A terminologia de parentesco dos índios Wapitxâna

Abstract

This report is an attempt to describe some of the feature of the Wapitxâna or Wapisiana kinship terminology. The data were collected in September, 1965, during few days in two Wapisiana villages (Barata and Serra da Môça), bboth not very far from Boa Vista, capital of the Federal Territory of Roraima (Brazil). The Wapsiana (Arawak) are about one thousand people living in Roraima, they areinhabitants of this brazilian area and of Guiana as well. Today the Wapisiana culture and society are being greatly modified by the interethnic contact. The majority lives in Indians settlements and some are sispersed among the local people. Subsistence agriculture is still their main occupation. On the other hand, they exchange their labour to whites, for money. The Wapisiana kinship termminology in the first ascendent generation is of the bifurcate merging type. Thus, the father´s brother is classified with the father, and the mother´s sister is classified with the mother, while the mother´s brother and father´sister are distinct of them. On the basis of cousin terminology the Wapsiana Kinhipis of the Iroquois type. Cross-cousins are referred by the father´s sister and the mother´s brother are clssified as parents-in-law. Parallel cousins are classified like Ego´s siblings.