Globalization

Globalization

Globalization when dealing with the Yanomami  is like many of the stories we hear about involving other indigenous groups and globalization. The Yanomami lived on an extremely rich, nourished land. They lived off the land, eating and drinking what was provided by their environment. They ate game from the forest, fish from the waters, and bananas were also a large part of their diets. In addition to the food which was provided by the land, gold was had been discovered by the late 1900s. Just as the Europeans began to inhabit the "New World" once they came across its riches, the Brazilians began to take over the land of the Yanomami. With the Brazilians came disease and unpleasant conditions for the indigenous group. AIDS and tuberculosis were among the many diseases brought over. Many of the Yanomami were killed off because they had never been exposed to such conditions. Because of the Brazilians' hunger for gold, they invaded the land of the Yanomami and began mining the gold. The not well kept mining sites allowed for the pollution of mercury in the Yanomami's environment. Their water was poisoned, which in turned poisoned their food, causing the death of many of their people. Globalization could be said to have had a negative affect of the indigenous group due to the exposure of harmful things that come along with change.

Birx, H. James. "Yanomamo." Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2006. 2347-351. Print.

 Hames, Raymond. "South America." Encyclopedia of World Cultures. Vol. 7. New York: Macmillan Reference, 1996. 374-77. Print.

 Ricciardi, Mirella. Vanishing Amazon. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1991. Print.

Gender Issues

The women are responsible for domestic duties and chores, works in gardens to get vegetables and fruits. The men are obliged to hunt and take part of the manual labor. Women are regarded higher in this culture because they provide for the males and when it comes to giving birth to children the male is in great debt to the family of the wife. The debt is continued to be paid until the parents of the bride die.

Also polygamy is extremely common in the culture and the woman accept the fact and the eldest wife ofthe group is seen as superior compared to the other wives and does not partake in sexual activities.

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

Background Information

     The Yanomami are an indigenous group of about 20,000 people that dwell in approximately 200-250 villages in the Amazon Rainforest between Venezuela and Brazil. The villages consist of families and extended families and can range from 40 people to almost 400 villagers. The entire village lives in the same building called a "shabono". The Yanomami depend on the rainforest for survival and gather fruit, fish, and hunt animals in order to survive. To avoid completely decimating one area, they continuously move. The families are patriarchal and the children stay at home with the women. The men gather food, keep the village safe, and provide for the group while the women harvest crops to eat and perform household duties.

     Rituals are a very important to the Yanomami and many hallucinogenic drugs are taken, despite women not being allowed to participate in the drugs. The origin of their language is unknown and there are many dialects of the language which make communication with other groups very difficult. The Yanomami have been associated with violence to other groups and themselves. There are many examples of the Yanomami having brutal fights which sometimes end in death. This video Professor Villamar showed us in class perfectly illustrates the violence of the Yanomami.



Yanomami YOPO Snuff, electronic document, http://www.shamanic-extracts.com/xcart/shamanic-products/yanomami-yopo-snuff.html, date accessed 25 March 2013.

The Ax Fight, electronic document, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnQqxDTA04Y, date accessed 21 March 2013.

Yanomami, electronic document,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yanomami, date accessed 20 March 2013.

Change

     As the world becomes more and more industrialized, remote locations that were previously untouched, are now being researched to see what valuable material could be harbored beneath the surface of the earth. The Yanomami have had their land invaded, most recently, by illegal gold miners. These diseased-ridden miners are infecting the Yanomami population causing many deaths and illnesses. Along with the threat of the miners, cattle ranchers are now infringing on their territory. They are cutting down their forests and slowly creeping into their land.
     The Yanomami had been left alone from civilization, for the most part, and have never been faced with adversity like this. Since the indigenous group has a lack of medical supplies, and rely on older and more primitive methods, they are having trouble fighting these illnesses.


http://www.survivalinternational.org/films/yanomamiland
This link shows the Yanomami opinion on gold mining in their land.

The Yanomami, electronic document, http://www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/yanomami, date accessed 22 March, 2013.

