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The Yanomami, also spelled Ya̧nomamö or Yanomama, are a group of approximately 20,000 indigenous people who live in some 200–250 villages in the Amazon rainforest on the border between Venezuela and Brazil.
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The Yanomami live in villages usually consisting of their children and extended families. Village sizes vary, but usually contain between 50 and 400 people. In this largely communal system, the entire village lives under a common roof called the Shabons. Shabons have a characteristic oval shape, with open grounds in the center measuring an average of 100 yards. The shabono shelter constitutes the perimeter of the village, if it has not been fortified with palisades.
Under the roof, divisions exist marked only by support posts, partitioning individual houses and spaces. Shabonos are built from raw materials from the surrounding jungles, such as leaves, vines, plums and tree trunks. They are susceptible to heavy damage from rains, winds, and insect infestation. As a result, villagers build new shabonos every 1 to 2 years.
The Yanomami depend on the rain forest; they use "slash-and-burn" horticulture, grow bananas, gather fruit, and hunt animals and fish. Yanomami frequently move to avoid areas that become overused, a practice known as shifting cultivation when the soil becomes exhausted.
Children stay close to their mothers when young; most of the childrearing is done by women. The Yanomami practiced polygyny, though many unions were monogamous. Polygamous families consisted of a large patrifocal family unit based on one man, and smaller matrifocal subfamilies: each woman's family unit, composed of the woman and her children. Life in the village is centered around the small, matrilocal family unit, whereas the larger patrilocal unit has more political importance beyond the village.
The Yanomami are known as hunters, fishers, and horticulturists. The women cultivate plantains and cassava in gardens as their main crops. Men do the heavy work of clearing areas of forest for the gardens. Another food source for the Yanomami is grubs.[1] Traditionally they did not farm. The practice of felling palms to facilitate the growth of grubs was the Yanomami's closest approach to cultivation. The traditional Yanomami diet is very low in salt. Their blood pressure is characteristically among the lowest of any demographic group.[2] For this reason, the Yanomami have been the subject of studies seeking to link hypertension to sodium consumption.
Rituals are a very important part of Yanomami culture. The Yanomami celebrate a good harvest with a big feast to which nearby villages are invited. The Yanomami village members gather huge amounts of food, which helps to maintain good relations with their neighbors. They also decorate their bodies with feathers and flowers. During the feast, the Yanomami eat a lot, and the women dance and sing late into the night.
Although many ceremonies exclude female involvement or participation, they are a large part of the preparation. In preparation for large ceremonies, Yanomami women make alcoholic drinks for the men.[3] The use of hallucinogenic drugs is very common, however women are forbidden from involving themselves in this practice. The women do, however, participate in the practice of endocannibalism. In this practice, the Yanomami people consume the bones of a deceased kinsman.[4] The body is burned, and the bones mixed with food. This tradition is meant to strengthen the Yanomami people and keep the spirit of that individual alive.
The women are responsible for all the domestic duties and chores, excluding hunting and killing game for food. Although the women do not hunt, they do work in the gardens and gather small sources as food. The gardens plots are sectioned off by family, and grow bananas, sugarcane, mangoes, sweet potatoes, papaya, manioc, and other crops.[5] The Yanomami women cultivate these gardens until they are no longer fertile, and then move their plots. Women are expected to carry 70 to 80 pound loads of crops on their backs during harvesting, using bark straps and woven baskets.[6] Plantains and grubs are common sources of food, and are staples in the Yanomami diet.
In the mornings, while the men are off hunting, the women and young children go off in search of termite nests and other grubs, which will later be roasted at the family hearths. Sometimes, the women also pursue frogs, land crabs, or caterpillars, or even look for vines that can be woven into baskets. While some women gather these small sources of food, other women go off and fish for several hours during the day.[7] The women also commonly use plants such as manioc to turn into flat cakes, which they cook over a small pile of coals.[8]
Yanomami women are expected to bear and raise many children, who are expected to help their mothers with domestic chores from a very young age, and mothers rely very much on help from their daughters.
