The Effects of Globalization

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Language

The Yanomami people are a very detached group from any other group. They share little to nothing at all with any outside group of people.This includes their language. It is very distinct and is unlike any other language. In fact, each Yanomami tribe has their own subgroups of the language too. The Yanoma, Sanuma, Ninam, and the Yanam are all subgroups of Yanomami. 
Each of these four subgroups belongs to four different tribes of Yanomami people. Each of these subgroups has many different dialects and variations in its own language. The subgroups are not easily understood by the various tribes but since they originate from the same base language it is possible to communicate between one another.However, their language is not understood or similar to any other indigenous group. Its origin of the language is unknown to this day. 
In Yanomami, they can have single words that mean an entire phrase, unlike english. In addition to this, they use many different ways to portray a past tense and a future tense. However, they only have words for five colors and only number up to two. In addition to this, the word "Yanomamo" in their language can mean "man" or "children of the moon". 

Reference:

Professor Wesch at Kansas State University
2010 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology. Electronic Document
http://ksuanth.wikifoundry.com/page/Yanomano+Family, accessed July 26, 2014

Gender Issues

          Their are two specific genders in the Yanomami culture, male and female. Gender is strictly defined within the culture. Normally there is no crossover of gender roles. Women are beat by their husbands if they do not perform their gender roles properly. If men do not perform their gender roles, they may be seen as unattractive by women. Children learn gender roles early on from their mothers. Biology influences this cultures gender roles. Males which are stronger, do heavier work that involves labor. Women, who are able to give birth, mainly focus on child bearing.
          Women are definitely inferior to men, and do not have a choice in their family life. Their main role is to raise children, prepare meals, and keep alliances strong. They are looked at more as property, rather than somebody who is valued and cared for. Women are expected to do the cleaning, washing, and giving birth to babies, which obligates her to take care of babies. There are more men than women in the Yanomami culture, making it very important for women to have a lot of children. The women raise all of the children. At first the mother will carry her infant around in a sling. After some time, she will allow the sisters, cousins,  and aunts to raise the child. Women have more regard in the culture because they offer services to their husbands, and give birth to boys for which the husband remains in debt to the family of the wife.That debt is paid until the bride's parents are alive. It has been this way for generations, and change is dealt with hatred and punishment.  Little girls must learn to garden, fish, and perform other household family duties.
          Males on the other hand, do not have the responsibility of taking care of the children. Fathers spend less than five minutes caring for their child. A father/males main role is to hunt, and achieve status among families. Men will sometimes take on women roles if they become to dangerous. For example, when women work in gardens, men are responsible for clearing their own gardens using the slash and burn technique. As children, boys have more freedom than the little girls do. Little boys are allowed to play rough games and run around with their bow and arrows.





References:

Professor Wesch at Kansas State University
2010 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology. Electronic Document
http://ksuanth.wikifoundry.com/page/Yanomano+Family, accessed July 25, 2014


K. Jumama
2012 Human Challenge: Yanomami Cultural Motifs. Electronic Document.
http://humanchallengejuju88jk.blogspot.com/2012/05/yanomamo.html, accessed July 25, 2014


Lua Diana
2012 Cultural Differences/Similarities: Yanomamo. Electronic Document.
http://culturaldifferencessimilarites.blogspot.com/2012/08/yanomamo.html, accessed July 25, 2014

Marriage and Family

     For the Yanomami tribe, there are no marriage ceremonies. They allow their partners to be a cross cousin and is actually the most common type of marriage. Most men participate in polygamous marriages. The elder wife is superior to the other wives and can assign the other wives what chores to accomplish. The older kin of the females arrange their marriage and they can create alliances with the other men in the tribe by marriage exchanges; they husband that they pick usually stay within the tribe. The girls are promised in marriage at a very young age so they do not have a say in who they want later on in their lives. It is seen as uncommon to love your spouse. Buhi yabrao [love] is not usually said in the Yanomami tribe. The girls are married after their roo [first menstrual period]. For men, they tend to marry in their early twenties. Marriage gives the women some chores that she is expected to accomplish. She is expected to do all of the work until she has a daughter to help her with the chores. They are expected to respond to their husband’s needs and wishes. If the women do not fulfill their duties correctly, the men can reprimand and hit their wives. If a woman is under the suspicion of infidelity, some men have shot or have even killed their wives. A women can leave her husband and turn to her brothers for help [shuwahimou] when her husband beats her. Then, her brothers give her to a different man. 

     No one’s status or property is inherited in the Yanomami tribe. The family of the deceased burn the personal property. The men are prideful in how many wives and children they have, the more the merrier. The women are in charge of taking care of their children. Even if the mother is working in the gardens, the child is on a sling attached to her as she works. The men are not as involved in taking care of the children but do play with them. Starting around the age of six, the girls start helping their mothers gardening and helping with preparing food. At that age, boys spend on playing and roaming in the forest. It is common for the parents to encourage their children to be assertive and have physical or verbal aggression. The men are taught to be fierce and are able to hit their parents and even the ill fated women in the tribe. 

