Yanoama

By Raymond B. Hames and John Beierle

There is considerable variation on overall terms used to designate the Yanoama. Some of these terms include: Yanoama, Yanomami, Yanomamö, Yanomamo, and Yanomama. The variation in terminology results from the fact that the Yanoama are a large, dispersed ethnic group. Yanoama, a term that refers primarily to the language, appears to be the only term that cannot be confused with that of an individual local group and one that is used consistently by English speakers. The Human Relations Area Files has chosen to use this latter term for the reasons just stated. The next most general term, used often by non-English speakers is Yanomami. Chagnon and his adherents use the term, Yanomamö. Many researchers assert that this latter term is appropriate only for the one small group that Chagnon studied and that it is thus incorrect as an overall designation. Names associated with various individual small groups of Yanoama include: Waika, Waica, Guaica, Shori, Shiriana, Xiriana, Shidishana, Sanema, Guaharibo (Guarajibo), Aica, Catrimani, Marashiteri, Macuxi, Paramiteri, Shiriteri, Nabudub, Pubmatari, Taclaudub, Casapare, Karime, Samatari, Mucajai, Surara, and Pakidai.

The Yanoama are a South American tribal people who straddle the border between extreme southeastern Venezuela and upper northwestern Brazil. In Venezuela, the Yanoama are limited in their northern extension by the headwaters of the Erebato and Caura Rivers, to the east by the Parima mountains, and in the west by the Padamo and Mavaca Rivers in a direct line to the Brazilian border. In Brazil, the Yanoama are concentrated at the headwaters of the Demini, Catrimani, Araca, Padauari, Uraricoera, Parima, and Mucajai Rivers. Their name may be derived from the Yanoama word Yano - a provisional house made during treks. Alternative names such as Shamatari or Waica (Waika) are relative terms used by some Yanoama to refer to other Yanoama groups living to the south or north, respectively. In Brazil and Venezuela the total area inhabited is approximately 192,000 square kilometers. Dense tropical forest covers most of the area and sparse savannas may lie at higher elevations. The topography is flat to gently rolling with elevations ranging from 250 to 1,200 meters.

Although ethnographers have done extensive and excellent demographic research on the Venezuelan Yanoama, a complete census for Venezuelan and Brazilian Yanoama is lacking. Current estimates indicate about 12,500 and 8,500 Yanoama in Venezuela and Brazil, respectively, for a total of 21,000. There are approximately 363 villages ranging in size from 30 to 90 residents each with some Venezuelan villages in the Mavaca drainage reaching 200 and more. Population density ranges from about 6.7 square kilometers per person to 33.5 square kilometers per person.

Linguists have been unable to affiliate the Yanoama language conclusively with any major South American language family. One general linguistic division separates the Yanoama into four major dialectical groups known as Sanema (3,262 speakers), Yanam (856 speakers), Yanomam (5,331 speakers), and Yanoama (11,752 speakers). The last two dialects, accounting for 81% of the total, are mutually intelligible while the others may not be.

Archaeologists have done little research in the Yanoama area. Ethnographers believe that the homeland of the Yanoama lies in the Parima highlands of the Venezuelan-Brazilian border and that they have recently expanded from there as a result of the decimation of Carib speakers who occupied the upper Orinoco and its major tributaries. Initial contact with Westerners may have begun as early as the 1750s. It was not until the 1950s that missionaries and anthropologists made sustained contact with these people. Some Yanoama have had sustained contact with the Ye'kwana Indians for at least 100 years, leading to warfare, intermarriage, and establishment of partially integrated co-settlements. The contact situation differs sharply among Yanoama in Brazil and Venezuela. In Venezuela, Yanoama interaction with foreigners is largely limited to Ye'kwana Indians, missionaries, anthropologists, and government workers. In Brazil significant portions of Yanoama lands have been taken over by Brazilian miners. The resulting contacts between the two populations have led not only to the introduction of a variety of diseases that have taken a huge toll in Yanoama lives, but also has resulted in some places, in open warfare between Yanoama and Brazilians.

