The Yanomami believe strongly in equality among people. Each community is independent from others and they do not recognize ‘chiefs’. Decisions are made by consensus, frequently after long debates where everybody has a say. Like most Amazonian tribes, tasks are divided between the sexes.

What do the Yanomami believe in?

The Yanomami believe strongly in equality among people. Each community is independent from others and they do not recognize ‘chiefs’. Decisions are made by consensus, frequently after long debates where everybody has a say. Like most Amazonian tribes, tasks are divided between the sexes.

What are the Yanomami traditions?

The Yanomami practice slash-and-burn agriculture and live in small, scattered, semipermanent villages. They supplement their crop of plantains, cassava, tubers, corn (maize), and other vegetables with gathered fruits, nuts, seeds, grubs, and honey. They hunt monkeys, deer, tapirs, fowl, and armadillos.

What type of society does the Yanomami tribe belong to?

The Yanomami and their land The Yanomami comprise a society of hunter-agriculturists of the tropical rainforest of Northern Amazonia, whose contact with non-indigenous society over the most part of their territory has been relatively recent.

What is Xapiripë?

There are many, many xapiripë, not just a few, but thousands, like stars. Some live in the sky, some live under the ground and others live in the high mountains which are full of forests and flowers. We call these sacred places ‘hutu pata’. When the sun is high in the sky, the xapiripë sleep.

What drug do the Yanomami take?

Another Yanomami pastime that has been extensively documented is the tribe’s widely known use of recreational drugs. Their most favored drug of choice is natural hallucinogens that are generally referred to by the generic name of ebene.

What do the Yanomami tribe do for a living?

The Yanomami are known as hunters, fishers, and horticulturists. The women cultivate cooking 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 Yanomami is grubs.

Do the Yanomami wear clothes?

When it comes to clothing, the Yanomami do not wear a great deal because of the hot climate. They like to decorate themselves with flowers and feathers. They also will often pierce their faces with bones as further decoration.

What dangers do the Yanomami tribe face?

Venezuelan Yanomami are threatened by inadequate health services, political violence, economic exploitation and tourism. Their population has substantially reduced in recent decades, mainly as a result of diseases introduced by gold miners invading Yanomami land.

What drug does Yanomami use?

Do the Yanomami still exist?

The Yanomami, also spelled Yąnomamö or Yanomama, are a group of approximately 35,000 indigenous people who live in some 200–250 villages in the Amazon rainforest on the border between Venezuela and Brazil….Yanomami.

Total population
Brazil (northern) 19,420 (2011)
Languages
Yanomaman languages
Religion

What weapons do the Yanomami tribe use?

The Yanomami tribe hunts by using bow and arrow and blowguns to kill their prey.

What does the Yanomami eat?

For food, the Yanomami eat most of what the jungle can offer, which is quite a wide variety of foods. They feast on all kinds off edible fare ranging from snakes, wild pigs, monkeys, deer, and jaguars to varieties of insects, larvae, fish, crabs, wild honey, plantain, sweet potato, and palm fruits.

What is the Yanomami culture?

The Yanomami is the largest isolated South American tribe which strongly believes in equality among people. They did not socialize outside world but had embraced the strong culture in Venezuela and Brazil.

What is the Yanomami death ritual?

The Yanomami tribe, who live spread across 200-250 villages in the Amazon rainforest, practice the traditional death ritual of endocannibalism. This means that loved ones of the person who has died consume his or her flesh as long as he or she was a member of the kin group.

How can we help the Yanomami?

David Good, son of the Kenneth Good (anthropologist) and wife Yarima, launched ‘The Good Project’ to help and support the Yanomami tribe. The Germany-based NGO, Yanomami-Hlife eV is building schools and medical stations in Brazil and Venezuela for the Yanomami tribe.

Why do the Yanomami use ashes to honor their dead?

This is due to the Yanomami tribe’s belief that the spirit cannot completely transition to the spiritual world without completely vanishing from the material world. Therefore, the ashes cannot be fully consumed until the matter of avenging the death is resolved so that the late loved one can make the peaceful transition to the spiritual world.