University of Pittsburgh- Of the Commonwealth System of Higher Education

The Meaning of Body Ornaments: A Suya Example Author(s): Anthony Seeger Source: Ethnology, Vol. 14, No. 3 (Jul., 1975), pp. 211-224 Published by: University of Pittsburgh- Of the Commonwealth System of Higher Education Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3773253 . Accessed: 08/01/2011 20:49
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=upitt. . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

University of Pittsburgh- Of the Commonwealth System of Higher Education is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Ethnology.

http://www.jstor.org

The Meaning of Body Ornaments: A Suya Example'

Anthony Seeger
Pomona College

In his stimulating essay "Magical Hair," Leach (1958) raises two fundamental problems for anthropologists.One problem is explaining the apparent universality of certain symbol-referent configurations (specifically hair and sexuality); the second problem is the relationship between what Leach calls "private symbols" and "public symbols." However, he dismisses from consideration as being basically an historical problem exactly what I intend to examine here: why a culture chooses one item and not another for its symbols. Leach (1958: I52) writes: wear black for mourning,Chinesewear white. In each case the special Europeans statusof the mourner indicated the wearingof special is dress.But the question of by why one cultureselectsblack for this purposeand anotherwhite is surelyboth irrelevant unanswerable. and There is a methodological issue here. If culture traits, such as the colors used in mourning, are taken from context and compared across the world in the manner made famous by Frazer and followed by Berg, whose work Leach discusses, then such traits may indeed appear to be random. If instead of lifting a single trait out of a society for examination, one looks for structures of interrelated symbols, then the problem of why one culture uses black and another white can perhaps be explained and an underlying logic uniting the two symbol systems may come to light. Mary Douglas (1966) and Victor Turner (I967) have both argued that the body and its various substances are fundamental symbol referents and that this may explain the world-wide similarity of certain symbol-referentconfigurations. In this paper I examine three human faculties-hearing, speaking, and vision-and the ornamentation of the ears and lips among certain Brazilian tribes in the light of these theories. South American tribal societies exhibit a wide variety of lip ornaments, decorations of various types and sizes inserted into the ear lobes or nose, and penis ornaments of various types and sizes. Scarification, large belts, hair tubes, and different hair styles are widely distributed. Within the smaller universe consisting of the various Ge-speaking tribes in central Brazil there is still considerablevariety. Shavante men wear small plugs of wood inserted into the lobes of their ears and use penis sheaths (Maybury-Lewis 1967). The Eastern Timbira wear large ear discs attaining io cm. in size
211

212

ETHNOLOGY

(Nimuendaju 1946: 50) but not penis sheaths. The Apinaye, like the Eastern Timbira, wear ear discs and do not use penis sheaths. They do pierce a small hole in a man's lower lip from which they hang feather ornaments (Nimuendaju 1939). The Northern Kayapo wear penis sheaths, but hang small earrings from a large hole in the ear lobe. Men also have lip discs in their lower lips (T. S. Turner 1971). The Suya, like the Kayapo, have lip discs, thicker ones with a design on the underside. Like the Eastern Timbira, the Suya wear large ear discs and do not wear penis sheaths. Body ornaments such as these are rarely studied in their cultural context. Traditional studies analyze the geographical distribution of a single ornament, and usually emphasize the presence or absence of ornament rather than its meaning in the society which uses it (e.g., Colette i934; Charlin 1950; Lindblom i945; Labouret 1952). Some exceptions exist, among them Lebeuf (1953) on labrets among the Fali, Leach (1958) on hair, and the Stratherns' book (A. and M. Strathern I971) on the Hageners. It is sadly true that when questions are raised about the meaning of body ornaments in different societies the data are lacking to answer them (see Ucko i969). My analysis of the meaning of Suya body ornaments begins with an examination of the faculties of hearing, speech, and vision among the Gespeaking Suya Indians of central Brazil.2 Then I show the multivocal (V. Turner 1967) significance of lip discs and ear discs among the Suya. Generalizing from the Suya, I discuss the presence and absence of certain body artifacts among related Northern Ge tribes. Although I am concerned with particular cases, my point is a general one. The ornamentation of an organ may be related to the symbolic meaning of the organ in a society. The ornamentation of the ears and mouth may well indicate the symbolic importance of "hearing" and "speaking" as those faculties are defined by any given society. Body ornaments should be treated as symbols with a variety of referents. They should be examined as a system in any given society rather than in lucid, but misleading, isolation as has usually been done in the past. The first sight of the Suya can be startling. In the ears of both men and women, supported by thin loops of earlobe,hang large round discs of wood or rolled palm-leaf spirals painted with white clay.3 These discs may exceed 8 cm. in diameter. The men's lower lips are stretchedforward into a thin band of muscle by an elliptical wooden disc inserted into a hole in the lip. The wooden disc may be as large as 8 cm. by 7 cm. It is painted bright red on the top and sides with urucum (coloring from the seeds of the Bixaorellana L.) and is left the color of the wood on the bottom with the exception of a small circular design near the center which is painted with purple-blackstain from the fruit of the Genipapa americanaL. Various photographs of the Suya and these ornaments may be found in Schultz (I962). Men often do not wear their ear discs during the day, preferring to wrap the thin loop of ear lobe around the ear itself. They never go long without their lip discs, however, removing them only to wash their lips when bathing. On ritual occasions new lip and ear ornaments, adorned with tassels, strings, and other elaborations, are made and inserted. The Suya define themselves as a tribe, different from other groups, by their