Kinship

     The Yanomami kinship is base in the Iroquois system of kinship terminology. This system distinguishes between gender, generation and between parental siblings of opposite sexes. Parental siblings of the same sex are considered blood relatives; however, parental siblings of different sexes are labeled "aunt" or "uncle." For example, one's mother's sister is also called a mother and one's mother's brother is called a father-in-law. By tracing the family kinship through the males further reinforces how the Yanomami consider males more important that women. Leadership positions determine the relationships among other villages and are a large result of marriage patterns.
     Children stay close to their mothers as they are young. This makes sense since almost all of the child rearing is done by the women. The families of the Yanomami consist of large patrifocal (father focused) units based on one man, and numerous smaller matrifocal (mother focused) subfamilies. These subunits consist of each wife and her children.

Familypedia: Iroquois kinship. Electronic document, http://familypedia.wikia.com/wiki/Iroquois_kinship, accessed 12 March 2013. 

Yanomami: Indians of Brazil. Electronic document, http://www.crystalinks.com/yanomami.html, accessed 12 March 2013.

Home to the Yanomami. Electronic document, http://www1.broward.edu/~hsorkin/Lib-Arts/Projects/Fall2002/Hottinger/culture.html, accessed 12 March 2013. 

Marriage and Family

     In the Yanomami society, marriage is not the same two person, eternal commitment we traditionally think of. The Yanomami practice polygamy, where one man has multiple wives. They do not hold or celebrate individual marriage ceremonies. Young girls can be promised to men as young as five years old; however, girls can not be officially "wed" to the men until, their first menstrual cycle. After a young girls first cycle, she is literally handed off to an older man, usually a family 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." 
     Inter-tribal marriages are so common to reduce violent breakouts between different tribes. The new "wife" will take over the chores and duties of her spouse. Domestic violence is quite common among the Yanomami culture. If a woman cannot stand to live with her husband any longer, she may flee and live with her brothers. The elder wife in the "marriage" reins supreme over the other wives, and sexual relations with the husband typically stop. To reduce jealousy between the wives, the husband is not supposed to show favoritism. 

Yanomami: Indians of Brazil. Electronic document, http://www.crystalinks.com/yanomami.html, accessed 12 March 2013.
 

War

       The Yanomami people have a long history of being violent towards others and each other. The well known anthropologist, Napolean Chagnon, described the Yanomami as "living in a state of chronic warfare." Although Chagnon is a respected anthropologist, this previous comment sparked controversy in the anthropologist community. People disputed the severity of the violence, or if this way of life was an inherent part of their culture.                      Anthropologist Jacques Lizot stated that although the Yanomami are warriors, violence was purely sporadic and did not dominate their lives. However, this is only one opinion. 
Other reports say that intraspecific violence was the leading death among their culture.  Resources were often the main cause of the conflict the Yanomami experienced with their neighboring tribes. When confrontations broke out within the Yanomami, women often received physical abuse and the brunt of the anger. It was common for women to be beaten in order to keep them docile and faithful for their men. Men would even go so far as to brand their women to show dominance. While raiding enemy villages, Yanomami men often killed children. 

9 March 2012. Yanomami. Electronic Document, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yanomami, accessed 12 March 2013.

Malik, Kenan. 4 March 2013. From the Vaults: Darkness in Anthropology. Electronic document, http://kenanmalik.wordpress.com/2013/03/04/from-the-valuts-darkness-in-anthropology/, accessed 12 March 2013.


      Many times, the warring the Yanomami partake in involves the capturing of women so that their best warriors have the best reproductive opportunities. The Yanomami tend to keep their tribes under 150 people; however, during times of war, the villages will not split and they will let their populations reach up to 300 people. Statistics show that close to 40% of the adult males have killed another person and that an estimated 25% of the adult males will die from some form of violence. Violence between the Yanomami vary from chest pounding, club fights and raids, and warfare. 

Yanomami: Indians of Brazil. Electronic document, http://www.crystalinks.com/yanomami.html, accessed 12 March 2013.