THE CAMUTINS CHIEFDOM

The Camutins site is the largest known mound group, extending for about 10 km along the Igarape dos Camutins, a right tributary of the upper Anajas River. A survey by Meggers and Evans (1957) located 20 mounds there in 1949 and Hilbert (1952) recorded another 17 mounds two years later.

The configuration of the mounds along the stream is consistent with the configuration of a single settlement, a politically autonomous polity whose influence extended over a large region analogous with the Anajas River basin (see Figure 19.1). I decided to study the Camutins site because I thought it would be a good model for beginning to understand one of the island’s complex societies. The goal of the project was to investigate the spatial distribution of mounds, cultural features, earthworks, and artifacts related to domestic and ceremonial activities, in order to answer questions on mound function, the relation-

Ship between mounds, access to resources, social hierarchies, craft specialization, and ceremonial life. To accomplish this goal, all of the mounds and other landscape features were identified and mapped. Artifact remains were recovered from the mound’s surface. Major excavations were conducted on two of the largest mounds (M-1 and M-17), which I believed constituted the ceremonial and political center. The following sections of this chapter offer a picture of the Camutins chiefdom that emerged from this four-year project.

A Hierarchical Settlement System

The study along the Camutins River started by mapping the mounds and other landscape features that were missed in early research conducted during the flood season. Surveys carried out in different months of the year (March, July, September, November) were critical in providing information on seasonal landscape changes due to fluctuations in water levels, which was important for understanding changes in resource availability, mobility, and transportation. Moreover, visits during the dry period allowed the identification of areas adjacent to mounds that had been excavated to furnish silt for the earthworks. Precolumbian populations likely chose to settle along this right tributary of the upper Anajas River for ecological reasons. The Camutins headwaters are located in the seasonally inundated “campos” in the center of the island, an area known as a natural fish nursery. Moreover, the Camutins’ relatively narrow and shallow canal allows for easy damming and management, as current practices have demonstrated.

The research was able to show that the Camutins River was inhabited from at least AD 500. It is suspected that the initial colonization started in the lower course of the river. Like other rivers on the island, the Camutins ceases to flow during the peak summer months, but the Anajas River tides replenish the lower course twice daily. It is possible to envision that the first management strategies would have included dams and removable fences to retain aquatic life in the lower river course. Initially, this practice could have arisen through cooperation between several families. Even today, natives seasonally move to the headwaters to fish, then locally consume or sell their harvest. Cooperation between several men is needed to build fences, place fishnets, and transport fish. In order to increase productivity, these simple techniques would have been complemented by the excavation of river-linked lakes or pools. As the population increased, the middle and upper river courses would also be occupied.

By ca. AD 700, a complete system of hydraulic control and management of aquatic resources was in place in the lower Camutins River associated with a ceremonial and political nucleus comprised of four mounds (M-1, M-16, M-17, M-18) (Figure 19.3), the most impressive of which, M-1, attained a height of approximately 9 m at its top platform. The mounds were built by the accretion of silt obtained during lake excavation. Regular maintenance of the aquatic system produced additional sediment that was eventually added to the top of the mounds, helping to build platforms at different levels, while increasing their area and height (Figure 19.4).

Although mound height was a function of fishpond excavation, such monumental constructions likely had symbolic significance as statements of power and prestige. They demonstrated the ability to organize labor and control critical resources. Moreover, the fact that the largest ceremonial mounds were located next to the major lakes indicates a correlation between ceremonial stage and control over strategic resources (e. g., fish and water) (Figure 19.5). Ethnographic data have indicated that areas with higher productivity along rivers are commonly associated with high rank people in hierarchical societies. Amerindians living along the upper Uaupes River, for example, recall that their ancestors arrived in a

Figure 19.3. Upper left: Distribution of mounds along the Camutins River. Lower right: The ceremonial core, at the lower river course. (Denise Schaan)

Large snake canoe, in which they were placed according to rank order, being the same order preserved in settling along the river (Chernela 1997).

