DEVIANCE AND SOCIAL CONTROL II ? COLETA
Robert F. Murphyl
This is the second of two articles (see Murphy 1961 for the first of
this series) presenting case histories and analyses of tragedies in social
life. In both, individuals through no essential fault of their own deviated
from the moral order of Mundurucu society and by so doing became alienated
from their fellows. In neither of these cases was effective control actually
exercised over the individuals, but the control process and the means by
which the body politic healed its wounds are manifest in both instances. In
the first case, a young chief named Biboi attempted to exercise authorities
and prerogatives that were not his by right of office, and we saw the exqui-
site and inexorable means by which he was destroyed as a social person. The
present article gives another case of radical deviation from role, but the
principal actor is a woman; her sin was that she loved too many, too much,
and too often. It is on the surface a prosaic and unimportant story, and I
will relate it as it unfolded before us in just this way. But it is exactly
in the vagrant episodes of social life that we see structure, and the conclu-
sion of this contribution will present an analysis of the significance of the
events described to an understanding of Mundurucu society and, perhaps, to
societies everywhere.
We first met Coleta at the house of Antonio "Portugues," a trader who
maintained a wattle and daub establishment on the banks of the upper Tapaj,os
River. My wife and I were about to embark on the second half of our study of
the Mundurucu Indians in central Brazil, and Senhor Antonio was to supply us
with transportation to the Indian villages of the interior. He was a small,
wiry Portuguese who had spent most of his life on the Tapajos River trading
pots, pans, cloth, tools and tobacco to the Brazilian caboclos and the Indians
in return for wild rubber. The houses of all these tadersarbor a number of
dependents, some of whom are related and others of whom simply become attached
to the patron. And in this area, the trader's family always includes a few
Indians who live there for varying lengths of time, working for him and receiv-
ing food and whatever they can cajole. It was no surprise then to find two
Indian girls helping in Senhor Antonio's kitchen.
The Indians are always curious and somewhat bemused at the sight of ur-
banites traveling in the wilds, but they try not to show it. One of Senhor
Antonio's Munduruc'u girls mintained the usual pose of embarrassed reserve in
our presence, but the other made no effort at all to hide her delight with
the obviously out of place New Yorkers. This was Coleta. Her free and out-
going manner aroused our curiosity, but our inquiries only drew from Senhor
Antonio the muttered reply that she was "shameless." It became apparent that
he would like to get her off his hands, and it soon developed that he had
promised her a free ride to Cabrua in our boat. The canoe was large, and
there was ample room for Coleta and her eight year old daughter, 'We agreed to
take her. Actually, we had little choice in the matter.
49
The purpose of Coleta's trip to Cabrua was to visit "relatives," as she
phrased it. This-could hardly be taken as a rarrowly descriptive statement as
all 1,200 Mundurucu believe themselves to share a common kinship. In a more
specific vein she had told us that she wanted especially to visit her "father,"
which, in the moiety system, cut the field of relatives down to half the men
of the tribe in her father's generation.  Whatever the distance of relationship
of this particular father, she evidently did not intend to live in his house.
As we unpacked our things, Coleta busied herself hanging her hammock and her
daughter Crescencia's in the far corner of the uncompartmented house. This
provoked a hurried conversation between our interpreter, Chico, my wife and me.
Chico thought it quite clear that Coleta had adopted us and had every intention
to remain part of our household. We were equally convinced that this would rob
us of our last shred of privacy and would prove a heavy drain on the family
economy. She had to leave, but it was decided to wait a while before telling
her.
While this conversation was going on, Coleta disappeared from the house.