In each settlement Yanoama live in a large single house that is in the form of a large circular lean-to with a central plaza. Families live in quarters that are not separated by internal walls. This communal dwelling is constructed of poles lashed together to form a framework that is thatched with palm leaves. In high elevations the house may be reduced in diameter to form a pitched roof to adapt to cooler temperatures. Yanoama located villages near small, non-navigable streams. However, in the last 20 years many Yanoama have chosen to occupy large river sites to maintain easy contact with missionaries.

The Yanoama may be characterized as foraging horticulturalists. Crops, most notably plantains and bananas, cultivated by means of slash and burn agriculture, compose up to 75% of the calories in the Yanoama diet. Wild resources obtained through gathering, hunting, and fishing supply protein. Typically, Yanoama devote two to three times more effort (measured in hours per day) to these subsistence tasks than to horticulture. Many Yanoama trek for a month or more during the year living in provisional camps some distance from their villages and depend heavily on wild resources.

Yanoama associated with missions engage in light commercial trade or wage labor, but such Yanoama probably amount to no more than 50% of the entire population.

The few items that the Yanoama make are primarily used for subsistence tasks. These items include burden and food serving baskets, bows and arrows, and a variety of single use items such as tree climbing thongs, leaf containers, and vine hammocks. Western manufactures have replaced many traditional artifacts such as crude clay pots and fire drills. Where Yanoama have close contact with the Ye'kwana they are adept at making tools necessary for manioc preparation and dugout canoe construction.

Internal trade among the Yanoama is well developed. Some trade is the result of differential distribution of primary resources (e.g., hallucinogenic plants) or a temporary surplus of prime domesticates (e.g., cotton or good hunting dogs), but in other instances trade is the exchange of material tokens to symbolize alliances between individuals. Over the last twenty years most Yanoama have become totally dependent on outside sources of axes, machetes, aluminum pots, and fish hooks and line. Most of these items have come from the missionaries as gifts and wages. Through mission organized cooperatives, the Yanoama began to market baskets and arrows and some agricultural products. Trade has a much longer history where the Yanoama are in close contact with Ye'kwana.

Weapon making, tree felling (in preparation of gardens), and hunting are the only exclusive male activities. Women spin cotton thread and plait baskets. Nearly all other activities may be done by either sex although in many, one sex dominates. Women dominate in the agricultural activities of weeding and harvesting, food processing, and in fuel and water collection. Both sexes frequently cooperate in gathering and fishing. When working cooperatively, however, one sex may dominate a particular phase. For example, in house construction men collect heavy poles and lash them together to form the structure while women collect palm thatch that the men intermesh and tie for the roof.

Individuals are free to clear and cultivate any forest land near their village. Once land has been cleared of trees and made into a garden it is owned by the maker. Theft of garden produce (tobacco, in particular) is a serious offense. Village mobility is such that semi-productive garden plots may be at considerable distance from one's current village. Owners of such plots may find it difficult to assert ownership to valuable crops such as peach palm.

The Yanoama practice patrilocal residence and trace descent patrilineally. Patrilineal descent does not lead to the development of named kinship groups. Members of the same patrilineage refer to themselves as mashi which means people who are related patrilineally. Kin groups tend to be localized in villages and their genealogical depth is rather shallow. Kinship is critical in the arrangement of marriage and very strong bonds develop between kin groups who exchange women.

Yanoama kinship terminology is bifurcate merging with Iroquoian cousin terms. Relations between brothers-in-law (cross-cousins) are close and intimate while relations between same age parallel cousins are cool and reserved. A son-in-law should avoid his mother-in-law and be deferential and respectful to his father-in-law

Yanoama marriage rules are prescriptive in that marriage partners must be cross-cousins. Ideally, mates are double cross-cousins, a result of the practice of sister exchange. Women are typically married soon after their first menses to men in their early twenties. Although marriage is patrilocal, a husband must live with his parents-in-law for several years performing bride service. This rule may be relaxed for high status males. Polygyny is permitted and 10-20% of all males at any time are polygynists. Ideally, polygyny is sororal and the levirate and sororate are practiced. Men and women average 2.8 marital partners during their lifetimes with about 75% of those marriages ending as a result of divorce with the balance as a result of the death of one of the partners.

Monogamous or polygynous nuclear families are the rule among the Yanoama. Deviations from this pattern occur when aged parents live closely associated with married children or when newlyweds dwell with one or the other's parents.

