The Mehinaku, an Arawakan-speaking group of Indians living in central Brazil, are described in this ethnography by means of a dramaturgical model that is based upon Erving Goffman’s sociology. This device is most successful when the author analyzes the strategies of individuals as they manipulate social roles, gossip about one another, and attempt to conceal their activities from the scrutiny of fellow villagers. These problems are significant because of the small-scale village setting and their continuous monitoring of each other which is characteristic of Mehinaku social life. Since all male Mehinaku at least are highly visible social actors intensely aware of their neighbors’ commentary, they are alleged by Gregor to be acutely preoccupied with both preserving privacy and presenting a social face that conforms to the ideal as closely as possible. While this may be true of some persons, Gregor’s own data suggest that other members of the village actively seek to create nonconformist identities for themselves. Furthermore, some Mehinaku institutions seem to intensify, rather than diminish, the chances of putatively illicit activities being discovered. The activities of lovers, for example, always seem to be on the verge of discovery by the very individuals who are not supposed to know about them. Thievery is another ubiquitous form of behavior which is deviant from the ideals of Mehinaku society, yet which also seems to be enacted in spectacularly unsafe fashion. It is as if the Mehinaku seek action at the same time that they self-righteously proclaim their conformity to village values.
The perspective of the book is clearly that of the younger men of the village, a group from which the author seems to have taken most of his consultants. Women’s roles and strategies, as well as those of the aged, do not appear in Gregor’s account; one wonders if they, too, are as concerned with privacy and role manipulation as the more socially active men.
The author apparently did not intend to describe the rich symbolism of Mehinaku cosmology and ritual in any detail, nor does he comment upon my research or that of Carneiro and Dole on the Carib-speaking villages of the area. However, considering the size and price of this book, it is disappointing not to find this material included.
