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Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research

Yanomami "Violence": Inclusive Fitness or Ethnographer's Representation?Author(s): Bruce AlbertSource: Current Anthropology, Vol. 30, No. 5 (Dec., 1989), pp. 637-640Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of Wenner-Gren Foundation forAnthropological ResearchStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2743574

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Volume 3o, Number5,December I989 | 637

stitute fArchaeology,ungarian cademy fSciences, uda-pest,Hungary.

UNESCO-FAO. I963. Bioclimaticmap of heMediterraneanone:Explanatory otes.Arid oneResearch 1I.

. I969. Vegetation apof heMediterraneanone: Explan-atory otes.Arid one Research0.

WEIDE, D. I976. "Appendix: egional etting nd geomorphichistory,"n NeolithicMacedonia.Edited yM. Gimbutas, p.4I8-4I. Los Angeles:UniversityfCalifornia ress.

Yanomami"Violence":InclusiveFitnessorEthnographer's epresentation?

BRUCE ALBERT

ORSTOM- Universidadede Brasilia, Caixa Postal07-112I, 70359 Brasilia, .F., Brazil. 4 v 89

Braziliananthropologistsave recently rguedthatChagnon'sI988) work dvancing sociobiologicallyn-spired heoryfYanomami violence" asbeenwidelydisseminatedytheBrazilian ress o exacerbatereju-diceagainst hese ndians nd that thasgiven hegov-ernmentrgumentso justify he dismembermentftheir ands see Carneiro a Cunha 989; see also AlbertandRamos,989, Booth989, and, or detailed ccountof heYanomami's ituationn Brazil, lbert989a, b).ChagnonI989), in response, as said thathe reported

scientific acts hathave simply een misused. willshow hat hese facts" requestionableithernthem-selves r nthe ontextnwhich hey representedndthat he heoreticalrameworknwhich heyre mbed-ded s riddled ith ultural reconceptions.2

Chagnonakes s indicatorsf he evelofviolencenYanomami ociety pp.985, 986-89)thepercentagefadultmale mortalityue to violence approximately30%), thepercentagefmalesestimated5 years f geor olderwho "haveparticipatedn thekilling f ome-one" (44%),andthepercentagefadults ver n esti-mated 0 years fage who have "lost a close geneticrelative ue to violence" nearly 0%). He also tenta-

tively xplains n apparent tatistical orrelation e-tween he tatus f killer""unokai") andhigher epro-ductive uccess p. 989,table ) in terms fthegreatersuccess f unokais" nacquiring atesp. 989, able )either yabduction rthroughheir restigenarrang-ingmarriagelliances pp. 89-go).

First,everal ommentsan be made bout hevalid-ityofChagnon's riteria or heassessment f Yano-mami violence":

i. I amgratefuloWaudKracke,AlcidaRamos,Kenneth aylor,EduardoViveirosde Castro, nd RobinWright or heirhelpful

comments n earlier ersions fthisreport.2. For ther riticisms fChagnon's eificationfYanomami vio-lence," see Davis (I976), Sponsel (I983, I985), Ramos (I987), andLizot (I989).

i. From hagnon's eporthat,whileYanomamiwar-fare as recently iminishednmost egions ecause fpermanentontactwithmissionariesndgovernmentagents,t is still actively ngagedn in the cluster fvillages n which e has donefield esearchp. 986), ne

gets he mpressionhat he situationn thisregionsrepresentativef a pristine nd pan-Yanomamieality.This,however,s notthecase.TheYanomami umberabout 2,500 (not 5,000), distributedhroughoutterri-tory f aproximately92,000 km2 n Venezuela ndBrazil see Oficina Central I985:381 and Colchester[i985:71 for heYanomami opulationn Venezuela, e-cretaria-Gerali988:I3] for he Yanomami fBrazil).They re inguisticallynd culturallyivided ntofoursubgroups:Yan6mami (Chagnon's "Yanomam6"),Yanomam, anima, nd Ninam Migliazza 972). Thelevelof malemortality'n warfares calculated romgenealogiesoveringhreeofive enerationsand here-

fore ncludingmostly eaths rior o ntensivendper-manent ontactwithwhites) aries ignificantlymongthese subgroups: orexample, t is 40% amongtheShamatari an6mami after hagnon 974:I60, table4.I0) and 4% among he Catrimani anomamAlbertI985:99-I00 n.9). talso varies mong ifferentlustersof villageswithinthe same subgroup: orexample,among heYan6mamit is 40% for heShamatari,4%forthe Namoweiteriafter hagnon 974:i6o, table4.IO), I2% for heHaiyamo Hames 983:420), and o-24% for he "central an6mami"Lizot 972: 2i6 n.I).Itthus ppearshat he ntensityfwarfare as owernmostparts f Yanomami erritoryhan t was in the

