Yanomamo Indians

Yanomamo Environment

Dense Amazon plantlife

The Yanomamo Indians are the indigenous people of the Amazon tropical rainforest of northern Brazil and southern Venezuela. Temperatures here are consistently between 22-30^oC with high humidity. Each year receives about 80 inches of rainfall, and there is almost no variation in weather throughout the seasons. The biggest temperature changes occur between day and night, and even those are slight.  

They are one of the most ancient people groups in existence in the Amazon rainforest and are very isolated from the outside world. It was only until 1920 that they had remained completely cut off from most other cultures. They live in villages of up to 300 residents; villages may often clash with one another. These clashes are primarily due to cultural conflicts, though, not for resources. The greatest competition they now face for resources is encroaching ranchers and gold miners that are illegally seizing land and polluting the river systems.  

The tropical rainforest environment is teeming with numerous species of plant and wildlife. Monkeys, jaguars, armadillos, snakes, various birds, and fish are hunted for food, and fruit bearing plants like bananas and plantains, edible roots, and local varieties of tobacco and cotton are also commonly found and utilized, even grown, by the Yanomamo. There is a noticeable scarcity of significant protein food sources. The only wildlife that poses a significant threat to the Yanomamo are the jaguar and disease bearing insects.

Adaptations

Physical

Unlike most Euro-American men, Yanomami
men do not have facial or significant body hair

Even though humid, hot air is uncomfortable to most Americans, it is actually ideal for maintaining homeostasis, as long as proper hydration is available.  One adaptation they poses is that they have little body or facial hair (even the men). This helps them cool off faster by sweating and also means they have less body oils on their skin which are not necessary in a moist environment. Because protein rich foods are difficult to find, the Yanonamo are extremely short. This is not just due to malnutrition; almost all Yanonamo people are unable to grow much over 5 feet tall. This allows them to live off less protein than many people normally require.
Cultural

Everyone is involved in gathering daily food and supplies

a shabono surrounded by dense forest

Yanonamo culture is a wonderful example of adaptation. They are horticulturists, so they only need to hunt and gather a little to supplement what they grow. The food they grow, though, is all from crops that are naturally found in their environment. Because of this, their crops require little maintenance, so they are also able to plant “wild” gardens far from the village that require little to no care. This allows them to travel from garden to garden gathering crops that have grown while they are at the home village. They also have very strong communal ties that make the most out of their resources. In the rainforest, wild plants are ready and waiting to pop back into any cleared land. Yanonamo villages consist of one large circular wooden compound with a garden in the center, called a shabono. This keeps the wild out, and allows people to keep their living and gardening spaces clear much more efficiently than if each family unit had to maintain their own. These communal ties are strong while they exist, but they are easily and frequently fractured. Deaths (violent or natural), marital dispute, shortage of women, or personal offenses can cause confrontations that end in villages fracturing. While this is bad in that it leads to many violent acts and deaths, it actually can help the Yanonamo survive in the long run by keeping their settlements from ever getting too large. In the jungle, it’s easier to provide resources for smaller groups of people.

Language

The Yanonamo speak Yanomame (also called Yanonamo) which is part of the Yanonaman language family that also contains Sanuma, Ninam, and Waika (also called Yanomami). This language family is totally distinct from any other language families in the world, which is a testament to how long they have been isolated from other people groups.

Their language contains 7 vowels, as opposed to English’s 8. In addition the familiar a, e, i, o, and u, they also have ë (combination of i and e sounds) and ö (combination of e and o). Words can have long sequences of vowel, sometimes up to four.  They are also highly synthetic, which means there is a high morpheme to word ratio. In comparison to English, it is much more synthetic. The Yanomamo have a very large vocabulary that is estimated to be even larger than the working vocabulary of many Americans, which is impressive considering they have no traditional written language.

Yanomami children in writing class

Thanks to recent humanitarian work, some Yanonamo have formed a written language. This is not widely used though, and oral tradition is still the primary means for passing along stories, legends, and knowledge.

Gender Roles

There are only two acknowledged genders in Yanonamo society: male and female. Since everything is either male or female to the Yanonamo, each gender works with objects of their corresponding gender. Fire is female, so women do the cooking. Cotton and fiber are male, so men spin and weave cotton fabrics and weave the baskets, but baskets are female so women gather with baskets. Women are usually less in number than men in a village, so their worth largely lies in their sexual and reproductive uses. They are the primary caregivers for children, and do much of the foraging for wood and food (though men will do the dangerous tree climbing for fruit). While tasks pertaining to the gathering of resources are strictly defined, work is fairly evenly divided between men and women.

men do most of the construction projects

Women spend a lot of time
gathering firewood and bring their
children with them when they go out

These gender roles are very rigid. Since tasks and goods themselves are clearly defined as male or female, there is little ambiguity as to what is expected of men and women. Effeminate behavior is strongly discouraged in men, and since women are in such high demand, their chances for obtaining a wife may diminish significantly. With no wife and no chance at children, chances for obtaining any status or power significantly diminish, especially if he lacks any desire to gain prowess through warfare and raids. Women are often beaten by their husbands for failing to perform their duties in a satisfactory manner. The only crossover that may occur is when a father chooses to be more involved in his children’s upbringing than is normally expected of a father.
            Children learn their gender roles from their parents, primarily their mothers, who are the primary caregivers. Daughters learn through example, beginning work with their mothers at a very young age. Sons, likewise, learn through their mother’s teachings and watching their fathers, although they are not expected to do any work until they are at a much older age than their working sisters.
            Biology has a great influence on gender roles in Yanonamo culture. Males typically tend to be physically stronger and bigger, and their testosterone makes them more aggressive than women, so they are the dominant gender. A woman’s most valuable asset is her sexual availability and ability to produce children, primarily male children. Female infanticide is high, with approximately 25% of all Yanonamo females being killed by their mothers. This is due to a number of factors. It is taboo to have sexual intercourse with a woman while she is still nursing a child, which can be for 3 years, so if a man feels he has enough children, he may make it very clear to his wife that he does not want another child, especially if its female. Males are also valued in wartime, and since the sexual taboos allow for only one child every 3-4 years, female infants may be killed in the hopes a strong male will be conceived quickly.

