Yanomami Nation
In this opportunity we will meet the Yanomami or Yanomamiös, an indigenous ethnic group established in America for about 15.000 years, after emigrating from the Bering Strait (like most of the indigenous peoples of the continent), formed by three large groups: the Sanumá , the Yonomam and the Yanam. Although the tribes have different languages they can be understood by what can be called "Yanomami Nation". Currently, its population has just over 35.000 people distributed between Brazil and Venezuela, 70% of them live in the Amazonas state (southern Venezuela) while the rest is located in Brazilian territory (Roraima and Amazonas) where the totality of the yanam community. The Yanomami occupy the largest jungle indigenous territory in the world, consisting of 9.6 million hectares in Brazil and 8.2 million hectares in Venezuela, in the Upper Orinoco-Casiquiare Biosphere Reserve.
They are very short in stature and their clothing is very simple, with more ornamental than protective, the only clothing is the "guayuco", a kind of loincloth made of cotton threads or plant fibers, with which only cover the genitals. The rest of the body they usually wear is exposed, but painted with many colors, accompanied by cotton strings on the wrists, ankles and waist; women and girls make use of necklaces and feathers on their heads or tied to arms. In the same way, they adorn their body with a small stick pierced in their nasal septum and in the corners of the lips, they consider the scars as a sign of value and maturity.
Their homes are communal homes that are known as "shabonos" or "yanos", totally open circular formations in which family groups occupy the edges of the construction and in the central area there are activities such as rituals, games and parties in which share the whole community. Some of these cabins can accommodate up to 400 people. Families live and share the products of hunting, fishing and gathering, but they have individual fires where they prepare their meals during the day, and at night they hang their hammocks near the fire to keep warm.
The Yanomami believe in equality, proof of this is that all individuals have a task within the community and none is recognized as "the boss". Their decisions are made in consensus, after long debates in which everyone can participate.
Its basic activities are hunting, fishing, gathering and agriculture; they clear land and build large orchards that provide most of their food, however Amazon soil conditions are not very favorable for cultivation and every two or three years must move in search of a new place to establish their village and plant their products, which makes them nomadic communities. Women are busy
mainly agricultural activities (banana, yam, ocumo and others) as well as the collection of nuts, tubers, honey and edible insects. On the other hand, men perform hunting, using bow and arrow. They use a toxic substance that they obtain from the plants called "curare", they impregnate it in their arrows and in this way when it penetrates the skin of the animal, it paralyzes the musculature causing death in a few minutes.
The animals that are most sought are the tapir, the baquiro, the limpet, the deer, the monkey, the picure and others. Although this activity is considered of great value, no hunter consumes the meat of the animal that hunts, but distributes it among friends and family, and in return receives the flesh of some other hunter.
Groups of men, women and children carry out fishing, making use of their hands looking for fish hidden among branches and leaves; hooks, braided baskets that catch the fish when introducing them in the water, and a series of extracts of plants to what they call timbó, and that when shaking it in the surface stun the fish what facilitates them to catch them with the baskets. Some of the most common fish are striped, peacock, cachama, valentón, guabina, caribe, picúa, among others.
Often visits are carried out between communities, they celebrate important events such as the gathering of the pejiballes (a kind of peach from the fruit of the palm) and the reahu or funerary rite, one of the most primitive customs of the tribe in which they practice inbreeding cannibalism in a sacred way, where they commemorate the death by consuming the ashes of the deceased diluted in plantain carato, given their belief that the vital energy of the deceased resides in the bones, and when ingested, the latter is reintegrated into the family group. This ceremony is of great impact in the political, social and economic environment of the Yanomami people, because alliances and exchanges of material and symbolic goods are developed.
The Yanomami have an extensive botanical knowledge, around 500 plants are used as food, medicine, construction instrument or various articles. They also attach great importance to the spiritual world, each creature in nature has a spirit, and the shamans are in charge of communicating with them through visions in which they encounter the spirits or xapiripë.
The first contacts of the Nation with the rest of society occurred more than two centuries ago during the colonization of the Portuguese, however they remained isolated in the jungle in territories of refuge until the 1950s when contact was initiated more direct and continuous with the non-indigenous population. But later, the so-called garimpeiros (gold prospectors) entered Yanomami territory, generating violent encounters that caused the death and abduction of some people by indigenous peoples. in defense of the invaders, because on their arrival they killed members of the tribes in order to terrorize them and carry out illegal activities on their lands, causing environmental degradation.
After long international campaigns and government actions, the garimpeiros were expelled from the indigenous territory in 1992. However, a year later what happened was known as the Haximu Massacre, when a group of miners returned to the community and murdered 16 members of the tribe, among whom was a baby, so a Brazilian court declared five of them guilty of genocide: two of the criminals are in prison while the rest managed to escape from the authorities. But despite this, the ambition to extract the gold found in the land of the Yanomami continues. In Venezuela there have been reports of severe attacks on indigenous people and even cases of poisoning towards them.
In 2004, a meeting was held in which 11 Yanomami regions of Brazil participated to form their own organization, Hutukara ("part of heaven born on earth"); In the same way the Venezuelan indigenous formed the organization Horonami, in 2011. The purpose of these communities is to defend their rights due to the repeated attacks of which they are victims, and raise together a voice before the authorities to put a stop to the people who, using their ambition, run over tribes that have inhabited these lands for centuries.
Naturally life.. Amazing