Shamatarirea evenbefore ecent nterethnicontact.4On the basis of his earlierwritings ne could hy-pothesize, reciselyheopposite fChagnon's resentargument,hat hecomparativelyigh evel ofwarfareintensity egisteredmong he Shamataris linked ohistoricalhanges hat ffectedhispopulationn themoredistant ast.Thus theparticularlyynamic ro-cessofvillage issionnd theattendantigh requencyof ntervillageostilitiesbservedmong heShamatarimight erywell havetheir riginnthe populationx-plosion"thatresulted rom heir arly cquisition fsteel ools hroughndirect ontact ndaccessto unoc-

3.Givenhe aturef he vailable anomamiomparativeata,useheremale nstead f dultmalemortalityercentages.t nyrate, hegeneral nderreportingf childdeathsn Yanomamigenealogiesrobably akes he atter otmuch igherhan heformer.4.ChagnonI974:48) describes he hamataris the 'Fiercer' eo-ple." Foraccountsof ow warfarentensityn most Yanomamiareas rom ieldworkbservationsuringhe 6osand 70s, eeColchester i982:io5-6 [Western anima]l), redlund i982:37[OcamoYan6mamil), igliazza, uoted nChagnonI966:I93, I95[Uraricaa Ninam]l),Shapiro (I972:39, I70-7I, I73-74 [Catrimaniand Parima Yanomam]l), Smole (I976:74, 233 n. IO5 [Parima

Yan6mamil), Sponsel (I98:I102-3 [WesternSanima]l), nd Taylor(I974:25 [Eastern Sanima]l); see also Peters (i980:276, table 2),whose ata how i% male and 4% adultmale)mortalitynwarfareor heMucajalNinambetween958 and I980.

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638 1 URRENT ANTHROPOLOGY

cupiedterritoriesacated by otherpopulationsseeChagnon966:I67).5

Moreover, hagnon's igure f 30% is considerablylower hanthosereportedor therndigenousroupswithin heAmazon egionsee Sponsel 985:io): adult

malemortalitynwarfares 59% for heAchuaraRossI980:46) and about6i% for he Waorani plus i% inconflicts ue to contact after arrickt al. I979:i67,

table71). et Rossnotes hat heAchuara, ven houghshowingmuchhigherdultmale mortalityn warfarethan heYanomami, ave a decidedlyessostentatiousformator ccomplishinguch ends" p. 46).TheWao-rani, or heir art, re reputed o have an ethosthatemphasizes eacefulness,avingbeen describeds a"tribewhereharmonyules" Collins 983, quotedbyKnauft987:473). Culturally alueddemonstrationsfaggressivenessYanomami fierceness")r gentleness(Waorani peacefulness")mustnotbe confusedwith

correspondingatesofviolentdeath, nd theuse ofeither o characterize society s a whole s bound ofosterpreconceptions ather than anthropologicalknowledgesee Knauft987 and Riches 987).

2. In reportinghat 4% ofmen 5 years f georolderhaveparticipatedn the killing f someone pp.985,989),Chagnon akesthe Yanomami itual ategoryfunokai to be equivalent o the Western onceptof"killer."Unokai,however,enotes state f ymbolicimpurityhat s saidtoresult rom he upernaturaln-corporationy hekiller f heblood ndflesh f slainenemy, hetherhis nemywas killed y n arrow, yshamanism,y sorcery,rbythekilling fhisanimal

alter go 20 ofthe 9 Yanomam eaths egistereduringmy ieldwork ere ttributedo these uman ttacks ysupernatural eans seeAlbert985:7071).6 Chagnon'sdataon Yanomami killers" rebasedonnative etro-spectiveccounts funokai ases.Given hepolysemyofthesymbolicategoryfunokai, hevariable egreeof eliabilityfhis nformants,nd he izeof hedemo-graphic asisforhis survey380 menaged 0 years rolder see p. 989,table ]), one cannot ule out some

