Yanomami |
The Yanomami tribe is very large- over 32,000 members, and live in a territory twice the size of Switzerland. Their homeland is the largest forrested area of any aboriginal tribe in the world.
They live in large,communal houses, called yanos or shabonos, that house around 400 people. The Yanomami divide daily duties by sex, much like many other cultures. The men to the hunting while the women tend the children, cooking and other housework activities. As a strange ritual, a man will not eat the meat he has killed. He shares his meat with family and friends. He will get meat from another hunter. The Yanomami are experts with the plants around them. They use almost 500 different plants for various needs such as food, building supplies and the like. One unusual use is using vines to fish. This is done through use a "fish poisoning" method. They crush one of 9 different vines, so the juices enter a river or stream. The plant extract stops the fish from breathing and they float to the surface into a wating basket. The poison in the fish have no effect on humans, making them perfectly safe to eat. The tribe also harvest 15 different types of honey. These indigenous people believe in equality. There are no chiefs and decisions are made by large congregations where everybody has a say. Despite their more modern approach to their government, they still face many problems with the outside world. Illegal gold miners transmit malaria to the tribe members who are unable to resist the disease. The miners also pollute the local rivers that the Yanomami depend on. They aren't recieving much help from the government as Brazillian solders posted in Yanomami territories have been known to rape the indigenous women. The Yanomami are still struggling to have their rights properly heard. |