains ties to the ances-
tors and thereby perpetuates the clan. These male-
centered rituals and the restrictions accompanying
them are the route to reconnecting with the ances-
tors, to "good" energy, to reciprocity with the cos-
mos, to growth and continuity. The initiation ritu-
als bring about a state of radical alteration, when
humans and spirits can relatively safely come to-
gether because in this state humans are no longer
ordinary human beings. Barasana informants told
S. Hugh-Jones that Yurupari ritual collapses the
generational distance between present-day society
and the mythic past time of the first ancestors, al-
lowing each generation of initiates to have direct
contact with, and be adopted by, the first ancestors,
who are represented by the Yurupari instruments
(1979: 139).
Similar Yurupari rituals are found in other
parts of Amazonia. One distinctive feature of the
Northwest Amazon rituals derives from Tukanoan
settlement layout and residence rule. There are no
men's houses or dancing plazas in the Vaup6s, as
there are among the Mundurucui,Mehinaku, and
some Ge groups. Among Tukanoans the longhouse
itself, in particular the center of the longhouse, be-
comes the spiritual center, and during ritual epi-
sodes, it and its inhabitants' essential nature are
transformed. The longhouse comes to exist in a dif-
ferent time spectrum and the behavior taking place
within it acquires cosmic meaning. Through vari-
ous mechanisms, including shamanistic perform-
 SYMBOLICSEXUAL VIOLENCE
ances, contact with sacred paraphernalia, chemical
stimulants such as manioc beer, cigars, snuff, coca,
and the hallucinogen banisteriopsis, the atmo-
sphere becomes charged with emotion and totally
sacred. Participants achieve an altered state of con-
sciousness, helped by dancing and chanting, until
the most sacred time is reached at which humans
are transformed and transported to another plane
of existence. The local descent group becomes
equated with the entire patrilineal descent group,
now consisting of two generations of men, the long-
house becomes the universe, and the people inside
it are transformed into the ancestors.
As noted, women are forbidden to see the
Yurupari instruments on pain of death. S. Hugh-
Jones notes that they "are the symbols and means
of the subjection of men and women and the
Yurupary myths make this point quite explicit"
(1979: 128). The initiation ritual is long and com-
plex, and many elements depict male dominance
and the fundamental division and antagonism be-
tween the sexes. In all variants of the ritual, the
Yurupari instruments are brought into the house at
the beginning, at which time women and children
must be either confined in a screened-off part of
the longhouse or must leave it altogether. The en-
tire set of Yurupari instruments used in the
Barasana ritual represents the internal differentia-
tion of the Barasana clan, since each pair of instru-
ments belongs to a different longhouse community;
when brought together in the ritual they represent
it as an undifferentiated group (S. Hugh-Jones
1977: 211).
The Yurupari origin myth resembles a tug-of-
war between the sexes which the men finally win.
A synopsis of one version collected in Bardistates
that:
At onetime,aftertheyweremade,theseflutesfell into
the handsof the women,whowerenot as lazy as the
men.Thewomenwouldgetupearlierin themorning and
go downto theriverto bathebeforedawn.Thesewomen
obtainedthe flutesby beingclever,for the flutessuc-
ceededin hidingthemselves
fromthewomenfora while.
Thewomenkeptthe flutesstoredin theirbodies,firstin
the humerus(whichis whywomen'selbowsare shaped
frommen's),andthenin theirvaginas.The
differently
mencouldnotget theflutesback.Thewomengrewvery
strong,and refusedto havesex or bearchildren.The
men, realizingthat the peoplewouldcease to exist, asked
a shaman what to do. He suggested a trick, which
worked,and the men recoveredthe flutes.Since then the
men have awakenedand bathedearlierthan the women.
And also since then womencannotsee the flutes,for they
would fall sick and die (Jackson 1983: 188).
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7
S. Hugh-Jones notes that there are actually two
myths about the origin of the Yurupari flutes and
male dominance, one that pictures an original state
of matriarchy and another that depicts a theft by
the women of the horns from the rightful male
owners: ". . .the theme of usurpation stresses the
political relations of dominance and submission
. . . whilst that of an original state of matriarchy
stresses also the distribution of creative power be-
tween them" (1979: 128).21 An exclusively male
society is brought about via the introduction of the
Yurupari instruments and their music into the
longhouse. With each enactment of this ritual com-
plex, society is recreated anew in each generation
via a male inseminating instrument being brought
into the womb-like structure of the longhouse
within which male initiates are transformed from
children into full-fledged members of the clan and
thus can continue its line.
Yurupari instruments and the rituals they are
associated with most certainly represent male sex-
ual energy. They are phallic in shape and they in-
seminate. But while they unmistakably symbolize
male dominance and superiority, rejecting (actually
and symbolically) women and demonstrating the
dangers of female sexuality, they also testify to the
significance of women by appropriating female
power. It should be noted that the effects of appro-
priating female power benefit not only the initiates
and the community of men (ideally, the core of
agnates living in a circumscribed area) but also the
entire community and Tukanoan society as a
whole. However, that an appropriation and trans-
formation occurs is evidenced by the fact that the
beeswax gourd, a female symbol (and perhaps the
most sacred symbol in Tukanoan culture) is dan-
gerous to real women.
Discussion
What do these violent expressions of antagonism
between the sexes mean? Why not simply commu-
nicate, using ritual and other modes, what needs to
be communicated about gender opposition, or even
antagonism, without the excessive, stark, and bru-
tal violence that emerges in images of death from
seeing something forbidden, killing via gang rape,
or abduction and violation of women? The explana-
tion offered here, of why collective male violence is
stressed, and why it is so strongly linked to sexual-
ity finds some of the answers in Tukanoan social
structure. I am arguing that Tukanoan society, un-
8 ANTHROPOLOGICAL QUARTERLY
like patrilineal societies in, for instance, Africa,
where distinctions of lineality constitute the bed-
rock of social structure, considers the fundamental
distinction to be that between men and women.
Correspondingly,ritual and cosmology tend to fore-
ground gender distinctions over lineal ones. In such
societies male-female relationships are seen as con-
stituting the way these societies are held together.
These relationships are sometimes complementary
and sometimes hostile, and symbolic representa-
tions of hostile relationships will involve themes of
male domination of females, or female domination
of males.
