Yanomamo

Yanomami Cultural Motifs

Culture is grouped with collective behaviors of members of community. These collective behaviors are not just limited to the ways in which members associate with each other but also notes the way they long to live their lives. This paper aims to discuss in brief the culture of Yanomami. This paper shall include environment, adaptation, religion, language, gender roles, kinship, social organization, economy, political organization of the Yanomami culture in brief.

Environment and Adaptation:

The Yanomamis are basically spread at the Amazon rainforest at the coast lines of Brazil and Venezuela. These groups of tribes are divided into more than 400 villages. The weather of the Amazon rainforest can be different by extremes of rain and scorching heat of the sun. This expects a lot of adaptability of the people of the tribe. The foods in the summer season can ripe fruits which enable the tribe to gain good diet. The plants as observed for food and herbs use are gathered by Yanomamis from the rainforests (Schwartz). Almost 3000 types of fruits have been noticed to consume by the Yanomamis. It is the main reason of behind well-being of the Yanomamis. When the rain season is noted to be on its peak, the plants start to grow with a slow pace which deprives the villagers to consume more food.

The genetic or physical adaptation as noted in the Yanomamis is their combat qualities. The tribes’ men are better in combating with their enemies. Yanomamis show strength of the able men and real humans who are very strong and can adapt environmental change to the fullest. The cultural adaption of the Yanomamis is their ability to fish and hunt during the rainy weather. They also hunt the wildlife during summer. This is important because they can use the wild life for created decayed basis of their huts and keep themselves warm with the animal skins (Milliken, Albert and Gomez).

 

Language and Gender Roles:

The language of the Yanomami culture is housed into one family which is referred to Yanomaman. These languages have had their region in the Brazilian region to Southern Venezuela. The Yanomaman language groups include a number of languages but the most widely spoken language by the Yanomamis is Xirianian. There are several dialects which had made difficult for the tribes to follow one language. It is for this reason that there are different languages being spoken. But these tribes can easily understand the each other with the Xirianian language even if they cannot speak identically (Schwartz).

 The gender roles as per the definition of Yanomami culture include boys and girls. The culture has strict delineation regarding specific gender roles. Women are expected to do the cleaning, washing and giving birth to babies which further ordains her to take care of babies. On the other hand, boys are responsible for hunting. Women have more regard in the Yanomami culture because they offer services to husbands and give birth to sons for which the husbands remains in  debt to the family of the wife. This debt is paid till the time parents of the bride are alive. This has remained same from generations and any overlapping and change is dealt with hatred and punishment. The protagonist from the story The Blessed Curse cannot fit in the Yanomamis culture because Yanomami culture beheads those who are rebellious to their cultural identities (Tahan).

Subsistence and Economy:

The intake as per the viability of food and economic material for Yanomami culture has been crops and bananas. Both these are heavily dependent food items on their diet daily. These two items are also cultivated by the chosen team of the tribe. It has been noted that the food items that have been gathered by men had special importance in terms of diet and it is for this reason, they preferred hunting. It was because of the environmental effect that the tribes’ men had to stay away from the tribe to take care of the people. For this duration they had to be dependent upon the wild food obtained from hunting and fishing (Webster).

Trade played a vital role in the Yanomami culture and is considered to be more planned and developed. The exchange of plantains and crops has been the biggest basis of trade among Yanomamis instead of currency. The trade could have included potteries; axes etc. but these materials have been given to the tribe as gift. More recently, the culture has now developed trade sections that include selling arrows and other products for cultivation. Labor is another significant aspect of the culture where women are responsible for harvesting and spinning cotton while men were responsible for weapon designing and hunting (Peters). 

Marriage and Kinship:

Marriage patterns in the Yanomami family are mostly polygamous. It is because the military attacks have reduced the population of the tribe. This means that there is an avid need of population growth for the tribe. The men in the Yanomami tribe are involved with more than one woman. In other words, it could be said that men in this tribe are open to women. The marriage ceremonies are not given much importance but the rituals are conducted by the older kin of the family. Marriages in the Yanomami tribes are fixed even before the puberty of the girl. This marriage is further done by the commentary of the older kin in front of all village members. The women and men are not given specific value in the marriage bond. The main focus of married bond is to give birth to children as it’s the most important deed for them. The traces of the cultural studies of Yanomami show that homosexuality has been encouraged. Some marriages were conducted where the man married his best friend’s sister so that he can have open sexual relationship with his best friend as giving birth to children is mandatory (Borofsky and Albert).