As far as earthmoving activities are concerned, excavation of the pools and consequent mound construction would require a considerable effort at the onset, while routine

Figure 19.4. The stratigraphy of M'17 shows the superimposition of occupational surfaces and silt deposited during lake excavation. (Denise Schaan)

Maintenance would be seasonal and would have required less mobilization of labor. It is estimated that a small number of people (perhaps fifty) could have built the system over the course of three to ten years.

Three kilometers upriver, in the middle Camutins, fifteen habitation mounds of various sizes were inhabited by populations that probably worked at building the dams, ponds, and mounds. They were most likely dedicated to subsistence activities related to fishing, collecting and probably some small-scale cultivation. A last group of three ceremonial and twelve habitation mounds was located along the upper course of the river. In this group, the

Figure 19.5. Model of hydraulic management, showing water levels at different seasons of the year. (Denise Schaan)

Ceremonial mounds enclosed the settlement, suggesting a defensive strategy. These elite mounds contained material culture similar to M-1 and M-17, but lacked major earthworks (Figure 19.6).

The excavations did not produce data allowing for a direct assessment of population figures for the whole settlement system. However, the available area at the mound’s top platform would allow for only one or two long houses (following ethnographic patterns), providing an estimate of a maximum population of 2,000 people for the entire Camutins chiefdom (Schaan 2004: 170-72).

Political Economy

Stanish (2004) proposes that an intensified economy that could support chiefly emergence could have arisen based on cooperation instead of competition. As productivity increased, some individuals or families had the opportunity of establishing differential access to the

Figure 19.6. Distribution of mounds at the: a. Middle river course; b. upper river course. (Denise Schaan)

Means of production and/or the products themselves (Gilman 1991). This differential access would create the economic basis for social stratification (Fried 1967:52).

The Camutins case is also illustrative of the association between resource concentration and the exercise of its control through ritual. Feasting, ancestor worship, and female rites took place mainly on the two larger mounds, M-1 and M-17, located on opposite sides of the lower river course, next to the main fishponds. M-16, located south of M-1, was also an elite mound, but probably played a secondary role (M-16 was intensively excavated by the land owner, who reportedly found only six funerary urns of similar size, shape and iconography).

Figure 19.6. continued

Household features were found in both M-1 and M-17, confirming that these mounds, once called “cemetery mounds” by Meggers and Evans (1957), were in fact inhabited, as Roosevelt had already verified in her research at Teso dos Bichos and Guajara mounds (Bevan and Roosevelt 2003; Roosevelt 1991). In particular, the excavations at M-17 (M-1 was found largely looted) demonstrated that the elite were living next to their ancestors (Figure 19.7). Twenty-four funerary urns, associated with pottery vessels and other objects, including clay stoves, were discovered in a discrete 25 m2 sector excavated to a depth of 2.2 m.

Some vessels contained primary and secondary burials of single individuals (Sheila Mendonga did a preliminary analysis of the human remains, described in Schaan 2004: 241-248) together with a small number of non-perishable items such as ceramic tangas (female pubic coverings), small globular vessels, plates, and stone axes (in two burials). One of the oldest urns was a primary interment of a ten-year-old child, placed together with a stone axe and a stone bead necklace around the neck; there are no rocks on the island. Although the vessel was undecorated, the presence of long-distance exchange items (the stone objects) with a young child is indicative of high status and hereditary rank.

Figure 19.7. Funerary vessels excavated from top platform of M'17. (Denise Schaan)

The burials span a 400-year period and display noticeable changes in mortuary practices through time, going from primary burial in large ceramic vessels to secondary burial in both large and small vessels. The most recurring urn type in M-17 was a red-on-white painted vessel, displaying curvilinear and geometric designs, associated with the major part of the sequence from AD 700 to 900 (Figure 19.8). These vessels share the common feature of snake skin patterns in a band just below the neck or rim. Structurally similar designs are recurrent on virtually all Marajoara ceremonial artifacts indicating the importance of an ancestral snake in Marajoara sacred symbolism.

