A report on the trio Indians of Surinam

This article is an abbreviated version of a report prepared for various departments of the Government of Surinam in February 1979. It is based on fieldwork carried out among the Trio Indians between January and June 1978.' In October 1964 I submitted to the then Government of Surinam a report on the Trio Indians as I found them in 1963-64. This report was subsequently published in amended form in Nréaw W^^-Zwö'w^e G/#r (Vol. 4.5, 1966, pp. 95-120) under the title 'A policy for the Trio Indians'^. The present article updates the earlier report by taking account of both its contents and what has happened in the intervening fourteen years. In this way it is possible to assess the accuracy of the earlier predictions and the nature of additional intrusive factors. In particular, the new perspective afforded by time allows for a greater understanding of the internal dynamics of Trio society and culture and their reaction to external influences. While numerous changes have taken place, overall one is struck by how little many of the problems facing the Trio have changed. In many ways the situation closely parallels that of fourteen years ago. Some of the recommendations made in the earlier report have been put into effect (although it is not known whether this was a result of the earlier report), but in other cases nothing has been done and it has been found necessary to repeat the identical suggestions.