Anthropology Paper: the Yanomamo Tribe
19 November 2012 This is a review about the Yąnomamö by Napoleon Chagnon. The Wadsworth Cengage Learning group, in California in the year 2009, published this edition of the book. He published more than five editions and it is commonly used as an introductory text in university level anthropology classes. The Yąnomamö are a group of indigenous tribal Amazonians that live in the border area between Venezuela and Brazil. Chagnon lived and studied with the Yąnomamö from the mid-1960s to the 1990s. I plan to describe the physical environment of the Yąnomamö society, their subsistence strategies, the way that they communicate, their religion, and their gender and age roles.
To start off, I will discuss their physical setting, climate and environment. They live in 200-250 villages in the Amazon rainforest on the border between Venezuela and Brazil. The village where Chagnon lived is located at the junction of the Mavaca and Orincoco Rivers. Chagnon said, “Kaobawa’s village lies at an elevation of about 450 feet above sea level on a generally flat, jungle-covered plain that is interrupted occasionally by low hills” (46). Most of the rivers and streams start out in the hills as tiny trickles that are dry at some times of the year but turn into dangerous floods at other times. Heavy rain can have a dramatic effect on larger streams and the Yąnomamö avoid larger streams when they select garden and village sites. Their climate has been described as warm and humid so they do not require much clothing. The Yąnomamö are very nomadic because of the deforestation of the rainforest. The jungle is dense and contains a large variety of palm and hardwood trees. According to Chagnon, “the canopy keeps the sunlight from reaching the ground, and on overcast days it can be very dark and gloomy in the jungle” (46). It is very difficult to travel by foot in the forest and along the rivers and streams where sunlight can penetrate to the ground, vegetation grows and it is a haven for
To start off, I will discuss their physical setting, climate and environment. They live in 200-250 villages in the Amazon rainforest on the border between Venezuela and Brazil. The village where Chagnon lived is located at the junction of the Mavaca and Orincoco Rivers. Chagnon said, “Kaobawa’s village lies at an elevation of about 450 feet above sea level on a generally flat, jungle-covered plain that is interrupted occasionally by low hills” (46). Most of the rivers and streams start out in the hills as tiny trickles that are dry at some times of the year but turn into dangerous floods at other times. Heavy rain can have a dramatic effect on larger streams and the Yąnomamö avoid larger streams when they select garden and village sites. Their climate has been described as warm and humid so they do not require much clothing. The Yąnomamö are very nomadic because of the deforestation of the rainforest. The jungle is dense and contains a large variety of palm and hardwood trees. According to Chagnon, “the canopy keeps the sunlight from reaching the ground, and on overcast days it can be very dark and gloomy in the jungle” (46). It is very difficult to travel by foot in the forest and along the rivers and streams where sunlight can penetrate to the ground, vegetation grows and it is a haven for
Cited: Chagnon, Napoleon. Yąnomamö. 6th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2009. Print.