She and Crescencia soon reappeared with gourds full of water from a nearby
stream and proceeded to make coffee. The house was a shambles. The origirally
hard-packed clay floor had crumbled and become dusty, making a wonderful home
for fleas, and litter was scattered all about. Without any suggestion on our
part, Coleta improvised a broom from branches and swept the floor as well as
possible and then sprinkled it with water to settle the dust. After this was
done, she went to the house next-door and borrowed an axe, with which she
chopped a two-day supply of firewood. All three of us began to look at her
thoughtfully by this time, and when she appeared with a haunch of deer for
dinner, we decided that another conference was in order. Chico was strongly
in favor of keeping Coleta, for he was thus relieved of all the household
chores. He was no doubt already exploring further possibilities for her.
Since Chico did his best work as an interpreter and his worst as cook and gen-
eral factotum, this seemed an ideal resolution of our field problems. It was
agreed that we should say nothing to Coleta about leaving and gave her a dress
and a handful of beads to insure the opposite result.
After a few days had passed, it became increasingly evident that Coleta
was not a very typical Mundurucu woman. Her physical appearance was much like
that of the other women in the mid-twenties age bracket. Several pregnancies
and hard work gave her a stocky body. She was strong, but her abdomen was dis-
tended and her breasts hung low. And like all Munduruciu, her front upper
teeth were missing. It was rather in the realm of expression and demeanor that
Coleta was different. Old Mundurucu women are shown great deference and have
considerable freedom to express themselves and to make demands on others, but
a young woman like Coleta is supposed to comport herself submissively and with
reticence before men. She should not look directly at a man and she should
never catch his eye. And when she smiles or laughs, the proper young lady turns
her head to one side and covers her mouth with her hand. Coleta did none of
these things. When she itched, she scratched, and she usually itched and
scratched in places considered private by most Mundurucu women. She eyed all
the men with an alert, sparkling gaze, and she expressed amusement by throwing
her head hack and laughing deeply and libidinously. Coleta was wonderfully
good-natured, and she had a keen sense of humor. Chico and I made a sport out
of catching her reaction to earthy comments or to leading questions about her
love life.
My wife immediately recorded her life history, a routine chore in most
instances, but in this case a lively one. Coleta was first mrried at the
age of twelve or thirteen, but soon left her husband for another nan. She
bore him three children, of whom one died, another was adopted by a nmn who
had no children, and the other was Crescencia. She deliberately aborted
herself during a fourth pregnancy in retaliation against her husband, who
beat her regularly. The-husband died, a victim of witchcraft, and Coleta
wandered through Mundurucu country living with relatives or lovers. 'ihe
then left and lived with Brazilian rubber tappers on the Tapajos River and
in the houses of traders, but she was homesick when we met her.
Although her traveling days were at least temporarily ended in Cabrua,
Coleta's inclinations still wandered, The men recognized her symptoms long
before we did--in fact Coleta had already achieved some fame throughout
MundurucCu country. She occasionally went to fetch water or firewood by her-
self and thus amnounced her availability, for any lone woman is considered
fair game. And though the men all slept in the men's house, this did not
prevent them from visiting Coleta after they thought we were asleep, We
soon found out, for it is very difficult to conceal a love affair that takes
place in a hammock tied to the beams of a house of bark and thatch placed
over a light framework.
After a series of romances, Coleta rested her sights on a young man
whose Portuguese name was Simao. He was a strong and handsome person, a few
years younger than she, and his attentions grew quite serious. Coleta
dropped her other lovers, and we had high hopes that a marriage was in the
offingo My wife and I made every effort to encourage a more permanent liai-
son as, once embarked on the accumulation of an extended family, we could see
its advantages. Among the Mundurucu, residence is preferentially, and in
fact most commonly, matrilocal, and although the bridegroom lives in the
men's house and not actually in the wife's house, he owes obligations to it.
