MAYBURY-LEWIS, David
- The Akwe-Shavante: A test case of "Dual Organization" in Central Brazil. XXXV Congreso Internacional de Americanistas (México 1962), Actas y Memorias, II, México 1964, pp. 135-136. Bibliografia.
"I worked among the Sherente (1955/1956) and the Akwe-Shavante (1958) with a view to gaining a clearer understanding of 'dual organization' among the Central Gê, so that Lévi-Strauss' hypothesis could be tested in the field. I discovered that the Shavante do not, in fact, have a system of exogamous moities." (p. 135). O autor mostra, então, "that the Shavante are a clear example of 'dual organization' if by this we refer to a society which organises its institutions consistently on antithetical principies. This would support Lévi-Strauss' hypothesis that the moiety systems of the Gê tribes should be treated as institutional expressions of a common principle. On the other hand, this finding would contradict his suggestion that 'dual organization' in Central Brazil was a simplification in which the natives believed while the structural reality was otherwise. But 'dual organization' has here been redefined in terms of institutional antitheses. It could be argued that such an approach, while useful among the Shavante, would be either too inclusive or too imprecise for further comparative work."
(p. 456-457)