The Houses of The Mebengokre (Kayapo) of Central Brazil - A New Door To Their Social Organization

THE HOUSES OF THE MEBENGOKRE(KAYAPO)
OF CENTRAL BRAZIL
-A NEW DOOR TO THEIR SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
MH7005 ANTHROPOLOGY AND ARCHITECTURE
CHITHIRA MURALI
KHADAMBARI P
MARIAMUNNISA BEEGUM
M.ARCH(GEN) FIRST YEAR
MEASI ACADEMY OF ARCHITECTURE
INTRODUCTION
WHO ARE THE KAYAPO?
•The kayapo are one of the main American Indian tribes native groups that still live
in the Amazon rainforest around the river Amazon.
•The Kayapo are known to be fierce native warriors that fight off other tribes that
also stay in the rainforest and surround where they live in their territories.
•Kayapo call themselves "Mebengokre", mebengokre means “people from the land
between the rivers.”
Location : the Amazon rainforest, Brazil
Environment : tropical rainforest
Population : an estimated 8600, due to more recent medical care
changes
DAILY LIVES TRADITIONS AND CUSTOMS.....
•The way they live reflects on what they believe and

their traditionally.
•The men usually go hunting.
•Women stay at the tribe's territory and look after the

children and collect wood and things to make the
territory more like a home.
•One of the most important traditions and customs from

the kayapo tribes are painting themselves with
body paints.
The kayapo's houses look almost like beach sheds.

They have thatched typed roofs and are quiet small.
The kaypo's houses/shelters are made out of
material that they can find in the forest. They
kayapo make and build their own houses and groups
share the one house.
Amazon river
DEFINITION OF HOUSE : IN MEBENGOKRE CONTEXT State of Para
Xingu river
•A moral person which possess a domain (an area
of territory) that is made by the transmission of its
legitimate (conforming to the laws or to the rules)
on the sole condition that this can be explained on
the basis of kinship, alliance, and the two together.
•The houses of Mebengokre help us to understand SETTLEMENTS

the social organization of he tribes. OF KAYAPO
THE HOUSES
•Houses are different from dwellings in this case.
•The dwellings are very similar to one another.
•They are regularly spaces around the village circle.
•Each house occupies a fixed position in relation to East and West.
•The only distinctive external architectural character is their size.
•In recent years men have taken over house building from women and have
adopted regional style:
Oblong constructions with window less vertical pole walls, thatched roof.
•Dwellings lack any internal divisions.

•They have 1 or 2 doors which open to the village circle.
•The doors serve as windows.
•Light filters through the spaces between

the poles.
•The floors are of beaten earth.
•Women construct pole beds where they

sleep with their husband and small
children.
•Separated from next couple by few feet.
•Utensils are strewn on the floor, or

stored on the racks.
•Other possessions hung from the walls

or rafters.
Different dwellings in the village

HOW ARE THE HOUSES OCCUPIED:
•The senior women of the dwelling tend to occupy the centre of the house with
their daughters and their family distributed to either sides.
•The daughter of the dead sister of the senior women occupy the extremity of
the dwelling.
•Or construct a separate dwelling, next door to the maternal aunt.
•Number of inhabitants: range from 2 to 13.
•Size of dwelling depends on the number of inhabitants.
•One stone oven per house in the patio.
•One or more cooking hearths inside.
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION REFLECTED BY THE HOUSES
•Vacant positions are left between occupied dwellings in some cases, for filling
them up later on.
• If a house is subdivided then patrimony(valuables inherited from previous
generations) is also subdivided.
•Members of 2 houses that are a result of this, starts to intermarry.
•Eg: The Metuktire-a Mebengokre subgroup are the members of a community
linked by kinship relations, cultural heritage.
-They are distributed in 9 villages in Brazil.
•Each village has its reference an actual village.
•Each house is an exogamous unit. (marriage allowed only outside a social group)
•The heritable goods in Mebengokre society include:
For both sexes, right to make use of adornments, play ceremonial roles, collect
and store certain goods in the house.
For men ,the right to specific cuts so meat from large game animals.
For women, the right to raise certain animals as pets.
•A house may be distinguished from outside by the animals wandering in and out.
•Inside each house hangs the members mask, for display during ceremonies.
•The patrimony of houses is not static.
•Can be enriched ,or stolen
•For eg: People are accused of stealing names from the enemies who died at
their hands.
•Houses are referred by their important item of wealth –’the house of the yellow
feather headdress’.
•Names circulating in another House can be renounced by members who consider
themselves as the legitimate owners.
Mask and head dress used by

kayapo people
Yellow feather headdress

•The inheritance of names and nekrets (valuables) from the previous generations-
remove the gap between the mythical generation and the present one.
•Some mythological names are passed down the Houses.
ROLE OF WOMEN IN THE SOCIETY
•Women's domain is in the edge of the village circle.