SUYA BODY ORNAMENTS 213

use of lip discs, ear discs, and a particular singing style. They claim that no other group has those three attributes, and thus no other group is me, or fully human. A society may reveal much about itself by those traits it chooses for a standard of comparison with other societies. European societies, and anthropologists, have often taken technology as a comparative standard; the Suya take lip discs, ear discs, and a certain singing style. It is justifiable, therefore, to conclude that these are fundamental features of their society as they perceive it. The Suya receive and give information with all of their senses. Of these, they have emphasized hearing and speaking as eminently social faculties. Men, women, and children are socially defined by their "hearing"and "speaking," witches by their extraordinaryvision, and animals are classified by their smell. I shall discuss the various meanings in English of the Suya word kumba (alternately mbai), one meaning of which is "to hear." Then I investigate the word kaperni which has one meaning roughly equivalent to "to speak." These Suya words have a much larger universe of meaning than do their English equivalents. In order to understand the importance of the modes of hearing and speaking, an analysis of the Suya concepts is essential.
HEARING

The Suya word associated with hearing, ku-mba, has a variety of referents beyond that of the English word "to hear." It means "to hear," "to understand," and "to know." Table I illustrates this point. TABLE 1 KU-MBA: To Hear Definition physicalreceptionof sounds decodingof units of semanticmeaning units, to repeat ability to reproduce English to hear to understand to know Suya ku-mba

When a Suya asks "hen ga ku-mba?,"he is asking "did you hear?" and "did you understand?" and "do you know?" simultaneously. The referents of the word ku-mba extend further than this to include Suya morality. The crucial phrase in Suya morality is ani mbai kidi and its opposite ani mbai mbechi. Ani mbai kidi translates as "to not hear-understand-know" (ani-mba is a reflexive roughly equivalent to ku-mba; kidi well" is negative). Ani mbai mbechi translates as "hears-understands-knows (mbechi means "good," "beautiful"). When an individual behaves according to the norms of the tribe he is said to be ani mbai mbechi. If he fails to observe custom and etiquette he is said to be ani mbai kidi. A few examples of the use of the phrase will suggest its meaning. When a child does something it has been told not to do it is ani mbai kidi. When an adult does not share his belongings and food but hoards them in opposition to Suya norms of sharing he is ani mbai kidi. People who do not obey restrictions on diet

214 ETHNOLOGY and sexual activity after the birth of a child, the injury of a relative, or the killing of an enemy (to name just three periods of restriction) are also ani mbai kidi. A person who is fully social hears, understands,and knows clearly. A person who hears and understands badly acts badly. The Suya do not mean that people who are ani mbai kidi cannot receive sounds (with the exception of one deaf child who misbehaves but is not punished because "he cannot hear"). Rather, the ear is believed to be the receiver and holder of social codes, not the "mind" or the "brain."When the Suya have learned something-even something visual such as a weaving pattern-they say, "It is in my ear."
SPEAKING

Speaking and hearing are complementary.Just as they emphasize hearing, so the Suya place a great emphasis on speaking. Speaking and not speaking are important social acts.One should not speak to certainpeople towards whom one has "shame" (whiasam). On the other hand, when one stops speaking to people with whom one usually converses it is a sign of anger. Oratory has a variety of forms and is often used aggressively. Lacking instruments other than rattles, Suya music is exclusively vocal and certain forms are closely related to speech forms. The Suya word kaperni also has several English referents, including "language," "to speak," and "to exhort" (see Table 2). Animals, plants, and human beings have language (kaperni). They are all different, and only certain people can understand the speech of certain other species. Suya speech is divided roughly into common, everyday speech (kaperni) and "plaza
TABLE 2 KAPERNI: To Speak Definition English Suya

conventionalsystem of communication: grammar,syntax, etc. the act of communication

a special type of communication

language to speak
to orate to exhort

kaperni

speech" (ngaihogo kaperni) which is either "angryspeech" (grutnen kaperni) or "everybodylistens speech" (me mbai wha kaperni). While common speech is used in everyday discourse by males and females of all ages, the various types of oratory have a special rhythm, sets of formulae, place, and style of delivery. They are spoken only by fully adult men. One form is spoken only by chiefs and ritual specialists. The form of "plaza speech" which is generally restricted to chiefs and ritual specialists is called "everybody listens speech." The Suya say that two