The pattern of kinship in Yanomami culture is patrilineal which means that the descent will be from the male. This means that the child is in kinship of his father. This deprives women to take the kinship of the child. There is no point of discretion that has to be undertaken for kinship in the Yanomami culture. This ultimately gives value to the father more in the family than mother. The naming patterns of the Yanomami family involves selecting a name of the child with respect to the animal that is killed on the birth of the child e.g. whisker of a howler monkey etc. The boys of the tribe do not liked to be called with their name but rather as the brother of howler monkey etc (Milliken, Albert and Gomez).

Social and Political Structure:

Political structure of the Yanomami culture includes a leader of all the soldiers who are responsible for the conducting warfare. The main purpose of the soldiers is to keep arms of the enemy away from the village. These leaders are selected by the village people as per the bravery of the man. The leader is expected to have no fear and give away his daughter for marriage. All this is needed to gain the respect of the people of the tribe (Tahan).

Yanomami villages are basically egalitarian in terms of social structure. This means that the people of the tribe are differentiated in terms of age, sex and other respected traits of giving which are also known as personal traits. In order to gain social mobility, people fight and undergo oratory which makes them more valued than other. The status in the Yanomami culture is not a gift from the family but it is rather achieved by working hard for it. Men who are adult and wiser are mostly given the position of priests or politicians (Peters).

Violence in Yanomami is expected because it is the way to solve the issues such as women abduction. This is done by open challenge between two men who would use club to blow. Another form of violence is side slapping until the all men get the blow. These violent acts are not considered as negative but are rather considered as a way to settle issues (Schwartz).

Religion and Art:

The religious beliefs of the people of Yanomamis are based upon the skies and the layers. It has been noted that they believed that the universe is basically divided into four layers. These parallel layers were governed by the ancient species which were on the top most layers of the cosmos. The Yanomamis believe that the second layer of the universe is basically God’s place where all the dead men and women will go once they are rotten. They will have all the beauties of life in terms of hunting and better taste of the food hunted. The third layer is considered to be earth which the last layer of the world is underworld which bestows all the bad spirits from which they need to be safe. It has been noted that they believe that they have more than one soul (Tahan).

 The expression of the Yanomami religion is also a very aspect of the tribe because it always described their emotions and beliefs. The art which has been found so far include geometrical designs. The common colors which have been noticed in the art of Yanomamis are black and red. The oratory is another form of art which has been observed in the culture of Yanomamis. It will not be incorrect to state that the tribes are much developed and mature in terms of oratory (Peters).

Works Cited

Borofsky, Robert and Bruce. Albert. Yanomami: The Fierce Controversy and What We Can Learn from It. California: University of California Press, 2005.

Milliken, William, Bruce Albert and Gale. Gomez. Yanomami: a forest people. London: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew., 1999.

Peters, John. Life Among the Yanomami: The Story of Change Among the Xilixana on the Mucajai River in Brazil. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998.

Schwartz, David. Yanomami: People of the Amazon. New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, 1995.

Tahan, Raya. The Yanomami of South America. New York: Lerner Publications, 2001.

Webster, Christine. Yanomani. San Francisco: Weigl Publishers Inc., 2004.

Art as a Culture

Functions of Early Art:

1.The Lascaux Caves in France is the setting of a complex of caves in southwestern France famous for its Paleolithic cave paintings, The cave contains nearly 2,000 figures, which can be grouped into three main categories such as animals, human figures and abstract signs , the large number of animals paints on the walls make it seem that the artist were trying to express the important of those animals in their life, could be spiritual reasons or just the usage of those animal through hunting .

2. The animal art found in the caves present different species: bulls, bison, and horses. Along with the many animals on the walls, there can be found some signs of human or semi-human representation. The human figures are not as richly defined or carefully executed, as is the animal art, and that’s because animals were as important to early man as life was; animals were life itself.

Grand (1967) notes that, Man's ". . . presence is a furtive, marginal one" (p. 20). Therefore not much effort was put into representing him.

