Yanomamo

ENVIRONMENT

Yanomamo, also spelled as Yanomami, are a group of approximately 22,000 indigenous people living in the Amazon Rainforest in South America, particularly in Venezuela and Brazil. Roughly 9,000 live in Brazil while 12-13,000 live in Venezuela. The Amazon rainforest is located near the equator and has a tropical climate, also known as equatorial climate. It is hot and humid throughout the year, averaging 81 degrees fahrenheit. There really isn't any distinction between their seasons. Mainly because the temperature difference during the seasons isn't significant. There is a greater temperature difference between day and night, a difference of 35-40 degrees. It is not as hot as people imagine, it rarely reaches 91.5 degrees. Though it is very humid. It rains almost all year with rainy season ranging from 60-180 inches of rain and non rainy season 30-100 inches. As you can see, the difference is not significant. Living in the Amazon rainforest, their setting is definitely rural. They are isolated within the rain forest but since the Amazon is the largest rain forest they are beginning to encounter more trouble, such as deforestation. Also, with the influx of miners, they have had more competition for resources. The Yanomamo are horticulturalist, approximately 80-90% of their diet is cultivated from gardens. Their main plant is plantains, a banana containing high levels of starch and little sugar. They don't rely on fish but when the rivers overflow they eat the fish that overflow and dry. The biggest environmental stress the found in the Amazon rainforest is the humidity. To the unaccustomed it gives a feeling of oppressiveness and lack of air. 

ADAPTATIONS 

Yanomami, and other people living in a rainforest, sweat less than those that don't live there. This physical adaptation is due to high humidity in rain forests, which prevents sweat from evaporating. Since it cannot evaporate, sweating would be a poor way for people to cool off. Therefore, populations living in rain forest humidity have adapted to sweating less. Another physical adaptation for the Yanomami is higher levels of melanin in their skin pigment to help block the harmful rays of the sun. This adaptation is beneficial for the hot climate throughout the year in the Amazon rain forest. The Yanomami must also adapt culturally to live in the Amazons. Because they depend on the rain forest, they make sure they don't overuse it. They practice shifting cultivation, that is, they frequently move to avoid overusing areas and completely destroying the soil. Their dress is also one of their cultural adaptations. It is warm throughout the year so they typically wear minimal clothing to stay cool. They have adapted to the constant rain in their environment. Their homes, called shabono, have roofs made from raw materials found nearby. The roofs are susceptible to heavy rains. Therefore, they change the roofs every 1-2 years. 

LANGUAGE

The Yanomami speak various dialects within the language family Yanomaman. The language with the most speakers, approximately 17,600, is called Yanomamo. The three other languages within the family are Yanam, Sanuma, and Yanomami. There language is unique to the English language because it consists of seven basic vowels while English consists of eight basic vowels. Also, in the Yanomaman language, there is a distinction between oral and nasal vowels. Recently few Yanomamo have formed written languages. The fact that only few have written languages demostrates how isolated the Yanomami live from the rest of the world. For the most part, their vocabulary is very large because they rely on oral tradition rather than written tradition. They possess a formal and informal dialect, each used accordingly based on the event. 

GENDER ROLES

There are only two specific genders within the Yanomamo culture, male and female. Male gender roles consist of heavy work, such as hunting and killing large game. Men will also take up women roles if they become too dangerous. For instance, while women work in gardens, the men are responsible for clearing their own gardens by using slash and burn technique. Women do most of the child bearing. There are more men than women Yanomami, making it extremely important for women to have lots of children. Gender are strictly defined within the Yanomami culture. A main reason for this could be the shortage of women within the group. Because of the shortage, the main role for the women is child bearing. Not to say that they don't have chores. Their chores, such as gardening, are chores that can be done simultaneously while taking care of children. There chores are also less dangerous than the chores the men have. Typically there is no crossover of gender roles, their different roles are clearly defined. Women get beat by their husbands if they do not perform their gender roles properly. If men don't perform their gender roles, they can risk being seen unattractive by the women. This can be really bad since their is a shortage of women. Children learn gender roles early on by their mothers. At a young age they must help their mothers with chores, especially the daughters. Once the boys are old enough they go with their father to begin doing the heavier work. At a young age, the daughters learn that they are expected to bear and raise many children. They help their mothers with chores up until the time of menstruation, when their womanhood begins. Biology has an influence on the Yanomami gender roles. Males, which are stronger, do the heavier work. While women, which have the ability to give birth, mainly focus on child bearing and raising. Yanomamo infanticide is high, especially for women. Females born with defects are often killed at birth, especially a defect that could intervene with their role of child bearing. For this reason, I believe that the protagonist in "The Blessed Curse" would not have been accepted within the Yanomamo culture, instead they would have killed the child. 