SUYA BODY ORNAMENTS 215

of the primary duties of a leader are to co-ordinate group effort and to solve disputes through speech-making. When they have spoken, everyone in the village is supposed to have "heard it all" (mbai wha). If people do not act in accordancewith what has been spoken, then they are ani mbai kidi, people who "do not hear-understand-know";if they behave according to the ideal behavior they are ani mbai mbechi. Suya music is also associated with speaking. Singing is the height of oral expression, both individually and collectively. One song genre is selected as a self-defining trait along with the lip disc and the ear disc. With the exception of certain flutes that they have adopted only recently from Indians in the Upper Xingu, Suya music has always been largely vocal. The only traditional instruments are several types of rattles. Their music has two major genres: individual songs, which are sung in a high register (akia), and unison songs sung in a very low register (ngere). The akia are sung only by men. The major role of women in Suya ceremonies is as audience and suppliers of food rather than as singers. For every ceremony a man has his own new akia. All of the men sing their different individual songs at the same time, to the unison rhythm of their stamping and rattles. The effect is raucous cacophony with each man singing as loudly and as high-pitched as he can in order to sound out above the others and be heard by his sisters and lovers. This type of singing is a form of aggressive self-expression that is characteristicof several forms of "plaza speech" as well. In these brief discussions of speech and song I have tried to give an idea of the importance and pervasivenessof oral performance, and of exhortation and instruction. Even Suya medicines stress the oral. While they do use some medicinal plants, incantations are thought to be more effective, and curers who blow on their patients are believed to be the most effective of all.
VISION

The faculties of speech and hearing are highly elaborated and positively valued in Suya society. It is good to "hear-understand-know" well. It is important for an adult man to speak, sing, and orate. Vision has no such elaboration or positive evaluation. The Suya word for "to see" is more restricted than the English one. It is not used to indicate comprehension (as in "I see" for "I understand"). The eye is not the "window of the soul." Rather it is the locus of the dangerous and anti-social. In discussion of Suya ideas about vision, the ability to see must be distinguished from the symbolic meaning of the eyes. Good everyday sight, in the sense of the accurate reception of visual stimuli, is apparently unrelated to the other modes under discussion here because it is not symbolically elaborated.The Suya prize a good hunter who can accurately shoot fish and game. It is not his sight that is stressed but the accuracy of his shooting. Hunting medicines are applied to the forearm to make a man a good shot, not to his eyes. Attributes of vision are used, however, to describe animals and humans with animal-like attributes. An animal that is shot at but not killed is "strong-eyed" (ndo tut) or "wild" because it gets away. When an animal presents itself for an easy shot it is "weak-eyed" or "tame." The

216

ETHNOLOGY

symbolic emphasis on vision among the Suya is in the importance of extraordinaryvision, possessed only by witches (wayanga). A person becomes a witch when an invisible "witch thing" enters his or her eye. Certain species of birds all have such witch things in their eyes. Only certain humans have them. The "thing" in the person's eye allows him literally to "see everything" (somun mbedili). He can look up and see the village of the dead in the sky; he can look down and see the fires of the people who live under the earth; and he can look around and see enemy Indians in their own villages far away. The "witch thing" is neither inherited nor congenital. It only enters a person's eye when he is in some way ani mbai kidi, or immoral. People become witches because they do not share their food and belongings or because they do not observe restrictions on sex and diet during a critical period. Other ways of becoming a witch-by stepping on a person's grave, having sexual relations with a witch, or touching a dead witch-only operate if a person is already ani mbai kidi. They are not sufficientcauses in themselves. When a person does not listen (ku-mba) to the exhortations (kaperni) of his father, his chief, and his ritual specialist he is ani mbai kidi and in danger of becoming a witch. Suya witches are said to see things that normal men cannot see. They do not hear-understand-knowas well as normal men should. Finally, they have their own kind of speech, a "bad speech," called kaperni kasaga (kasaga means "bad," "ugly"). "Bad speech" is the opposite of "plaza speech" in a number of ways. It is spoken in private. It is not spoken in the village plaza. It has no special oratorical style.4 Apparently it is particularly malicious gossip and selfish talk.
SUYA FACULTIES AND BODY ORNAMENTS