3. The depictions of animals involved in the hunt helped to assure or reassure the hunters of great success.  Only those peoples who lived by hunting had practiced this art.  Another word that could be used to describe Lascaux would be a "Sanctuary." A sanctuary is a sacred place where sacred things are kept; it was their holy spot. Lascaux was, in other words, a holy place where the humans did not necessarily go to "pray" for a good hunt, but it was where the people would go to draw what they thought (or hoped) would be a good hunt. Cave men and women were once thought to be primitive (not as developed). They were far from humans today, but were still highly skilled) as one may think. However, the cave drawings at Lascaux proved their fine motor skills and their thought through their drawings, engravings, and the fact that they used paints, tools, and brushes to make these highly detailed animals.
4. Most of the major images have been painted onto the walls using mineral pigment although some designs have also been incised into the stone.Incising in stone is a hard work, since caves stones are not as easy as regular stone, they are harder to deal with, plus the Cave had drawing on ceiling which is also take so much effort and work.
5. I think that by creating a representation, the image maker tries to take control of that which is outside of himself  (or herself) and make it comprehensible, make it manageable. Not much different from what we do when we close ourselves up in our houses and surround ourselves with our favorite objects, Most of the paintings are located at a distance from the cave's entrance, and many of the chambers are not easily accessible. This placement, together with the enormous size and compelling grandeur of the paintings, suggests that the remote chambers may have served as sacred or ceremonial meeting places.

Commonalities in Function:

As the Lascaux Cave’s artist were trying to express their feeling and reach some function by their painting and drawings, there are some modern arts that did the same functions ,an excellent example of a work of art that truly sent a message to its viewers is Lewis W. Hine- Child in Carolina Cotton Mill-(1908). Child in a Carolina Cotton Mill was developed in 1908 and was a true vehicle for social reform. Hine was a photographer for the National Child Labor Committee from 1908 through 1916. Hine's camera and his photography created concrete evidence that could not simply be ignored any longer. His pictures helped to pass laws that protected children from being industrially exploited. This is a great example comparing his art to the Lascaux Caves art, they expressed their feeling by drawing on walls, Hine expressed his thoughts by taking pictures of poor kids that he thought it would be effective. There are two different arts but almost has the same technique of reaching a point by drawings and pictures.

My favorite Art:

1.One of my favorite Arts is Pablo Picasso's Guernica, which was created in the year 1937 based upon the Spanish Civil War that was occurring. This painting sends an extremely strong message to people and represents rebirth as well as destruction in modern times. It is a true symbol of the harsh impact of totalitarianism on various parts of the world.

2. Guernica was displayed around the world in a brief tour, becoming famous and widely acclaimed. This tour helped bring the Spanish Civil War to the world's attention.

3. Picasso was trying to put emphasis on what was happening as a result of the war. He was trying to get the world's attention and trying to help people understand the severity of the issues that the world was facing.

Politics & Violence

• ·      Western cultures unlike the yonamomo has a laws and rules against killing, you kill you get punished, but in yonomamo's culture there is no written rules saying killing is prohibited, and which cause to more killing and death since revenge is their title of killing.

• ·      Revenge is very popular In the yanomamo population, the most reason that people start their revenge against each other, is women, getting jealous from somebody’s sexual life is one example of women revenge. Another big reason is when a member of the family is killed; a big revenge start back and forth between tribes, and it might never end.

• ·      Unokais are those who have killed, although it’s a very dangerous to become an Unokais, but men tend to become one for several reason such as success, how ever the only benefit of becoming an non Unokais is being   less likely to be killed

• ·       Revenge Effects:

A. Although political leaders have bigger families than regular people, due to marrying so many wives, but their higher status cause to higher chances to be killed than regular populations.

B. Revenge effects Yanomamo’s social life, since men has to be protective to their women and families, and if somebody got killed they have to fight and take revenge of their enemies.

C. Revenge also effect kinship of families, as mentioned earlier, if a men in the family got killed from another family or tribe, the men who are related to the killed person has to take revenge, plus having a man who has a status of Unokais is very beneficial to the families since it causes less chance for the family to get attacked from enemies.

D. Women find a man who has the status of Unokais very attractive, which cause more marriage to those men and more populations.

• ·      Having laws regulate population’s lives. It protects them from doing prohibited acts. yanomamo’s population had no rules or laws that regulated and organized their life, which causes more revenge and losses, Laws equals safety.

kinship

My interviewee name is Lara, she is my cousin, from my father’s side, she is 28 years old, was born in Jordan, studied and worked in bank in Jordan as well but and moved to the states in about a year ago.

As an anthropologist I felt very comfortable interviewing my cousin, she was open to all questions and she is one of the closest cousins to me which helped the interview going easy and smooth with out any embarrassments. It would feel awkward to me interviewing someone unrelated to me since the questions were kind of personal and the person and I will feel uncomfortable.

I have a big family , it includes almost all ages, they are close to each other they socialize all the time and meet on every single holiday, except for couple persons that don’t get along with the family. They socialize a lot, mothers are more strict than fathers when it comes to dealing with their kids, and the reason behind this is that most of home work is on father where the father spends most of his time outside house. In my family, older individuals has to be treated specially, young family members has to always listen to and respect older people, and if that didn’t happen, every body disrespect the person. All my family members comes from same ethnicity, and thats because of tradition that men has to follow when it comes to fall in love or get married which is picking their wives from same ethnicity which positively effect their social life, they are very close to each other and have so many things in common to share.

