The Yanomamo (Yah-no-mah-muh) also called Yanomami, and Yanomama Tribe in Amazonia

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The Yanomamo (Yah-no-mah-muh) also called
Yanomami, and Yanomama Tribe in Amazonia
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A closer look
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Some Basic Information

• Area The Yanomomi territory covers an area of
  approximately 192,000 km2, located on both sides
  of the border between Brazil and Venezuela.
  Each area is roughly twice the size of
  Switzerland.
• First Contact 1929
• Population 11,700 in Brazil (in 2000) and 15,193
  in Venezuela (in 1992) largest of the Amazon
  tribes
• Today Continuous active genocide including the
  senseless massacre in September, 1993. An
  estimated 23 persons died, mostly women and
  children. Sixty two percent of Yanomami tested
  positive for new strains of malaria introduced
  by garimpeiros (gold miners) which have brought
  every conceivable disease known to modern man,
  from the common cold (Yanomami have no immunity
  to combat our most common ailment) right up to
  and
• including AIDS. The adult life expectancy is
  only 45 years and
• most children dont live past infancy.

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The Yanomami

• They are deep jungle Indians living in the Amazon
  basin in Amazon rainforest among the hills that
  line the border between Brazil and Venezuela.
  The Yanomami are believed to be the most
  primitive, culturally intact people in existence
  in the world. Their numbering system is one,
  two, and more than two. They cremate their dead,
  then crush and drink their bones in a final
  ceremony intended to keep their loved ones with
  them forever. They are hunters and gatherers
  also tend small garden plots. They are one of
  the most successful groups in the Amazon rain
  forest to gain a superior balance and harmony
  with their environment.

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Stone Age People or Not ?

• Some reports claim that the Yanomami are
  literally a stone age tribe. Cataloged by
  anthropologists as Neo-Indians with cultural
  characteristics that date back more than 8,000
  years, these are a Last Encyclopedia. They have
  never discovered the wheel and the only metal
  they use is what has been traded to them from the
  outside.
• However, another source claims that this
  characterization is inaccurate in that the
  Yanomami are horticulturalists, possessing a
  relatively advanced knowledge of crops and their
  culture.  In addition, they possess advanced bow
  and arrow technology, whose use was only
  introduced about a thousand years ago in the
  Americas.  Even the advanced civilization of the
  Incas lacked this level of technology. 

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Living in the Shabono

• The Yanomamö 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 shabono. 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 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.

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Food Language

• The Yanomamö 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
  Yanomamö is grubs. Traditionally they did not
  farm.
• In the language has four main subgroups and many
  additional variations, such that people from
  different villages cannot always understand each
  other. Linguists believe the Yanomamö language
  is unrelated to any of the other South American
  indigenous languages. The origins of the language
  are unknown.

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Conflict

• Historically, about 40 of adult males have
  killed another person and about 25 of adult
  males will die from some form of violence.
  Anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon observed that the
  majority of internal violence within the Yanomamo
  was related to reproductive opportunity.
  Chagnon also asserted that men who participated
  in killings had more wives and children than
  those who did not. Some Yanomamö men, however,
  reflected on the futility of their feuds and made
  it known that they would have nothing to do with
  the raiding.

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Gold Culture

• In the mid-1970s, garimpeiros (small independent
  gold-diggers) started to enter the Yanomamö
  country. Where these garimpeiros settled, they
  killed members of the Yanomamö 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 Yanomamö land.
• Disoriented by the influx of miners with their
  unfamiliar culture, technology and diseases,
  Yanamomi self-respect has plummeted as their
  belief and cultural systems are undermined. The
  Yanomami are not being integrated into Western
  society instead begging, prostitution and
  drunkenness are being introduced into theirs.