The Yanomami Tribe

Living in approximately 250 villages in the countries of Brazil and Venezuela, the Yanomami tribe is made up of 26,000 individuals that trace their existence to mystical beginnings. The Yanomami have been influenced by European slave traders, missionaries and gold miners despite the fact that many believe that they have had little contact with outsiders. With 95 percent of the tribe living in the Amazon rainforest, the Yanomami rely on foraging and horticulture and gardening and hunting, and those living near the rivers have resorted to fishing instead of hunting. The Yanomami’s main source of food comes from the village gardens, and the plantain is the largest crop. Plantains are similar to the banana but firmer and lower in sugar content. Manioc, taro, sweet potato and cane are also domestic products, and tobacco is a very important crop used for personal enjoyment.

The Amazon Rainforest, home to the Yanomami tribe.

Cotton is grown in village gardens and used to make hammocks. The most popular trade item between villages is poison arrow tips. The village homes are typically made from saplings and vines and leaves. The dwellings are not very durable and tend to be rebuilt frequently. Village size can range from 40 to 300 individuals and is strongly influenced by the positive or negative relationships between neighboring villages.

The Yanomami’s unique bowl-shaped haircut with a circle shaved bald spot in the middle distinguishes them from other tribes and individuals. The Yanomami are also distinguishable by their unique religious practices and expressive culture. Believing that the universe is constructed of four layers, the Yanomami believe that the uppermost stratum is empty and meaningless today, that the second layer is the sky and that the third layer is the layer in which the Yanomami live. The bottom layer consists of a place where the sky has fallen to the earth and the people have lost their hunting grounds. Thus, the Yanomami’s in the bottom layer resort to cannibalism, and this idea frightens the Yanomami. Nevertheless it is still a part of their belief and tradition. These individuals in the bottom layer become a spirit when they die called the hekura, and this hekura spirit has a prominent place in Yanomami shamanism. Shamanism has to do with beliefs and practices related to communicating to the spiritual world.

The Yanomami also have incorporated many myths into their society, and they use themes such as the relationship of humans to jaguars to tell their stories. The soul also plays a significant role in society and contains many different portions that play roles in life and in death. Additionally, the Yanomami believe that illness is caused by the hekura spirits and must be fought by shamanism. Shamanism can only be practiced by men, and the practice consists basically of the men calling their own good hekura spirits to them to counteract the bad hekura spirits. The process consists of a fasting for sometimes up to a year, learning the likes and dislikes of the hekura, engaging in celibacy and establishing a strong relationship with the good hekura. Additionally, shamans may only access the hekura when they are under the influence of hallucinogens. Finally, the process of caring for a body after death is pivotal to the culture of the Yanomami due to the fact that so much emphasis is placed on the soul.

The Yanomami culture has many rituals and traditions related to the spiritual world.

The Yanomami’s have a unique social structure in that there is no ranked hierarchy. Status among men is achieved instead of ascribed, and women settle into the role of a housemaid at a young age. Marriages are arranged, and physical violence is common and accepted. A woman’s brother is her protector once he is grown and for the rest of the sister’s life, and the brother may even protect the woman from her abusive husband if the situation exists.

Politically, the Yanomami tribe forms alliances between villages, and relationships are often facilitated by trade and marriages. Feasts are a common activity in the society, and they bring together members of the community for a time of dancing, eating, rituals, chanting, trading and allow for the expression of ideas.

Many individuals disagree over whether the Yanomami culture is one that is fierce and violent. But Napoleon Chagnon, a famous anthropologist known for his study of the Yanomami, has stated that violence is an integral part of their culture. Chagnon states that wars typically begin between villages because of accusations of adultery, but other anthropologists such as Leslie Sponsel believe that the activities of the Yanomami are simply a form of sport similar to boxing or wrestling found in other parts of the world.

Current Yanomami culture is changing due to the infiltration of missionaries, roads, miners, the introduction of diseases and the destruction of the rainforests. The Yanomami culture is helping itself survive, but Chagnon has called upon the international community to help the tribe survive and maintain their culture.

To learn more about the Yanomami tribe, culture and current challenges, visit http://www.yanomami-hilfe.de/en/yanomami-2/ or  http://www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/yanomami.

African American Culture: A Glimpse into the Past

In honor of Marin Luther King, Jr., I thought it would be appropriate to begin our discussion with a brief look at African American culture. A culture that has been marked by a history of oppression and injustice, African American culture is sometimes difficult for individuals to discuss and to fully embrace. This may be due to prejudices or discomfort, or simply due to the fact that we just don’t want to deal with the past. But African American culture has permeated American society through areas of music, art, cuisine and literature. African Americans have significantly changed the way citizens interact with the government, and through the African American people we finally learned to put into practice the words of our Founding Fathers written over two centuries ago in the Declaration of Independence, “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” (http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html).

African American culture is known for many different things, but I’m going to focus on the music and art aspect of the culture for this week. African American culture is well-known for its contribution to music and its formation of the genre of jazz. Redhotjazz.com states that jazz music stemmed directly from African-Americans pursuing careers in the arts after the Civil War. Introducing the African tradition of rhythm and accent, jazz was profoundly different than the traditional European style of music that had dominated the West for centuries. Artists like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Scott Joplin revolutionized music in America, giving America its own style of music in jazz and ragtime that was unique from the music of the past.

                                                                         

African American culture has also contributed many unique features to the field of art. Influenced by Western and American art, African American art has taken the form of plastic arts, basket weaving, pottery, quilting, woodcarving and painting. The Harlem Renaissance and Modern Art era have contributed to the unique form of African American art that we recognize today. Jacob Lawrence’s Street to Mbari is featured in the middle photo of the gallery above. Created in 1964, the piece features a scene from a marketplace in Nigeria. Using unique color combinations and diverse patterns, the artist desired to depict the nature of African art through his painting.

My own life has been touched by pieces of African American culture, particularly in the area of music. My brother, a freshman student at Hillsdale College, is an avid musician who has always taken an interest in jazz. From Scott Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag” and “The Entertainer” to “The River” by Duke Ellington, jazz tunes have always filled the air in my home. My grandfather also has an interest in jazz as a saxophone player, and every time I hear big band music I think of him and of his love for jazz. Being exposed to jazz from an early age has sparked an interest in this culture and particularly in their music, which is so different from traditional European music.

The United States has many famous African American art museums that include the National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C., the Museum for African Art in New York City and the African American Museum of the Arts in DeLand, Florida. Let’s take the time to appreciate one of the cultures that has profoundly shaped American history by embracing the ideas and contributions they have made to our society, realizing the incredible impact they have had on our lives.

Connect with Culture

This is my first attempt writing a blog, so I’m not exactly sure how this is going to turn out! But I hope the words I write here are both worth reading and spark some interest in the subject of culture and diversity. The world in which we live has so many different kinds of people and customs, and it fascinates me t0 think of how diverse and unique we all are. And yet we still share so many similarities on top of our differences. God’s creation is truly fascinating.

I am a student studying journalism and public relations at a small University in Ohio. I love studying culture and people, and that is where I found the inspiration for this blog. Each week I’ll be expounding on a different culture, and sometimes these cultures and ethnic groups might be discussed in light of specific holidays or events. But other times I may just choose a culture of the week for no apparent reason other than the desire to simply learn more about a group of individuals and their lives.

So come along with me and let’s discover the different people, customs and ideas that this world holds. I think we’ll both learn things that we never knew before, and my hope is that we’ll both gain a greater appreciation for the diversity and uniqueness that exists on our earth.