THE SINGULAR SOCIETY OF LOSCHO
William C. Sayers
In this article, Mr. Sayers applies the familiar anthropological techniques to our own system of public education, with some intriguing results. His procedure is particularly important in showing the ritualistic nature of much that is taught, through presenting curriculum in the context of tribal lore. In this land of teachers, students, parents, and administrators, the educator can see his problems in a new perspective.
Anthropologists are supposedly well accustomed to reports of seemingly strange and bizarre societies, but when the attention of the present writer was drawn to the singular society of Loscho, he could visualize an unusually zealous scramble for maps, mosquito netting, and notebooks among his colleagues. A survey of early fragmentary accounts yielded the curious picture presented below.
Pending satisfactory identification of its precise location, the society of Loscho may be provisionally assigned to the jungle fringe of the Bolivian province of Cucarachigua. According to survey sources, the society comprises four main groups: the Nudstets, the Achertes, the Siminor tatrads, and the Ternaps. The activities of the first three groups are concentrated in a ceremonial center called the Loscho, from which the society derives its name. The Ternaps, on the other hand, seldom visit the Loscho, although they, more than the other groups, are ultimately responsible for maintaining it. This is one of the curious features of the system: the center is supported principally by the group that sees it least often and knows least about it.
Indeed, the Ternaps show what some informants have termed a baffling ambivalence toward the system. While they openly insist that the center is vitally important and necessary, and express a combination of indignation, horror, and hostility when confronted with even the remotest possibility of its disruption, they nevertheless display a great reluctance to familiarize themselves with the realities of its operation and to permit the fruition of an adequate tribal program for safeguarding it.
For safeguards are needed. A difficulty of some consequence is the status of the Achertes. It is generally conceded that this is the core group of the ceremonial center. The Achertes conduct the all-important Loscho rituals. the Nudstets, as the initiates, and the Siminor Tatrads, as the ceremonial chiefs, play vital roles; but the Achertes, as the practicing seers who manage the daily ceremonial round, appear to have the central role. Yet the prestige of this group seems to be disproportionately low. One source of the difficulty is that the prevailing prestige standards for the society are set by the Ternaps who, in avoiding so assiduously close contacts with the ceremonial center, can have no adequate basis for assessing the services of the Achertes. Thus the social position of the Achertes is controlled by the group least in touch with them and most reluctant to make first-hand evaluations of their tribal contribution.
In examining this reluctance, we find that it is less prejudicial to the Nudstets and Siminor Tatrads than to the Achertes. the Nudstets, the initiates, are selected by public consent on an age-grade basis from the children of the Ternaps. The kinship bonds uniting Nudstets and Ternaps are supplemented by residential ties persisting throughout the initiation period. The Nudstets dwell only part-time in the ceremonial center: before and after the daily rites, they live with the Ternaps. The Ternaps, accordingly, feel much closer to the Nudstets than to the Achertes, and their reluctance to visit the center is even reflected in the attitudes of the Nudstets. The Nudstets to a large extent regard the daily rites with distaste and on their conclusion regularly leave the center in haste, generally contriving to stay away from it during non-ritual hours. Explanations for their distaste are readily forthcoming: after all, as they point out, they are taken from their homes to participate in rituals which they do not understand. their vagueness about the ceremonial round is not only linked to its curious complexity, which will be discussed presently, but is reinforced by, and in turn reinforces, the vagueness communicated by the Ternaps. Thus the Ternaps, as distant supporters of activities they are not willing to examine, and the Nudstets, as neophytes confronted by a remarkably heterogeneous liturgy, abet each other in arriving at a mutual haziness about the very system which, as families, they recognize as the socially sanctioned path to enlightenment. One might expect the Achertes, working through the Nudstets, to dispel this haziness: as we shall see, there are certain important obstacles which prevent them from doing so.
The Siminor Tatrads, like the Nudstets, are less handicapped socially than the Achertes by the general remoteness of the Ternaps from the center. The society pertains to a culture area whose basic economy, coupling agriculture with the making and trade circulation of a considerable quantity of trinkets, supports a relatively large number of chiefs or, as they are commonly called, Osboes. The primary prestige route in the area is the securing, most frequently through trinket success, of one or more of these chieftainships. It is said that most young men regularly dream of becoming an Osbo, and young girls of marrying one. The decisive voice in an argument belongs to the man who can say, “I’m the Osbo.” Deference and concession are, on the other hand, signalled by the phrase, “You’re the Osbo.” As chiefs of the ceremonial center, the Siminor Tatrads qualify as Osboes. They are somewhat less concerned with trinkets than are other Osboes; nevertheless, those trinkets earmarked for ceremonial use are channeled into the center through the Siminor Tatrads, and of the trinkets awarded to the ceremonial groups for personal use, the largest individual shares are commanded by the Siminor Tatrads. Accordingly, for purposes of prestige ratings, the Ternaps need never see the Siminor Tatrads: they need only know that the latter are chiefs, Osboes, of some trinket success, hence entitled to social favor. However ignorant the Ternaps may be about the liturgical functions of the Siminor Tatrads, as long as the latter retain the Osbo label they will continue to be so favored.
