Yanomamo Tribe Essay Example for Free

Yanomamo Tribe turn outThe Yanomamo tribes be a large population of native people in South America. They often occupy in the Amazon rainforest, between the border of Brazil and Venezuela. Since their place of residency is remote and isolated, they have remained conventual from many aspects in the outside world. Due to their isolation, there are several characteristics of their culture and modus vivendi that are affected by this. Some factors that result from their seclusion are their domestic life, clothing and diet. The Yanomamos corporeal surroundings consists of villages that usually contain their kin and lineages. The villages consist of about fifty people. In these villages they have a communal system, where they all live under one common roof called the shabono. The shabonos are an oval square up hut with covering near the edges further open ground in the center. The roof is supported by posts which signify all(prenominal) familys individual areas. These habitats are built from raw materials from the surrounding jungle, such as leaves, vines and tree trunks. Unfortunately, when horrific conditions, such as weather and infestation of insects and animals occur, shabonos are very susceptible to damage.As a result, shabonos are rebuilt every one to two years. Not only do the Yanomamo use character for their shabonos, they besides dep stop over on the forest for their slash and dismiss horticulture. Slash and burn horticulture is when they cut and burn forests to create fields for agriculture. When the areas require overused they from the slash and burn horticulture, the Yanomamo use shifting cultivation. Shifting cultivation is an country system in which plots of belt down are cultivated temporarily, and then abandoned. This requires clearing a piece of land followed by several years of farming in order to loosen the soil for fertility.The Yanomamo are cognise as drawers, fishers, and horticulturists, cultivating as their main crops plan tains and cassava. Another food source for the Yanomamo grubs. Traditionally they did not farm, and the practice of felling palms in order to facilitate the growth of grubs was their closest approach to cultivation. The conventional diet of the Yanomamo is low in salt, which makes their gunstock pressure the lowest of any cultural group on the planet. Historically, the Yanomamo were known as endocannibals. Endocannibalism is a elevated form of cannibalism that usually occurs after death.The body of the dead soul is burned in a remote land away from the village. The remaining bones and ash are then made into a fine pulverization which is then mixed into the juice of a plantain to make a beverage. This beverage is consumed by the deceased persons relatives. This is called drinking of the dead which is thought to be the way for the deceased persons soul to enter the body of their living descendants. They believe that this proves them with a spiritual and somatic strength so they can fight the evils of the jungle.Another way that the Yanomamo connect with the spirits of the jungle is by taking hallucinogens. hallucinogenic medicates are taken on a daily basis, because drugs are commonly available from the jungle. Some aspects embed in nature that can be made into many different drugs are the yakowana tree and the hisiomo tree. The yakowana trees clamber is ground into snuff powder with they use to snort. The hisiomo trees seeds are packed into a cigar shaped and traded among the villages. One drug that is taken every day by the Yanomamo is called yopo.Yopo is made by grinding several natural grow and vines that are gathered in the rainforest. It is consumed by blowing the powder into another Yanomamos nostrils with a long tobacco pipe called a mokohiro. Using this drug is very painful and causes blinding pains in the head and nausea. aft(prenominal) they have achieved a trance state, they communicate with the spirit world and relate what they are seein g with intonation and dancing. This is one way that the Yanomamo connect with their fellow neighbors. Another way the Yanomamo unite with each other is through and through celebration.They celebrate a good harvests with a big feast to which nearby villages are invited. This celebration helps to swan good relations with their neighbors by sharing their harvest. During the celebration, they decorate their bodies with feathers and flowers, eat a lot of food and the women spring and sing all night. These two aspects of the Yanomamo culture not only shows their social organization with fellow tribes but also their ideological aspects of culture. The technological advances of the Yanomamo include baskets, wooden spears, arrow points, fire making sticks, quivers, bows and arrows, and blow guns.The women fluctuate and decorate the baskets. They make twain flat baskets and burden baskets which are carried by a strap around the forehead. Fire sticks are still often used to make a fire. T he men carry quivers containing free carved wooden spear and arrow points when they are out hunting. Around the outside of the quiver they also tie the fire making sticks. Making fire with sticks is a long and arduous process requiring adroitness and agility. Each quiver contains a bow and three arrows, which are designed to hunt small game.In order to make a blown gun, a piece of cane is used as the actinotherapy which must be long and straight. A mouthpiece is added to one end of the cane which is cut or carved from wood. The darts for the blow dun are made by sharpening fibers and balance on the end with either cotton or the fiber of the kapok tree. They often use poison on the ends of the darts. They require this poison from a frog that inhabits there. After an extensive assessment of the life of the Yanomamo culture it is evident to me that the physical and social environment influenced their way of life tremendously.The location of the Yanomamo is a key role in their lifes tyle based on the resources available to them including food sources, raw materials and supplies. If they didnt live in their initial environment, zilch would be the same. By living in this environment, their culture has already established their lifestyles through surroundings cod to the shabonos and way of agriculture. The way the shabonos are built cause the Yanomamo to be obtain close with one another to become one big tribe. Without their way of agriculture, the Yanomamos wouldnt consume the same foods, or even hunt the same way.Hallucinogens are another aspect that contributes to the physical environment. Without their environment, drugs wouldnt be so prominent and their alone way of connecting to the spirits would change. Lastly, technology would change since they make their baskets and quivers out of nature resources found in their environment such as wood and cane. The social environment of the Yanomamo also plays a big part in their culture. The Yanomamo do hallucinogen s with fellow neighbors to connect to the spirits and also forms a sense of belongingness with each other.When they do the hallucinogens they come together and connect to the spirits as one with song and dance. Aside from that, they also unite with each other through celebration. They celebrate a good harvests with a big feast to which nearby villages are invited which helps to maintain good relations with their neighbors. If the Yanomamo didnt share their harvest with each other, they wouldnt have as much food as they do and wouldnt be able to survive alone. The Yanomamo use both physical and social environments in order to prosper and thrive in life.