To complete my discussion of Suya faculties I briefly discuss "smell." Animals are thought to have a keen sense of smell. In addition, animals are classified according to their odor. Thus there are "strong-smelling,""pungent," and "bland-smelling" animals, each group with its own attributes. Things that the Suya classify as "strong smelling" also tend to be powerful and somewhat dangerous. After smell, the faculties of taste, touch, and other types of feeling are far less important symbolically and are used to describe many fewer semantic areas (Seeger 1974). The relationship between the four most symbolically elaborated faculties among the Suya are summarized in Table 3. The faculties in Table 3 are interrelated. In a situation where one is very highly stressed the others tend to be less important or negatively stressed.A good example of this is Suya ceremony. The major ceremonies end with a finale of all-night dancing and singing which usually starts at dusk and ends at first light, before the actual sunrise. During the night the men march around singing in the dark. No large fires are lit and the position of the moon is unimportant in planning a ceremony. The visibility of the dancers is not important. What is stressed above all is that a man sing loudly enough to be heard by his sisters, and that the men not stop singing during

SUYA BODY ORNAMENTS 217

TABLE 3 Suya Faculties ANTI-SOCI AL/ANIMAL-LIKE

Emphasized Vision Emphasized Smell

of of characteristic animalsand powerful, characteristic witchesand certain anti-socialthings birds organ:eyes organ:nose none ornamentation: ornamentation: none SOCIAL ,/HUMAN-LIKE
Emphasized Speech and Song Emphasized Hearing and Morality

of characteristic adult men organ:mouth ornament:adult male lip disc

of characteristic "good"adults of both sexes organ:ears adult male and female ornamentation: ear discs

the night. The women, who give food to various relatives in the late afternoon and act as an audience but do not sing, usually retire to their hammocks during the night. They do not sleep much, but listen to the men singing. They rise with the morning star to play parts in the final minutes of the ceremony. In Suya ceremony, then, where song is stressed vision is unimportant and the audience listens rather than watches during the night hours. An example where both vision and speaking are unstressed is in the relationship of "shame" (whiasam) which obtains between a man and his wife's relatives, his ritual relations, and to a lesser degree his elders when he is not fully adult himself. People in a "shame"relationship do not look directly at each other, do not usually speak directly to each other, and are supposed to listen very attentively. Witches are an example of the stressing of vision above all else: they speak "bad speech," do not "hear"well, and have extraordinary vision. Smell does not enter the system in the same way, being more definitely associated with animals. Hearing, speaking, and vision, however, form an interrelated system of faculties. Each faculty is associated with an organ or part of an organ. Each is also associated with certain types of human being or animal and with certain types of behavior. The two faculties considered "social" by the Suya are elaborated with body ornaments. The eyes are not ornamented, tatooed, or specially painted. The nose is without ornament also. Lip discs and ear discs are clearly associated with the cultural importance of hearing and speaking as they are defined by the Suya. This is borne out by what the Suya themselves say. They maintain that the ear is pierced so that people will "hear-understand-know." They say the lip disc is symbolic or associated with, belligerence and bellicosity, which are correlates of of, masculine self-assertion,oratory, and song. The color of the artifacts is also important. The lip disc is red on the top and sides. Red is a color associated with heat and belligerence. The circular design on the underside represents

218

ETHNOLOGY

the constellation we call the Pleiades. The Suya say that the constellation in the sky is the design on the lip disc of a man in the sky. The ear disc is painted with white clay. White is a color associated with coolness and passivity. When they are separately painted-as on hunts or in ceremonies in which men "become" animals-the eyes and nose are often painted black. Black is a color associated with anti-social attributesand witches. Suya body ornaments are installed in rites of passage and are marks of status. They also mark the social emphasis of certain faculties at particular times in the life cycle. The ears of both sexes are pierced at the first signs of sexual activity; men's lips are pierced when they are "big" (in their late teens) and old enough to be considered fully adult men. Children are not expected to hear-understand-knowor behave particularlywell. The Suya are very tolerant of their children. However, at around puberty they are expected to listen to the instructions and exhortations of their elders and their chiefs. About that age Suya are considered ani mbai kidi if they do not observe the norms with respect to sexual activity, the distribution of food and property, and dietary and activity restrictions. When boys are "big" their lips are pierced and they enter the men's house. While they are living in the men's house, prior to fathering a child and taking up uxorilocal residence with their wives, young men are supposed to sing constantly and devote their energies to making increasingly large lip discs for themselves. The use of body ornaments distinguishes important groups by sex and age. Children are not expected to behave morally. Adult men and women are both expected to behave correctly.Their ears are pierced in order to achieve correct behavior. Only adult men engage in plaza speech, akia singing, and belligerent behavior; their lips are pierced so that they will behave that way. The mouth and ear are the most important organs for the Suya man. Hearing and speaking are the most important social faculties. The ear disc and lip disc are the most important body artifacts. They are physical representations of the conceptual elaboration. Through the perforation of the mouth and the earlobe and the insertion of painted discs the body is itself socialized. Ear discs and lip discs are related to fundamental concepts of person, morality, and the symbolism of body parts.
A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE: THE NORTHERN GE

