The Yanomami People
RitualsThe Yanomami People feel strongly about rituals, and are important to their culture. Yanomami Tribes will get together and have a huge feast and this helps keep the Community bond together and prevents violent actions to occur amongst family, friends and neighbours.
ShamansTo the Yanomami People, everything has a spirit. Some of these "spirits" sometimes attack the Yanomami People, or are the cause of illnesses. The Shaman will bridle these spirits by breathing in yakoana. This somehow allows the Shaman to have a vision, and is, in a way, able to talk to the spirit, also known as the xapiripë. Apparently, only if the Shaman knows the spirit, he can see the spirit, as it is a big ball of light and hard to see, although very beautiful, says Davi Kopenawa. Shamans heal the sick, come to aid those in need of help, send away demons and cast spells. In order for men to become Shaman, they must give up eating and breeding.
FamilyThe Yanomami People villages normally have two unrelated families, and the women will marry into the other family in the village. Unfortunately, Yanomami People don’t necessarily get along well with each other, and once there are at least 125 people or more in a tribe, brutal fights are most likely to occur, and the tribes split up. Sometimes, two related people may become enemies with each other.
Threats and DangersThe Yanomami People have faced many threats and dangers during history. During the 1990s, the amount of Yanomami People started to decrease, so the government gave them larger areas to try and help increase the amount of Yanomami People. Outsiders from the Amazon
have been quite a big threat within the past few years. During the 1970s, news spread the gold was to be found in the area of the Yanomami People, and approximately 80,000 miners had swarmed into the area by 1987. Many diseases were spread quickly into the Amazon Rainforest and infected (and sometimes killed) the Yanomami People due to the immunity and medical care the Yanomami People didn’t have. Hepatitis and tuberculosis were two of these many diseases. Not only did the diseases affect the Yanomami People, the cutting down of trees to get to more gold by the miners destroyed many natural habitats and had a huge impact on the environment. The damage of the environment compelled the Yanomami People to flee from their lands. Luckily, in 1990 the government made all the miners evacuated from the Amazon Basin. Before this, 16 Yanomami People had been shot. But now the Yanomami People are better protected, as they should be and the Yanomami People are the largest Indian tribe in the world. But now, with all the clearing of forests, food for the Yanomami People has become harder to find, and some of the Yanomami People starve without the food they need to survive. Unfortunately, fishing has become harder too, because the Amazon rivers and lakes have become polluted, and are killing too many fish. |
ReligionThe Yanomami believe that every animal and plant has a spirit. This is called animism. The Yanomami People believe in a god called Omama, who they believe gave them land, animals and plants. Yanomami People believe that all animals were once humans, and were punished by being made an animal. Yanomami People also believe that life is seperated into different layers. The highest layer is called duku ka misi, and is apparently empty, because of all the previous residances that apparently were moved down to the lower layers. The layer underneath duku ka misi is called hedu ka mis, or just the sky level. This level is almost like a paradise level, where everyone's beautiful and life is much easier than most. Earth is the next layer, and is called hei ka misi, and the last layer is the Underworld, or hei ta bebi. People who live in the Underworld are the apparent cause to all things bad. If someone falls ill, the Yanomami People will believe that a Shaman from another tribe is the cause. A Shaman from the Yanomami Tribe must take away the demon and "draw" the demon out of the person who is ill. If someone dies in the Yanomami Tribes, a lot of grieving and music follows. As a general rule, the body is burned by the men, as the women and children have to flee quickly so they are not affected by the smoke from the fire. When the burning of the body is completed, the crushing of the bones commences, and are soon stored away. A year or more later, the Yanomami People commemerate the dead person's life, dramatically. This ceremony is called reahu. Then, the Yanomami People will add the ashes of the dead person into a soup, and this somehow shows their affection for their dead Tribe Member, and also helps the spirit go to the Yanomami paradise.
LanguagesThe Yanomami People do not have a printed language, and normally use
storytelling, chanting, play on words and rhetoric (speech or writing that communicates its point persuasively) to amuse and keep their history alive. Daily ActivitiesThe Yanomami Children play games that normally have something to do with adult warriors. This play-fighting mixed with hunting training helps develop the children into better hunters and excellent warriors when they must fight with an enemy or danger that threatens them. To young Yanomami People, beauty is respected and seeing as they cannot work with metal or gems, they show beauty in personal development. Yanomami Men go out hunting for food during most of the day, while Yanomami Women make drinks for the men and take care of the gardens and Yanomami Children. Women are supposed to carry up to 80lbs (36kg) of crops using baskets woven with old tree bark. During the mornings, young Yanomami Children and Yanomami Women go out in search of grubs to provide food for the Yanomami People. Sometimes, frogs, caterpillars and land crabs are brought back from these searches, as well as vines and other resources to help make baskets, start fires, mend shabanos, etc. Women of the Yanomami Tribes are expected to give birth to many children, and also do a lot of work during the day. Women will make the baskets, tend to the crops and work all day, usually depending on their daughters to help.
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Bibliography
Distribution Map
Yanomami Title Picture
http://library.thinkquest.org/27507/people.htm
http://www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/yanomami/wayoflife
http://ksuanth.wetpaint.com/page/Yanomamo+Religion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yanomami
Yanomami Title Picture
http://library.thinkquest.org/27507/people.htm
http://www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/yanomami/wayoflife
http://ksuanth.wetpaint.com/page/Yanomamo+Religion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yanomami