            Because of the frequent infanticide, I think that the narrator of the “Blessed Curse” would definitely have been killed or allowed to starve as an infant. Resources are tight in Yanonamo villages, so a child that may be found undesirable in anyway may very likely be killed. It seems that the narrator was outwardly more female, which also significantly decreases her chance for survival. Women’s sexuality is important, and if there is anything wrong with it, then the woman is not very valuable.

Subsistence

maintaining a garden plot

Horticulture provides the Yanomamo with the majority of their food. They use a slash-and-burn technique to help the fertility of the poor soil. Plantains and manioc are common crops, but mangoes, sugar cane, bananas, and yams may also be grown. These gardens are in the center of the village shabono, the communal structure that the entire village lives in. Additional garden plots may exist outside of the shabono, with some being as far as several days’ walk. Families will go on extended trips to these garden plots when ones nearby the village are picked clean. All plants crops are available year-round, but areas can become picked clean, so the distant garden plots are used as backup when nearby food sources are exhausted. Hunting and gathering also provide food; women gather wild growing edible fruits, insects, and fish, while the men hunt for monkeys, snakes, tapirs, birds, pretty much anything that could be a meat source. Natural poisons extracted from toxic vines and frogs are often used to stun or kill hunting game and fish. The entire village is involved in food and resource procurement. Children help their mothers and teenage boys accompany their fathers on hunting expeditions.  While their diet can be high in calories, it is often low in protein and salt. This leads to poor muscular development and low blood pressure. Meat is highly prized, so being a successful hunter can bring great prestige to a man. Hunters are expected to share their valuable kills with the village though. Villages may go to war over good hunting ground because it is rare.

Economics

Different villages can have different
basket patterns and exchange them
when alliances are formed, or they wish
to form them

The Yanonamo rarely have surplus food because of the amount of time that is required to gather it. They are also very aware not to deplete an area’s resources too quickly. Because of this, there is no specialization in Yanonamo villages.  Families are in charge of providing all their own goods and food, although sharing a little extra or exchanging one item for another is not uncommon. Since food is gathered in large groups, differences in wealth are not very great between individuals, and there is no currency. Village members are expected to take care of one another, meat from hunting trips is shared, and resources gathered outside family garden plots are found and harvested together equally.            
 The only trade that really exists is between separate villages. Amicable relationships can be strengthened by exchanging symbolic items like baskets or cotton fabric, or through food trades or gifts. These trading relationships can help villages show their good will toward one another and prevent war. Trade with outsiders, like explorers, has opened up a host of problems to the Yanonamo, though. Metal tools are highly coveted, and there is a lot of speculation that the violent behavior than the infamous anthropologist Changon noted was caused by their exposure and scramble to obtain his “civilized” tools and goods.  

Marriage

The Yanonamo practice polygynous marriages, but many are monogamous due to a frequent shortage of women. Girls can be promised to a man as young as toddlers, but they cannot actually marry until they have had their first menstrual cycle. At that point, their parents hand them off to their arranged husband almost immediately. Parents choose the spouse, and often marriages are between bilateral parallel cousins. This reinforces kinship ties, which are extremely important in Yanonamo society as they are what determine political power within a shabono. Sometimes women can be married off to men outside the village but this rarely happens since her family will have no way to ensure that she is treated well. Women captured in raids will be married to men in the village they are taken to as well.



Husband and wife

There is little fanfare surrounding a marriage. The only event to mark the marriage is when the couple sets up their hammocks next to each other to begin their life as a married couple. The husband will be expected to perform a year or so of bride service to his wife’s family; this expectation may be waved to high status suitors or men that are very close with the bride’s family. Bride-service is mostly done to repay her family for they labor they are losing through her marriage. Men are certainly more important in their marriage system. Women are a means of making alliances and producing children, all for the men.

There is a very strong incest taboo within the nuclear family; sex between brothers, sisters, or children with their parents is strongly forbidden. This means they practice lineage exogamy with village endogamy. All families in a village live together in the shabono. There is only one shabono per village, and 40-300 individuals can live in a village. Families have their own designated spots along the covered section of the shabono where they keep whatever limited personal items they own, along with their sleeping hammocks and fire pit. The shabono has no dividing walls, so there is very little privacy.

Because there are usually more single men than women in a village, men will often engage in homosexual acts with each other to satisfy their sexual urges. This behavior is viewed indifferently by the Yanonamo, however sexual acts between women are strictly prohibited. Men may have extramarital hetero and homosexual affairs, and as many wives as they can get, but women are may only have sex with their husband. However, husbands may allow their single friends or family members, even guests from outside villages, to have sex with their wives.

Kinship

Families follow a patrilineal descent pattern, but they remain acutely aware of any relatives they have, however distant they are. This follows their ideals that men are superior, and that any and all kin ties are important. If a man loses a family member to a raid from another tribe, he can rally together whatever kin he has to go on a revenge raid against them. The more kin they have, the more allies they have and the less likely someone is to due them harm for fear they will provoke the relatives to seek revenge. Matrilineal ties are still important, just less so than patrilineal.

The father holds the most power within the family, and is the one who is involved in arranging his children’s marriages. Domestic abuse is very common in Yanonamo marriages, and men will frequently beat their wives to maintain their dominance. Frequent small abuses are sometimes even seen as a sign that a husband cares about the integrity of his wife. If a husband crosses the line, though, his wife’s brothers may remover her from the marriage or punish the husband themselves. Mothers can still practice a significant level of control in their nuclear family though, since they are the ones responsible for raising the children. Most Yanonamo believe that a child inherits more of his mother than his father.

There are no inheritance practices in Yanonamo society. It is taboo to mention the dead, so their personal belongings are burned with them in the cremation ceremony. There is very little private property in their villages, aside from family garden plots, which would remain with the children of the deceased.

Yanonamo kinship titles follow the same pattern as the Iroquois. The above diagram lays out what each family member is referred to in their language.

