DEVIANCY AND SOCIAL CONTROL I:

WHAT MAKES BIBOI RUN

Robert F. Murphy

Biboi, the young chief of the Mundurucu village of Cabitutiui, visited
the village of Cabrua with great frequency. So frequently in fact that he
once made the ten hour round-trip in one day. Inquiry revealed that Biboi
was on the horns of a dilemma. Though he was chief of Cabitutu, he kept a
young and pretty wife in the house of his father, the chief of Cabrua.

Whenever he visited his wife, his "followers" in Cabitutu busied themselves

in plotting against him. Hearing of these threats to his authority, he would
immediately dash back to reassert his position of leadership. But as soon as
he was out of sight of Cabrua, the men of that community sought to tarnish
the virtue of his wife; this was not a difficult task, and half the men of

the village ultimately enjoyed her favors. Their exploits were well publi-

cized, and Biboi, hearing of his cuckoldiy,, would hurriedly retrace his steps.
During most of the time we lived in Cabrua, Biboi gravitated between the two
communities--to the great amusement and deep satisfaction of his fellow
Mundurucu.

On the lowest level of explanation, I have already stated what makes

Biboi run. But the key questions of why the men of Cabituttu plotted against
him and why those of Cabrua pursued his wife can only be answered through an
analysis of Mundurucu society and culture and of Biboi's position within it.
For Biboi was a marginal man trying to play traditional social roles to
which he had not been socialized, and he failed to define correctly the

nature of the role expectations or the values that pertained to specific

social situations. His cumulative blunders finally threatened the stability
of this small society, and certain processes were set in motion to reestab-
lish the normal flow of social interaction. Anthropologically, this is a

study in deviancy and social control. Humanistically, it is a tragedy but,
like many tragedies, one that has overtones of comedy.

II

Biboi's personality was most deviant, and I shall spell this out in

terms of his manifest behavior, as it compared with the normal behavior of
Mundurucu men and their chiefs. I know nothing of the socialization of

Biboi, only that at an early age he went to live in the household of a local
Brazilian who traded in the village headed by Biboi's father. He came back

to live among his people, but he was no longer a Mundurucui, any more than he

was a Brazilian. When I first met Bibol, he addressed me in backwoods Portu-
guese and in a swag%ering manner introduced himself as "Biboi, son of Caetano
rthe chief of Cabruala and chief of Cabituti.t This contrasted markedly to
the diffident and hesitating way In which most Mundurucu addressed me, and

each other. Though I was an outsider, I had at the time been several months
with the tribe and this departure from what I expected of a tribesman upset
me considerably.i  Biboi turned out to be a great problem in other ways. He

cited his own importance as a justification for the demands that he made on me
for gifts. And he bragged continually of his ability to deal with whites, to
lead his followers, to hunt, or to do almost anything in either the realm of

traditional Mundurucu activity or in their relationships with the outside world.
He strove desperately and openly towards the acquisition of prestige and of

material goods, which he had accepted as indicators of prestige. For this rea-
son our mosquito boots were admired greatly, as this would surely differentiate
him from his barefoot Indian fellows--shortly after one of his visits, my wife

discovered that her boots were missing. And we met no other Mundurucu so brash.
They felt free to enter our house at all times, but only Biboi would demand a

cup of coffee and then lie in our hamnmcks; he was quite offended when we point-
ed out to him that his body paint was staining them. Biboi had other most

unusual characteristics. He spoke freely and critically of other men to us and
did this even in the presence of third parties. Nor did he bother to conceal
his hostility and contempt when someone inimical to him was near. But under-
neath this faVade, Biboi was a frightened and anxious man. He would often

confide to me darkly that "people are talking about me." Lest this be inter-
preted as paranoia in the clinical senqe, I should stress that people were

indeed talking about him, and Biboi had every reason to be anxious. Not only
his ego but his very life was in danger.

III

Biboi's behavior grated against almost every single point of Mundurucou

expectations regarding how a chief should act and how men, in general, should
behave.. Mundurucu society is intensely egalitarian and based upon the prin-
ciple of maintenance of solidarity among a group of males who are conceived

to be peers.- It has a peculiar structure in that it is divided into patrilin-
eal moieties, which in turn are differentiated into a number of patrilineal

clans. But the normal mode of residence is matrilocal, and men generally move
to the villages of their wives. This disperses the clans throughout all the
villages, for a young man?, when he marries, leaves the father from whom he

obtains clan membership. It also produces a dualism of loyalties in which the
man maintains a clan identity and, with it, defined role obligations and also
acquires membership and roles in the village of his wife. This produces a

classic form of organic solidarity, for the society is bound together by cross-
cutting segments. But it is a very simple form of organic solidarity and an
extremely brittle one.  Social cohesion must be vigorously maintained and

individual strivings muted, for alliances in cases of conflict cannot range
along simple segmental lines. To support a fellow-clansman in a crisis may
pit a person against his village mates and vice versa.  In a society with a
population of only 1,-200, living in communities of 60 to 100 persons, such

stresses,are serious threats to social stability in any event; in one of the

Mundurucu type they may be totally disruptive. The social system not only pro-
duces solidarity but requires it for maintenance.2 Given the structure of
Mundurucu society, the effective social actor was one who was cooperative,

unaggressive, serene, quiet, and willing to place the will of the collectivity
before his own. It may be igmmedi-ately perceived that Biboi presented a threat
to propriety and to the social systtem. He was bci~egerent, loud, self-centered
and acquisitivre--all the things that a Nundurulcu should not be.

