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If you are looking at this blog right now, than you just got awesomer. Leave it. is all about super cool primitive societies such as the Yanomamo. Yay? I think so.

Friday, April 29, 2011

Yanomamö are cooler that stuff like the process of making tenis rackets.

Culture;)
Technology
 The Yanomamo technology is extremely simple.  Everything is direct, and requires almost no resources that can't be regularly found.  They seem as though they should be considered hunter and gatherers, but they are in fact Horticultural.
Pots
The pots are built thin and fragile.  They can be easily broken.  women, who are regarded as clumsy by the men, are rarely allowed to handle the pots.  They are usually used for feasts, the preperations of which the men take care of, to avoid the "clumsy" woman breaking them.  They break soon after they are made, and afterward, the men use the rough shattered slivers as grinding stones for their hallucinogens.
BOWS:
Bowstaves
Bowstaves are 5-6 feel lond and are made up of palm wood, a dense, brittle substance.   It is carved and shaped with a razor sharp pigs tooth.
the Bowstrings are made from the fibers of the inner bark of another tree.  The strong fibers are briskly rolled into thick cords.
Arrrows are ofter, when hunting monkeys, made up of splinters of wood that are weakened every inch, so that it breaks off inside the victim and can't be pulled out by the clever monkeys.  The arrows are dipped in poison that slowly lulls them to sleep so that they drop down from their tree top abodes.
The Yanomamo bows are extremely powerful, (about as powerful as those we have today in our society), but they are brittle, and near the end of their lives, they will often snap or shatter when used.

In all, the tools they are using seem to be typically very convenient, but not built to last. all of the tools break after a short period of time.
Hallucinogenic Drugs 
 In the Brazilian Jungles, there are several plants that can be used as hallucinogens.  The Yanomamo take these plants and create, "Hallucinogenic snuff powders."  The most common, but not the most desired plant is the Yakowana tree,, who's moist inner bark is dried, ground, and added to white ashed from another tree.  the mixture is moistened with saliva and kneaded into a gummy substance.  this substance is then heated over a stone, and later ground into a green snuff power.  The most desired Hallucinogen is the Hisiomö plant.  It's tiny seeds are carefully skinned, and turned into snuff powder using a similar process as used for the Yakowana plant.  The Hisiomö is far more powerful than the Yakowana as well.
My thoughts and Opinions
I really hope that this tribe can thrive.  I have obviously not covered everything yet, but there is a major crisis going on concerning mining in Yanomomö territory.  I found this site where you can write an email to the brazilian Gov't to help stop the mining.  I wrote one, sort of.  It was pretty minimal, but it was a pre-written latter and i erased most of the written stuff because I figured they must be getting hundreds of the same letter, and they must be getting pissed.  I made sure to mention that I was young several times because I noticed that adults respond to young people better, a lot of the time.  So yeah sorry i just though I would share that little experiance.
Othere than that though, my opinion of the Yanomamo is very high. they seem like really interesting people, and i wish i could adopt their lifestyle as my own!

Sources:
Book "Yanomamö fifth edition" By: Napoleon A. Chagnon  pgs. 45-55 




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