Helena Valero
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In the book "Yanoama: The Story of Helena Valero, a Girl Kidnapped by Amazonian Indians." (aka Yanomam, Helena gives us a detailed account of the life within Amazonian Indians, living in the rain forest near Venezuela.
The author gives us a unique and very intimate look on how life feels within these tribes. The life in the forest, the foods, the relationships between tribes, families, and individuals. The culture, the wars, and much more.
She married twice and gave birth to four children, three sons and a girl, until she came back to "the white man" only to return later back to live near the Indians.
Contents |
[edit] Story Outline
The book constitutes of three parts:
Part 1: From the time she was kidnapped until she came to live with the Namoeteri and got married first to Fusiwe.
Part 2: Her life with Fusiwe, headsman of the Namoeteri.
Part 3: Her life after Fusiwe's death, second marriage, moving between villages, and finally escaping back to "the white man".
Part 1: From the time she was kidnapped until she came to live with the Namoeteri and got married first to Fusiwe.
Helena, a Christian white girl aged 12 or 13, was in a river near to the Amazon forest with her father. A group of Yanoama wariors attacked them. fgather and daugther run away, the Indians found the girl and took her to live with them.
At the beginning - age 12-13 - she were with a tribe called shamateri. By mistake she gave some poisonous toad eggs to a child who dies afterward. The father of the child wanted to kill her, and she run away to the forest.
She was living in the forest totally lonely, with no idea where to go for seven months. Sometimes she was thinking she had prefer to die than to remain in that hard situation.
Eventually, she reached a tribe called namoeteri. Initially they did not welcomed her and wanted to kill her as well, because she said something that was perceived - by mistake - as an insult. She escaped to the forest once again. She got caught in the forest, but was not killed.
Part 2: Life with Fusiwe, headsman of the Namoeteri.
The guy who caught her in the forest was actually Fusiwe headsman of the tribe Namoeteri. (tribe headsman is called in the language of the yanoama tushaua). It feels that she really loved him. Reading the book feels as only this part of her life was blosoming. One can also feel her pain when reporting his death. She was Fusiwe's forth wife, and the youngest at the time. She writes how he told her stories and much about the mythology of the Yanoama tradition, etc. She had two boy children from Fusiwe.
From this marriage she gives a very intimate and lively account on the life of the Yanoama. As the forth The wars, intrigues, betrayals etc.
Ultimately, Fusiwe died while fighting an opposing tribe.
Part 3: Life after Fusiwe's death, second marriage, moving between villages, and finally escaping back to "the white man".
After Fusiwe death, her life came again under threat. The opposing tribe was about to kill her sons, fearing that they will grow up and take avenge for their father's death. Helena run away, to a tribe far away.
After some time she married again with Akawe, and had aother two children bioy and girl. there her life was quite erratic, as Akawe what not very normal, and she was moving with him between villages. She was also maltreated from him.
Ultimately, her life came again under threat, as the tribe that was about to kill her children move to live near her. That together with the crazyness of her husband Akawe, took her into the decision to move to "the white men".
After she came back to "civilization" she told her husband to go bakc to the Indians "I will take care for myself".
Her last chapter is entitled "The wicked world of the white man". She describes with bitter details how nobody took care for her by the whites. She was many days hungry.
Later, she decided to go back to live near the Indians.
After forty years
At 1996, forty years after the time she leaves the Indians, she is reported to still be there. "old and blind", in a Indian house (like a turf), always accompanied by friends and children around. While being clear, one can still sense here and there the bitterness of the treatment she got form "the white man".
[edit] The Writing and Reliability of the story
Writing: The biography was tape recorded by Ettore Biocca, an Itallian anthtrophologer, on 1962-3. From the tapes she took from Helena, she compiled the biography. Ettore also publ.ished other volumes with lots of data abuot the lives, foods, war tools etc of the Yanoama
Reliability: Ettore tried to check Helena's reliability, by asking the same questions and listening to the same stories several times, and comparing them. She found that not even once there was a contradiciton in the stories. Thus, Ettoer found Helena's stories very reliable.
[edit] thinking importance
The book is eye lighting for understanding the world.
We are so used to the world we know that this book may help us to see a different - but so similar - world. Reading it, may help us see how many things in our world are just culture, and which things are more common to human beings.
That is, apart form being a unique anthrophological document, from the very inside.
[edit] See also
- Yanomami (this area of Indians. in the book the group is named "Yanoama". Looks like two pronouncements for the same name)
- Indians
[edit] References
- Yanoama: The Story of Helena Valero, a Girl Kidnapped by Amazonian Indians. [1]
(link to amazon, where you can use the "search inside" feature to read into the book)
- Reviews of the book at amazon [2]
- A review of the book by a the anthropologist Judith Shapiro (requires JSTOR logon, or an academic user) [3]
- Another anthrophologic review (JSTOR needs academic logon or university computer) [4]