Like all people, the Munduruciu are, to an extent, prestige-seekers, but
there are cultural differences in the coinage of status. The traditional

culture placed no value upon material acquisitions, and, although this was

slowly changing, Biboi's tastes were inordinate and clearly derived from his
experience among the Brazilians. He thus violated a value standard and at
the same time offended the entire community by self-consciously and openly
trying to raise himself above his fellows.

Biboi not only misconstrued the ends of Mundurucu prestige but he also
misunderstood the means for their attainment.  The primary rule, and the one

he most flagrantly violated, was that one should not seek prestige but let it
come to him naturally. For example, bravery in war was highly valued but the
posture of bravado was ridiculed. A coward was relegated to the lowest end

of the status scale, but one who boasted of the damage he intended to inflict
upon the enemy in the coming battle was ridiculed and placed in the vanguard
of the attack. To attain prestige a man should be modest and unassming,

while observing all the traditional expectations of what constitutes valued
behavior. But primarily, he should act always as if he had only the collec-
tive well-being and goals in mind. Biboils braggadocio, individualism, and
competitiveness had violated every rule of the game, and he won only dislike
and contempt, rather than the esteem and power he wanted so badly.

Disturbing though all this was to the delicate adjustment of Mundurucu
social structure and contrary though his behavior was to the values that

bound this adjustment, Biboi had committed the cardinal error.  He had allowed
his grievances against certain individuals and groups to come out into the

open and aligmnents emerged for and against him that cut across both village
and clan-linked role commitments. Hostilities and latent factions are part
of the tribal life of the Mundurucu, but they are carefully repressed--a

requisite for the functioning of Mundurucu society. The average Mundurucu is
well-trained in disguising aggression and in presenting the bland face of

neutrality, but Biboi's own socialization was in part derived from Brazi lians
and was not adjusted to the functional needs of the Indian society. Like any
cuckold, he had some cause to feel aggrieved. His error was in openly object-
ing to the offense against him, a normal course for a Brazilian cuckold but
not for a Mundurucu victim.

IV

Biboi's alienation from Mundurucu society induced severe anxiety and

intensified his quest for a favorable identity.  He sought this through his

role of chief of the village of Cabitutu. The contemporary Mundurucu chief-
taincy must be understood as a boundary role. The dependency of the Indians
on manufactured goods, obtained through the sale of wild 'rubber, has given
the Brazilian traders a position of great influence among them, which they
exercise through the chief. 'hen the trader wants increased production he

tells the chief, who then exhorts his followers to greater effort. Corres-

pondingly, the chief acts as bargaining agent for the village in trade nego-

tiations, and the people interpret his role to be in large part that of their
representative to the outer world. If the trader is sufficiently well-

established with a village, he can do much to influence the choice of a chief.
But since he cannot completely counter the patrilineal rule of inheritance of

the chieftaincy, it is common practice to select one or two possible heirs and
rear them in his household; this is what happened to Biboi. This is agreeable
to the chief, for he gains the favor of the trader and, with it, preferential
treatment in sales and purchases. It is clearly beneficial to the trader, as

he hopes thereby to install a chief who will be responsive to his wishes, even
at the expense of the Mundurucu` villagers.3

The contemporary MundurucCu chief is in a dilemma. If we look upon a

boundary role as one in which both ends have to be played against the middle,
we see the chief caught between the interests of the trader and those of his
followers; these interests rarely coincide. It is a difficult position, but
one that can be maintained by maximal adherence to the traditional behavior
expected of chiefs and minimal acquiescence to the demands of the traders.

Biboi's father, Caetano, played a comparatively successful role. If the trader
told him that the villagers were heavily in debt to him, Caetano would communi-
cate this fact and suggest that it would be well to collect more rubber; he

never attempted even verbal coercion. He also sincerely sought to obtain the
maximum return for his people.

Caetano embodied many characteristics of the traditional chief. An older
man, he carried himself with a modest and unassuming dignity. He guided, per-
suaded and cajoled, but he carefully refrained from ordering people, and all
decisions of communal significance were made in consultation with the mature

men of the village. Beyond this, Caetano knew MundurucuC traditional knowledge
and lore and attempted to perpetuate it.

