the yanomami tribe
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YANOMAMI Medals of honors
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Transcript of the yanomami tribe
YANOMAMIMedals of honors
THE YANOMAMI, the largest Indian tribe living in relative isolation in the Amazon Basin, have for millennia occupied a vast stretch of tropical rainforest in northern Brazil and southern Venezuela. Of the estimated 40,000 Yanomami, around two-thirds live in Brazil, where a landmark presidential decree in 1992 recognized them as rightful owners of a reserve the size of Portugal in two northern states, Roraima and Amazonas.
After the 1992 presidential decree, which recognized the Yanomami’s “original right” to their land, all outsiders were evicted from the reserve by the army, police and the Brazilian Indian Foundation, known by its Portuguese acronym of Funai. But soon moves were afoot in Brasilia to authorize economic activity in the lands set aside for the country’s 550 Indian tribes, an area equivalent to the combined size of Texas and California, or 13 percent of Brazil’s territory.
Today, a new bill pending before Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies would proclaim a “public interest” in allowing Indian reserves to be used for farming, mining, oil and gas pipelines, hydroelectric dams, human settlements and military operations. The bill, already approved by the Senate, is strongly opposed by Indian rights and environmental groups and Funai, which forms part of the federal government.
Yanomami have reported seeing uncontacted Yanomami, whom they call Moxateteu, in the Yanomami territory. The Moxateteu are believed to be living in the part of the Yanomami territory with the highest concentration of illegal goldminers.
Contact with the miners could be very dangerous for the Moxateteu, as violent conflict could erupt. The miners also spread malaria and other diseases, which could be fatal for the Moxateteu who will not have built up immunity to common diseases.FUNAI, the Brazilian government’s indigenous affairs department, has placed a new team in the area to ascertain where the Moxateteu are and how many they are, without making contact.Davi Kopenawa said, ‘There are many uncontacted Indians. I don’t know them, but I know they are suffering just like we are… I want to help my uncontacted relatives who have the same blood as us. It is really important for all Indians, including the uncontacted Indians, to stay on the land where we were born.’
The Yanomami are an indigenous tribe (also called Yanamamo, Yanomam, and Sanuma) made up of four subdivisions of Indians which live in the tropical rain forest of Southern Venezuela and Northern Brazil. Each subdivision has its own language. They include the Sanema which live in the Northern Sector, the Ninam which live in the southeastern sector, the Yanomam which live in the southeastern part and the Yanomamo which live in the southwestern part of Yanomami area.
The Yanomami depend on the rain forest; they use "slash-and-burn" horticulture, grow bananas, gather fruit, and hunt animals and fish. Yanomami frequently move to avoid areas that become overused, a practice known as shifting cultivation when the soil becomes exhausted.
The Yanomami 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 Yanomami is grubs. The practice of felling palms to facilitate the growth of grubs was the Yanomami's closest approach to cultivation. The traditional Yanomami diet is very low in salt. Their blood pressure is characteristically among the lowest of any demographic group. For this reason, the Yanomami have been the subject of studies seeking to link hypertension to sodium consumption.
Today about 95% of the Yanomami live deep within the Amazon forest as compared to the 5% who live along the major rivers.
Compared to the "forest people," the "river people" are much more sedentary and subsist by fishing and trading goods such as canoes and hooks with other villages.The "forest people" are horticulturists as well as hunters and gathers. They will spend up to two hours of their day "garden farming" which is quite a labor intensive process. Some of the crops grown include sweet potatoes, bananas, sugar cane and tobacco. However as horticulturists the Yanomami do not get sufficient protein from their crops. Therefore the Yanomami will spend as much as 60% of their time trekking.
Men usually make up the hunters and the women the gathers. Men will go on long distant hunts that may last up to a week. The fact that just about all of the Yanomami live deep within the forest has been quite significant for their survival.
Since most outsiders have invaded the Amazon via the large rivers, the Yanomami have been able to live in isolation until very recently. Because of this they have been able to retain their culture and their identity which many Indians of the Amazon have lost.
Trade also is another important aspect of Yanomami life and helps to reduce the chances of warfare between villages. Often one village will have manufactured goods that are badly needed by an other village.http://www.crystalinks.com/yanomami.html
One of the main threats to the Yanomami people is gold mining. There are more than 1000 people illegally mining on Yanomami land. As well as the obvious, negative environmental impacts such as pollutions of forests and rivers with mercury, the presence of the miners allows the transmission of deadly diseases such as malaria throughout the tribe, due to them not having developed resistance to diseases that are common for the outside world. Urgent medical care is very difficult for the Yanomami people to obtain, and as health increasingly suffers due to intruders, this becomes an increasingly dangerous situation for the Yanomami.