Since I was the head of Coleta's household, I would therefore be able to
exert a certain amount of influance over Simrro and perhaps extract some work
from him. Our immediate aims were simple: we wanted game, and the roof
needed repa i r
The situation was complex, however, and our plans failed. One of the
girls in the village had already borne Sinao one child and was pregnant again
by him.  She claimed that Sinmo mas her husband, but he just as vigorously
denied the mrriage. The dispute was rather academic, as marriage is legiti-
mized only by public recognition of the state and symbolized by the fact that
the husband presents the product of the chase to his wife.  Simao had stopped
bringing his take of game to her, but he apparently had not put sufficient
distance between him and his former spouse. Neither of the women wanted to
share the connubial state, and Coleta was quite frankly afraid of the first
wife. The affair ended when Sim'ao decided that Coleta's notoriety would re-
duce him to an object of humor, and his nocturnal visits stopped.
The unhappy termination of her love affair convinced Coleta of the neces
sity of changing her way of life. Not only had her promiscuity ultimately
cost her Simao, but the other women of the village had become hostile. "They
are talking about me," said Coleta--and this is one of the worst things that
can befall a Munduruciu. Determined to rid herself of her compulsion, she went
to one of the village shamans.  Such problems as Coleta's are quite sensibly
viewed as medical in nature, rather than moral, and the shaman proceeded to
make his diagnosis. He made a huge cigarette with a bark wrapper, lit it and
blew its smoke over Coleta's body. He then stared at her in deep concentration
for some time and firally announced that she was a yap-o or the victim of a
love charm. If a shaman desires a woman, he makes a concoction out of the pow-
dered ashes of the uirapuru bird and mgically sends it into the body of his
intended paramour. The uirapuruC, incidentally, is used as an ingredient of
love potions throughout the Amazon because of its beautiful song and its sup-
posed ability to attract all the birds of the forest. Among the Mundurucu,
the bewitched woman develops an insatiable desire for arny and all men, not just
her bewitcher, and she becomes a yap'd until cured.
The cure would take a few days, so Coleta left our house and stayed with
the shaman. He blew more smoke on her body, massaged her and sucked out the
malignant charm. To complete the cure, he directed her to spread on her face
and body a mixture of tree sap and the earth upon which a Jaguar had rolled.
She would thus partake of the repulsive qualities of the Jaguar, and men would
no longer be attracted to her, After the cure she returned to our house.
The change was dramatic. Coleta no longer laughed at our Jokes, but
turned her head or pretended to go to the stream to fetch water. She sought
the company of the other women and the security from the men that this implied.
When she felt impelled to smile, which she did quite demurely, she covered her
mouth with her hand. And she no longer scratched herself in public, We were
quite impressed with the transformation and took care to treat her with the
deference and respect that befitted her new role. A couple of weeks elapsed--
rather dull and quiet weeks in our house--and then one day we noted that Coleta
laughed rather openly at a story that was not even intended for her ears. As
the days passed by, other familiar traits reappeared. She began to scratch
her crotch again, and she stared at the men with renewed boldness. Instead of
shunning our company, she welcomed the teasing. And Chico took renewed inter-
est in hero
Some days later I asked the shaman,, "Have you watched Coleta recently?"
"Yes." he answered heavilyo
OBut I thought that you cured her of her troubles.0
The shaman paused and then shrugged, "Sometimes the treatment works.
Sometimes it doesn't,"
I have deliberately presented Coleta' s story in the simple way that it
appeared to two wondering and amused outsiders. The reader may well wonder why
it was described at the outset as a tragedy, but I would ask, who was the
greater comic bumbler: Sakespeare's Hamlet or Charlie Chaplin's Tramp? To
the true humanist, comedy and tragedy are inseparable. It was only after we
had known Coleta for many months and had understood Mundurucu society better
that we realized that she was desperately lonely and in deep dangero Coleta
had by her'promiscuity transgressed the female role and had invaded the domain
of the men.' Mreorver, by paying 'fast and loose with her procreative powers,
she had removed this functioon from the control of the .men and had jeopardized
the legal status-of her potential offspring' in this patrilineal society. The
Munduruc'ii are not puritanical, and her crime was not a delict against good
taste and propriety; rather, it was an infringement of the public order. This
was not a problem that could be handled by' ignoring it--a common technique of
social control among the Mundurucu, and elsewhere--for Coleta had continually
made public her state by dropping the distance maintaining mechanisms associa-
ted with the social use of t'he eyes and mouth. The totality of her behavior
was in"-violation of Mundurucu standards and elicited countervalence as part
of normal social process.