Social Structure



Yanomami life is very group oriented, as demonstrated
by the openness and communal feel of the shabono

It is estimated that there are about 20,000-30,000 Yanonami people living in approximately 360 known villages. Each village can consist of 40-300 people, but they can shift and fracture frequently. Social structure is simple, with children at the bottom, then their mothers, men, and the men who have killed, with headman at the top. Villages are technically egalitarian, but every village has a headman.  Oftentimes, the headman is the head of the largest family unit in the village. Important decisions are usually decided upon as a group; however, the headman can give very valued input. Individuals can earn certain influential status through their success in reproduction, revenge raids, hunting, and kinship connections. Having a reputation of fierceness, waiteri as they call it, can earn a man a lot of respect in his village. People will be less likely to disagree with him, make any advances on his wife, and he will probably be able to get more people to accompany him on revenge raids. Women can only change their position in life through their children or sons if they become influential. Men can climb the social ladder by earing waiteri, through being successful hunters and fighters.Men who also repeatedly show skill in solving problems, settling arguments, and procuring food are also able to increase their social influence. 

Yanonamo Politics

It is difficult to differentiate between their political and social structures because the two are so intertwined. Social status determines political influence in Yanonamo villages. Men are the only people with any “political” power in the village, and that is usually determined by the level of respect that they have earned through the size of their family and their waiteri. Power is not passed from one person to another except when a new headman is selected. Usually, when the headman dies, the village will choose a new one. This can lead to heated arguments and the village may splinter into new ones.

aftermath of a club fight, which are used to settle
disputes and establish "waiteri"

Yanonamo villages lack any real laws or rules. Social misbehavior, such as acts of incest or female homosexuality, will result in the offender being shunned by the village, and anything that may be taken as a personal offense usually is settled through duels and fighting. Seeking revenge is very important for building up waiteri, so if one man steals something from another, or pursues one of his female relatives indecently, or violates a marriage contract (not providing a promised daughter), or steals, the headman will often be able to settle the dispute. However, if it is serious enough, the two men may fight. These duels often end in a tie so that both men can save face; the point of the duel is for the offended man to protect his wateri and honor to prevent anyone else from messing with him in the future.

Valuable Violence

"Unokais": those who have killed

There are three types of fighting to the Yanomamo: Ha’ati kayu, xeyu, and waihu. Only waihu is all out war; ha’tai kayu and xeyu are not meant to be deadly and are a means of blowing off steam for men in the village that have tension between them, and the headman supervises the entire fight. If a man is angry at a man in his village, say for being indecent to his wife, he and his relatives will challenge the other man’s relatives to ha’tai kayu, a fight in which they are only allowed to hit each other in the chest with rocks. Once the men have all beaten each other up sufficiently, the headman calls it off and has everyone separate, and the dispute is resolved. If one village angers another by disrespecting them, they will be challenged to xeyu. During this, the men paint themselves in fierce black body paint and use long heavy rods to fight. Men from the two villages line up in a clearing facing each other, and then proceed to whack each other with the poles. When most of the men are fairly well bloodied, the headmen call it off and both villages leave. Waihu is what we would understand as war, often centered around revenge, and the intent for the fighting is to kill. This fighting involves arrows or spears.

When ha’tai kayu or xeyu go wrong and someone is killed, even if it’s accidental, the family of the deceased may choose to retaliate and seek revenge. The person responsible for the death is rarely the target, as anyone from his village will suffice. The raiding party will ambush the first person they see with arrows and then quickly retreat. This is seen as sufficient justice to the raiding party. If a tribe, or an individual, does not seek out blood revenge when they are wronged, they will suffer. People in their village will lose respect for them, and entire villages may become victims to harassment from “fiercer” tribes who do not fear retaliation. To the Yanomamo, violence is necessary for maintaining a good reputation, and a good reputation can bring peace and security against attacks from others.

Many Yanomamo would be confused by American’s strong negative reactions to all forms of violence. To them, hitting and beating another person, whether it’s their wife or a man they are angry with, is nothing more than a way of expressing anger and frustration. As long as it does not end in death, it is not taken personally. Violence is viewed very differently in Yanomamo society than in ours. To them it is a normal, acceptable means for expressing oneself and it influences many aspects of their social and political structure.

Yanomamo Religion

The Yanomamo practice a religion that is unique to their culture. They are primarily animists, believing that everything in the world is controlled and influenced by spirits. Forces of nature, plants, animals, and even nonliving objects such as clay all have their own spirits. In an interview conducted by the American Anthropological Association, a Yanomamo leader said “…the Yanomami respects… he is for the environment. We are the environment, of the environment. We are friends of the environment, the animals, mountains…” They do have a creator-deity called Omam that made the universe and sustains the universe. To go against Omam’s creation, like deforesting an area, is to invite destruction to the Yanomami.

Shaman in a hallucogen induced trance

sharing the yopo pipe

Their creation story is very unique. Omam created the universe, with a top layer that was inhabited by the original humans: no badabo. They are party spirit, human, and animal. They began to turn bad though, and part of their top layer of the universe, called duku ka misi, crashed through hedu, the next level. Hedu is very similar to earth, but better, so when the no babado fell through hedu, they knocked down some of it to make the third layer of the universe: hei ka mis. Here Omam made the Yanomamo. The no babado fell through the layer once more and created the fourth, bottom level of the universe, called hei ta bebi. There they became the Amahe-teri, forced to cannibalism because their jungle and hunting grounds did not fall from earth with them. Hedu, hei ka mis, and hei ta bebi are the most important since hei ka mis is the earth we know, hedu is the better world that the spirits of the dead go to, and hei ta bebi is home to the Amahe-teri who try to steal the souls of children to satisfy their cannibalistic cravings. There is a more in depth story involving the creation of man and women, but it varies from village to village. Basically, men came from the blood of the moon that was spilt on earth when a no badabo shot the moon with and arrow, and the first woman was discovered by man growing out of a wabu fruit.
 The village shaman is very important to the Yanomamo religion. The shaman continually does battle with the Amahe-teri to protect the villagers from them, he controls weather, keeps the world from “collapsing”, basically keeps life as we know it on course. They perform witchcraft on enemies, heal the sick, and influence nature to yield favorable conditions. Another important practice is the taking of yopo, a hallucagenic powder made from plants. Men will blow it from their mouth and nasal cavities into those of another man through a pipe. The yopo is used to see and connect with the xapiripe, the spirits that inhabit every creature, person and object in the world. This practice is very important for them because it is a way for them to connect with their environment and also with each other, as demonstrated with the yopo pipe blowing. Ironically, the Yanomamo practice a form of endo-cannibalism, even though the general idea of cannibalism is completely repulsive to them. When a loved one dies, they are cremated and then the women of the family grind up the bones and sprinkle a little into banana mash soup and consume it. This is a way for the family to keep their family members with them even after death. It is also one of the only religious practices that the women are allowed to participate in. 

