This paper is going to be on the Yanomami people.

The Yanomami (also called

Yanamamo, Yanomam, and Sanuma) is an indigenous group that live in the Amazon rainforest of
Brazil and Venezuela. The Yanomami people believe that death is not a natural cause, but they
think a shaman from a rival tribe put bad spirits on that person. I wonder how they celebrate the
death. Do they a have a special type of ceremony? What do you have to do to become a shaman?
How do they live their daily lives?
This group is made up of four subdivisions of Indians. They are the Sanema, the Ninam,
the Yanomam and the Yanomamo. The word Yanomami translate to human being. They also are
known as the Fierce people because how they were always ready and prepare to fight other
tribes. They live in a circular wood, thatch houses called shabonos. Up to 400 people can fight in
these houses. They get their food by hunting, fishing and they also grow crops. The men get at
least 20 percent of the food, which is the meat they hunt for. While the women gather 80 percent
of the food the forest and tend the gardens.
Lets celebrate the children. In Yanomamo culture, has a individual celebration for each
child. In some other tribes, they celebrate the children in groups so, this is very special. The
children has to go through extremely hard initiation test. These test were design to strengthen the
children will power and personality.
The Yanomamo people do not usually celebrate marriage. They believe in a polygamous
marriage, meaning the husband can have more than one wife. They believe in arranged
marriages. A girl can be promised to a man as young as five or six years old. She cannot marry
him or be with him until after her first menstrual period. After her first menstrual period, one
parent give her away to her new husband. The Yanomamo people believe in cross- cousin
marriage, meaning she will marry her paternal aunt/ maternal uncles son. When the girl is
married she is responsible for doing all the chores/ cooking, things she did with her mom for her
new husband.
The Yanomamo practice a religion called animeism. Animeism is they believe the plants
and animals around them has a spirit. The spirits are called xapiripe. Order to see a xapiripe, you
must use a hallucinogen drug called yopo. Yopo is taken by blowing through a tube into the nasal
cavities from one person to another. When a person takes yopo they supposed to have a power
that can trick the spirits of the animals and plants to go into their own body, thus giving them
more spiritual power. They believe that animals were once humans, but were turned into animals
because of wrong doing that happen in their past.
In Yanomamo culture, only men can become a shaman. Shamans heal the sick, help
people and to hurt the enemies. They can cast spells by using plants. The process of becoming a
shaman is fasting for a while, go to hard difficult training and abstinence from sex. In one ritual
shaman inhale a hallucinogenic substances called yakoana. They use it to be able to connect with
spirits and telling them to stop spreading diseases in the community.
When someone in the Yanomami tribe is sick , they say that is caused by a shaman from
another tribe or enemies. That shaman is making the person spirit sick. To be cured, you must
see a shaman, so they can determine what is wrong with you. They have to pull the demon out
by using the shamans own demons. To prepare for the healing the shaman must dress up and
even decorate his surroundings. The shaman will inhale a hallucinogenic snuff to contact the
hekura or spirits.

When a person from the Yanomamo people dies there is mourning singing and chanting
for that person. The body is burned by the men in the village. The women and children dismiss
themselves so they dont inhale the smoke. A year after the person has died, the village has a
reahu or a mortuary ceremony. The relatives, villagers and even allies eat the ashes. The ashes
are mixed into a plantain soup. The village participate in something called endocannibalism. It
express affection and closures for the person relatives. It helps the soul find its way to hedu, a
paradise above the earth.
To conclude my paper, I learned a lot about the Yanomami people. Their way of life is
really beautiful. I love how the men will go out and hunt for the food and they do not eat the
meat that they killed. They pass it on to another hunter and get another piece of meat from a
different hunter. They basically work as one big team to survive. With recently being contact
with the outside world, older Yanomamo people have agreed on being trained to teach the
children reading, writing and math. There is no chief, when they have a problem they let
everyone speak their mind and agree as a community. For them not to have a structure
government, they sure do know how to keep their community in order.

References

http://www.gymmuenchenstein.ch/stalder/klassen/hie/indigenous/yan.htm
http://ksuanth.wikifoundry-mobile.com/m/page/Yanomamo+Religion*