Biboi's position was very different from that of his father, for he was

the prototype of the Indian boy who had been "educated" by a trader and later
installed as a chief. He had no legitimate claim to the position, and it was

necessary for the trader to insist that he would recognize only Biboi in deal-
ings with Cabituti. The residents grudgingly assented, but they regarded him

as chief only in trade relations. The most influential man of the village was,
in reality, a renowned shaman who was the son of the last chief and was con-
sidered the legitimate heir to the office.

Biboi's precarious situation was made worse by the fact that he was under

thirty years old and the junior of many men in the village. To complicate mat-
ters; he had no supporting group of kinsmen in Cabitutu. Matrilocality, I have
said, is the normal utode of residence among the Mundurucui, but the sons of

chief s generally remain with their fathers after marriage. From the point of

view of conscious motivation, the sons of chiefs remain patrilocal because their
fathers are influential enough to persuade men to relinquish their daughters to
them as a means of solidifying relations with them. Bty the same line of reason-
ing, a young man who marries the daughter of a chief is willing to join a

prestigeful father-in-law. But from the point of view of social structure, the
function of the patrilocality of the chief's famnil;y is twofold. By keeping the
sons, the chief is able to transmit authority to them without the discontinuity
that would result if they were resident in the villages of their wives. More-
over, the chief is surrounded by a group of patrilineally related kin, a small
and solidary patrilineage. HJis position is further enhanced by the fact that

he has sons-in-law within the village. Mulch as this may reenforce his prestige,
it does not enable him to exercise unilateral authority, for the rest of the

village men are ever-watchful and jealous of the chiefly family and would be

quick to resist, however passively, what they considered to be high-handedness.
Biboi, however, did not have the surrounding group of relatives that may have
given even minimal support to his claim to leadership. Rather, he depended

upon the trader and his father and relatives in Cabrua to buttress his position.

Given his delicate status, Biboi proceeded to worsen it through a misinter-
pretation of the chieftaincy. He had listened to his father's nostalgic tales
of the role of the chief in times past, and one might say that he had some

knowledge, in a purely cognitive sense, of the traditional culture.  It is high-
ly dubious, however, that Biboi had internalized sufficient culture to make him
an effecti've actor within the system of social relationships. Biboi knew that

"in the old days, chiefs were powerful men who directed their people and bought
goods for them." This view of the past may or may not have been true, but it
surely did not apply to the present. Biboi, nonetheless, announced at large

that he was eminently qualified to be chief, as only he knew how to deal with
the trader and only he had the force to tell the people how, when and where to
work. I was a special recipient of this information, for Biboi found it most
important to gain stature In the eyes of a prestigeful outsider. But Biboi

also told all the others of his importance, and the people of Cabitutiu stated
that he indeed relayed the demands of the trader in forceful terms. His "fol-
lowers" saw him solely as an agent of the trader in their village, and they
were certain that his only function was to promote their exploitation and

defraudment.  Their analysis was correct, but I doubt that Biboi thought his
role to be at all asocial. There is no evidence to substantiate this, for

only he could tell me whether he was aware of the machinations of the trader,
and he did not. But I believe that Biboi saw the trader as a father figure,

many of whose values he had internalized and subscribed to as legitimate. And
he also saw himself to be in the position of a strong and traditional leader.

Biboi had, learned something else about the chiefs of times past, and this
was the fact that manyr were polygynous.  Polygyny was possible only for chiefs,
for the matrilocality that applied to most of the population made it most dif-
ficult to have plural wives unless they were sisters. Even for a chief, how-
ever, polygyny was a difficult and stormy relationship, and it was evidently
never of very great frequency.

Blbol did not have,the implicit and unconscious ability to understand the
flne points of Mundurucu social structure that a man raised in a village would
have, and he made some of his most serious blunders in marriage.  Soon after
assuming the chieftaincy of Cabitutu, he married a woman of the village, a

widow several years older than himself who, through the situational variability
of post-marital residence, had a strong nucleus of kin in the village. Though
I have no dita upon which to make a firmer statement, it is quite probable that
he married the woman--frankly a crone--in order to enlist the sympathies of her
relatives.  But Biboi was a young, handsome and virile man, and he subsequently
sought a wife more to his liking. He located a pretty girl of about sixteen
years in the village of Decodyem and brought her home to Cabitutu.  This en-

raged the first wife, who berated Biboi assaulted the girl and complained to
her brothers,  The latter expressed their disaproval of the polygynous union

to Bibol, and the rest of the village supported them. Blboi's general behavior
and his exercise of his "chieftaincy" had alreadyr outraged them, and this

offense against his first wife, a native daughter of the village, was beyond

their endurance. Biboi refused to divorce the new wife, to whom he was greatly
attached, but took her to Cabrua where he left her in the care of his father.