This religion is vital to the Yanomamo. As mentioned above, they believe that the work of their shaman maintains order and life on our planet, not just for the Yanomamo, but for all humanity. Most of them are very sure that if their religious practices were abandoned, the earth would become a wasteland, the Amahe-teri would run amuck, and chaos would ensue. Even though their religion is very important to them, I believe that their cultural could exist independent of it. Their family practices, subsistence, social conduct, medicine, politics, and art could exist without practicing their religious beliefs.

men wear feathers while girls wear flowers

Art 

Women decorated for a celebration

Since almost all possessions and even living structures that the Yanomamo make are temporary, there artwork often is too. The most common form of art is body art. Piercings containing long grasses or palm shoots around the lips and ears are common decoration for women, and both genders will cover themselves in wavy patterns with purple and red paint for celebrations and ceremonies. Men will wear decorative headdresses and arm bands made from bird feathers, and women will place flowers behind their ears and on their arms. Basket and hammock weaving are also common, although most Yanomamo see this as more of a practical than artistic activity. 

         The Yanomamo have no musical instruments but they do sing. Singing is most often practiced by shaman in religious or healing ceremonies, but men and women will sing for enjoyment, or during celebrations or funerals. It often does not involve any words, just expressive tones and sounds.

Shaman in a trance
dancing and singing

        Yanomamo feasts, funerals and celebrations are common platforms for singing and dance performances. Friendly villages are invited when there is plentiful food for feasts, and everyone uses the opportunity to dress up with elaborate body paint, flowers, feathers, and piercings. Stories are told with dramatic flair, and often the teller will ham it up jumping around and pantomiming along with their story. Men will dance with their weapons in a show of force. Feasts are a chance to put on a show for their neighbors, and are a great display of their art.
         Music is very special in their religion. When the shaman sings during his ceremonies, his song is a display of his out of body experience and struggle against evil spirit in his cosmic journeys that he is believed to go on in order to pull evil spirits out of the sick, or when calling upon his personal demons to do his bidding. Singing is the primary art form involved in their religious activities.

Cultural Change

Over the past few decades since their first contact with the outside world, the Yanomamo Indians have experienced many negative, and some positive, effects. Because they have been so isolated, they are extremely vulnerable to disease, and thousands of Yanomami have died from influenza, malaria, and other common illnesses brought on by contact with outsiders. Illegal mining operations and deforesting have also greatly hurt their way of life. There is less game to hunt, and mining ponds have become a breeding ground for disease bearing insects. Metal appliances have helped in their constant struggle to procure food, but they also have been the reason for villages battling one another. Early anthropological studies, such as those of Napoleon Chagnon, harmed them as well. Many Yanomami claim that they remember Chagnon instigating violent behavior by offering metal pots to the men who went on raids and behaved the fiercest.  

“City” culture has had a slight positive effect on the Yanomamo as well in that it has led to more pacifism. Villages are more likely to get food, medicine, and teaching in literacy if they are not fighting with each other as often.
          Because the Yanomamo have only had contact with outsiders for a few mere decades (some villages are still completely isolated, and have never been contacted) it is difficult to tell what the future holds for their culture. They hold very strongly to their beliefs and lifestyles, and while they do enjoy more modern tools and medicine, they believe that their way is best. However, if diseases, mining, and deforesting continue at the pace they are at now, enough Yanomami could be wiped out that their culture could die out along with them.
          Yanomami culture has recently come to attention due to the “green” movement. A big part on Yanomami life revolves around harmony with nature and respecting it. The movie Avatar actually borrowed a lot from their culture, from the egalitarian society, group living, animism, to needing only what the earth has to offer and taking only what you need. While that movie had a big impact on American culture, the Yanomamo society itself probably will not impact the rest of the world too greatly because they still remain so isolated. This would prevent them from having contact with enough people to really effect cultural change outside their villages. 
            I've included part of a filmed interview with a Yanomami shaman names Davi Kopenawa. Davi has traveled the globe raising awareness for the fragile state of his people's existence, and also for the care of the environment.

Sources

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Chagnon, Napoleon A. "Doing Fieldwork among the Yanomamo." Yanomamo: The Fierce People. 4th ed. New York: Holt, Reinhart, and Winston, 1992. 5-31. Print.

Chagnon, Napoleon A. "Life Histories, Blood Revenge, and Warfare in a Tribal Population." American Association for the Advancement of Science 239.4843 (1988): 985-92. Colimbia.edu. Columbia University. Web. <http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/chagnon.pdf>.

Chagnon, Napoleon A. Yanomamo: The Last Days of Eden. 5th ed. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992. Udayton.edu. University of Dayton. Web. 28 July 2012. <http://academic.udayton.edu/michaelbarnes/rel198-03/readings/chagnon.htm>.

Chernela, Janet, and Fernando Coronil. American Anthropological Association. Working paper. N.p., 18 May 2002. Web. 19 July 2012. <http://www.nku.edu/~humed1/darkness_in_el_dorado/documents/0599.pdf>.

"Countries and Their Cultures." Yanonami Sociopolitical Organization. Advameg, Inc., 2012. Web. 18 July 2012. <http://www.everyculture.com/South-America/Yanomam-Sociopolitical-Organization.html>.