Neither status nor property is inherited among the Yanoama. At death kin destroy the personal property of the deceased by incineration.

Mothers dominate the care of infants who spend most of their time suspended in a simple sling that runs diagonally from the caretaker's right shoulder to just above the left hip. During this time the mother carries her infant to forest and garden as she works. While the child is being weaned it is more frequently cared for by older sisters and female relatives. Weaning from the breast and the sling may occur abruptly, especially if the mother is pregnant; and is occasioned by howls of protest by the child. Although fathers will affectionately play with infants they spend very little time (less than five minutes a day) in care giving activities. In contrast to boys, girls begin making important economic contributions by the age of six as they accompany mothers in gardening and gathering excursions and assist in food preparation. Boys spend most of their time playing rough and tumble games, shooting toy bows, and roaming in the nearby forest in the same sex groups. Parents encourage sons and daughters to be assertive and to respond to insults with physical or verbal aggression. Physical punishment (slapping, punching, or striking with objects) is not uncommon. A girl's puberty ceremony (YOBOMOU) begins immediately during her first menses. During this time a girl is secluded for a few weeks in a small shelter near her parent's hearth, is restricted to a special diet, and her head is shaved upon departure.

Each Yanoama village is an autonomous political entity, free to interact with other villages. Coalitions between villages are important; nevertheless, such coalitions tend to be fragile and ephemeral. Although the Yanoama are an egalitarian people, age, sex, and personal accomplishments are important in status differentiation. High status is acquired through valor in combat, accomplished oratory, and expertise in shamanism. However, high status cannot be inherited, it must be earned. Mature men dominate positions of political authority and religious practice. Local descent groups play important roles in regulating marriages and settling disputes within villages.

The village headman is the dominant political leader and comes from the largest local patrilineage. When a village is large or when two local descent groups are approximately equal in size, a village may have several headmen. To lead, the headman must rely on demonstrated skills in settling disputes, representing the interests of his lineage, and successfully dealing with allies and enemies. Styles of leadership vary; some headmen lead through practiced verbal skills while others resort to bullying tactics. Concerted action requires the consensus of adult males. However, an individual is free not to participate in collective action if it suits him.

Conflicts typically arise from accusations of adultery, failure to deliver a betrothed woman, personal affronts, stinginess, or thefts of coveted garden crops such as tobacco and peach palm. For men, if such conflicts move past a boisterous shouting match a variety of graded, formal duels may occur. If a fight becomes serious, respected men may intervene to cool tempers and prevent others from participating. Frequently, duels end in a draw with each contestant preserving his dignity. For women, dueling is rare. Instead, a direct attack is made by the aggrieved using hands and feet or makeshift weapons.

Warfare or feuding is endemic among the Yanoama, according to Chagnon. While the initial cause of a conflict frequently may be traced to a sexual or marital issue, feuds are self-perpetuating. This is because the Yanoama lack formal mechanisms to prevent aggrieved parties from exacting the amount of vengeance or counter-vengeance they deem sufficient once a conflict has started. The primary vengeance unit is the lineage, but co-resident non-kin have some obligation to assist since co-residence with a feuding faction is seen as implicit support by the faction's enemies. Most combat takes the form of surreptitious raids. The goal is to dispatch as many of the enemy as possible, abduct nubile women, where feasible, and quickly return home. While the primary goal is to kill men believed to be responsible for a previous depredation or their patrilineal kin, unrelated co-villagers may be killed if there is no opportunity to kill primary targets. Endemic warfare has a profound effect on politics and settlement size and location. Each village needs at least one allied village it can call up for assistance; and village size and distance between villages tend to increase with the intensity of conflict.

Peace between villages may develop if conflict has remained dormant for a long period and there is a mutual need for an alliance in the face of a common enemy. Peace begins with a series of ceremonially festive visits. If old antagonisms do not flare, visits may lead to joint raids and intermarriage between villages that strongly solidify an alliance. Proximity of missions and government agencies had had little impact on warfare.

