SUS 224 Chapter Notes - Chapter 0: Body Painting, Sociality, Lip Plate
8 Feb 2021
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Document Summary
The tchikrin are one of the least-known peoples of the central brazilian wilderness and they elaborately adorn their bodies. They are the northernmost group of the kayapo tribe. Women live in the house they were born in their whole lives, but boys, at the age of eight, move to the men"s house in the center of the plaza. After they father a child, the men move into their wives" houses. The boys/men are classified according to named age grades that are accompanied by different styles of body painting and hair cutting, social properties, and bodily ornaments. Infants are the most elaborately decorated tchikrin of any age. They pierce the baby"s earlobes (and their lower lip, if the infant is male). They are given earplugs in their lobes, which are stretched over time. A dowel or string of beads is inserted into the boy"s lower lip.