Dixon, Robert M. "Other Small Families and Isolates." The Amazonian Languages. Ed. S. R. Anderson. Cambrige: Cambrige UP, 1999. N. pag. Print.

Havekamp, Christina. "Yanomami." Yanomami-Hilfe E.V. Christina Heverkamp, n.d. Web. 05 July 2012. <http://www.yanomami-hilfe.de/en/yanomami-2/>.

Paula, J. S., N. H. Medina, and A. V. Cruz. "Trachoma Among the Yanomami Indians." SciELO. SciELO - Scientific Electronic Library Online, n.d. Web. 05 July 2012. <http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S0100-879X2002001000007>.

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Ancient Art

        The Lascaux cave paintings were quite an accomplishment for their painters. They would have only painted those things which were most important to them. Their paintings are almost saying for them: "This is what we do, we hunt. These are the things that are special and important to us that we want to remember and make a tribute to."
        Since it is likely that the Lascaux cave paintings are related to the religious beliefs of the artists, it makes sense that there are not many human figures. Many isolated cultures who have preserved their religions often have some form of animism in their beliefs. If the Lascaux paintings are religious-based, they could be depictions of the animal figures that hold special spiritual status to the painters. Another possible reason for the lack of human depictions is that the painters may have had a taboo on human images.
        These paintings show us that the people who inhabited the caves and painted them were very creative and inventive. They also can show us what their culture valued, or spent a lot of time and energy on. Since so many game animals are depicted with arrows, the paintings show us that the hunt was something that was very important and special to the painters. Painting those scenes was no easy feat, since they had to build scaffolds and advanced lamps to reach the dark ceilings, so they would only paint those things which were truly important to them. If they were able to have the tools and building skills to create these works of art them perhaps they had other uses for those technologies outside of their art.
       Reaching the high ceiling and walls of the cave would have been one of the trickiest problems that the Lascaux painters faced. While tools were obviously well developed, building was not as common, as evidenced by the fact that they lived in caves. They had no need to build structures, so they would have had to come up with the idea of scaffolding all on their own for the purpose of painting. Something like a ladder or scaffolding seems incredibly simple to us now, but if you had never seen either of those, they would be difficult to create. Providing adequate light would also have been difficult. Lamps, torch resin, and hearths were all found in the cave, which kind of seems as if they were trying several different methods to solve the problem.
        Anthropologists have speculated that the Lascaux cave paintings portray the painters' idea of the creation of the world. I think this makes a lot of sense, especially since many ancient cultures' works of art pertain to their religious beliefs/mythology in some way, like temples, frescoes, shrines, and idols. The cave paintings could be a tribute to their deity (or deities) who gave them the animals that they value, such as the horse and stag. Grand artistic displays designed to please the god(s), spirits, or figures that are worshiped are common among most belief systems.Art also could have been a highly stylized means of communication. The Egyptian hieroglyphs are another example of this. Pictures can pass along stories and information, and while the function may be practical, the painters could have wanted to make their work that much more special with a little artistic flair. Art could have also been used for social communication. Body art, special clothing, jewelry, and decorations can communicate social status, skills, and moods.


        I think that art still serves many of the same purposes today that it did for early man, such as social communication, but art for broader communication purposes has dwindled. With the widespread use of written languages using letters and characters, pictures are less and less important for communicating. Art is still a very important aspect to many religions today, and it is certainly important for social communication. Most cultures have some sort of special jewelry or article of clothing that shows their marital status, fashion can be used to portray oneself a certain way, and everything from clothing to home decorations is used for communicating status.


        I love ballet. I tried it when I was a kid and did not have the self control or patience to do it myself, but I still love watching ballet performances. Ballet performances, especially contemporary ballet, attempts to portray emotion and human experiences solely through movement. Ballet is unique to other forms of dance in it's emphasis on control and poses. It requires incredible amounts of control and strength to do the moves fluidly and gracefully. There is definitely a unique language and culture to ballet with the clothgin, shoes, costumes, and names of poses and moves involved in the dance. Many dancers dedicate their lives to the dance. Ballet benefits society through its shpwcasing of what the human body is capable of. It is a tribute to strength and grace. It can be bad when taken too far though and ballerinas are pushed to inhealthy extremes.

Valuable Violence

Justice

Our Western symbolic representation of
justice as blind (objective), and balanced

          In our society, justice can be served in a number of ways when someone is responsible for the death of another. Killings are distinguished as "manslaughter" if there was no intention to kill, and 1st, 2nd, 3rd degree murder if there was intent. The Yanonamo have no such distinctions, if someone is suspected of involvement in the death of another, they will be punished. In our judicial system, law enforcement and the penal system are the ones responsible for carrying out justice against murderers, whereas in Yanomamo society, the kin or village of the victim is expected to exact revenge. Revenge is strictly forbidden in our culture; the rationale for this is that it can lead to vicious cyclic blood feuds and escalation. Involving a third party, like our police and courts, ends the violence. But because the Yanomamo have no laws or government, it is up to them to exact their revenge for a killing. We also reserve the death penalty for only the most extreme offenses. Usually a person must have committed more than one premeditated murders in order to receive the death penalty. To the Yanomamo, a person deserves to die if they are in anyway affiliated with someone who has killed another person. "You killed my kin, I'll kill one of yours" is considered a fair deal.