Cattle ranching is also causing devastation to the forests on the Eastern edge of Yanomami land. The Brazilian army have now placed barracks in Yanomami land, thereby increasing tensions greatly. The soldiers have used Yanomami women as prostitutes, infecting some of the women with STI’s.
http://lifeforaforest.com/2015/08/31/the-yanomami-tribe
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.
Hutukara, the Yanomami association© HutukaraIn 2004, Yanomami from 11 regions in Brazil met to form their own organisation, Hutukara (meaning ‘the part of the sky from which the earth was born’), to defend their rights and run their own projects.
As a result of their increasing contact with outsiders, the Yanomami andCCPY, a Brazilian NGO, set up a Yanomami education project. One of its main aims is to raise awareness amongst the Yanomami of their rights.
Yanomami teachers are being trained to teach reading, writing and maths in their communities. Other Yanomami have been trained as health agents by Urihi, a healthcare NGO.
However, in 2004 the Brazilian government’s National Health Foundation (FUNASA) took charge of Yanomami health care. Since then, the Yanomami have increasingly denounced the chaotic health care system.
Officials are being investigated for corruption and stealing money from the health programme. Medicines and vital equipment are not reaching communities stricken by malaria and other diseases, and Yanomami are dying.
Yanomami in Venezuela formed their own organization called Horonami in 2011 to defend their rights.The Yanomami first came into sustained contact with outsiders in the 1940s
when the Brazilian government sent teams to delimit the frontier with Venezuela.Soon the government’s Indian Protection Service and religious missionary groups established themselves there. This influx of people led to the first epidemics of measles and flu in which many Yanomami died.In the early 1970s the military government decided to build a road through the Amazon along the northern frontier. With no prior warning bulldozers drove through the community of Opiktheri. Two villages were wiped out from diseases to which they had no immunity.The Yanomami continue to suffer from the devastating and lasting impacts of the road which brought in colonists, diseases and alcohol. Today cattle ranchers and colonists use the road as an access point to invade and deforest the Yanomami area. http://www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/yanomami
Religious Beliefs. The Yanomami believe that the cosmos consists of four parallel planes or layers. The upper-most layer is empty but was once occupied by ancient beings who descended to lower layers. The second layer, or sky, is the home of spirits of dead men and women, and it resembles the earth except that the hunting is better, the food tastier, and the spirits of people are young and beautiful. The third layer is the earth, and below the earth is the fourth layer, or underworld. In the underworld live the Amahi-teri, ancient spirits that bring harm to living humans.
Read more: http://www.everyculture.com/South-America/Yanomam-Religion-and-Expressive-Culture.html#ixzz3tzY1eMWC
Arts. Yanomami graphic art is limited and simple. Sparse geometric designs, usually black or red, adorn common objects such as baskets, arrow points, and bodies. The verbal and vocal arts such as oratory, chanting, and myth telling are much esteemed and developed among the Yanomami. Although these acts may have political and social significance (e.g., when village leaders, employing esoteric metaphors and archaic words, ritually exchange chants), performers are admired and gain status based on their talents.
Read more: http://www.everyculture.com/South-America/Yanomam-Religion-and-Expressive-Culture.html#ixzz3tzYPGdI5
Medicine. The Yanomamö believe most serious illness to be the handiwork of independently acting hekura or enemy shamans who have caused their hekura to sicken a body. A shaman must diagnose the cause and sometimes figuratively pull the demon out, often with the help of his own demons.
Read more: http://www.everyculture.com/South-America/Yanomam-Religion-and-Expressive-Culture.html#ixzz3tzYYjbsW
Death and Afterlife. The Yanomamö attribute a large fraction of deaths to the actions of malevolent shamans who send demons to consume the souls of people. Upon death, there are instantaneous lamentations, singing, and chanting. Usually the corpse is very quickly burned by the men, while women and children absent themselves from the village lest they become polluted by the smoke. The men then collect and pulverize the bones and pour the ash into a set of gourds that are stored in the village. After about a year the Yanomamö stage an elaborate mortuary ceremony (reahu). Close relatives, covillagers, and sometimes allies consume the ash, which is mixed into a large trough of plantain soup. This endocannibalism demonstrates affection for the dead and solidarity with the deceased's relatives. It also helps insure that the soul of the dead will find its way to hedu, a Yanomamö paradise above the earth.
Read more: http://www.everyculture.com/South-America/Yanomam-Religion-and-Expressive-Culture.html#ixzz3tzZIbzbC
