Mayor James M. Curley was compared to a "Nambikuari chieftain" by Jerome S. Bruner, associate professor of Social Psychology, yesterday afternoon, Bruner addressed the Social Relations Society on "The End of Bossism?"

The chief of the Nambikuaris, a South American tribe, governs the tribe much as Curley runs Boston, he explained. The chief keeps his subjects in line by "being a good guy" and by "constantly handing out" trinkets, bits of food and other favors.

Bruner said that he had discovered this tie in and the Nambikuari during a recent study of Boston political behavior. Many citizens told him of the time that Curley could be counted on as a "soft touch for a loan," particularly during family emergencies.