As noted above, Tukanoan women have power
in many domains, some of which are the very do-
mains in which women in any number of complex
societies have minimal power. Although Tukanoan
society contains some significant features of ranked
society, in most dimensions of daily life hierarchy
is rudimentary; for example, no adult can com-
mand the labor or obedience of any other. How-
ever, given the relatively high level of egalitarian-
ism (as compared, say, to chiefdoms or states), the
differences between the sexes in power and status
stand out all the more. It is precisely in the area of
gender relations that inequality is the strongest.
And it is marriage that produces a fundamental in-
equality between bachelors and married men
(Jackson 1988).
The need for ritual expressions of violence to-
wards women in Tukanoan society and culture can
be at least partly explained by understanding the
ways in which gender, sexuality, and unilineal de-
scent intersect. Given the absence of male homo-
sexual themes except in very abstract terms (and
these almost invariably have to do with unisexual
reproduction rather than sexuality per
se-Goldman [1963] refers to this as bisexuality),
sexuality will invariably be linked to relations be-
tween the sexes. And given patrilineal descent, pa-
trilocality, .and settlement exogamy, when descent
and gender are linked, the focus will be on
(hetero)sexual relations with a special class of
women, women who are "the other." Mothers, sis-
ters, and daughters have left or will leave their
kinsmen to live with "other" people. In some sense
all females, even those who are not potential sexual
partners from a given male ego's point of view, are
members of this "other" class.
Furthermore, many other symbolic associa-
tions, expressed in ritual, derive from this constella-
tion. For example, a system that sees marriage as
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occurring with someone socially and geographically
distant (as opposed to a cognatic, village-endoga-
mous system) will result in connections being made
between women and "the other" in the sense of the
unknown, the wild, the distant, the mysterious.
These women represent a category of people con-
ceptually opposed to "us": people who, with their
kinsmen, are sometimes depicted as strangers from
distant parts, of questionable loyalties, if not actu-
ally the enemy who must be either annihilated (as
happens in myth) or subdued and tamed.
Ritual expressions of this "otherness" abound.
As noted above, Makuna and Barasana brides
must be shamanized, since, like game, they are
dangerous "non-food" (Arhem 1987: 147). Tuka-
noan food exchange rituals (dabucurt), carried out
by affinally related groups, also dramatize antago-
nism between affines in a number of ways. Compet-
itive worries about amassing enough smoked meat
or fish (items associated with men, brought by the
guests) and manioc beer (an item made by women,
supplied by the hosts) to make a decent showing
readily surface during preparations.
As discussed above, real bride capture is one
way to get married when you have neither a female
agnate to use in a direct exchange marriage nor a
close cross-cousin who is willing to marry you with-
out an exchange. Furthermore, as Arhem points
out, various political ends are achieved through
raiding for women, both in terms of defining exter-
nal political relations and strengthening internal
ones (1987: 158). These arguments are reminiscent
of the reasons given by other wife-raiding groups,
such as the Yanomamo. Bride capture is the ex-
treme case of marrying far away, a model empha-
sizing agnatic solidarity and gender antagonism.
An alliance model, the ideal type of which is the
exchange of sisters between true cross-cousins,
brings affinity close and domesticates it with the in-
timacy and emotional safety of siblingship. Creat-
ing special fictive-brother relations between broth-
ers-in-law and making equivalences between sister
and wife represent an attempt to lessen affinity's
association with the unknown, the wild and myste-
rious (Arhem 1987: 137). Of course this has conse-
quences for the symbolism of sister. Insofar as sis-
ters are those who will join affinal longhouses and
to some degree become like them, they come to ac-
quire some of the ambivalence and suspicion con-
nected to affines, even though they remain agnates.
If wife is at times conceived of as "affinal sister,"
as Arhem argues, sister will take on an even more
 SYMBOLICSEXUAL VIOLENCE
anomalous and pivotal quality.
Why ritual bride capture occurs, I think, has
to do with communicating about both descent and
affinity. The ritual emphasizes the seriousness of
the occasion and the latent antagonism and suspi-
cion on both sides present at all marriages. No wo-
man should give the appearance of happily desert-
ing her home and agnates to go and live with
affines and strengthen their descent lines. This cer-
emony allows her to leave in a proper atmosphere
of ambivalence and hesitation. It also allows her
agnates to appear strong, united, and willing to
protect their sister/daughter.
An additional explanation for ritualized bride
capture derives from the points made earlier about
rituals as metaphorical statements about the para-
doxes of human life. Ceremonial bride capture can
be seen as a response to and a communication
about structural ambivalence: ambivalence about a
specific marriage and about affinal relations in gen-
eral. It is symbolic action that affirms several
things, most of them contradictory. It is a betwixt-
and-between marriage-neither an exchange of
classificatory sisters between close cross-cousins
who have known one another all their lives and
who have arranged this marriage slowly and with
everyone's consent, nor, at the other extreme, a real
capture of a woman from a settlement with which
the groom and his kinsmen have had virtually no
contact.
A successful marriage does provide a solution
to many problems, but this solution is not necessa-
rily guaranteed in perpetuity.22 What are these
problems and their solutions? Anxiety, both indi-
vidual and collective, about marriage-making in
traditional Tukanoan society, is by all accounts
strong, and justifiably so. Demography does not al-
ways arrange things so that every man can count
on having both a sister and a cross-cousin to par-
ticipate in his marital ambitions. Furthermore, a
wife can die, and then a man must find a way to
obtain a new wife. Also, newly-wed wives some-
times run home, some of them adamantly refusing
to be reconciled. The result is that despite all the
evidence of male domination in the Vaup6s, men
cannot guarantee a marriage for life, as men can in
any number of societies that make it extremely dif-
ficult for a woman to terminate a marriage. In this
context we can interpret actual or threatened male
violence towards women as one of the few options
that men, singly or in groups, have for controlling
women in societies like the Vaup6s. Tukanoan men,
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9
unlike the Victorian father who could put his
daughter in an attic room on a diet of bread and
water until she consented to marry the man he had
chosen for her (knowing he had the authority of
the state supporting his actions), cannot force
women to get and stay married to specific men..
