Word: urubus
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...other side of the scale, Authors MacAndrew and Edgerton cite the Urubu Indians of Brazil. When sober, the Urubus are ferocious headhunters; when drunk, they dance and sing with their enemies. The myth of alcoholic "disinhibition," as the book awkwardly describes it, can no more account for this reversal than for the inebriated conduct of the Aritama of northern Colombia. A morose and self-conscious tribe, the Aritama only grow more so on rum, their favorite potable. "All conversation stops," report the authors, "and gloominess sets...
...them even membeker. The girls like their lovers to be tough, but only because it's more fun tempting them to become membek. And anyone who succumbs to such temptation is liable to be turned into a toad after death. It's all a big problem, the Urubus assured Anthropologist Francis Huxley, who lived with them for several months, and some fellows end up quite impotent trying to figure out a compromise...
Civilization has barely scratched the Urubu. For the visitor this makes conversation strictly one-way, because talk about railway trains, skyscrapers or factories only bewilders them. Huxley found that the only Western institution the Urubus could appreciate was Queen Elizabeth's coronation, which he was required to enact again and again. Missionaries told the Urubu Indians about the Christ child long ago; but then the missionaries sailed away, leaving Maïr in full possession. Today, only dogs, chickens and ducks are deemed the creations of the Christ child. Everything else is ghosts and spirits-and an impressive ghost...
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