Turning to the other Northern Ge tribes-the Eastern Timbira, Apinaye, and Northern Kayapo-there is considerable variation in the use of body ornaments. These have been describedabove, and are summarized in Table 4. The Northern Ge are culturally similar enough so that differencesin body ornaments do appear to indicate differences in emphasis on the faculties and organs in the four groups.5 The Kraho, an Eastern Timbira group among whom only the men wear ear discs, do not place as great an emphasis on oral performance. Oratory does not seem to be as highly elaborated (Maria Manuela Carneiro da Cunha, personal communication). The Apinaye have a configuration of ideas about hearing-understanding-knowingand morality that resembles what I have described for the Suya. But men do not wear lip discs, the perforation in the lower lip is kept small, and they seem to place

SUYA BODY ORNAMENTS 219

TABLE 4

Body Ornaments amongthe NorthernGe

ibe Tribe I ar Ornament ar Ornament emale Male Ear Ornament 1 Female Ear Ornament i a large Present, Ear pierced disc. when boy is 10-15.

Male ip Ornament Male Lip Ornament

Penis Sheath Penis Sheath

Eastern Timbira (Rankokanekra, 1946) Ninuendaju,

Absent

Absent

Absent

Apinaye

Present, large disc. Ear pierced in first stage of initiation, age 5-15 (?).

Present, large disc. Ear pierced at about same age as boys. No initiation.

Hole in Present. lip for feathers. Pierced at same Hole time as ears. small. left

Absent

Suya

Present. Large Pierced disc. when sexually mature.

Present. Large Ears pierced disc. at about same age as boys, at sexual maturity.

Present. Large Pierced just disc. before entering men's house, 16-18 years of age.

Absent

Northern

Kayapo

Present. Small bead loops in lobe. have their Infants ears pierced at birth and the lobe is stretched. Adults wear only a bead loop hanging from large hole in earlobe.

Same as male.

Present. Large Lip lip disc. pierced at birth, enlarged only when in they are living the men's house,

Present. Penis sheath given to boys at early puberty,

less emphasis on oral performance and oratory (Roberto Da Matta, personal communication). The Northern Kayapo are considered to be the closest linguistic group to the Suya. Like the Suya they have lip discs, but these lack the design on the underside. They do not wear ear discs, but have a large hole in their earlobes from which they hang a loop of preferably white or blue beads. Adult men wear penis sheaths. The puzzle is why the Kayapo leave empty holes in their ears and wear penis sheaths. Accoring to Terence Turner (I971) the Kayapo pierce the ears of infants shortly after birth and insert red plugs in the ear lobe to make the hole larger. At the same time they pierce the lower lips of the male infants but do not enlarge the hole. When the child grows up the hole in the ear lobe is left empty and the hole in the lip is enlarged. At about puberty young men are given a penis sheath. Turner says that the sheath restrains, rather than emphasizes, male sexuality (Turner, personal communication). Since the Kayapo have ideas about hearing and morality related to those of the Suya, the enlarging of the infant's earlobes would indicate an emphasis on the social "hearing"of infants. The lip disc is inserted and enlarged at about the same age among the Kayapo as the lip is pierced among the Suya. Puberty is marked in Kayapo boys by the bestowal of the penis sheath. Among the Suya the penis is not an object of direct social control. Suya ears are pierced at about the same age that Kayapo boys receive their penis sheaths. I would argue that among the Suya the control of sexuality is achieved by the perforation of the ear and the concomitant