Unlike more complex societies, Tukanoan men ac-
tually have few means to guarantee a marriage or
otherwise control wives' behavior. Tukanoan wives
run home when disgruntled-an option different in
significant ways from the option available to un-
happy traditional Chinese wives of committing sui-
cide. This is, of course, an argument that sees rit-
ual statements about potential real violence as a
form of social control of women.
Reality, therefore, means that you not only
worry about acquiring a wife but also about hold-
ing on to her. Reality means that you are actually
or potentially in competition with your male
agnates, even, occasionally, your own father or son,
throughout life, despite the ideology regarding ag-
natic solidarity. Adultery is corrosive in this setting
because it quite dramatically shows how tenuous
the bonds between brothers can be: given the pat-
rilocal rule of residence and the traditional settle-
ment pattern of one longhouse per settlement and
the great dispersion of settlements, your adulterous
wife is quite likely to be involved with a man you
call brother who lives under the same roof with
you.
Raiding for wives is not the ideal way to get a
wife in terms of many Tukanoan notions about
what marriage is all about, but it does have certain
things going for it, and herein lies the larger para-
dox-one relating to marriage in general. In bring-
ing a female from far away, one is practicing nega-
tive reciprocity with the most valued resource in
the culture.23 As opposed to marrying a close
mother's brother's/father's sister's daughter or ar-
ranging a direct exchange marriage, you get a wo-
man without having to deal with her agnates, give
up your rights to a female agnate, or contend with
your male agnates-your competitors in the mar-
riage game-who might want to muscle in on your
marital plans. You simply have to deal with her:
just like the game you bring home, you hunt her,
"tame" her, render her safe, and she stays.
Of course this nice scenario does not play out
so perfectly in reality (see Arhem's [1987] case
studies for examples of just how much reality can
differ from fantasy), but as a fantasy it is a satisfy-
ing one. Not only does a raid mean acquiring a wo-
10 ANTHROPOLOGICAL QUARTERLY
man scot free, as it were, it can also allow you to
see your agnates as a cooperative, rather than com-
petitive, group.24 This is why Arhem can claim that
bride capture "derives social legitimacy from the
same ideological context which justifies the central
norm [that is, that of sister exchange]" (Arhem
1987: 166). We are reminded of Bourdieu's discus-
sion of the well-meaning rule-breaker whose action
contributes to the survival of the rule. Bride cap-
ture can be seen as an example of an "officializing
strategy" which transmutes private interests into
disinterested, collective, publicly avowable, legiti-
mate interests (Bourdieu 1977: 40). Thus the de-
scent system can be seen to sanction bride capture
in a somewhat underhanded way. This is an argu-
ment that accounts for ceremonial bride capture as
well.
We can thus begin to understand why there is
such an abundance of commentaries about the dan-
ger to men of the female principle-in the Vaup6s,
in the rest of Amazonia, and elsewhere in South
America. We come to understand better why heter-
osexuality is conflict-laden25 and why achievement
of male adulthood and male creativity comes to be
associated with the use of force. Women, or the fe-
male principle, are dangerous. For example, since
domestic fire is associated with women's creativity
in childbearing, men should not warm themselves
by the fire too long or they will beget only female
children (C. Hugh-Jones 1977: 203). The many re-
strictions on male sexual behavior attest to the dan-
ger and potential destructiveness of female sexual-
ity. When the flutes are played, Romi Kumu,
shaman woman, also seen as an ancestress, "be-
comes sad and furious . . . dangerous to men as
Jurupari is dangerous to women and children"
(Arhem 1980: 22).
Tukanoan ritual solutions to the problem of fe-
male danger are as follows:
1) Render affinal women safe. Arhem's discus-
sion of shamanizing a newly arrived bride, and of
in-marrying women coming to seem like cognatic
kin rather than forever entirely affinal, are exam-
ples of this. Although marriage is the one life crisis
event that is characterized by a singular lack of
ceremony, the move by the bride to her husband's
longhouse is a dramatic event, and one can say that
her becoming a co-resident signals movement to-
wards incorporation, a process that continues
throughout her life. Arhem also analyzes the first
act of sexual intercourse as a kind of ritual of in-
corporation (1987: 137).
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2) Do not traffic with affines. This finds its ex-
pression mostly in symbolic statements, although
perhaps the relatively late age of marriage for
many Tukanoans also illustrates this notion. Many
myths depict affines as unpredictable, treacherous,
and stingy, and I would also make the point that
various incest themes point this out. A Tatuyo
myth shows a sister taking pity on her brother mas-
turbating against a tree, and offering herself in-
stead (Bidou 1982). I know of no Tukanoan myth
where an affinal woman is pictured as beginning
sexual relations with someone primarily out of al-
truistic motives. That incest never works out is be-
side the point, which is that in several ways incest
is a solution to the danger posed by affines, because
one's sister is safe in a way a cross-cousin could
never be. This is probably one explanation for the
salience of the theme of brother-sister incest in
Tukanoan myths, for it grapples with the contra-
diction built into the patrilineal social structure. So
many things would be unproblematic if "sexual
partner/potential mate" and "female agnate"
could be the same person. Bidou makes the point
that the unworkability of this as a solution, graphi-
cally illustrated in the myth, turns on the issue of
sister as inappropriate marital (rather than sexual)
partner. To commit incest with one's sister is no
big thing, but, although she says, "Ah, you're do-
ing that all alone, you poor thing, I feel sorry for
you! Come on and 'do it' with me, but only one
little time," he wants to do it again and again. And
that
thereis a thinlinebetweena sexualrelationshipwithout
socialimplicationsandthe conjugalbond;fromthe mo-
mentwhena mananda womanbeginto haveregular
sexualrelations,we (thatis, the socialgroup)beginto
talk marriage(Bidou 1982: 138)."2
I might add that although sex with a lover is
dangerous (your lover will be a classificatory sister
or the wife of a fellow agnate) and immoral, this
relationship also shows, by contrast, what is diffi-
cult about your sexual relationship with your wife.
