Jayon Woodard

LBST 2101
October 30, 2016

Yanomami
The most diverse location in the world, between the plants, animals, food, natural
landmarks, and the people, is one of the most significant locations in the world. Its preservation
is essential, primarily for its uniqueness. Even with the substantial amounts of diversity to be
amazed by, this forest has an even more interesting background and concealed culture behind it.
In the immense forest between Venezuela and Brazil, the indigenous people, the Yanomami
(translates to human being), have faced many hardships and attacks on their culture for
hundreds of years. Foreigners have imposed their religions and ways of life, threatening the
existence of theirs. While diversity can be said to describe the unique surroundings of the
Yanomami, it can also be used to describe their profound bonds amongst each other to uphold
beliefs within the forest.
Culture
The Yanomami are an American Indian group of indigenous people from the Amazon
Rainforest and mountains. They are particularly known for being a hunter-gatherer society and
adhere by the typical gender roles seen within indigenous societies such as the Aborigines. The
women gather the food and focus on the growth of plants while the men complete more
strenuous work like hunting or clearing forests for cultivation. Each village is led by a Tuwax, a
chief or leader, that makes executive decisions on behalf of the village and typically leads the
hunting. Their hunting missions are plagued by foreign impediment pertaining to placement of
mines due to the 1980 Gold Rush and farming companies trying to also take heed of the diversity
within the forest. The mining has caused mercury pollution in drinking rivers, killing many of
the tribe. In addition to the displacement of cultivation opportunities, various diseases such as
influenza, malaria, and measles have reached the Yanomami. Foreign involvement has pestered
the lifestyle of the Yanomami influencing their ability to survive tremendously, but residing deep
within the forest has enabled them to preserve their culture of despite the involvement.
Similarly to many different American Indian groups, the Yanomami believe in nature
having spiritual forms, or animism. They have strong ties with the individual animals, plants, and
other living creatures throughout the very eccentric Amazon. Being surrounded by such a diverse
location, one can image that their ties to nature are much closer or practiced than other American
Indian groups. They believe that Their fate, and the fate of all people, is inescapably linked to
the fate of the environment; with its destruction, humanity is committing suicide
(Crystallinks.com). Yanomami ties to the spiritual world are guided and initiated by the Shaman,
a spiritual medium mentioned throughout majority of American Indian societies.

Jayon Woodard
LBST 2101
October 30, 2016

Shaman
A Shaman, is a bridge between the spirit world and the real world. They are the only
person within the village that has to ability to communicate with both good and evil spirits.
During an attempt to connect with the spirit world, Shaman are put through a near-death trance in
order to accomplish their connection with the spirit world, and is essentially why they are so
well-respected throughout American Indian Tribes. Theses trances can be initiated by fasting,
dancing, meditation, sexual abstinence, or even dismemberment for a symbolic death, just to
identify a few. For the Yanomami, their Shaman, called Heruka or Shapori, may even drink
Yakoana to initiate their trance. Typically, Shaman are sought out for majority of the villages
problems, whether that be sickness, stress, or problems within a village.
In order to become a Heruka, the process usual involves aggressive means of initiation.
The male may be scorches with flames, shot with an arrow, or even eaten. The individual has to
undergo an extensive process in order to receive the title of Shapori and receive their ancestors
spirits and be born anew amongst the community.
When Yanomami hunt game, eat the fruit of the forest, or make use of the forest in any
shape or form, they have to give thanks to Omama, or the creator of the Yanomami. According to
Davi Kopenawa Yanomami, a shaman of the Yanomami people, the Omama made the Xapiri, or
spirits, in order to ensure good health (means of food and medicine). The Xapiri are quite similar
to animals, plants, or other creatures within the world, but they are only to be seen by Yanomami
shaman.
After a Herukas biological death, their spirit is split amongst the cosmos becoming a part
of a cosmic circuit, where his spirit is to travel back into the body of new Heruka. They fuse with
the tutelary spirits and wait in order to be reincarnated back into the world as part of the new
Heruka. This cycle of life and death is the most significance differentiation between the
Yanomami and the other American Indian tribes.
Conclusion
Despite worldly progression and forceful changes impacting majority of the world, the
Yanomami have managed to maintain their culture. The Yanomamic style of life within the
Amazon Rainforest has held on to their hunter-gather society, Shamanistic viewpoint on life, as
well as their appreciation of nature. The Yanomami culture couples the diversity of the Amazon
Rainforest by their strong bonds of with nature formidably. Many tribes and societies, such as the
Aborigines, have been so greatly impeded on by foreigners that in present-day they have
integrated themselves into society significantly, or experienced genocide, similarly to the Mayan
empire. Modern civilization should be working together to preserve rich cultures.

Jayon Woodard
LBST 2101
October 30, 2016

Citations
http://www.crystalinks.com/yanomami.html
http://lifeforaforest.com/2015/08/31/the-yanomami-tribe/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/world/yanomami/
http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2014/05/01/308362560/fighting-to-save-the-forest-interviewwith-a-yanomami-shaman
https://www.berghahnbooks.com/downloads/intros/JokicLiving_intro.pdf