I know first relatives from my mother and father’s side, not their cousins, uncles or aunt. I used to socialize a lot with my mother’s family members  than my father’s, but moving to the state effected this social relation and I now interact more with my father’s family since they live in same area I do. Oldest members are the most important members in family, every body take their advices and apply their decisions, they have to listen and respect this old person. Members who are married to the family are treated  the same as any family member because they are part of the family now, they socialize and live with the family and are considered to have same right and rules as any family member does. There is a big difference in treating a girl than guy, parents and family are very strict on their daughters than their sons, daughters are not allowed to have boyfriends, go out by their selves or travel, where guys can. This exercise helped me out remembering things about the family I came from, even all those things I knew from before, but answering questions about the family helped me organize my thoughts and recognize some stuff  never noticed even though I lived my whole life with them.

Subsistence and Economy

1   1.   Identify the benefits of both subsistence patterns. (10 pts)

      Hunter Gathering life is hard but there are some benefits living this life pattern , one of those benefits is they hunt meat which has high calories than other food type, so hunting on animal is enough for couple days, which mean they don’t have to spend much time working on gathering their food, so couple hours a day is enough. Fur of animals is expensive, they are not only using the animal for food but also using its fur for clothes and trading, plus animal bones for tools and other uses, Animals also provided milk and eggs, good sources of protein .Agricultural societies is Hard life as well but also has benefits, settlement is one of those benefits , farmers don’t have to move on when they the food runs out, by becoming more stable they develop towns and buildings, which helps them to be more independent and protect them from enemies. Developing town also helps them develop governments, technology and education.

2. Identify the costs (or disadvantages) of both subsistence patterns.  (10 pts)

            Although there are benefits living as a hunter gather or Agriculture, there are also disadvantages ,Agricultures used to burn forest to start  their farm, Fertility of the soil begins to decline after 2 to 3 years , which means they have to move on to another farm and burn more forests ,eventually this process result in deforestation . Agricultural life is very expensive, farming and soiling the farm are big money and time consumers. Less mobility agriculture societies have to stay in one geographical area and wait till the crops are ready to harvest .seasonal crops waiting till the harvesting time, depending on rain if the season has less rain than normal the harvest amounts would be less than expected and if it’s totally dry the corps will not survive and have to wait even more time to harvest. Hunting and gathering life is not guaranteed, they could go a whole day hunting but not get a single animal. This type of life depends mainly on men, women cannot hunt an elephant. Hunting huge mammal is very dangerous .Hunters rely on same kind of food, No variety of food can cause health problems, for example Eskimos can rely only of fish.

3. Which subsistence pattern provides a healthier diet?  Explain. (5 pts)

Hunting allow hunters to collect seafood, eggs, nuts, and fruits, all those types of food are full of vitamins and minerals, while agricultures only depends on vegetables and fruits which is also valuable in minerals and fibers but not enough.

4. Discuss why you think some human populations made the transition into agriculture? (5 pts)

Human population made the transition into agricultures because of the settlement, they don’t have to keep traveling looking for food, settling down helped them develop and live a classier life.

Part 2:  Economics and Trade:

1. There is a direct relationship between the availability of surplus and the ability to trade.  Explain the meaning of this statement. (5 pts)

The availability of surplus id the requirements to be able to trade, if they had short on their supplies of food, they will not be able to trade it, since they need it themselves. But vice versa relation ship is there as well, they had to be able to trade so they have surplus of supplies.

2. Identify and describe two (2) social benefits of trade.  (5 pts)

Trade helps social life, it create a social life between trader’s families which mean developing their life style and expanding their relations which cause to growth and economic benefits. Another benefits is by trading it helps people gaining all varieties of supplies, trades between farmers and hunters helps both side’s health, they trade meat for vegetables, so both societies will have both kinds which will help improving their health.

3. Identify and describe two (2) negative social results of the development of trade.  (5 pts)

Trades sometime cause to conflicts between tribes , another negative social result is their might be something called unfair trades which means that one tribe might trade an expensive valuable thing by another cheap thing just because of the need of it.

4. Given your answer in the question #1, explain the relationship between the developments of agriculture and the development of trade.  (5 pts)

The relationship is proportional because more agricultural productions causes more trades development in all kinds, and vice versa .