As the Tatuyo myth shows, sex with a sister in-
volves a known person who is possibly interested in
helping her brother, rather than exclusively acting
in behalf of her own interests. Sex with an af-
finally-related lover can be seen as a relationship of
mutual benefit to both parties, one which admit-
tedly is fraught with danger, but which, if discov-
ered and terminated, does not threaten what termi-
nation of a marriage threatens. If a lover leaves,
 SYMBOLICSEXUAL VIOLENCE
you are not demoted to bachelor status again,
forced to eat with your mother or unmarried sister,
without a mother for your children.
All of this goes to show that interaction with
any kind of woman presents problems, as most cul-
ture heroes in Tukanoan myths find out to their
sorrow. Being a good husband or lover automati-
cally conflicts to some degree with performing one's
agnatic roles adequately-being a "fierce" and in-
vulnerable member of one's patrilineal clan, for
instance.
In short, it simply is the case that oftentimes a
Tukanoan man or group of men is interested in
convincing, persuading, or coercing flesh-and-blood
women-be they sisters, wives, or lovers-to think,
feel, or behave in ways these women resist. C.
Hugh-Jones attributes male dominance in part to
such gender politics: "the practical political
supremacy of men" that men constantly attempt to
retain (1979: 256).
As noted above, apart from the unworkability
of incest, women-as-sisters are a problematic cate-
gory because they must be "lost" from the agnatic
community: in the Pird-parand sisters are symbol-
ized as feces because they must be "lost" to have
the system work (C. Hugh-Jones 1979). These
"safe" sisters help the community by destroying it
(their leaving enables their brothers to obtain
wives, but it destroys the generation group). So,
like affinal females, sisters-as-women-and-sexual-
beings also symbolize potential agnatic vulnerabil-
ity, for they destroy the original group of brothers
and sisters and marry into affinal groups, helping to
make them strong.
3) Ritually depict women as harmless, incon-
sequential, or powerless. This can take the form of
the above-mentioned Cubeo ritual strategies of
showing women in humiliating and undignified po-
sitions. Deference rituals (for example, women eat
after men, women are only cursorily greeted at
rituals) can also be seen as serving this purpose.
4) Ritually show women possessing the wrong
traits. Tukanoan initiation rituals illustrate the
connection between femaleness and weakness, lazi-
ness, tameness, and pollution."2
5) Ritually depict women as marginal and pe-
ripheral. Rituals do this in any number of ways: for
example, the use of the longhouse floor plan during
ceremonies, and dance choreography.
6) Ritually "disappear" women. The Yurupari
ritual at times does just this, sending all women
away, beyond male society. At this point the initia-
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11
tion ritual is dealing with strictly unisexual repro-
duction. Female elements are present, but they are
being used for male ends and are definitely in the
hands of males.28 In one phase of the Yurupari rit-
ual, initiates are openly compared to menstruating
women, ritually imitating the loss of menstrual
blood, dying, and being reborn.29 Although in one
sense menstruation will always be a female symbol,
it is not sufficient to state that this rite is an imita-
tion of female menstruation and leave it at that-it
may be enough for the anthropologist, but for
Tukanoans this is a male rite involving male men-
struation, which accomplishes real goals for male
initiates. The rite not only imitates, it appropriates
female power available through the menstrual pro-
cess of losing skin (the blood lining the womb) and
growing new skin. Skin change can symbolize im-
mortality or the ability to live a longer and health-
ier life, and is one of the most powerful idioms of
growth in Tukanoan culture (C. Hugh-Jones 1977:
189).
Pure agnatic descent is the issue here, necessa-
rily and dramatically women-less.30The gender vi-
olence in the Yurupari and Cubeo onye rituals
themselves is mainly symbolic, but its meaning is
clear. Agnatic and affinal women are finally ritu-
ally collapsed into one category. No longer are
some women safe and others not; no longer can we
(males) see sisters as on our side. Romi Kumu,
shaman woman, is dangerous to men and Yurupari
is dangerous to women, period. Sisters and daugh-
ters cause problems, as well as wives. Even mothers
are not exempt: one clear message in the Yurupari
ritual concerns the alien position of the boys'
mothers (S. Hugh-Jones 1979: 38).
7) Ritually appear fierce. This is a general
theme running through the initiation rituals, as
well as Cubeo onye rituals, showing how destruc-
tion and creation, growth and aggression, are tied
to the two sexes. Hunting metaphors are also
linked to gender, as are metaphors about warriors,
strength, potency, and high rank: the Yurupari in-
struments would not have been stolen if men had
not been lazy; whipping promotes growth; the low-
ranking Makti,3 servants, and wives are sometimes
symbolically linked.32
The themes listed above have particular ritual
cachet, I would argue, because, as noted in the in-
troduction to this article, they all in one form or
another deal with paradox and contradiction. Ritu-
als expressing male violence towards females are
examples of both ritual-as-action and ritual-as-
12 ANTHROPOLOGICAL QUARTERLY
meaning (see Leach 1968). One can see the
Yurupari ritual as a "just so story," teaching girls
to behave via threats, and teaching boys to be
fierce. It also clearly justifies the patriarchal status
quo, for example, via the myth about the earlier
miserable period when the women were in control.
Here we can note a Tukanoan contradiction be-
tween an essentialist vision of women as lazy, and
the message that women can be more energetic
than men-but when they are, disaster follows: the
women got the Yurupari flutes in the first place be-
cause of men's slothful habits. Again we have the
two themes of, first, a reassurance from images of
the male-constructed never-never land (males are
by nature superior, less lazy than females) and,
second, anxious worries about male vulnerability in
the real world (maybe they are not superior after
all). The rituals contain a kind of "methinks the
lady doth protest too much" flavor.
Tukanoan women do have power, and they
have authority in some spheres. We have seen that
an unhappy wife, even one stolen in a raid, will re-
fuse to act like a wife, and might even return home
to her kinsmen. We have seen that men need wives
more than women perceive themselves as needing
husbands. The Tukanoan case illustrates Collier
and Rosaldo's characterization of "simple" socie-
ties where
... disputesin public contexts are overwhelminglycon-
cernedwith the wives that all men need and all can fear
to lose: theirs is a politics of sex . . . [because] male
adulthoodis predicatedon men's claims to the spouses
who attend their equal hearths, and men compete and
fight for the attainmentof a secure maritalstatus (Col-
lier and Rosaldo 1981: 290).