It is also true that the Siminor Tatrads are more skillful than the Achertes in their dealings with the Ternaps. Indeed, the Siminor Tatrads owe their position in part to their ability to get along with the Ternaps and to placate them whenever their infrequent meetings so require. In fact, complaints are sometimes heard among the Achertes to the effect that the rituals would run more smoothly if the Siminor Tatrads would devote more attention to the center and less to the cultivation of the Ternaps. Social distance between Ternaps and the center notwithstanding, it is the Siminor Tatrads and not the Achertes who make the most of the contacts that occur. All in all, it seems clear that the diplomatic skills associated with Siminor Tatrad status combined with the Osbo label and its implied trinket success, give this group a considerable social advantage over the Achertes.
Since the culture area is one in which trinket success is an important factor in prestige ratings, it might appear that the Achertes, whose trinket allotment is smaller than that of the Siminor Tatrads but greater than that of the Nudstets, would per se be socially favored over the latter in this respect. But not so. According to native codes, the trinket success of the Achertes is measured by the size of their personal allotment, whereas that of the Nudstets is measured by the size of their total family allotment (which includes Ternap trinkets) and/or the size of their own anticipated future allotment. Hence the Nudstet who has few trinkets of his own can still feel superior to the Achertes: if his family trinket cache is more substantial than the personal cache of the latter, he can boast of this; if it is not, he can boast that he will have more trinkets than the latter in the future. Stated another way, he can say either, “You have less than my family,” or “You have less than I will have.” Under these circumstances the Achertes have no effective rebuttal, and it is scarcely surprising that the early reports express wonder at the coexistence, on the one hand, of social sanction for Nudstet deprecation of the Achertes; and, on the other, of social concern, mixed with bewilderment, over the lack of Nudstet respect for the Achertes.
It is interesting, in this connection, that the Ternaps fix (and carefully restrict) the number of trinkets received by the Achertes, and at the same time look down on them for not receiving more. (This attitude is readily communicated to the Nudstets, and contributes to their tendency to disparage the Achertes.) A vicious circle is established. The Ternaps are reluctant to cede more trinkets to a group with so little prestige; yet the Achertes are not likely to gain seriously in prestige unless they receive considerably more trinkets.
For in this society it does not seem illogical to the Ternaps to puzzle over the shaky status of the Achertes, as if the shakiness had little or nothing to do with themselves. Their message is, in effect, “Get more status;” and they probably would be shocked if the Achertes were to insist, “Give us more.”
Indeed, from time to time the Achertes do make scattered and disorganized overtures which appear to be a kind of prelude to such insistence. These efforts, while largely ineffective, are worth reporting if only to illustrate the Ternap counter. The Ternaps are well versed in the simultaneous expression of subtly contradictory opinions, incorporated in a verbal barrage which does great damage to the aspirations of the Achertes. By way of summary, the gist of these opinions, as well as others previously indicated and included generally in the counter, may be represented as follows:
a.The ceremonial center is important and necessary, and could not operate without the Achertes, but
b.the Achertes are not very important people after all, or their work would be better known, and they would not have so few trinkets to show for it. Yet
c.there are really no more trinkets to give them. However,
d.it is unworthy of seers to be concerned about trinkets. Nevertheless,
e.they should be more practical. Our tribe depends on practical men, on men who work. Therefore,
f.let them work, and find sufficient reward in their work, instead of pestering us with their avaricious supplication. They must work, and show that they are men of consequence, before we grant them more trinkets, although
g.it is clear that until they have more trinkets, they can hardly be considered men of consequence. Hence,
h.it is easy to see that, since they have let their situation become so difficult, they are responsible for improving it. Of course,
i.the sign of responsibility is a willingness to keep one’s problems from burdening others, so
j.let the Achertes be silent about their troubles, and concentrate on the center, because (begin with “a” again.)
The Achertes seem to be relatively defenseless against this type of onslaught. They protest their lack of recognition, but because they lack it, their protests carry little weight. Some of them defect in despair from the center, but most are held by an old tribal legend whose theme roughly paraphrased is: “Your rituals shape the tribal future.” The legend probably refers to the modicum of control exerted by the Achertes over the Nudstets who, as initiates, will eventually assume commanding tribal roles as tomorrow’s Ternaps. Yet the Ternaps of today were once initiates, and it cannot be said that their shape is a source of much gratification to the Achertes.