220

ETHNOLOGY

emphasis on morality. They say that sexual intercourse is "bad for the hearing" of young men. One way of being ani mbai kidi and becoming a witch is by failing to observe the various restrictions on sexual intercourse. The Northern Kayapo mark this same social control over young men with the giving of the penis sheath, and place less symbolic emphasis on the ear as the source of moral teachings. Both tribes place a high importance on oratory and singing and men in both tribes wear lip discs. Among the Kayapo social control seems to be symbolized by control of sexuality, rather than an emphasis on morality in general. It is tempting to see this reflected in the incidence of factionalism and village fission found among the Northern Ge. Those groups which have large ear discs are characterizedby a lesser degree of village fission than the Northern Kayapo. It would be facile to say that the Kayapo emphasize oratory and aggression but do not "hear" or "listen." The mechanism of Kayapo factionalism is quite complex, however, and I do not wish to go into it here. Looking further afield, to the Central Ge, Shavante boys receive penis sheaths at early puberty. As with the Kayapo the sheaths are a mechanism of control. "The sheath . . . indicates sexual potency and at the same time the social control to which inherently dangerous sexual powers are submitted" (Maybury-Lewis I967: 107). Shavante men have their ears pierced in the second stage of initiation, roughly the time that the Suya and Kayapo begin wearing their lip discs. The Shavante do not completely fit my scheme since they do engage in a great deal of oratory and do not have lip discs. The symbolic meaning and shape of the ear plug, however, is different from those found among the Northern Ge. The symbolism surrounding hearing and the ear itself may also be different. The ear plugs of the Shavante are thin sticks and have a more active symbolism than the ear discs of the Suya. They are explicitly symbolic of the phallus (Maybury-Lewis I967: 63). Their shape and meaning are different from the Northern Ge ear discs. Like the Kayapo, who do not use ear discs, Shavante villages are characterizedby factionalism and fission. Finally, I must mention the Erigpaktsa, who are within the Macro-Ge language family. The men in this tribe wear immense ear discs and no lip ornament. Speech is not as highly elaborated, and their music is exclusively instrumental rather than vocal (Robert Hahn, personal communication). For the Northern Ge and some other groups there is evidence to suggest that the appearance of a body ornament, the alteration of an organ in one group, and its lack of elaboration in another, may not be random. It may be the result of different cultural emphasis on the faculty in question.
CONCLUSION

In my effort to discover the meaning of lip discs and ear discs among the Suya I have used Suya categories of perception, expression, and moral behavior as the basis for the analysis. I united four faculties into a system of interrelated symbols. I supported my analysis of the Suya by examining briefly certain related tribes and found some support for the interpretationof

SUYA BODY ORNAMENTS

221

my own data. A question remains, however. Why are body ornaments so widespread and so various in South America and throughout the world? In his paper on "techniques du corps," Mauss (1950: 372) remarks that the body is the first and the most natural objet-technique of man. In the body there is a conjunction of biological, psychological, and social attributes. Some recent writers tend to agree, giving the body and its substances prominence as symbol referents. Victor Turner insists on a multivocality of referents for any complex, or dominant symbol. In the various significata both social and psychological meanings are present. According to Victor Turner (1967: 28), all major ritual symbols have two poles:
At one pole is found a cluster of significata that refer to components of the moral and social orders of Ndembu society, to principles of social organization, to kinds of corporategrouping, and to norms and values inherent in structuralrelationships.At the other pole, the significata are usually natural and physiological phenomena and processes.

Victor Turner (1967: 49-50) also notes a point about Ndembu ritual symbols that may be directly applied to my analysis of the Suya body artifacts.
One aspect of the process of ritual symbolization among the Ndembu is, therefore, to make visible, audible, and tangible beliefs, ideas, values, sentiments, and psychological dispositionsthat cannot directly be perceived.

Body ornaments above all make intangible concepts tangible and visible. The ear discs and the lip discs of the Suya are symbols with a variety of referents which unite the poles of "natural phenomena" (the organs and senses) with components of the moral and social order. The Suya might be said to internalize their values by literally "embodying" them through their symbolic manifestations, the body artifacts. Terence Turner (197I: 103) reaches a similar conclusion for the Northern Kayapo:
Lip plug, ear plugs, penis sheath, hair style, cotton leg and arm bands, and body painting make up a symboliclanguage that expressesa wide range of informationabout social status, age, and sex. As a language, however, it does more than merely communicate this informationfrom one individual to another:at a deeper level it establishes a channel of communicationwithin the individual between social and biological aspects of his personality.

