Way of Life:
education:
The education of children is not done through the classic schooling that westernized cultures are dependent on. Children are taught the basics of the necessities, and left to experiment through trial an error until they figure it out. Children learn through imitation of adults and just living life. They learn to garden, cook, hunt, invent, and clean.
The Yanomamo numbering system is very simple. They use one, two, and "greater than two."
food!!
The Hunt is a main source of their diet. The activity is, (Quite classically) a male one. They use simple weapons, primarily the bow and arrow.
Foods such as palm fruits, palm hearts, honey, Brazil nut, and cashew fruit are gathered. :)
Fishing is accomplished by all ages and sexes and techniques such as stream poisoning, archery, and even by hand are used.
yay!
lastly, a good hunt and harvest is celebrated with a huge feast with all of the neighboring villages invited.
Contact:
catholic missionaries have been in contact regularly with the yanomamo since the 1950's, but have had very little to no success with their intentions of conversion.
ceremonies and beliefs
The Yanomamo believe that the universe is created from four parallel layers of existence.
1) layer number one is an empty layer that was long ago occupied by ancient ancestral beings, whom later merged with the lesser/ lower layers such as earth.
2) Layer two is the sky. The home of the spirits of dead men and woman. This layer is thought of to be an idealistic and sweet version of earth. with tastier food, happiers spirits, and eternal youth and beauty.
3) Layer three is the earth ;)
4) Layer four is the underworld- ancient spirits called the "Ahmai-terrhi" live there, with intentions of bringing harm to living humans.
Illness & shamans
It is believed that shamans can take personal control of a demon, and use it to cure and cause illness. In fact, they believe that all illness is caused by enemy shamans. For a village shaman to heal a man's sickness, he has to determine the cause of the illness and pull out the demon. For the ceremony, he must decorate and embellish himself and his surroundings, he then deeply inhales a hallucinogenic plant to gain better contact with the demons.
my opinions:
I feel like the yanomamo tribe is one of (if not THE) most important tribes in the world. It's contrast with western civilization is easy to talk about, but baffling to consider. Perhaps it could be called ignorance, but I feel like the Yanomamo are living with exactly what they need. If they need more, they would progress further. But the don't. I feel like looking at a tribe like this is a really easy way to look into our own culture. We may have stronger evolutions and scientific theories, but it all comes back to the same stuff. The necessities. And there seems to be something truly beautiful about taking only what you need. Looking more on the surface of the Yanomamo, they are also just a really interesting subject. It excites and interests me and I am ready to continue my research!
Source this time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eIfXlfHEcg
the video is short, but it's full of information so i thought it would be alright :))