The Yanoama believe that the cosmos consists of four parallel planes or layers. The upper-most layer is empty but was once occupied by ancient beings who descended to lower layers. The second layer, or sky, is the home of spirits of dead men and women and it resembles the earth except that the hunting is better, the food tastier, and the spirits of the people are young and beautiful. The third layer is the earth, and below the earth is the fourth layer, or the underworld. The AMAHI-TERI, ancient spirits who bring harm to humans, live in the underworld. The Yanoama have multiple souls that exist in a complex relation to one another. All shamans can use spirits (HEKIRA) over which they have personal control to cure or cause illnesses. Catholic and evangelical Protestant missionaries have been in steady contact with the Yanoama since the late 1950s but have had very little success in conversion.

Perhaps the most important and certainly the most dramatic ceremony is the REAHU, or mortuary ceremony. This ceremony culminates when the bone ash of the deceased is mixed in a plantain puree and consumed by the mourners in a demonstration of respect for the deceased and in consolation to his or her close relatives. When attended by members of allied villages, this ceremony also has considerable political implications, especially if the deceased was a valiant warrior (WAITERI) who was slain by mutual enemies, for it tended to cement inter-village solidarity.

Shamans are called upon to divine the causes of illness or misfortune, cure the ill, and sicken the enemy by sending spirits or demons that the shaman controls. Shamans are also expert at using wild and domesticated plants that are useful for casting spells. Only men can be shamans and they must endure arduous training requiring food deprivation and abstinence from sex.

The Yanoama attribute a large fraction of deaths to the actions of malevolent shamans who send demons or evil spirits to consume the souls of people. Upon death there are lamentations, singing, and chanting. Usually, the corpse is very quickly burned by the men while women and children absent themselves from the village lest they become polluted by the smoke. The men then collect and pulverize the bones and pour the ash into a set of gourds that are stored in the village. As noted above, after about a year the Yanoama stage an elaborate mortuary ceremony (REAHU). Close relatives, co-villagers, and sometimes allies consume the ash which is mixed into a large trough of plantain soup. This ritual demonstrates affection for the dead and solidarity with the deceased's relatives. It also helps insure that the soul of the dead will find its way to HEDU, a Yanoama paradise above the earth.

Yanoama graphic art consists of geometric designs, usually black or red, that adorn common objects such as baskets, arrow points, and bodies. Verbal and vocal arts such as oratory, chanting and myth telling are greatly esteemed and developed among the Yanoama. Although these acts may have political and social significance, performers are admired and gain status based on their talents.

The Yanoama believe that most serious illness is the handiwork of independently acting HEKIRA or enemy shamans who have caused their spirits or HEKIRA to sicken a body. A shaman must diagnose the cause and sometimes figuratively pull the spirit or demon out, often with the help of his own spirits. To prepare, a shaman frequently decorates himself and his surroundings handsomely and invariably inhales a hallucinogenic snuff to aid contact with the HEKIRA. Illness may also be caused by the breach of a ritual regulation or taboo. The Yanoama also employ a variety of herbal remedies as cures.

The Yanoama collection consists of eleven documents all in English. Of these eleven documents three are translations from German and three others are translations from Spanish. The documents in this collection concentrate on specific Yanoama villages or subgroups, especially Waica and Surara and Pakidai. The monograph by Shuster is on the Waica and contains a sociological analysis of inter- and intra-community relations. The two documents by Barker, an American Protestant missionary, are also on the Waica. The main subject of the article by Layrisse et al. is blood groups among the Waica. Some comparative information is included. Ethnographic information on material culture, religion, and political structure of the Surara and Pakidai is contained in the document by Becher. The Yanoama language of the Surara and Pakidai is the subject of the document by Rodrigues. The chapter from Wilbert's book is on the Sanema primarily, with information on other Venezuelan Indians included as well. The two monographs by Chagnon are general ethnographies of communities especially in Venezuela with comparative data from communities in Brazil. A recent addition to the collection is that by Early and Peters on population dynamics of Mucajai Yanoama in Brazil from the late 1950s to 1987. Finally, the manuscript by Human Relations Area Files is a bibliography compiled in 1993 containing approximately 100 items. The ethnography of the Yanoama is controversial. People interested in more information on the Yanoama should see the HRAF bibliography.

The culture summary of the Yanoama is taken from the article written by Raymond B. Hames for the 'Encyclopedia of World Cultures'. The synopsis was written by John Beierle in 1993.