Clearly, a lot of what has to get done in Tukanoan
society depends on people being cooperative and of
good will. This, however, results in another para-
dox, because it challenges and confronts the dictum
that one must be wary of, suspicious of, mistrustful
of, and always in control of, women: they have
their own loyalties, their own agendas, their own
vested interests, and their own unknowable and
mysterious natures.
Conclusions
Given the institutionalized male supremacy in
Tukanoan society and the local versions of pat-
rilineality and patrilocality, male vulnerability re-
garding women, affines, and sexuality is to be ex-
pected. This article has stressed that while at times
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female imagery symbolizes the female sex, at times
it symbolizes other things-sexuality, affinity, or
the implications of relations with people who are
"not us." All of these symbolic roles have partici-
pated in creating the composite symbol of woman,
and none is automatically symbolically primary. To
understand what these rituals mean, we need to un-
derstand that female-related symbols often have
other referents. Hence, the female symbols in these
rituals represent not only women per se but two
other dimensions connected to, but not coterminous
with, women: heterosexuality and the agnatic/af-
fine split. Not only are women controlled and men-
aced by such rituals, but also those classes of peo-
ple (or other beings) that female symbols represent
are controlled and menaced.
Are these rituals expressions of power in sym-
bolic form, or expressions of the lack of it? Since
institutionalized violence, after all, while perhaps
effective, is not terribly efficient (except in fan-
tasy), we must wonder, when it appears, why other,
much more efficient and subtle forms of control are
not in operation-for example, an effective sociali-
zation that results in the dominated group identify-
ing with the interests of the group in power. Ter-
rorist tactics and torture do not work as well as
getting the oppressed and exploited to internalize
and agree with hegemonic justifications of the sta-
tus quo. Hence, when terrorist tactics appear, we
are led to conclude that more subtle and ultimately
effective forms of social control have for some rea-
son not been successfully institutionalized, and so
raw threats and brutal actions can be a sign of a
lack of other forms of male power over females, or
at least a sign of anxiety about the possibility of
such a lack, because the system makes it impossi-
ble to enlist women's support of male interests be-
yond a certain point. Tukanoan men, attempting to
follow the cultural principles surrounding pat-
rilineality and male sexuality, apparently at times
have no alternative but to control women with vio-
lence and threats of violence, sometimes metaphori-
cal, sometimes literal. Data on actual or threatened
male sexual violence reveal not only how important
sexuality is in the sex-gender system, but how inse-
cure men can be about controlling their women,
getting along with their affines, and being solidary
with their agnates. Women-as females and as
symbols of heterosexuality and affinity-represent
powerful interests at times inimical to male, uni-
sexual-reproductive, agnatic interests. In a society
premised on male dominance, it is not surprising
 SYMBOLIC SEXUAL VIOLENCE
that this discrepancy would find expression in rit-
ual, given that ritual deals with contradiction. That
this contradiction is only indirectly expressed in the
rituals under discussion is not surprising, either, for
if the premises that men are at the center of things,
that they are economically, socially, and reproduc-
tively self-sufficient were stated baldly, such prem-
ises' absurdity would be exposed, especially given
the above-mentioned areas in which women have
substantial on-the-ground power.33
Tukanoan rituals that highlight sexual chal-
lenge, threat, and provocation, whether playful or
not-so-playful, exist at least partly because they ex-
press male worries about females-affinal, sexual
females. In the Vaup6s, sex and marriage are at
times symbolically merged because:
it is the significance
of sexualaccessfor the establish-
mentof bothmaleautonomy andadultcooperative rela-
tionsthatturnswivesintovaluablesto be exchanged and
guarded-ratherthanthe reverse(Collierand Rosaldo
1981: 292).
In such a setting, heterosexuality cannot help but
come to take on:
... conflict-ladenconnotations and . . . viewsof male
adulthood[that]tend to associatemasculinecreativity
withmen'suseof force.. . . Gangrape"'is a peculiarly
appropriatesanction... because it simultaneously
reveals. . . women'sinabilityto forgesocialrelationships
throughthe useof theirsexuality,assertsthecontrolling
and even creativepowerof male prowess,and affirms
malesolidarity in the face of womenwhodisrupttheir
bonds(CollierandRosaldo1981:297).35
This, I would argue, is why the themes of male
maturity, of fertility of male-associated comes-
tibles, male strength, and male sexual violence to-
ward affinal women are ritually highlighted in
Tukanoan society. I would also see the mass adul-
tery/orgy theme (Goldman 1963; E. Reichel-
Dolmatoff, personal communication) found in some
areas of the Vaupes, while not violence against
women per se, to be a similar ritualized statement
of descent group dominance over women, for here
males act collectively upon affinal women. In treat-
ing female affines as interchangeable, male agnates
present a united front against the divisive effects of
affinal women in Tukanoan marriage-making and
of affinal women in the more everyday forms of
adultery."6
The theme of symbolic male violence against
women also communicates that women are trouble-
makers. Undoubtedly at times they are-because
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13
certain behaviors favorable to their interests are in-
imical to male interests. At times women are trou-
blemakers simply because the system assigns
women the role of agent provocateur. But at other
times women are simply the proverbial cat,
scapegoated because it is convenient to find an out-
sider to blame, a patsy who diverts attention from
the cracks in the united front of male agnatic soli-
darity. This doubtless happens in some cases of
adultery, where the in-married woman is incor-
rectly seen as the instigator.