Blood for Blood

           Yanomamo villages do not have any system of government or official law and order. So when someone is murdered, or a person is responsible for the death of another, the family of the victim is responsible for carrying out justice. If there is a murder within the village, it could lead to a serious division resulting in separate villages. Most often though, murders occur between villages. When that happens, the men of the victims family will assemble a raiding party to attack the killer's village. The goal is usually to keep it as even as possible, a death for a death, and the first person they encounter from that village will do, whether or not the are in anyway responsible for the previous death. Once they have successfully ambushed and killed someone, they retreat back home and justice is considered to be done.
          The family of the person who has just been killed in the raided village will not see this as justice and become angry over the death, leading to a raid against them. Justice in Yanomamo society is one sided, and the family and friends of the one who has revenge exacted upon them rarely view it as just or fair.
          When a raiding party is being assembled, the kin of the victim will seek volunteers to go with them. It is perfectly acceptable for a man to decline to participate, and some men may never take part in a revenge raid in their lifetime. While there is no direct negative cost to refusing a raid, the man does lose a valuable opportunity to earn status as a unokais, one who has killed. Having the title of unokais is not a requirement to become a headmans or earn a wife, however, if gives men an edge over those who are non-unokais. Suitors must be competitive for the limited wives in their villages, and a father would rather give his daughter in marriage to a unokai because his reputation would protect her, and his family even, from attacks and trouble from others. A non-unokais can still earn respect through being a successful hunter or through being skilled at settling disputes, but he must be very good at both if he is to be considered for headsman over a unokais.

Revenge as a Way of Life

Yanomamo men want to be seen as fierce.
This unokais is wearing body paint to give
him that image during a festival.

         Revenge raids a a key part of how Yanomamo establish their political and social identity. Revenge raids give men the chance to become unokais and to also earn a reputation of fierceness, called waiteri. Unokais and men of waiteri are quickly respected in their villages, and while it is not a requirement, nearly all headmen are unokais. Uonkais are higher up on the social scale than other men in their villages, and have a valuable say in village affairs. Families with unokais hare respected to, and even being related to unokais can help the social status of a non-unokais, especially the wives and sister of unokais. Unokais are more likely to have multiple wives, too. If a man has a waiteri from revenge raids, outside villages will leave his village and family alone, so his wives and children are safer with him than with a man that is thought to be weak. More wives also means more children, and more children means more kinship ties through marriages, and more kinship ties means more power in the village.

The Importance of Law and Order

          The Yanomamo definitely view killing someone as bad; if someone they know is killed, they react very strongly to it. They have a bit of a hypocrisy to their view of right and wrong though- as long as another life has been taken that negatively affects the responsible party, it is just. They do not care whether or not the person they kill in a revenge raid has ever killed anyone, the goal is to make the killer pay, with their life or with that of someone they know. The family of the new victim is then responsible to retaliate, which is again seen as an unjust killing, even though it is perfectly fair to the other village.
          Our laws and court systems prevent vigilante vengeance for this very reason. Emotions are raw and unstable when an innocent loved one is killed, so the steady law intervenes and carries out justice according to predetermines standards. Anyone can know exactly what the consequences will be if the kill someone. In a society like the Yanomamo's, unokais are constantly under threat of having their village victim to a revenge raid that could lead to unpredictable consquences (which is ironic since unokais are viewed as safer by most Yanomamo). Ideas of what's right and fair can vary from person to person, so we need an objective code of law to protect us from ourselves and what we may do on our quests fro revenge.            
         
         

Grammie's Family

The Subject
I chose to interview Christie Levin, my mom's mom, aka Grammie to me. Grammie was born in Vancouver, WA in 1950 to a upper-middle class white (Swedish and German to be specific) family. She grew up in West Seattle, a very nice bedroom community accross the bay from downtown Seattle. She left Seattle with my mom's dad, John Vigil the day she turned 18, but he left her and she raised my uncle and mom on her own in Olympia, WA. Her friends were hippies and drifters when she was a young woman, but she left most of that lifestyle in her past when my mom was still young. Grammie has had a very diverse life, from the affluent communities of Seattle to the hippie movement to the completely stereotypical "tea and cookies" grammie, and she has a very good memory. So I wanted to hear her take on her family. She also lives just down the street from us, which is convenient.

The Interview
I started by asking Grammie to tell me about the the oldest generation in her family that she actually remembered spending time with, and then worked my way down her family tree from there. I really didn't have to ask very many questions because she knew so much about her extended family, and she actually knew many of them very well personally. She would just begin talking about any and all memories she had and I would take notes on what I needed. It was fun hearing about her family, my family, especially the older relatives like my great-grandparents.

Akward Moment...
It did get akward when I asked about family members she doesn't keep in contact with, as I expected. She has not spoken a word to John, my mom's dad, since he left and he has not been a part of any of our lives. Grammie just completely left him out and said that she keeps doesn't avoid contact with any family members, because to her he is not family. I didn't get any information about his side of our family from her, because technically, they don't matter. I think I might have gotten nore specifics about her family if we weren't related becuase there would be less assumed information, especially about her kids (namely my mom). It felt a little silly when I was asking her to tell me about relatives that I already know so well.

What Ties the Family Together
Our family is very close with extended family. Cousins, aunts, great aunts, married-into relatives, 1st cousins once removed, are all familiar with each other and will spend holidays together. I have definately noticed this growing up, and Grammie's information affirmed that it's been that way since she was a little kid. I also noticed that there was a definate emphasis on maternal family lines, which I never really realized until our interview. Grammie was closest with her mom's parents, namely her mom's mom, my mom was closest with Grammie's side of the family, obivously since she never really knew her dad, it just trickles down that most family ties revolve around the women. All the family units that Grammie could remember were average sized or small, usually with 1-4 kids, but fmaily always felt big to her because of how close the whole extended family is. There are no ethinc or social divides in the family; John was Mexican, Grammie's brother's wife is Jewish and the rest of the family is Catholic, her son's wife is from Switzerland, but Grammie, nor anyone else she could think of, really thought much of race/culture as a dividing force.


Who's the Favorite?
I would consider myself to be close with both my mother and father's sides of the family, including extended family. But I am much closer with Dad's family because they are the closest. My mom and her brother were the first in there family to not end up settling in the Pacific Northwest, so I really only saw her relatives when we had our annual vacations to Seattle.Grammie didn't move to my hometown until I was in junior high. My dad's family, however, is alomost all in California. His parents have only lived 45 minutes away my whole life, his two sisters also live close, and my dad's aunts, unlces, and cousisn all live in Southern California. So I just grew up spending more time with them.