Given the absence of any outstanding burial among all of those investigated, and considering similarities in vessel iconography and grave goods, it can be concluded that all individuals belonged to the same rank order, as if a kin group was in power. The proximity between elite residence, elite burials, ceremonial theater, and critical resources speaks to the symbolic control that the elite exercised over the means to sustain life, probably justifying their differential access to resources as a function of their close relation to ancestors.

The abundance of pottery related to feasting and food preparation, together with some artifacts associated with the consumption of tobacco and hallucinogenic beverages attest to the importance of ritual and ceremonial exchange in the political economy (Figure 19.9). Feasts were likely to have been an opportunity for celebrating cooperation, as well as promoting exchange and integration (Chernela 1997; Dietler and Hayden 2001). Time and resources invested in funerary paraphernalia also indicate that ancestor worship was a means to promote social cohesion and to show the elite’s acquaintance with the supernatural world, a strategy commonly used to justify privileged access to limited resources.

Craft production is also an aspect of the political economy. Abundant workshop waste indicated that ceremonial and domestic pottery was produced in both M-1 and M-17.

Figure 19.8. A number of funerary vessels from M-17 show similar decorative patterns. (Drawings by Tayane Gama).

In M-17, children’s pottery toys and the presence of tanga sherds together with remains of pottery production suggest that ceramics were produced in household contexts. Differences in the style and shape of vessels between M-1 and M-17 also indicate local variation resulting from localized production. Due to climatic conditions pottery production was restricted to the summer months. The data points to a kin-based seasonal ceramic production for selfconsumption, inconsistent with most definitions of specialized pottery production (see, e. g., Costin 1991:4). Elite members are likely to have spent time and resources fulfilling

Figure 19.9. Ceramics for feasting at M-i?. a. Snuffers; b. Small, exotic decorated plates; c. Serving vessels; d. Platter-bowls. (Denise Schaan)

The requirements of a highly valuable and socially important activity by obtaining the necessary skills to produce the ceremonial pottery.

Gender Iconography and Female Rites

Marajoara iconography is characterized by a massive representation of females on funerary vessels and figurines, stimulating a scholarly debate on female social and political roles in the society. Features such as breasts, pubic triangles and, occasionally, the uterus (sometimes pregnant) appear together with heads, faces, arms, and legs, giving shape to several pottery objects. Anthropomorphic funerary urns almost always represent females whose body parts are zoomorphic (for instance, owl or scorpion eyes, snake-arms, vulture

Head-shoulders, etc.). The ritual construction of social and individual identities through body painting and scarification are represented by painted and incised designs.

Some female figurines have phallic shapes, thus combining female and male characteristics in a single object (Figure 19.10). A number of these objects seem to have functioned as rattles, since they are hollow and contain loose pebbles that produce noise when shaken. Yet the most notable characteristic of these figurines is their impressive variability in shape, size, and decoration, which suggests that they might have represented individuals. In a study of figurines from a museum collection, a recurring pattern of breakage at the neck was observed. It seems that these objects were ritually broken after being used (Schaan 2001a, b). One possible explanation is that figurines were shamanic tools, used during curing rites (DeBoer 1998). At the Camutins site, fragmented figurines were recovered from all elite mounds, attesting to their widespread use, regardless of the differences in mound size and location.

Marajoara iconography also displays a degree of variation in decorative motifs and techniques of decoration that probably conveyed information on social identity, ownership, and social boundaries. Personal objects such as tangas, for example, vary in size and decoration, probably due to social status differences among women.

Red-on-white designs on tangas, for example, are believed to have represented social identities (Schaan 2001b). It is possible that these tangas were used by girls

Figure 19.10. Marajoara culture figurines and tangas. a. Female figurine from Marajo Island (No. T220, Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, drawing by Julice Pimentel); b. Sexless figurine from M-l, Camutins site; c. Tangas from M'17, Camutins site. (Denise Schaan)

During initiation rites, while the more common (and usually larger) red tangas were used by the elder female population. The virtual absence of tangas in elite mounds other than M-1 and M-17 reinforces the idea that special rituals were carried out only in these two mounds. It also suggests, together with the abundant female iconography always escorted by recurrent snakeskin patterns, a close relationship between females, snakes, and ancestors.