Thus, Tukanoan female symbols conceptually
connect with and ritually represent the troublemak-
ing feminine gender, the problematic area of de-
scent/affinal relations, and some of the anxiety-
producing aspects of sexuality. All three point to
male vulnerability, individual and collective. While
proximate causes of these negative images of
women are clearly psychological (for example,
male feelings of anxiety37), I am arguing that vari-
ous social structural factors produce these anxieties
in the first place.38
Sexual dichotomy is paramount in most Ama-
zonian unilineal systems-as opposed to, for exam-
ple, the corporate descent groups which are based
on genealogical reckoning and the analytic distinc-
tion between descent and patrifiliation made by
many African systems.39Therefore it is important,
in a patrilineal system like the Tukanoan one, to
control women, and to justify such control. "Polit-
ics are sexual politics because, whatever else they
may concern, relations among men are organized
through men's claims to women" (Collier and
Rosaldo 1981: 314). These claims to women are ei-
ther unproblematic or nonexistent in the male
never-never land depicted in the Tukanoan myths
and rituals that demonstrate and celebrate male
centrality and self-sufficiency. This male paradise
is a childlike (or at least barely pubescent and cer-
tainly pre-marital) utopia of undisturbed and at
times eroticized"4brotherly solidarity, reunion with
parents (ancestors), and free feeding (that is, one is
not dependent on women for food), a utopia that
reproduces itself via the unisexual agnatic mode
mentioned above. Bidou speaks of Tatuyo men
"haunted by a nostalgia for a lost world in which
men reproduced among themselves," a dream of
"absolute endogamy . . . in which Yurupari trum-
pets serve as a masculine version of women's men-
strual periods, and in which young men, "borne"
by men, are (re-)engendered by men," and of "the
joys, eternally denied to social man, of a world in
14 ANTHROPOLOGICAL QUARTERLY
which one might live among one's own" (1982:
137). This men's club fantasy (graphically mani-
fested in the men's houses elsewhere in Amazonia),
needless to say, does not always fit with reality.
Thus, what starts out as the problem-
atic-why, in this and other societies that appear
to be relatively egalitarian in some important
spheres, are there rituals or practices foregrounding
the violent, physical domination of women by
men?-is also the clue to the answer. In these con-
texts male collective ties are vulnerable. In the
Tukanoan case the corporate grouping takes the
form of the localized patrilineage. Specific men's
ties to specific women (at once sexual, marital, af-
final, familial, and domestic) produce centrifugal
NOTES
AcknowledgmentsAn earlier draft of this article was read at
the 84th AnnualMeetingof the AmericanAnthropologicalAs-
sociation,WashingtonDC, Dec. 4-8, 1985, in the symposium
on "Ritual Reproductionand the Mediationof Dominationin
South America."Researchin Colombiawas supportedby the
Danforth Foundationand the Stanford Committee for Re-
searchin InternationalStudies. I am extremelygratefulto the
following people who offered comments on various earlier
drafts:Kaj Arhem,Michael Brown,Janet Chernela,Jane Col-
lier, Tom Gregor, Leonor Herrera, James Howe, Emilienne
Ireland,JoannaOvering,DonaldPollock,Naomi Quinn,Eliza-
beth Reichel, Judith Shapiro,WarrenShapiro,Janet Siskind,
Lynn Stephen, Terence Turner, Jay Wylie, and four anony-
mousreviewers.I am solely responsible,however,for any errors
of fact or judgmentin the final product.
'I carriedout fieldworkin ColombiafromOctober1968 to
November1970. Eighteenmonthsof this time were spent with
a longhousecommunityof Bard Indianson the Inambi River.
"Tukanoan"refersto all riverineindigenousinhabitantsof the
Vaup6s;Makti,forest-dwellerswho also differin otherrespects,
are not includedin this discussion.Althoughmany Tukanoans
live on the Brazilianside of the border,this article coversonly
those in Colombianterritory.Given that the regionhas under-
gone profoundchanges since that time, the interpretationof-
fered here shouldbe seen as applyingto Tukanoansof the eth-
nographicpresentof the late 1960s.
2Since these Tukanoanrituals are for the most part cre-
ated and enactedby men, they are analyzedhere as statements
men are makingabout their identity,their notionsof the per-
fect society, and their feelings of vulnerabilityin the society
they actually live in. Cf. "Among the Munduruci, men tell
myths and women listen to them . . . the myths are best un-
derstood as expressing specifically male formulations.Thus,
this essay is essentiallyabout men and the creation of male
identity"(Nadelson 1981: 241).
3QuinncharacterizesAmazonianand New Guinea socie-
ties as follows:
Fromthese two partsof the worldcome ethnographicac-
counts of institutionalizedgang rape. Other elementsof
the complexare a concernwith female pollution;a preoc-
cupationwith male sexual depletion;and elaboratemale
ceremonialactivities, knowledgeof which must be kept
secret from women. ... Interpersonalrelationsbetween
the sexes in these societiesare also characterizedas hos-
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tensions threatening these male corporate relations.
Given the ongoing threat to collective male agnatic
ability to encompass and subordinate individual
men's ties to women, ritual statements about this
threat will contain elements emphasizing maleness,
fierceness, violence, and assertions of male agnatic
solidarity. Thus, Tukanoan ideology posits, at the
cosmological level, total male dominance, or, better
put, such extreme male self-sufficiency that women
are superfluous-the Tukanoan version of the
"Girls Keep Out!" sign on a boys' clubhouse. Ritu-
als depicting violence against women are enact-
ments of the consequences of the variance that ex-
ists between the assumption that men are all that
matters, and reality.
tile and antagonistic(1977: 216).
The followingauthors-a far from exhaustivelist-have ad-
dressedlowlandSouth Americangender antagonism,offering
ecological, psychological,and social explanations:Bamberger
(1974), Chagnon (1968), Chernela (1984, 1988), Gregor
(197.7,1984, 1985, 1988), Ireland(1987), Kensinger(1989), J.
Langdon (1982, 1984, 1991), Murphy (1959), Murphy and
Murphy(1974), Nadelson (1981), Reichel-Dolmatoff(1971),
Shapiro(1972, 1987), Siskind(1973).
"Manyother Vaup6sspecialistshave also touchedon the
general theme of antagonisticmale-femalerelations.See, for
example, C. Hugh-Jones(1979), Goldman (1963), Chernela
(1984), Jackson (1983, 1988), Reichel-Dolmatoff(1971),
Arhem (1981, 1985), T. Langdon(1975), J. Langdon(1982);
see also Bamberger(1974).
'See Chagnon(1968), Shapiro(1972), Murphyand Mur-
phy (1974), Nadelson(1981), Gregor(1977, 1985), Maybury-
Lewis (1967), Ireland(1987).
"Withthe possibleexceptionsof Sorensen(see note 18 be-
low) and G. Reichel-Dolmatoff,who reportsconflicts arising
over"violationor rapeof women"(1971: 149). Kaj Arhemwas
told of a whitewomanbeingrapedin a communityon the Pird-
parand(personalcommunication).