Going still further afield from Central Brazil, throughout the world different parts of the body are ornamented with great variety. Ear ornaments of all kinds are widespread. Lip discs and labrets are less common, but other forms of mouth ornamentation such as tattooing and painting are more common. Eyes are often elaborated with paint, darkened eyelashes or other means. Other parts of the body may be tattooed, pierced, or otherwise altered. When ornamentation such as this is analyzed in terms of the symbolism of the organs, faculties, and ornaments together, suggestive areas for investigation appear. The work has yet to be done; reports on the meaning of body artifacts are rare.6I can merely speculate on some possibilities. The alteration of the lip may often have something to do with the importance of speech. In at least one African society, the Fali, where women

222

ETHNOLOGY

wear lip ornaments, lip discs are associatedwith parole. Women teach things to their daughters which were taught to an ancestral woman by a frog. According to Lebeuf (I953: 1326), their teaching takes its force from the presence of lip ornaments that make women look like frogs. Similarly widespread may be the meaning of ear alterations. These could be associated with knowledge, or adherence to social codes. The ornamental elaboration of the ear might symbolize a stress on the social aspects of the person, mask, or figure. Among the Suya vision is antithetical to hearing and morality. Might there be some kind of opposition between vision and social virtue? In the West there is a tradition that in order really to know, a person must be blind. Tireseus the prophet, Oedipus, the tradition of the blind Homer (whether true or not), and the blindfolded figure of Justice are only a few examples where the true "seer" must be one who physically cannot see. In addition, there is widespread belief in the "evil eye." Wanton individuals are supposed to have "roving eyes" and people usually avert their eyes when telling a lie.7 The eyes may present the mind with things not classifiable within the established categoriesof the culture. It is the seeing of a ghost (the contradiction of a "living dead") which produces fear. It is the seeing of the impossible achieved in a "miracle"that produces radical conversion in those who witness it, while those who only hear it are often unconvinced. Some interesting suggestions about hearing and vision in Western culture appear in Chamberlain (I905). Writing about "primitive hearing and hearing words," Chamberlain (I905: 125) describes definitions of "hearing"in a number of societies, including European.
In the various languages of the Indo-Europeanstock a correlation often appears between "hearing"and "morality,goodness, tractibility,etc." Latin obedireand obedientia (whence English obey and obedience) and their descendentsin the Romancelanguages, and "duty"as related to hearing and the ear.8 representthe idea of "submission"

The relative emphasis on the faculties of hearing and vision in Western culture has changed in the historical past. Some aspects of this change have been described by Ong (1967) and McLuhan (1962). Different cultures emphasize and define the meaning of organs and faculties differently. As I have briefly suggested, in the West hearing, speaking, and vision resemble in some ways the ideas of the Suya. Some aspects of body symbolism may be widespread. However, there are bound to be differences at this level of comparison. Among the Suya, for example, neither the mouth nor the ear is an erogenous zone; Suya do not kiss. This brief overview should, however, be enough to show that body adornment and body symbolism are neither random nor unrelated. In any given society certain faculties will be symbolically emphasized and related to other faculties. The examination of the symbolism of the body organs, faculties, and their ornamentation considered together as a symbolic system should produce insights into important values and may help define important cultural symbolic systems. Such an examination may allow us to explain what Leach (I958) dismisses as apparently "irrelevantand unanswerable."

SUYA BODY ORNAMENTS

223

NOTES Coordinator da Programa de P6s-graduacaoem Antropologia Social at the Museu Nacional in Rio de Janeiro,Brazil, for his stimulating conversationfrom which many of these ideas were condensed into their present form. I also wish to thank Professors Terence S. Turner, Victor W. Turner, Judith Shapiro, and Raymond Fogelson, who read earlier drafts of this paper and supplied helpful comments. 2. The Suya are a small Ge-speaking tribe currentlyliving within the boundariesof the Xingu National Park in northern Mato Grosso, Brazil. The author and his wife spent
some fifteen months with the Suya between June I97I and February I973. The Suya I. Researchon the Suya was supportedby a grant from the Training Program in the BehavioralSciencesin I970-73. I am especiallyindebted to ProfessorRobertoDa Matta,

are a Northern Ge tribe. Recent studies of the various Ge tribes include MayburyLewis (1967), Da Matta (197i), Lave (i967), Melatti (I970), T. Turner (1966), Joan BambergerTurner (I967), and Vidal (I973). These are in addition to several works publishedby Nimuendaju in the I930s and I94os.

