As a result, only the most successful and powerful men manage to obtain multiple wives. The normative practice is bilateral cross cousin marriage , where a man marries the daughter of his father's sister and mother's brother. Individuals belong to their father's lineage, and as a result a pair of lineages will exchange spouses in each generation. Marriage between patrilineal relatives is considered incest and prohibited. Rites of passage are not elaborated to any degree.
Religious activities focus upon the hekura , or spirits.
Every adult male may become a shaman by obtaining his own hekura . Men consume ebene , hallucinogenic snuff, and then summon their hekura to attack members of other communities. Because of their preference for living inland from the main river channels, they remained hidden from most travelers. It appears that they have been actively retreating from outside contacts since at least the middle of the nineteenth century, when Venezuelan slave traders raided them for captives. Movements of several communities can be traced back for several generations by matching oral histories against the physical remains of abandoned shabono .