•It gives their value in the society.
•Female area is weakly social.
•Women have a nonexistent role in communal affairs.
•The Houses control the names –in naming ceremony,adorements,ceremonial

songs,etc
•Ceremonies are considered very important.
-Houses are abandoned during ceremonies.
-people camp out in the plaza ,so the dead can also attend the ceremonies.
•The House are private.

-access to them is limited.
-they constitute the domain of symbolic goods, political interests and male duty.
•The cultural heritage of Membengokre society is divided by the Houses.
•Membengokre described by the villagers as a body:
Legs to East.
Head to West.
Plaza representing the belly.
•The men's house which bring together members from all the other Houses, is
considered a neutral point.
KINSHIP
•A mebengokre belongs to his or her mothers House.

•When a man marries and lives in his wife's house, she should regularly send
part of the fish and meat obtained from her husband to his mother and
sisters.
•Hereditary meat cut is shared with the husbands siblings, mother, sisters
sons, etc but not with his wife and children.
•Mebengokre men have strong ties with their mothers and sisters.
PERSONAL NAMES
•A man can transmit the name he bears, if they originated in his own House.
-to one or more of his sisters sons, or sons of his female cousins.
•The Mebengokre have a minimum of 2 and maximum of 30 names.
•The actual name giver is less important.
•The eponym(a person after whom someone is named) is very important.
FOR EXAMPLE: When a mother transmits her dead brothers name to her son
-mother : name giver
-dead brother : eponym
•The splitting up of names in the ceremony, and receiving names from various
eponyms makes sure that nobody is exact replica of another person.
•Names may be lent out (if they are not from the House) in one generation but must
be returned to the House that owns them in the next generation.
FOR EXAMPLE:
A woman who receives a name has a life long usufruct (limited real right) .
But she cannot transmit the name to any person of her choice.
The borrower may return the name to the real owner of the name.
•Opposite sex siblings name each others children.
•This naming practice, with uxorilocal residence rule(married couple resides

with or near the wife's parents) with cognate kindred(relation to ones family)
creates tension.
•Grandparents can transmit life long usufruct of names and nearest to their
grandchildren.
-have strong affection for grandchildren.
-help diminish conflict between duty and affection.
Bilateral naming aspect:

If someone lends out a name to a child in a different House, when another
child is born in the owners House, the name must be returned.
Houses, Clans, lineages - Conclusion
• Levi Strauss refers to the Mebengokre as ‘pseudo morphs’ which
appear to be both patrilineal as well as matrilineal.
• But according to Vanessa lee, it is not.
• She feels the Mebengokre houses are closer to matrilineality than to a
cognate or undifferentiated system.
• Clans and lineages are defined primarily with reference to biological
continuity whereas Mebengokre notion of house as a moral person is
double edged. It designates a uterine descent group. However it also
places emphasis not on people as such but on the house itself as a
focus of Patrimony.
• A mebengokre house is represented materially by one or more
dwellings yet in comparison with the majority of the society discussed
earlier the symbolic significance of the house as a building is
unimportant because individuals are buried along with their material
goods.
Houses, Clans, lineages - Conclusion
•What survives them is the right to reproduce and display the patrimony
associated with each house.
•Mebengokre society with its matrix-houses, cognate kinships and

patricides of formal friends, constitutes a no mans land, betwixt and
between matrilineality, cognatic kinship and double descent.

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THE HOUSES OF THE MEBENGOKRE(KAYAPO)

MH7005 ANTHROPOLOGY AND ARCHITECTURE

•The way they live reflects on what they believe and

•The men usually go hunting.

•Women stay at the tribe's territory and look after the

•One of the most important traditions and customs from

The kayapo's houses look almost like beach sheds.

•The houses of Mebengokre help us to understand SETTLEMENTS

•Dwellings lack any internal divisions.

•Light filters through the spaces between

•The floors are of beaten earth.

•Women construct pole beds where they

•Separated from next couple by few feet.

•Utensils are strewn on the floor, or

•Other possessions hung from the walls

Different dwellings in the village

Mask and head dress used by

Yellow feather headdress

ROLE OF WOMEN IN THE SOCIETY

•Women's domain is in the edge of the village circle.

•The Houses control the names –in naming ceremony,adorements,ceremonial

•The House are private.

•A mebengokre belongs to his or her mothers House.

•This naming practice, with uxorilocal residence rule(married couple resides

Bilateral naming aspect:

•Mebengokre society with its matrix-houses, cognate kinships and

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