Those Levin Women!
For Grammie's side of the family, it's hard to say who the movers and shakers in the family are. It's always seemed pretty equal as far as I can tell, but then again that whole side of the family seems to all have an aversion to change so it is hard to tell who makes things happen. Extended family, while close, does not seem to affect any decisions made by the household family units. Husband and wife seem to have equal say in what goes on, too. This is probably becuase Levin women seem to be well known for independence. It's been that way since my great-great-grandma Helen struck out on her own in the 20's after an abusive marraige all the way down to my spunky mom.

Come One, Come All!
People that marry into Grammie's side of the family are instantly welcomed in as if they've been there the whole time. Hospitality is HUGELY important to the Levins, so lone friends wre always in and out of Grammie's house, which probably made new family members seem not so strange. Like I said earlier, strength and a kind of fiesty attitude seemed to be looked up to in the women in our family. But gender roles are fairly balanced. Grammie was a single mom, her sister never married and is a successful buisness woman, and her youngest brother has wife that stays at home with their two daughters. Nothing is really expected of family members based on their gender in Grammie's family, or my immediate family. We just are who we are and that's that and no one really thinks much of it.

I <3 my Family
I realized that I have taken for granted how open and loving my family is. It doesn't take much for people to become part of the family, and it sure takes a lot for you to not be a part of it any more. Grammie's closeness with her greater, distant relatives showed me where the emphasis on any and all family teis has come from in our family and I really appreciate it. I know I'll always have a home to spend Christmas in, and I know that they will be supportive of being myself. And for that i am truly grateful.

Roots of Farming and Trade

Part 1
     Benefits of Hunter/Gatherer: I think the biggest benefit to this lifestyle if the nutritional benefit. Since foods are obtained on an almost daily basis, they are fresher and therefore have more nutrients. Also, most people in a horticultural society will eat whatever they can find so can have a more diverse diet. The movement involved in obtaining food this way is also less repetitive (usually), which is healthier and prevents injury. Walking, climbing, running, and carrying moderate loads is good for staying healthy. Societies like this are also more mobile, and are able to pick up and move if things in their environment become dangerous or inhospitable.
     Benefits of Agrarian Societies: One of the first benefits enjoyed by societies that farm for their food is stability (well, relative stability). If they can protect their crops and barring any drought or blight, there will be a steady food source. Problems are more predictable and easier to anticipate sine the food is coming from a controlled environment. Some examples of this would include storing bumper crops to insure against famine, building irrigation systems to make water more accessible, and special breeding of crops and livestock for desirable results. Another significant benefit is that the steady supply of food allows for more time to begin specialization. This allows people to dedicate time towards things that can extend lifespans, like medicine. Basically, agriculture covers the more immediate needs for survival.

     Disadvantages to Hunter/Gatherer: This kind of lifestyle relies on the day to day availability of food. People like this that are faced with a sudden shortage in food don't have anything to fall back on. They can try to move to another area but if the drought or famine is widespread and severe enough, then they may likely die. Since so much time is spent in just acquiring food, there may also be little opportunity to develop any other skills that may lengthen their lives such as medicine, tools, or clothing.
     Disadvantages to Agrarian Societies: While poor diet is a big problem that agricultural societies face, there are others that don't appear as obvious. When a family's (or entire settlement's) livelihood is based off of one type of crop, or livestock, they are taking a great risk. If anything at all goes wrong, such as poor weather, pestilence, or a blight, they are faced with a dire situation. There is also a dark side to trade specialization that develops in agrarian societies. People become very good at what their specific job/trade is but they lose other important skills and therefor become dependent on other people who do have experience with those skills. If they become cut off from the other people, they most likely won't survive.

     I think that hunting and gathering is the healthiest when it comes down to how well the human body is preserved. As mentioned earlier, the foods are richer in nutrients and are also well balanced. Eating in frequent, small amounts is also healthier. But, it's survival of the fittest. Weaker individuals, or those with less favorable traits, struggle to survive in if they lack all the necessary abilities and strength required for such a lifestyle. As humans, we are one of the few animals that have significantly overcome the natural selection process in that we care for those that would otherwise die off due to their genes. So, while hunting and gathering overall promotes better health, it only does for those who are able to do it. 

     I can see how humans would have jumped at the opportunity to switch to agriculture from hunting and gathering. Many people probably had lost children or weaker family members (the ones most likely to die during food shortages or harsh weather) and husbands and sons died in hunting expeditions. When they realized they had a way to control nature to produce they food that they were so dependent upon growing wildly, the chance to have stability would have been greatly appealing. Food could be stored for times when it would become scarce, safe protected settlements could be built, and the immediate threat of starvation would fade.

Part 2
     Surplus is the first hing required for trade. In order for two people to trade, they each need to have extra of one good to turn it into another. If I grew grain, and my neighbor had wool, I would need to have more than enough food to eat in order to trade it for their wool. Otherwise I would go hungry and the wool would be useless to me. Surplus means that the need that the good fills has been sufficiently met, which allows for it to be exchanged for another good that fills a different need.

How Trade Can Help    
     The first benefit of trade is that it allows for needs to be met in a more complete way. Just as specialization allows people to fill in each others' "gaps" by learning complementary jobs and occupations, trade also allows for people to fill in each others' "gaps" with complementary goods and ideas. What people know in one town could be knew to people in another, and discoveries and technological advances can be made faster due to the widespread exposure that trade can lead to. Another benefit to trade is that it can have a powerful unifying effect on the people involved. If two groups of people are dependent on one another through trade, they are less likely to fight because if one of them fails then the other suffers. Trading involves having an understanding of those that you are doing business with, so it can foster more peaceful relationships.
    
 How Trade Can Harm
     One downside to trade is that is can lead to one group of people forming a dependency on an outside group's goods. It an become tempting to get the majority of necessary goods from outside sources but if you lose the ability to produce the minimum of what you need yourself, then the people that you depend on for trade can be placed in a dangerous position of power. Cultures that this happens to often then assimilate into the dominant culture and are lost. Another downside is that trade can encourage bad practices for the long term economy and environment. Cash crops are a good example of this. A lot of rainforest in South America is being destroyed in order to make room for cash crop plantations. This is bad for the people that live there because they are destroying a hugely valuable resource for themselves, but they don't care because there is so much money to be made immediately through the trade of their crops. Also, if too much land is devoted to the production of cash crops, then the price of necessary food crops can increase and cause bad prices in the economy. 
   