References:

Crystalinks

     1995. Yanomami Indians of Brazil. Electronic Document, http://www.crystalinks.com/yanomami.html, accessed July 22.

Every Culture

     N.d. Yanoamö - Marriage and Family. Electronic Document, http://www.everyculture.com/South-America/Yanomam-Marriage-and-Family.html, accessed July 22. 

Tripod

     N.d. Yanomamo Wedding and Marriage Traditions. Electronic Document, http://ginamicheli.tripod.com/, accessed July 22. 

Kinship

In most indigenous societies, such as the Yanomami Indians, kinship is a fundamental structure. Yanomami kin terms are applied using the Iroquois classificatory pattern. They value patrilineal descent and strengthen relationships through bilateral cross cousin marriage. This means that two men marry each others sisters in order to build a longer relationship.This would continue onto the next generations. One would marry his bilateral cross cousin, who is both his mother’s brother’s daughter and father’s sister's daughter, due to the intermarriage between the parents. A son-in-law should avoid his mother-in-law and be deferential and respectful to his father-in-law. Some important attributes of the Yanomami’s kin term pattern is the use of the bifurcate merging rule. This combines and give family members a single kin term. Some examples are, haya which is the father’s brother and the father, soaya which is the mother’s brother and mother, naya is the mother’s sister and mother, and yesiya is the father’s sister and father. Members from the same patrilineage refer to each other as mash, which just means people who are related patrilineally. Napoleon Chagnon, who studied the Yanomami, stated “In a word, everyone in Yanomamo society is called by some kinship term that can be translated into what we would call blood relatives.” This allows the Indians to culturally establish the relationships between individuals. Kinship is also not only restricted to blood relatives, it is culturally constructed. There are three different kinds of relationships. The first one is consanguineal relatives which are people on both sides of the family related to you by blood. The second is affinal relatives or people who are related to you through marriage. The last one is fictive kinship which is patterned on kin like relations but not actually based upon blood or marriage. Kinship is imperative when it comes to marriage, and strong bonds are formed between kin groups when women are exchanged. There are also different functions of kinship, such as, vertical and horizontal functions. Vertical functions keep successive generations together and provides social continuity. It also allows passing on property and tradition. Horizontal function expand between a single generation making alliances through marriage practices. Alliances are generally used for political, economic, and ceremonial purposes.

Bilateral Cross Cousin Marriage (First Generation) 

 

 

Second Generation

 Yanomami Kin Terms

 

 References:

  

Roberts, Bruce. 

2012. Kinship & Family. Mankato, MN: Minnesota State University. Electronic document, http://web.mnstate.edu/robertsb/380/Kinship%20&%20family.pdf, accessed July 25, 2014.

 Schwimmer, Brian. 

1995. Yanomamo Kin Terms. Winnipeg, Manitoba. Department of Anthropology University of Manitoba. Electronic document, https://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/anthropology/tutor/case_studies/yanomamo/yano-trm.html, accessed July 25, 2014. 

Schwimmer, Brian. 

1995. Bilateral Cross Cousin Marriage. Winnipeg, Manitoba. Department of Anthropology University of Manitoba. Electronic document, https://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/anthropology/tutor/marriage/bixcuz.html, accessed July 25, 2014.

 

Religion

    The Yanomami are very spiritual people who practice the religion of animeism which deeply connects them to the animals and nature around them. They cherish the souls of the animals and plants and refer to their spirits as xapiripe in recognition of their significance. In result, the Yanomami have a unique way of connecting with the plants and animals. They are known for their use with the hallucinogen known as Yopo that helps to unify the spirits of the plants and animals with their own.  In their belief system, animals were once humans, but are now in animal form as a result of horrible things they did in their past life.  They view the universe as one that consists of four parallel layers that are all different from one another. The top layer is called Count Duku, the second is Hedu ka mis [sky level], the third is Hei ka misi, and the fourth is known as Hei ta bebi [underworld]. Just like any culture, gender roles are practiced in the Yanomamis’ ways. For example, the men there are able to become shamans also referred to as medicine men or witch doctors in some cases. In opposition to the men there, the women often play a more submissive role that constitutes cooking and caring for their children. The people connect everything to spirituality whenever something good or bad happens to one of them. An instance of this could be that when someone is very ill among the tribe, it is often said to be a shaman that is causing the distress instead of one’s immune system failing them. As a result, the shaman must dispose of the demons inside of those sick while also curing the illness with herbal remedies constructed by nature. The bond between the tribe is extremely strong and is unbreakable even after death. The Yanomami people mourn over, cherish, and celebrate their dead ancestors in the traditional reahu ceremony after deaths. To show their appreciation of the deceased, the people consume the ashes in the form of a soup to show respect and adoration for those who have passed on. They want the ancestors to live within themselves while also maintaining the sacred ties they had.  In today’s modernization, the Yanomami are one of the last remaining ancient cultures being that they are still so culturally unscathed in the declining religions and traditions around them.

References:

Professor Wesch at Kansas State University
2010 Introduction to cultural Anthropology. Electronic document,
http://ksuanth.wikifoundry.com/page/Yanomamo+History, accessed July 24, 2014