Using small strings of bark and roots, Yanomami women weave and decorate baskets. They use these baskets to carry plants, crops, and food to bring back to the shabono.[6] They use a red berry known as onoto to dye the baskets, as well as to paint their bodies and dye their loin cloths.[7] After the baskets are painted, they are further decorated with masticated charcoal pigment.[9]
The start of menstruation symbolizes the beginning of womanhood. Girls typically get their periods between the ages of 10 and 12, and as soon as the period begins, girls are married off. Due to the belief that menstrual blood is poisonous and dangerous, girls are kept hidden away in a small tent-like structure constructed of a screen of leaves. A deep hole is built in the structure over which girls squat, to “rid themselves” of their blood. These structures are regarded as isolation screens.[10]
The mother is notified immediately, and she, along with the elder female friends of the girl, are responsible for disposing of her old cotton garments and must replace them with new ones symbolizing her womanhood and availability for marriage.[10] During the week of that first menstrual period the girl is fed with a stick, for she is forbidden from touching the food in any way. While on confinement she has to whisper when speaking and she may only speak to close kin, such as siblings or parents, but never a male.[4]
Up until the time of menstruation, girls are treated as children, and are only responsible for assisting their mothers in household work. When they approach the age of menstruation, they are sought out by males as potential wives. Puberty is not seen as a significant time period with male Yanomami children, but it is considered very important for females. After menstruating for the first time, the girls are expected to leave childhood and enter adulthood, and take on the responsibilities of a grown Yanomami woman. After a young girl gets her period, she is forbidden from showing her genitalia and must keep herself covered with a loincloth.[4]
The menstrual cycle of Yanomami women does not occur frequently due to constant nursing or child birthing, and is treated as a very significant occurrence only at this time.[11]
Sexuality is not commonly discussed. The Yanomami’s sexuality is not repressed, as long as it remains discreet and limited. Children are aware of sexual interaction, and along with adults, occasionally indulge in anal sex.[11] These occurrences are not a matter for discussion and are simply accepted by all. Women are forbidden from sexually interacting with other women, whereas men are allowed to interact with one another. Because women are forbidden from acting sexually with anyone but their partner, many resort to masturbation or sexual acts with other women.[10] Extreme injury or even death can result if a spouse discovers these forbidden acts.
Incest is looked down upon very much in Yanomami society. Incest for Yanomami people is defined by any sexual relations between “close” kin, such as parents, children, or siblings. If any woman is caught acting incestuously with a son or close relative, she will be shunned and will not be cremated at death.[10]
According to a research made by Acero and Aragón (Patrón Sexual de los Indígenas Yanomamis, 1999) with Venezuelan Yanomami there is no homosexual or bisexual intercourses among these indigenous people nor for men neither for women. There are only heterosexual intercourses and the coital position is predominantly the missionary position.
In Yanomami society, marriage ceremonies are almost non-existent and are not celebrated in any way. Polygamous marriages are common, meaning husbands can have many wives. A girl can be promised to a man at an age as young as five or six, however cannot officially be married off until after her first menstrual period.[8]
After a Yanomami girl receives her first menstrual period, she is literally handed off by one of her parents to another man, usually a relative. Cross-cousin marriages, which are marriages between the girl and the son of a maternal uncle or paternal aunt, are the most common form of marriage.[3] Most prefer to marry within that Yanomamo tribe, for fear of violent breakouts between different tribes. The female goes to live with her spouse, and must perform the chores and duties she previously did for her mother.
Violence and abuse between couples in Yanomami culture is very common, and if a woman feels she can no longer bear to live with her husband, she may flee to live with her brothers.[8]
Polygamy is commonly practiced in Yanomami culture, and women are expected to accept this. The elder wife in a marriage usually has precedence over the others, and can act as a boss or a superior over the other wives. She usually no longer has sexual relations with her husband, however she can give the most unpleasant chores to the wife she chooses.[11] The husband is not supposed to show favorites, due to jealousy between the wives.