      It is extremely difficult to have a  surplus of anything through a hunting and gathering lifestyle. There just isn't as much food and valuables around, and even if there was, there is no where to store it since most hunters and gatherers are nomadic. Agriculture allows for more than what is needed of a specific crop to be produced, which leads to an exchangeable surplus. The first people to farm probably didn't automatically apply the concept of planting and harvesting to every food they knew, some people probably realized they could grow corn while other groups of people realized they could capture and domesticate goats. People are people, and we want what we don't have, so when the people growing corn got lots of it, they were probably eager to exchange some of it for goat meat and milk when they saw the people with domesticated goats. And trade began. .  
    

Communication

Part 1
     I enlisted the help of my 18 year old brother for this part of the assignment. It was easy in the sense that carrying out the actual assignment wasn't very difficult; I don't know any ASL so all I had to do was not talk. However, actually communicating effectively with my brother was extremely difficult.
     For the first few minutes, my brother found it entertaining to ask me questions that he knew I had no chance at answering without speaking like "What brand of shampoo do you use?" but eventually he began just making statements and seeing if I had positive or negative reactions. I noticed he slowed down his speech, enunciated more, and spoke louder- almost like he would to someone who had difficulty hearing. I tried communicating to him mostly by pantomiming and making sound effects. My brother would then repeat what he thought I was trying to say and then wait for me to have a positive or negative reaction to tell if he got it right. After only a few minutes we started being able to actually get some two way thought exchange and he started talking a little more like normal.
     My brother definitely had the advantage in communicating complex ideas. After several minutes of exasperated pointing and gesturing I managed to get him to understand "Talk about your girlfriend" and then in that same amount of time he was able to tell me about what he liked about her, a recent date they had, and what what she did that day. However, his communication using a symbolic language is only as effective as my understanding of it allows. If we really were from different cultural backgrounds, neither one of us would really be able to understand much of the other, although I'd imagine that if I was used to not communicating with symbols I would be a little better at expressing thoughts to him because it is a more familiar form of communication. He, however, could see me as simple minded for not being able to get across larger thoughts.
     My cousin Glen was born completely deaf and, like so many other deaf Americans, has faced significant obstacles overcoming communication barriers. He relied on sign language when he was young to communicate with his immediate family, but since the majority of America does not know ASL, he worked very hard to become good at reading lips and actually speaking. People still talk really loud with simple words when talking to him, even though volume has no effect on his ability to understand what they're saying, and he is not lacking in intelligence. In our culture, a common sign of intelligence is being able to speak well. For instance, most Americans automatically assume that people with British accents are smart just because of how they talk. So when people like Glen communicate a little differently or have speech impediments, they can automatically be seen as less intelligent. This can be overcome, though, as people become more familiar with each other and how different people speak, just like my brother began speaking normally with me once he got used to my new way of communicating. 

Part 2
     I managed to get through the majority of 15 minutes using only my words to communicate but I did have moments where my voice would show some emotion, I would make a face or my hands would somehow become involved in the conversation. My two younger sisters and my brother talked with me during this part of the assignment, and like any younger siblings, they were more than eager to point out every little time my monotone stillness broke. They also tried their best to make my composure break. However, their speech was largely unaffected by my way of talking, unlike in the previous experiment. While they thought my almost robotic voice and blank face were funny, they were otherwise completely normal in what we spoke about and how they talked. 
     I think the fact that my monotone gestureless way of talking didn't really affect my siblings shows that we are used to having symbolic language be our primary means of communication. This is also supported by how we exchange ideas mostly through writing, whether it be in the form of a text message, letter, book, or website. However, if I had to continue speaking in such a limited way I think other problems would have surfaced. We rely very much on tone a verbal ques to carry across messages. I would begin to seem detached, antisocial and almost sociopathic if I only used words to express meaning.
     Autistic people can have a very hard time reading body language. One of my good friends has a younger brother with mild autism and they have to work very hard to help him understand certain non verbal ques, especially facial expressions. Understanding other people's body language can be an adaptive advantage for several reasons. It can help a person tell when someone could possibly wish to harm them so they know when to back out of a situation. And, as demonstrated in any teen girl's magazine, it can even help you find a mate. It can also allow a person to tell what kind of effect they are having on someone else- like are they making them nervous, excited, angry, pleased, or threatened. The only way I can see not being able to interpret body ques as an adaptive advantage is if society as whole begins to rely less on nonverbal signals and more on symbolic language. This could help in that it allows for clearer communication but it requires everyone to have a strong grasp on the meaning of the symbols and rather open honesty when communicating.

Part 3
     Communicating with my brother for part 1 would have been incredibly easier if I was able to use written language. While writing things down can be slower than just saying them, it still allows for clear, if not even more specific, communication of complex thoughts and ideas. It is still very much language, and word I know how to speak I can at the very least write out phonetically for my brother.
     Written language is essential for cultures to advance in most ways. Writing down ideas and experiences allows for them to be preserved, studied and built upon by later generations. It allows for specialization of tasks because a lifetime is not required to learn the necessary knowledge to perform a task, like farming or building. Previous knowledge can be drawn upon and what took someone else years to experience and learn can be absorbed in an instant.
     Written language has also helped with globalization because it can be learned and shared easier. As complex as various written languages can be, ultimately they are systematic and can be learned and therefor translated into other languages. Ideas also become portable when they are written down. Say an important event happens and news of it needs to be spread, someone who witnessed it can write it down, make a few copies, and have them delivered to several different places. This spread the story much faster than if they went from place to place themselves to tell what they saw. It also allows for people to know exactly what the witness knows without having to go through a messenger who could possibly corrupt the accuracy of the story (anyone ever played telephone??). Written language is essential for the sharing and expansion of knowledge, and even though the majority of it is digital today, it is still written communication.