5.The KarawatarindKohoroshitariillage lusters,hichmayhave commonrigin ith he hamatari,igratedhroughheMavaca nd iapa rainageeforehem,tthe urn f he entury(Chagnon 974:82-87). The previous ccupantsof this region,Arawak-speakingndigenous roupshostile to the Yanomami,were y hen xtinctseeChagnon966:29-32; Albert985:40-4I, 54-55).Formoredetails n thehistoryf ontact nd changesamong heYanomami, ee ColchesterI982:chap.2; 984) andAl-bert I985:chap.I; i988).6. Accordingo theYanomam, man n the conditionf unokaimust observe complex et of ritualrestrictionsn his move-ments, ehavior,nd diet unokaimu)n order o protect imselffrom herisk fprematureging ausedbythe upernaturalntru-sion ofhisvictim's lood ntohisbody. n thisrespecthecondi-tionofunokai s symbolicallyonstructeds a masculinenver-sion of menstruation.he unokaimu itual rocess s,moreover,conceived s a digestionf hedecaying lesh f hekilled nemy.

This "exocannibalism"s closelyrelated o the "endocannibal"symbolism fthe funeraryitual, n whichthepowdered oneashes of affines re consumed effectivelyrsymbolically).or afull nalysis fYanomam itual ymbolism,ee Alberti985).

degree femic/eticonfusionn hisrecordf killers."In spiteofhis reporthathe didnotconsider uper-natural eath p. 987), t seems ikely hat portionfthemenwho stated hat hey rothers ad undergoneunokai couldhavedone o on thebasis of upernatural

rather hanphysical illing.ChagnonI989) argues hat heYanomami e studieddistinguish"true" nokaiproducedyphysical illing("unokai a yai") from "false"one causedby super-natural illing"unokai a horemou").On the nehand,never eard fthe distinctionuringmy 9 months ffieldworkmong heYanomamnBrazil.On theotherhand, he deathat heYanomami-ormembers f nycomparable ociety-wouldconsider he ritual onse-quences f supernaturalillingess real han hose fphysical ne sbewildering.. izot,whofor0 years aslived mong anomamiwho peak he ame anguagesChagnon'snformantsnd has workedntensivelyn

linguistics,as recentlyeportedotonly hathe neverencounteredhe unokai a yai/unokai horemou"dis-tinctionnYan6mamiut lsothat ts upposedormula-tion as presented y Chagnon s not grammaticallycorrectpersonal ommunication, anuary5, I989).7

Furthermore,ven in cases of actual warfare illingthere s no simple quivalence etween ur notion f"killer" or homicide nd the Yanomami ategory funokai. Besides he fact hat everal ifferentarriorsshoot he samevictims n combat rcollectively illisolated nemiesChagnon988:987), a numberf hemalso shootdying r, ometimes,venalready ead vic-tims omanifestheirnger gainsthekiller"real" r

"symbolic") f somerelative, o affirmolitical ndritual olidarity ith llies,or toconfirmituallyheiradult tatus. or heYanomami,veryone hohas shotanarrownto hevictims consideredobe n the ondi-tion funokai. In this ontext, ore ften hannot t svirtuallympossbleosingle utwhodid he ctualkill-ing nterms omparableothenotion mbeddedntheWesternonceptfhomicide. or ll these easons,fteranyYanomami aid, henumberfwarriorsaid o be nthe stateofunokai (Yanomam nokarime thebeis al-ways onsiderablyreaterhan hat fvictims. hisbe-ingthecase,thepercentagefmen "who havepartici-pated n thekilling f someone," vencalculated n

thebasisof laims opastunokai conditionsnwarfare,cannot be considered quivalent o a percentagefhomicides nd thusbyno meansoffers reliable om-parativemeasure fviolence n Yanomamiociety.8

7. Chagnon I989) givesas an exampleof the "false" category,besides upernaturalkillers," men whodeflowerrepubescentvirgins," ut neither mongthe Yanomamnoramongthe Ya-n6mami Lizot, ersonal ommunication, pril 8, I989)does thedefloweringf a girl ausea man to enter he tate funokai ndundergoheunokaimu itual. n fact, he use of the unokai cate-gorysmetaphoricalnthis ontext,s inseveral thersseeAlbertI985:345-46 n. Ii, i2), while its ritual usage sensu stricto onsistsnot in a tropebut in a belief

(seeSperber 974:II4-I9), whether

associatedwith physical illing r with supernaturalne.8. For a convergentnalysisofChagnon'smisuseofthe unokaicategory, ee Lizot (I989:33).

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640 1CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY

way,therepresentationf culturalOtherness s naturalsavagery urns this savagery nto a fascinating blackmirror" upposedto reflect oth the origin nd there-verseof (our) society.This may be one reason for thewidespread nd uncritical nterest n Chagnon'swork."

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