In the Yanomaman languages Gŭycan, if a vowel is phonetically nasalized, then all vowels after it in the word are also nasalized. So if the ogonek—the symbol denoting nasalized vowels—is written under the first vowel, the whole word is nasalized. All the vowels in the Yanomaman language can be made nasal, but it is unclear whether they are phonemically nasal or nasal just because of the nasal consonants. Also, consonants can be accented with the closing of the epiglottis to form a "flat" sounding consonant; an example of this is 'Maţ' (epiglottis closed), meaning 'bone', while 'Mat' (quasi-soft 't' sound with an open throat) means 'rain'.
There are many variations and dialects of the language, such that people from different villages cannot always understand each other. Linguists believe the Yanomaman language is unrelated to any other South American indigenous languages. The origins of the language are unknown.
Yanomami is not what the Yanomami call themselves (an autonym), but rather it is a word in their language meaning "man" or "human being". The American anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon adopted this term to use as an exonym to refer to the culture and, by extension, the people. The word is correctly pronounced thorough nasalisation. As the phonetic sound 'ö' does not occur in English, variations in spelling and pronunciation of the name have developed, with Yanomami, Yanomamö, Ya̧nomamö, and Yanomama all being used. Some anthropologists had published the spelling Yanomamɨ to indicate the correct vowel [ɨ], but because many presses and typesetters eliminate the diacritical marks, an incorrect pronunciation of the name has emerged.
In early anthropological studies the Yanomami culture was described as being permeated with violence. The Yanomami people have a history of acting extremely violently not only towards other tribes, but towards one another.[12]
Helena Valero, a Brazilian woman kidnapped by Yanomami warriors in 1932 when she was eleven years old, witnessed enemy raid on her tribe:
"They killed so many. I was weeping for fear and for pity but there was nothing I could do. They snatched the children from their mothers to kill them, while the others held the mothers tightly by the arms and wrists as they stood up in a line. All the women wept.”[13]
An influential ethnography by anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon described the Yanomami as living in "a state of chronic warfare".[1] Chagnon's account and similar descriptions of the Yanomami as primitive and warlike and sparked controversy in anthropology and an enormous amount of interest in the case of the Yanomami. The debate centered around the degree of violence in Yanomami society, the question of whether violence and warfare could be seen as an inherent part of Yanomami culture, or whether it was better explained as a response to specific historical situations. Writing in 1985 anthropologist Jacques Lizot who had lived among the Yanomami for more than twenty years stated:
"I would like my book to help revise the exaggerated representation that has been given of Yanomami violence. The Yanomami are warriors; they can be brutal and cruel, but they can also be delicate, sensitive, and loving. Violence is only sporadic; it never dominates social life for any length of time, and long peaceful moments can separate two explosions. When one is acquainted with the societies of the North American plains or the societies of the Chaco in South America, one cannot say that Yanomami culture is organized around warfare as Chagnon does”[14]
Anthropologists working in the ecologist tradition such as Marvin Harris, argued that a culture of violence had evolved among the Yanomami through competition resulting from a lack of nutritional resources in their territory.[15][16] However the 1995 study, "Yanomami Warfare" by R. Brian Ferguson, examined all documented cases of warfare among the Yanomami and concluded that: "
Although some Yanomami really have been engaged in intensive warfare and other kinds of bloody conflict, this violence is not an expression of Yanomami culture itself. It is, rather, a product of specific historical situations: The Yanomami make war not because Western culture is absent, but because it is present, and present in certain specific forms. All Yanomami warfare that we know about occurs within what Neil Whitehead and I call a "tribal zone", an extensive area beyond state administrative control, inhabited by nonstate people who must react to the far-flung effects of the state presence."[17]
Ferguson stresses the fact that contrary to Chagnon's description of the Yanomami as unaffected by Western culture, the Yanomami experienced the effects of colonization long before their territory became accessible to Westerners in the 1950s, and that they had acquired many influences and materials from Western culture through trade networks, much earlier..