In another publication, I outlined the structure of sex groupings in
Mundurucu society and outlined the corrective steps usually taken against
deviant women (Murphy 1959).  Of these, the most theatrical was gang rape,
and one could ask why this had not happened to Coleta. The reason for this
is quite simple; she was under my protection, and as long as I vouched for
her status she was safe. This bespeaks a fundamental fact about Mundurucu
society that I have not previously enunciated--a woman's legal status, as
long as she is in her child-bearing years, is contingent upon the integrity
of her relationship with a male. That I was a prestigeful outsider no doubt
contributed to this protection, but most cases of gang rape in Mundurucu are
with the tacit consent of the husband or kinsmen of the womano Our protec-
tion could not be relied upon indefinitely, however, and it is significant
that she sought a cure for her condition only after her effort to secure a
husband, and respectability, had failed and only in view of the inevitability
of our own departure. Coleta was well aware of what happens to the unprotec-
ted yapo.
The ideology of mle control over the women and over their reproduction
appears also in the beliefs surrounding the making of a yapd, for it is sig-
nificant that she is not, herself, responsible for her condition. That she
is the victim of a form of bewitchment and that the spell can be cast only
by a man stresses the fact that women are incapable, themselves, of assuming
an aggressive posture in sex relations.  Granted that once bewitched she is
partially out of the control of the men, it is a man in the first instance
who'--controls her sexuality.  It is not, therefore, paradoxical that she is
punished for something for which she is not responsible. Her problem is
treated as are other forms of illness, and she has recourse to a cure before
arny further steps are taken. It is exactly those women who do not choose to
be cured or are recidivists who court the danger of public sanctions; I be-
lieve that we can find ample analogues of this in ailments defined as social
in our own society0 Coleta would have been fully restored to society if the
treatment had been efficacious. That she at least underwent the treatment
served partially to restore her.
The pressures upon Coleta arose from the women as well as from the men
and were more intense from that source and of a different quality. Whereas
watchfulness, combined with zest, characterized the male attitude, the women
of the village were indignant and resentful of Coleta. They were also ex-
tremely uneasy about her fate, for nothing disturbs them collectively more
than a gang rape, which they quite correctly interpret as an assault upon all
women. The women were embattled and sought protection in propriety. Coleta
had alienated herself from the company of the women not only because she had
dallied with the husbands of some but because she had made them vulnerable to
the men through a breach in the ranks. As Simmel (1955:96) noted of the treat-
ment of radical deviation among women: "In respect to a particular woman,
women as a rule know only complete inclusion or else complete exclusion from
the realm of custom."t Nobody falls from grace more spectacularly than a woman
and nobody judges her more harshly than her fellowwoman.
As in the case of Bibol, I cannot tell you of the denouement of our tale,
for we left before it. In fact, we my well infer that there could have been
no climax as long as she remained in our house. Personally, our antipathy for
Biboi was matched only by our fondness for Coleta, but both shared the elemenX
of humanity and- lostness that is man's fate for both were thrust into a strug-
gle against society that they neither understood nor invited. This is not a
distinctively Mundurucu saga, for who of us has not known a Biboi or a Coleta,
and who of us is not in some small way a Biboi or a Coleta?
lENDNOTE
1.  I wish to express my deep appreciation to my wife, Yolanda, not only be-
cause of her continuing encouragement and support, but because she collec-
ted all the data upon which this article is based.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
MURPHY, ROBERT F.
1959   Social structure and sex antagonism.  Southwest Journal of Anthro-
pology 15:89-98.
SIMMEL, GEORG
1955   Conflict, Kurt Wolff, trans.  Glencoe, The Free Press.