SUBSISTENCE 

The Yanomami are horticulturists, hunters, and fishers. But 80-90% of their diet is cultivated from gardens. Their traditional mode of subsistence is slash and burn agriculture, which is done by men. Their staple fruit is a plantain. Their food is available year round, though they will have to relocate their gardens when the soil is destroyed. There is a division of labor within the Yanomami, this division is based on their sex. The men are in charge of the heavy and dangerous work in maintaining gardens. Most importantly, they are responsible for the slash and burn technique of their gardens. While women are in charge of cultivating the gardens. Children are expected to help their mothers. The Yanomami nutritional health is adequate. Their diet is very low in salt, making their blood pressure the lowest of any demographic group. Their diet can also be low in protein, since 80-90% of their diet is cultivated from gardens. This could lead to poor muscular development and is also a reason why good hunting skills is highly important for a man's reputation and honor. Their diet is not really dependent on any item that is difficult to obtain. Though, in other areas is would be difficult or impossible to obtain year round. 

ECONOMIC SYSTEMS

The Yanomami do not produce any surplus food. One of the reasons is because they make sure they don't destroy the land and only use the land for the food they need. Typically, specialization of labor occurs when groups begin producing surplus food because it is more efficient. Since Yanomami people do not produce surplus food they don't have specialization of labor. Instead they just have division of labor, though everyone does participate. There is redistribution of wealth amongst the Yanomami, mainly the redistribution of meat. They also exchange resources that might be scarce is other villages. Their economy is entirely non-monetary. Instead, their economy is a part of their everyday subsistence activities that are embedded in their social relations. The Yanomami do engage in trade. Their trading practices are important reciprocal features in their alliance systems. Trading has enabled the Yanomami to maintain peaceful ties with each other villages. Though, it can also cause tension and conflict when trades don't go as planned. 

MARRIAGE 

Bilateral Cross Cousin Marriage

The Yanomamo practice polygamous marriages, though there are also some monogamous marriages because of the shortage of women. They practice bilateral cross cousin marriage. In this system, marriage partners are doubly related to one another as martilateral and patrilateral cross cousins. That is, in each generation, a man marries a woman who is both his matrilateral cross cousin and patrilateral cross cousin. Most marriage partners are determined by the daughters parents. The Yanomamo do not have marriage ceremonies. Because of their system of bilateral cross cousin marriage, village endogamy is established. There are some instances where girls marry off to people from other villages. This typically occurs as a marriage alliance during warfare. After a woman is married off, the husband must pay a wife price to the brides family. He must pay this price because he is taking her away from her family. Females are valued more as marriage partners, especially because of the shortage of females. The Yanomami try to minimize village exogamy, one of the reasons they practice bilateral cross cousin marriage. Though they do allow it. Typically, smaller villages depend on exogamy to build alliances with neighboring villages. The Yanomamo live in villages usually consisting of their children and extended families. Their practice of bilateral cross cousin marriage allows family members to stay in the same village, close to family members. The entire village lives under a common roof called the shabono. Under the shabono, divisions exist between individual spaces. Homosexual relations between men are allowed, though it is prohibited for women to engage in homosexual relations. If a woman is caught with another women doing sexual acts, she will be brutally punished, sometimes even beat to death.  

KINSHIP

The Yanomamo practice an unillineal (patrilineal) decent system. This follows their belief that women are subordinate to men. They do not ignore matrilineal decent lines, especially because cousins marry each other, they just place a bigger emphasis on patrilineal lines. The father, or naya, posses the most authority within the family. They often beat their wives to maintain their power. There aren't any inheritance patterns for the Yanomami. The only thing that might be considered an inheritance is someones garden. Though gardens are normally shared within families so it might not be considered an inheritance. They follow the Iroquois classificatory pattern. A major feature of this system is the application of bifurcate merging rule through which father's brother and father are merged in a single term, haya, and distinguished from mother's brother, soaya. Also, the mother's sister is merged with mother, naya, and distinguised from father's sister, yesiya. In other words, they make distinctions between father's and mother's sides of the family. This is important for them because they practice bilateral cross cousin marriage. 

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

The Yanomamo are egalitarian. Most horticultural societies are egalitarian. But all members within the society do not have equal status. Women are always inferior to men. Women do not participate in warfare. Women also have restrictions that men do not, such as engaging in homosexual affairs. The fact that all members in the society do not have equal status might contradict what egalitarian means. Overall they do live egalitarian lives. After all, there is minimal distinctions made between the Yanomamo. For example, they all live under the same shabono. They all participate in daily activities, based on gender roles. There aren't any major distinctions as those found in stratified societies. Such as our society where we can clearly see the difference between the wealthy and the poor. 

