Yanamamo+-+CA+-+SP12

Joshua Meisenhelter and Patrick Mills


 * __Yanamamo culture __**

__Language __: The Yanamamo do not have any form of written language, they only have spoken language. When the Yanamamo want to describe a geological location they use general nouns. The Yanamamo people have a large vocabulary since they must remember all of their language and do no write it down. They also have a formal and informal dialect used. The formal dialect, wayamo, is only used by men and during special rituals. Their other language which is an informal dialect is used by all of them at other times. There are four languages that are spoken by the Yanamamo, but they are so similar some consider them to be dialects of themselves.

__Belief __: The Yanamamo have a very complex religion which involves each persons interpretations of the truth. They have a shaman which is a man that can interact with the human, spirit, and animal worlds. The shaman use a hallucinogenic drug called ebene. The men in the tribe get into groups and blow brown and green powder, which is a hallucinogenic drug, into each others nostrils to help with the myths of their religion. They believe in four levels of reality in which they live on the third layer and the stars and the sky are the bottom of the second layer. They also believe there are trees, rocks and hills on the second layer and the top layer is barren and has little affect on common life. The fourth layer is barren and has some Yanamamo people on the layer.

__Behavior __: The Yanamamo live in the rain forests of Brazil and Venezuela. They live in tribes of 40 to 350 in a round communal hut called a shabono. All of the tribe sleep in hammocks in the shabono. The Yanamamo get most of their food from gardens and agriculture. Some of their food comes from hunting and once a year there is are an abundance of fish. Plantains and grubs are some two of the most important parts of the Yanamamo diet. When the Yanamamo farm they commonly use a slash and burn method of farming and shifting cultivation to keep the soils fresh. There have been accounts of much violence between the Yanamamo tribes and outsiders. If a tribe feels as if there will be fighting they will build ten foot poles of wood around their village called palisades.

__Values __: The Yanamamo value marriage very little. There is almost no marriage ceremony and no celebration. A girl may be promised to a man at an age of five or six, however they can't official be married until after the girls first menstrual cycle. They are palygomists and can have multiple wives. The Yanamamo also highly value the forest which is shown through their religions and their ways of doing every thing. This is because their life is based on the rain forest. The Yanamamo value their fallen and practice endocannibalism and eat parts of their fallen then cremate the rest.


 * __Cultural Change __**

__Travel __: The Yanamamo people like to keep to themselves. They don’t like when outsiders come in and don’t ever leave their reserves. This may be in an effort to prevent the transmit of diseases and whatnot, but the more likely reason is they have no need to leave and see no legitimate reason for other people to come into their home land. Though they wish to keep it this way, it is not always the case. The “white man” has been invading their land in search of anything they could financially prosper from. This has caused many physical confrontations between the two. A native quotes "This smoke of pollution that the whites are generating will rise up into this sky until the sky will no longer be able to bear it" an anology used to sympolize how he and his people feel the white man is corrupting the world. They think the rest of the world is like this as well, so there is even less point in leaving.

__Technology: __The Yanamamo people do not interact with their surrounding neighbors, or really for anyone for that matter. The Yanamamo people keep to themselves, and that’s the way they like it. They don’t like people. The last time “outsiders” had come into their land, they had polluted their water and disturbed and ruined their hunting ground. Because of their lack of interaction with other people, they have little trading going on. They do trade ewith each other, some meat for some clothes or something, but they have work with only what they have in their home land, that’s it. Not the most productive method of trade, but it's the one they're accustomed to and the one they will likely stick with for years to come. Our technology also hurts the Yanamamo because as our own technology of cars advances we are changing the environment and that forces the Yanamamo to change their way of life.

__Commercialism: __<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">The Yanamamo people are a basic Native American people. They get their own food from their living space, hunting and gathering their food. The Brazilian government has sectioned off specific areas for the Yanamamo people to live, and this is the space they stay at all times. They keep to themselves and don't get out a whole lot. They have no electronics of any type, and their latest advancement in technology was the new production of steel axes and clay pots found to them over the last 200 years. They do not advance themselves technologically speaking and this seems to be the case to stay for the rest of their existence.


 * __<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Citations __**

__<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Primary sources __<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">: <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;">"Interview with Davi Kopenawa Yanomami on Climate Change - YouTube ." //YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.//. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Jan. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO_Fd4AbNbU&feature=player_embedded>.

//<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;">This video gave us insight on the sound of the Yanomami language and it told us information on how our effects on the environment effect even their tribe. Because language and environment are so important to identifying the specifics on a culture, this interview helped us understand more thoroughly how they live. //

<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;">"Interview with Yanomami." //American Anthropological Association (AAA)//. Mar. 1991. Web. 24 Jan. 2012. <http://www.aaanet.org/committees/cfhr/rptyano5.htm>

//<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;">This documented interview portrays the opinion of how the Yanomami people feel towards the rest of the world. This information shows us that they don't like outsiders and wish to keep to themselves. //

__<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Print Source __<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">:

<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;">Klein, Herbert. "The World Today." //World Cultures a Global Mosaic//. Boston, Massachusetts: Prentice Hall, 2004. 37,38. Print.

//<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;">This source gave us a small amount of information on how the Yanamamo are currently being effected by the world around them. It told us about Davi Yanamamo and how he was trying to get the mining to stop. //

__<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Other Sources __<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">:

<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;">"Home to the Yanomami." //Yanumami Shabono to Suburbia?//. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Jan. 2012. <www1.broward.edu/~hsorkin/Lib-Arts/Projects/Fall2002/Hottinger/index.html>.

//<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;">This site gave us lots of information on the culture of all aspects of the Yanamamo culture. It was largely based on reports from different anthropologists that visited some tribes. //

<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;">"Home to the Yanomami." //Yanumami Shabono to Suburbia?//. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Jan. 2012. <www1.broward.edu/~hsorkin/Lib-Arts/Projects/Fall2002/Hottinger/index.html>.

//<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;">This page gave a large amount of information about the language spoken by the Yanamami people. It told about all four diallects and their lack of written language. //

<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;">"Yanomami - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." //Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia//. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Jan. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ya%CC%A7nomam%C3%B6>.

//<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 8pt;">This page gave us some information and a starting point to find much of our other information in order to know what to look for. We used it as a point to check information we found through out our research. //

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