Intraspecific violence is one of the leading causes of Yanomami death. As much as 50% of Yanomami males die violent deaths. The Yanomami are in constant conflict with neighboring tribes over local resources. Often these confrontations lead to the Yanomami leaving their villages in search of new ones.[18]
Women are often victims of physical abuse and anger. Inter-village warfare is common, but does not too commonly affect women. When Yanomami tribes fight and raid nearby tribes, women are often raped, beaten, and brought back to their shabono to be kept in their tribe. During the raids, Yanomami men capture and bring back the other women in hopes of marrying them. Wives are beaten on a regular basis, so as to keep them docile and faithful to their husbands.[12] Sexual jealousy causes a majority of the violence.[11]
Women are beaten with clubs, sticks, machetes, and other blunt or sharp objects. Burning with a branding stick occurs often, and symbolizes a male’s strength or dominance over his wife.[4]
In the mid-1970s, garimpeiros (small independent gold-diggers) started to enter the Yanomami country. Where these garimpeiros settled, they killed members of the Yanomami tribe in conflict over land. In addition, mining techniques by the garempeiros led to environmental degradation. In 1990, more than 40,000 garimpeiros had entered the Yanomami land. In 1992, the president of Brazil Collor de Mello accepted the opening of a Yanomami Park founded by Brazilian anthropologists and Survival International, a project that started in the early 1970s. Non-Yanomami people continue to enter the land. The Brazilian and Venezuelan governments do not have adequate enforcement programs to prevent the entry of outsiders into this land.
Ethical controversy has arisen about Yanomami blood taken for study by scientists such as Napoleon Chagnon and his associate James Neel. Although Yanomami religious tradition prohibits the keeping of any bodily matter after the death of that person, the donors were not warned that blood samples would be kept indefinitely for experimentation. Several prominent Yanomami delegations have sent letters to the scientists who are studying them, demanding the return of their blood samples. These samples are currently being taken out of storage for shipping to the Amazon as soon as the scientists can figure out whom to deliver them to and how to prevent any potential health risks for doing so [19]
Members of the American Anthropological Association debated the dispute that has divided their discipline, voting 846 to 338 to rescind a 2002 report on allegations of misconduct by scholars' studying the Yanomami people. The dispute has raged since Patrick Tierney published Darkness in El Dorado in 2000. The book charged that anthropologists had repeatedly caused harm—and in some cases, death—to members of the Yanomami people whom they had studied in the 1960s.[20]. In 2010 Brazilian director José Padilha revisited the Darkness in El Dorado controversy in his documentary Secrets of the Tribe.
The Haximu Massacre (or Yanomami Massacre) was an armed conflict in 1993, just outside Haximu, Brazil, close to the border with Venezuela. Approximately 16 Yanomami were killed by a group of garimpeiros.
In a newsletter published on August 7, 2006, the Indianist Missionary Council reported that:
In a plenary session, the [Brazilian] Supreme Federal Court (STF) reaffirmed that the crime known as the Haximu massacre [perpetrated on the Yanomami in 1993]"[21] was a genocide [...] It was a unanimous decision made during the judgment of Extraordinary Appeal (RE) 351487[22]
Commenting on the case, the NGO Survival International said,
"The UN convention on genocide, ratified by Brazil, states that the killing 'with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group' is genocide. The Supreme Court ruling is highly significant and sends an important warning to those who continue to commit crimes against indigenous peoples in Brazil."[21]
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has created a play to convey what is happening to the people and their natural environment in the Amazon rainforest. It tells of Yanomami tribesmen/tribeswomen living in the Amazon. It has been published and performed by many drama groups around the world.
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