7See Lewis (1980), La Fontaine(1985: 12), and Charsley
(1987) for discussionsof the problemsthat arise when the an-
thropologist'sattributedmeaningdoes not agree with partici-
pants' interpretations.
8It is perhapsadvisableat this point to remindthe reader
of the cultural integrationin the region such that when, for
instance,I, S. Hugh-Jones,or Bidouspeakof Bard,Barasana,
or Tatuyocultureor society,all the marriedwomenparticipat-
ing in ritual, myth, or everydaylife in these "societies"are by
definitionnot Bard, Barasana,or Tatuyo. The Makuna(stud-
ied by Arhem) and the Cubeo (studied by Goldman) are
exceptions.
9Spacelimitationsdo not allow elaborationof these, such
as the effectsof the rule of directexchange,the prescriptionfor
language exogamy, the kinds of relationshipsformed by af-
finally related settlements,the low incidenceof polygyny,the
fact that after an initial period of instabilityin some Tuka-
noans' maritalcareers marriagesare fairly stable, and many
factors related to the Tukanoanvariantsof patrilinealityand
patrilocalrule of residence.See Jackson(1983).
OInthis the Vaup6sfits Collierand Rosaldo'scharacteri-
 SYMBOLICSEXUALVIOLENCE
zation that while "menbecomeadults uponmarriage. . . it is
only with age that conjugality gives women new privilege"
(1981: 284); and "A newly marriedwoman,on the other hand,
appears to have no more privilegedaccess to male products
than her single sisters. . ." (1981: 283).
"Of course,given preferentialcross-cousinmarriage,some
women move to their mother'ssettlement,where they are not
actually strangers.But they are still basicallyaffines,regard-
less of whateverconsanguinealrelationshipsare shared with
the residentsof their husband'ssettlement.
12SeeGillison (1983) for a discussionof similaranxieties
among the Papua New Guinea Gimi.
11C.Hugh-Jones(1979: 161) makesa pointaboutthe gen-
eral theme of destructionleading to creation, renewal, and
growth.
"Most marriagesthat took place duringthe periodof re-
search (1968-70) that I was told about did not involve any
overt bride capture features.
"5However,C. Hugh-Jonesargues against any "mock"
bride capture, stating that the use of force was always real,
althoughcontrolled(1979: 95).
"'Thisfits with Goldman'sdiscussionof youngbrides'abil-
ity to run home (1963: 143).
"'Sorensen(1984: 186) describesGoldman'sorgy as "gang
rape" (quotationmarks his), but I am inclined to think that
Goldman (1963: 220) knew what word fit the situation.
Reichel-Dolmatoff(1971: 149) discussesanxietiesabout rape.
"'Hedoes note later that much of the aggressivesexuality
in Desana rites reportedby Reichel-Dolmatoff(1971) is virtu-
ally absent among the Barasana(1979: 245). Other authors
writingon Tukanoansnote rape themes in myths;J. Langdon,
writingon the WesternTukanoanSiona, notes that a husband
who discovers his wife sleeping with an animal (an ana-
conda-in other variantsit is a tapir) punishesher by forcing
her lover'spenis into her vagina (1991: 7). Otherversions(in-
cluding the BardversionI gathered),involvehim trickingher
into eating it. Of particularinterest to this article's theme,
ChernelaanalyzesUanano male and female renderingsof this
same myth, notingthat a centralconcernin the male versionis
the fact that the woman gives birth to an "other"offspring,
whereas this is not an issue in the female narrative.Since
amongTukanoansoffspringand motherare alwaysof different
groups,womenare not anxiousabout it (1988: 75).
'9Yurupariis a Tupi-Guaraniword. Each Vaupes lan-
guage has a distinct term for the instrumentsand rituals.
20Becauseof space limitationsI do not give an extended
descriptionof the rites, since they are availablein S. Hugh-
Jones'sdescriptionof the BarasanaHe Wirituals(1977, 1979);
see also C. Hugh-Jones (1979), Reichel-Dolmatoff(1971),
Goldman(1963). Duringmy stay with the Inamb6BardI wit-
nessed a Yurupariritual celebratinga miriti harvestbut no
initiationrituals.
20"Ofcourse, similar myths are found among the
Munduructi(Murphyand Murphy 1974; Nadelson 1981), in
the upperXingu'(Stradelli 1964;Gregor1985), and amongthe
Tikuna (Nimuendajut1952: 78). For a list of sourceson the
Northwest Amazon Yuruparimyths, see Appendix II in S.
Hugh-Jones(1979). It should be noted that the Mundurucb
ritualsdiffersignificantlyfrom Tukanoanones. An anonymous
reviewerof an earlierdraft of the article noted that since the
Munduruciwere.uxorilocal,except for the chieflypatrilineage,
they were a classic example of Whitehead's(1986) "cult of
manhood"in which women are totally excluded and consist-
ently portrayedin termsof negativeimagery.In the Tukanoan
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15
ritualsfemininityis portrayedas an ambiguouspowerthat can
either create or destroy.The emphasison clan ancestorsin the
Northwest Amazon makes the Yuruparirituals there more
similar to Whitehead'scategoryof "clanhoodcult."
"Note that "marriage"is an extremelyimperfectwordto
describe affinal male-female co-residentialpairings in the
Vaup6s.Marriageis far moreof a processamongTukanoans,
especiallyin the early stages, than in the West. Even tryingto
count "marriages"and "divorces"is difficult,both in termsof
operationalizingthe terms and gathering the data-often
Tukanoansthemselvesare unsureat what point a relationship
turnsinto a marriageor at what pointa breakupis a breakup
of a real marriageratherthan of some kindof affairwith little
maritalpotential.See Kensinger(1984: 222-223).
231 phraseit this way becausethe TukanoansI livedwith
spoke in this way. To have a community strong in
women-sisters, wives, food producers,etc.-is an enviable
situation.
2"ThatI was told to marrya manwith ten sistersand re-
turn to the Vaup6swith all of them expressesthe same fantasy
of affinalwomen arrivingat a settlementwith no strings at-
tached-and with enoughof them to nip any worriesof agnatic
competitionin the bud.
2"Gluckmanargues that in general ritual expressescon-
flicts (1962: 38).
