Brief Summary of the Yanomamo Indigenous Peoples

The Yanomamo are a people inhabiting the Amazonian border between Brazil and Venezuela. Some live in the lowlands, where fish and game are abundant, others in the highlands surviving by foraging and gathering.

Yanomamo peoples are referred to in anthropology as "shifting cultivators", meaning they move from one home range to another as they deplete the resources. Forest is cleared by machetes, axes, or by fire, which is known as slash-and-burn agriculture. Crops consist of manioc (a very successful root crop), sweet potatoes, and taro. Foraging is extremely important, and has been shown to have more time spent on this activity than others.

Marriage in the Yanomamo is a very interesting facet of this indigenous people's culture, and is done through a means called "sister exchange", with marriage partners ideally being cross-cousins. It is patrilocal, meaning that the wife will live with the husband's family or association upon marriage, and polygamy is not uncommon. If there is a death in the marriage, the widow is obligated to marry her deceased husband's brother, or in the case of the contrary, the man would marry his deceased's sister.

Politics among the Yanomamo is complex, and can and usually involves warfare. As shifting cultivators, commonly a tribe of Yanomamo will wander into the home range of another neighboring village. War may be declared due to the trespass, but usually the Yanomamo will claim that the warring was due to some sort of personal oversight, such as a murder, ancestral debt, or the theft of a woman.

Economically speaking, Yanomamo women tend to do more work than men in their lifetimes, due to the differences in their work-roles. Though both sexes share the work load, the difference lies in who does the child-rearing. Men perform heavy tasks such as hunting and forest-clearing, while women complete daily household tasks; weeding, harvesting, and preparing food, all while raising children. Childhood is short, as the young join the workforce quite early. Though their labor will not be as consistent or efficient as their adult counterparts, they usually match their parents' abilities by adolescence. School for the Yanomamo people is the family economic struggle.

The Yanomamo tribes differ in location, high or lowland traits, but both act as shifting cultivators. Though this may inspire apprehension and fear that they are depleting the rain forests, the Yanomamo have survived in the Amazonian tropics this way for generations. Hopefully for these peoples, it will not have to change.

References

"1991 Anthropology Archives", "Yanomami Indian People" Microsoft® Student 2007 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2006

Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2007. © 1993-2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Haviland, 1999, Chap.12 Political Organization and the Search for Order, Chap 15 Cultural Change/Pgs. 354, 454-455, 474