Our picture will be clearer, perhaps, if we move into the center for a closer look at the daily rituals. The subjectivity of informants’ reports should not, of course, be discounted.
The Achertes assemble in the center early in the morning, to prepare the ritual trappings and instruments. A minor ritual may be performed at this time, although it is often deferred. the precise words used may vary daily, but the ritual form is fairly constant. It features a dialogue between one of the Achertes and one of the Ternaps. The exchange proceeds essentially as follows:
A:Your son perceives not our rituals.
T:You show him not your rituals.
A:He perceives not.
T:You show him not.
A:So be it.
T:So be it.
During the exchange, which may involve much laborious repetition, the principals are expected to wear expressions of great severity. On its conclusion, the Ternap may offer a brief invocation that many clouds might pass before his next appearance. He then departs.
The Nudstets now make their entrance. They fit their bodies to curved blocks: after each ritual sequence, they will detach themselves and, in a curious shuffling dance, move to different blocks. At the beginning and end of each ritual sequence, vibrator gongs apparently selected for their dismal and/or piercing tone are beaten.
The ostensible purpose of a ritual sequence is the transmission from Achertes to Nudstets of certain aspects of tribal lore, but there seems to be considerable doubt among informants that this is actually accomplished; at least reports are evasive on this point. A major difficulty, according to many natives, is the serious lack of congruence between tribal life and tribal lore. The discrepancy is more than the common one between real and ideal culture; it involves differences between intra- and extra-center ideals. Tribal lore, as traditionally interpreted and approved by the Achertes, underplays and even takes exception to Osbo and trinket values, so important outside the center and in the area generally. the Nudstets, coming from the homes of the Ternaps and conditioned to accept the dominant values, are in no small degree predisposed to resist, even to scoff at, such lore. In this they derive unintentional support from the examples of the Siminor Tatrads, whose power status tends to reflect, as previously indicated, the dominant values. the apparent outcome is a general apathy, mixed with hostility, on the part of the initiates toward the rituals. I. Pritchard Ewald maintains that in no other society are initiates so unreceptive to ritual lore. Even when initiates manage to acquire the prescribed facility in a set of rituals, he adds, they quickly lose it. His theory is that the social majority in the interests of propitiating the ancestral gods without doing violence to Osbo-trinket values, want the initiates to be exposed to, but not to retain, the ritual lore. This, Ewald continues, has led to promulgation of the belief that mere exposure to the rituals imparts a magical essence which leaves the initiates in a desirable state called Dacu-De-Te. A returned traveler, wishing to ascertain whether or not the young man he addresses is Dacu-De-Te, would not ask, “How well do you know the rituals?” but “Have you passed through the center?” It may be true that one would not expect a high retention rate for ritual lore so lightly anchored, evidently, in the major cultural values, but Ewald’s report seems exaggerated.
Nevertheless, Nudstets, pressed against their blocks, show a decided unwillingness to master the rituals. Hewett, while admitting that the endurance of physical pain is a common initiation feature cross-culturally, suggests that acute discomfort contributes significantly to this unwillingness. He points out that the prolonged daily confinement elicits from the initiates a pattern of visions not ritually oriented but escapist in character. He then proceeds to relate this pattern to a counter-confinement theme which gives strong positive sanction to physical play activity for members of the younger generations. This theme, he notes, persistently interferes with effective ritual communication, by stressing the restraint aspect of the system. That the discomfort is culturally conditioned makes it, of course, no less real. He observes, finally, that the occasional exercise intervals permitted in the center provide convincing evidence of this discomfort:
And now the gongs ending the ritual sequenced are sounded, and the initiates, squirming painfully against their blocks, are released. they spring from their blocks as if the latter were fire. the period of comparative freedom known as Ser-Sec or Myg is underway. The initiates fling themselves about wildly, and execute strange dances conforming to Hublein’s “relief” type . . . their shrieks and laughter, so obviously cathartic, are presently replaced by groans as the gongs are again sounded, commanding their return to the hated blocks.”
Hewett notwithstanding, the initiates’ resistance to the rituals can be linked to other factors. One is their lack of respect for the Achertes; another the failure of ritual lore to give Osbo and trinket values sufficient emphasis. these have already been discussed. Still another is what Oliver Morgan calls the “forbidding complexity” of the ritual lore, which is indeed amazingly varied and intricate. Informants report that even the Achertes, as individuals, cannot begin to master all of it, and that each can assume responsibility for only a small portion. The amount presented to initiates is limited, as is the degree of proficiency expected of them: “Yet,” Morgan writes, “the daily elaboration and torrential flow of detail tend to discourage many.” Morgan adds that the ritual lore is “excessively remote” from the standpoint of the initiates, “who are unable, for the most part, to relate it to their own experience or to the experience of anyone they know.”