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.