3. Women in the eastern Suya group ceased to have their ears pierced early in this century due to contactwith, and the obtainingof wives from, the Upper Xingu Indians, who do not wear ear discs. Women in the western group continued to pierce their ears to the present. 4. The Suya did not like to repeat "bad speech"to me. One form of this speech is the misuse of the possessiveform when speaking. In Suya one should never say "It is my pot" (with the first person possessive) but rather "It is our pot." Both forms exist, yet under some circumstances differenceis crucial. the 5. For the purpose of this comparison I am using Nimuendaju (I939, I946) on the Apinaye and Timbira (Ramkokamekra),and T. Turner (1966, 1971) on the Northern Kayapo. Other researchershave aided me in my queries about certain features of societiesin which they have done fieldwork. 6. Ucko (1969) comments on this with respect to penis sheaths.In my own researches on lip and ear ornaments I found that the meaning is rarely mentioned. Where mention exists it is usually given as "for the sake of beauty"or "for cosmetic reasons." The Suya, too, believe that lip discs and ear discs are "good"and "beautiful"(mbechi). But that does not say anything about the cultural meaning of the artifact or the alterationof the body. Lebeuf (I953) is one of the very rare exceptions. 7. The involuntary dilation or contraction of the pupil may be a physiological trait around which the various anti-social attributes of the eye were either developed or reinforced. 8. If Chamberlainis correct, it would be interesting to review the history of earrings in Western societies. If the ear and obedience are related in our culture, then the custom of predominantly female ear adornment might be, historically, a symbolic representationof the cultural emphasis on the submission and obedience of women. The earring might have been a visible manifestation of the concept of hearing and obedience. The use of earrings by sailors would also fit this pattern. A. Chamberlain, F.
I905.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AmericanJournal Primitive Hearing and "Hearing-Words."

Charlin, J. I95o. Notas preliminaressobre la dispersi6ncontinental de un adorno del labio en los pueblos aborigenes,el bezote labret, o tembeta. Ovalle, Chile. Colette, J. R. F. 1933. Le labreten Afrique et en Amerique. Bulletin de la Societe des Americanistesde Belgique I3: 5-6i. Da Matta, R. A. I97I. Apinaye Social Structure. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, HarvardUniversity. Douglas, M. 1966. Purity and Danger. London. Labouret,H. 1952. A propos des labretsen verre de quelques populationsVoltaiques. Lave, J. C. 1967. Social Taxonomy Among the Krikati (Ge) of Central Brazil. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation,Harvard University.
Bulletin, Institut Francais d'Afrique Noire 14: I385-1401.

of Psychology I6: II9-I30.

224

ETHNOLOGY

Leach, E. R. I958. Magical Hair. Journal of the Royal AnthropologicalInstitute of Lebeuf, J. P. I953. Labrets et greniers des Fali (Nord Cameroun). Bulletin, Institut Lindblom, F. 1945. Nose Ornamentsin Africa. StatensEtnografiskaMuseum, Smarre meddlanden.Stockholm. Mauss, M. I950. Les techniques du corp. Sociologie et Anthropologie, pp. 363-386. Paris. McLuhan,M. 1962. The GutenbergGalaxy.Toronto. D. I967. Akwe-Shavante Maybury-Lewis, Society. Oxford. Melatti, J. C. 1970. 0 Sistema social Kraho. Tese de doutoramento apresentadaa faculdade de Filosofia, Ciencase Letras da Universidadede Sio Paulo. Nimuendaju, C. I939. The Apinaye. Washington. 1946. The EasternTimbira. Universityof CaliforniaPublicationsin American Archeology and Ethnology, Vol. 41. Ong, W. J. I967. The Presenceof the Word. New Haven. Schultz, H. I962. Brazil's Big-Lipped Indians. National Geographic Magazine I21: Seeger, A. I974. Nature and Culture and Their Transformationsin the Cosmology and Social Organization of the Suya, a Ge-SpeakingTribe of Central Brazil. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation,University of Chicago. Strathern, A., and M. Strathern. I97I. Self-Decorationin Mount Hagen. London. Turner, J. I967. Environment and Cultural Classification:A Study of the Northern Kayapo. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation,Harvard University. Turner, T.S. I966. Social Structureand Political OrganizationAmong the Northern Kayapo. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation,Harvard University. I97I. Cosmetics:The Language of Bodily Adornment. Conformityand Conflict, Readings in CulturalAnthropology,ed. J. P. Spradleyand D. W. McCurdy, Turner, V. W. I967. The Forest of Symbols.Ithaca. Ucko, P. J. 1969. Penis Sheaths: A ComparativeStudy. Proceedings of the Royal AnthropologicalInstitute of Great Britain and Ireland: 27-68. Vidal, L. 1972. Put-Karot, Grupo indigena do Brasil central. Tese apresentada a faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e CiencasHumanas da Universidadede Sio Paulo.
pp. 96-I05. Boston. II8-I33. Francais d'Afrique Noire 15: 1321-1328. Great Britain and Ireland 88: I47-I64.