He validated his polygyry by pointing to the tradition that this was a preroga-
tive of chiefs.

V

This brings us through most of the key features of MundurucuC culture and
social structure and to the point at which this paper began. And since this
is in essence a tragic tale, we will see in this final section how the ring

must inevitably close on Bibol. He had offended all the Mundurucu canons of
taste and ethics and had become a source of strain in this small and tightly
knit society. Now the forces of social control became operative and he felt
the heavy pressure of his fellow men.

Having left his pretty bride in the safe confines of his father's house,

Biboi returned to Cabitutiu to set matters right and quiet the discontent. But
he continued in his arrogant and demanding ways and the sentiments of the vil-
lagers became further inflamed, with no small assistance from his first wife
and her family. There grew among them a firm determination to kill him, and

the intention might have been immediately carried out were it not for his ties
in Cabrua. This was an important collective decision by the residents of

Cabitutu, for his execution would set off a train of repercussions that would
seriously disrupt their relations with Cabruoa and with the trader. Moreover,

Biboi did not have shamanistic power and the usual post-hoc explanation for the
killing of a deviant--that he was a perpetrator of black magic--could not be
used in his case. But his continued presence was even more disruptive, and
Biboi's life was placed in serious jeopardy.

In the meantime, the person of the young wife was not as secure as Biboi
thought it would be. Her husband was away and she was a rather wayward girl;
whatever rectitude she possessed was certainly no match for the insistent

attempts upon her body by the men of Cabrua. Soon, all of the men of the vil-
lage except those prohibited by incest regulations--and there were some excep-
tions even to this--were enjoying the favors of Biboi's young wife in the

underbrush surrounding the village, at the stream, in the forest, in the gar-
dens, or wherever they might find her alone, The enthusiasm of the men was

understandable from her physical attractiveness, but there was another compon-
ent to their attentions. Whenever they related their exploits to me, the men
would express great satisfaction at what th  were doing to Biboi, for the
Cabrui men, too, disliked Blboi with some intensity. Even in his father's

village,his presence threatened the smooth tenor of social relations, and he

was considered unbearably deviant. But physical sanctions against Biboi would
have been impossible in the village in which his father was a chief, and the

men of Cabrua attacked his manhood instead. There could be no doubt about the
aggressive character of their seductions, nor of its success in dealing a

mortal blow to Biboi's prestige by reduting him to a helpless butt of laughter.

Biboi soon heard of the events in Cabrua from members of his family and

imnediately returned. He made frontal accusations against many of the men and
even mentioned ny Brazilian assistant (probably correctly) as being among those

60

who had cuckolded him. The v lllage reacted to his charges ambivalently.

They were highly amused at his discomfiture and humiliation, but they were
seriously concerned about the open accusations and threats of violent

reprisal. Not only was this a breach of fundamental rules of deportment,
but if violence were to break out the social system wuld be seriously

threatened. The village soon became ranged on two sides. Biboi's family

supported him, but the majority of the population were ranked solidly against
him. Thus, the threat of conflict had spread from Cabitutu to Cabrua. And
Biboi ran back and forth between Cabitutu, where they plotted against his

life, and Cabrua, where they took more covert measures against him through
his wife.

The balance of power and of moral correctness lay with Biboi's opponents,
and the task of his supporters was made most difficult by virtue of the fact
that Biboi had almost ceased to be a social person--the rules no longer ap-

plied to him. We left the field before the curtain fell on our little drama,
but one could already predict the conclusion. This was seen most clearly
when, shortly before our departure, Caetano fell from a palm tree and l4y
seriously injured for several days.  Knowing that the people of Cabitutu

would kill him as soon as they were assured of his father's death, Biboi came

immediately to Cabrua and remained there until the old man's recovery was cer-
tain.  During this period, Biboi approached me and said, "You know, if my

father dies, I will leave this land and go to live on the banks of the Tapajos
River."  I asked him why, and, in fine Biboi style, he answered, 'Because it

is so beautiful there."  Biboi knew that his life as a Mundurucu was finished.

EDDNOTES

(1)  Mundurucui Indians are a Tupian-speaking people of the upper Tapajos River

in the state of Para, Brazil. My wife and I carried out a onevyear

fieldwork program there in 1952-53 with the support of the William Bayard
Cutting Traveling Fellowship granted by Columbia University, and a Re-
search Training Fellowship of the Social Science Research Council.

(2) Anmore complete description and analysis of the relation between Munduru-

cu social structure and the positive evaluation of male solidarity has

already been published in an article entitled "Intergroup Hostility and
Social Cohesion" (Ameri can Anthropologist 59:1018-35, 1957).

(3) I have discussed the general structure of authority and its relation to

Brazilian society in detail in my book, Headhunter's Heritage (Berkeley,
1960).

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