26"Shameis not bornof the desireto sleep with one's sis-
ter, nor even of the fact of really sleepingwith her, but rather
of the fact that this ceases to be hiddenby night"(1982: 140).
Some of the "hidden"features recall the Cupid and Psyche
myth.
"2Although thereis a paradoxherethat S. Hugh-Jonesap-
propriatelydescribesas double-edged,for initiatesalso need to
menstruatebecause of the connectionbetween menstruation
and reproduction(1979: 132).
28SeeJackson(1983: 190). Compareto Nadelson:"Such
symbolsmay well refer moreto the appropriation of the repro-
ductive powerof heterosexualityand less to a ritual reverence
for women"(1981: 241).
"90Of course, menstrualsymbolismin male ritual is wide-
spread in Melanesia.See, for example,Hogbin (1970), Poole
(1982: 113-114);see also Gregor(1985: 188) on the Mehinaku
ear-piercingritual as male menstruation.
30Rosaldo'spoint about Ilongot headhuntingand similar
violent initiationsbeing "'things they say' about the relation-
ships that bind youngnovicesand seniormen"is appositehere
(Rosaldo 1980: 232).
S3TheMakuiare a linguisticallyand ethnicallydistinctin-
digenousVaup6spopulationwho live away from the riversand
lack the elaboratelonghouses,canoe and fishingtechnologies,
and ceremonialpatternscharacteristicof Tukanoans.They are
an extremelyimportantand complex symbol for Tukanoans,
who consider Mak6 to be inferior.A traditionalpattern in-
volvedTukanoansin some sectionsof the Vaup6sestablishing
servant-masterrelationswith certainlocal Makuigroups.
"See S. Hugh-Jones(1979: 148), Jackson(1983, Chapter
8).
33Hill notes that the neighboringArawakanWaktienaitry
to constructand reproducea social worldthat "simultaneously
implies equality of the sexes in secular relationsand a ritual
hierarchyof more powerfulmales to less powerfulfemales"
(1987: 34).
34Inseveral Amazoniansocieties gang rape is seen as a
group of men authorizedto punish a transgressingwoman,a
collectivepunitiveact that utilizessexualityratherthan behav-
16 ANTHROPOLOGICAL QUARTERLY

ior engagedin for sexual pleasure.While in the West, feminists
and clinicians attest to a violent, punitive motive underlying
many acts of rape-a point made by severalwriters (see, for
example, Griffin 1979; Brownmiller1975)-important differ-
ences can be found.Gang rape is notformally institutionalized
and explicitlysanctionedin the West the way it is among,for
instance, the Munduructi(Murphy and Murphy 1974: 100)
and Mehinaku(Gregor 1985). Furthermore,in the West we
tend to assumethat violenceand rapeare the oppositeof ritual.
We tend to see them as impulsive,uncontrolledacts, at worst
utterly lackingmeaningand at best a kind of challengeto the
social order. But when rape themes appearin the Amazonian
literature,these characteristicsare sometimesreversed.What
writers such as Griffinand Brownmillerhave argued is that
sexualviolencein the West also containsritualand institution-
alized elements. For the most part, in the West we interpret
rape as individualmen rapingindividualwomen,althoughone
can certainlysay that such acts of rape are also collectiveacts,
insofar as they function as mechanisms of social control
targeted at all women. While I think that there are parallels
between gang rape in Amazonia and, say, fraternity party
"trains"(Sanday 1987)--for example,membersof a fraternity
are "brothers"-here I focus on how these two types of gang
rape (and in the Tukanoancase we are talkingabout imagesof
gang rape) differ with regardto certain determinantelements
of social structure.But perhapssome of the conclusionsI draw
can be appliedto understandingmale sexual violencetowards
womenin other societies,especiallythe discussionof the rela-
tionshipbetweenmale insecurity,fear of female powerand sol-
idarity, and ritual expressions of sexual violence towards
women.
35Janet Chernela(personalcommunication)has notedthat
in some cases it is difficultfor a womanmarriedinto a Uanano
community to refuse her husband's brothers' advances.
Whetherthis is to be seen as rape or not, especiallyif institu-
tionalizedand expected,is problematic,but it perhapsis also
an expressionof male agnatic solidarityresistingand contain-
ing potentiallydivisivefemale affinity.
36"[A]s the ultimate act, men take women, the wives of
their phratrymates,into the bushand copulate,coupleschang-
ing partnersas often as they like . . . this ritualsequenceis to
be understoodas somewhatmorethan sexualconsummation.It
is also an act of mass adultery. . ." (Goldman1963:239). An
anonymousreaderobjected that these rituals hardly "keep a
distance" between the sexes. I would argue that while they
hardlykeep a physical,sexual distance,they do communicate
about the problemsof being too close, whetherwith sisters or
with affinalwomenwho have too much control.
37For pertinentdiscussionsof sourcesof male anxietyelse-
wherein lowlandSouth Americaand in New Guinea,see espe-
cially Gregor (1977, 1985), Murphy and Murphy (1974),
Kracke(1978), Herdt (1981), and Meigs (1984). Incidentally,
Hiatt (1977) providesa fascinatingdiscussionof secret male
cults in The Magic Flute.
38Deeperand perhaps universal psychologicalcauses of
some of these feelings are undoubtedlyoperatingas well; the
male supremacycomplex is found in many culturesthat lack
the social structureof the Tukanoans.While I do not address
these other possibledeterminantshere, I certainlydo not want
to imply that male anxiety, Tukanoanor otherwise, about
women,is producedby only one determinant.I am suggesting
that its particularTukanoanconfigurationand strength are
produced,at least partly,by the social structuralfactorsI dis-
cuss here.
S"SeeShapiro1987. Crocker's(1979: 295) pointaboutthe
principleof sexual dichotomybeing paramountin all G8 sys-
tems appliesto the Tukanoancase as well.
'oSee T. Langdon(1975) and Sorensen(1984). Sorensen
interpretsthe male homoeroticismhe reportsas at times a ploy
to lessen husbands'brothers'sexual interestsin their wives. It
should be noted that several male anthropologistswho have
workedamong Tukanoans(includingSorensen,personalcom-
munication)agree that such "homoeroticism" does not involve
what we normallyassociatewith male homosexuality-erection
leading to ejaculation.

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