POLITICAL STRUCTURE

Political power, or leadership, is determined by the village's relationship with other villages. It is also largely the result of kinship and marriage patterns. The leaders are men from the largest kinship groups within the village. They are responsible for very important roles, such as clearing the gardens. Individuals are chosen as leaders if they display good leadership qualities. The role of a leader is not given directly to the descendent of a former leader. Since the Yanomamo have no formal laws, the rules regarding killing and the consequences for it are not explicitly laid out as they are in Western cultures. Instead they have customs and general rules about proper behavior. Conflicts emerge when these customs are broken but unlike Western cultures, the Yanomamo people must take action on their own, without any governmental assistance. They, along with their close kin, must fight for themselves. An example is a chest pounding duel. This is commonly done to settle disputes within the shabono. It consists of four hits back and forth from each side until each man has received a blow. When disputes don't get settled, they go on to the next level, such as a club duel. 

THE ROLE OF VIOLENCE 

Violence is used to settle disputes such as wife affairs and food thefts. This particular type of violence is called club duel. This fight follows certain Yanomamo rituals. Usually, one man will challenge another to hit him in the head with the club. Then the man will deliver a counter blow. This continues until one of the men bleeds. Once this happens, the others will enter the fight taking sides. Thus settling any disputes. This form of violence plays a role in serving justice and keeping order within the villages. There are positive affects of this violence because it helps maintain order. This affects are viewed positively by the Yanomami, it is part of their culture. Another form of violence for the  Yanomamo are raids. They raid villages they have disputes with until that village abandon their site and move elsewhere. These raids normally occur after other form of setting disputes did not work. For example, if there was a club duel over stolen food and that didn't settle anything, then raiding takes place. Raidings are not seen negatively by the Yanomami. Often during raids women from the village being raided are stolen. This can have a negative affect on the raided village but a positive one of the village raiding. Once again this is part of their justice system that helps maintain order. 

RELIGION

The Yanomamo religion is very complex. They practice the religion of animism. Meaning that they believe the plants and animals around them have animal spirits. It is related to the larger branch of shamanism. They use a hallucinogen called yopo to manipulate the spirits in the animals and plants to go into their own body, giving the spiritual power. They do focus on a god called Omama. This god blessed them with the forest, trees, and animals. They believe that animals were once humans but became animals because they did bad things. They believe that the universe consists of four parallel layers. The layer they consider earth is called hei ka missi. An important practice within their religion is the ability for men to become shamans. Shamans are needed for multiple things, such as healing sickness, help Yanomami in need, or send demons away. The process of becoming a shaman is difficulte. They must fast from food and abstain from sex. This religion is extremely important to their culture. The importance they place on animals and plants helps them protect their land because they don't overuse or destroy it. Without this religion the Yanomami would need to change parts of their lifestyles in order to continue to function. 

ART

A form of artwork for the Yanomami is body art. Women paint their skin and dye their cloth. During special occasions the men will also decorate their bodies with paint. These practices of body art allows for bonding and strengthens social ties for the Yanomami. They do not use any musical instruments but do sing often. One very important time they sing is when they communicate with the spirit world. During this ritual, the Yanomamo also dance while communicating with the spirit world. Both music and performance are used as religious art. Singing and dancing enhances their experience while communicating with the spirit world. The use of art within their religious practices demonstrates how important and prominent religion is for the Yanomami. The Yanomami women often practice a form of art in weaving baskets. They weave them with certain patterns symboling their village. 

CULTURAL CHANGE

Recently the Yanomamo have been affected by miners. Miners invaded their territory with support of the federal and local government policies. This has had negative affects for the Yanomami because their territory, which they care so much for, is being destroyed. This contact with the outside world has also brought many diseases the  Yanomami are vulnerable to. Though it also has a positive impact because it has introduced them to medicine they were not familiar with. It is still too soon to tell whether the Yanomami culture will be destroyed or thrive. They strongly believe in their lifestyles. Though history has proved that contact with outsiders often destroy cultural identity, especially for indigenous people. Mining and deforestation would probably be the defining factors whether the Yanomami culture thrives of diminishes. This culture does not play an important role in the modern world. They are very isolated in the Amazon rainforest. It was not until recently that the modern world learned about the Yanomamo culture. They could have an influence on the modern world if people follow their steps and protect the environment. Of course, this could only be done by the modern world. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://www1.broward.edu/~hsorkin/Lib-Arts/Projects/Fall2002/Hottinger/culture.html

http://www.unique-southamerica-travel-experience.com/amazon-rainforest-climate.html

http://www.mbgnet.net/sets/rforest/explore/people.htm

http://remoteculturesandenvirons.rwithcare.com/yano/subsistance.html

http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/anthropology/tutor/case_studies/yanomamo/

http://faculty.rcc.edu/griffing/EHC2Ch6.pdf

http://ksuanth.wetpaint.com/page/Yanomamo+Art

http://www.aaanet.org/committees/cfhr/rptyano7.htm