If I knew I was going to be visiting and studying the Yanomamo, I would have tried to prepare myself with as much information on their heritage and culture as I possibly could. Being prepared for a culture shock which will most likely happen because no matter how well prepared you think you might be, being in an unfamiliar culture and around people who you are not accustomed to seeing can be a eye opener for anyone. So having some sort of knowledge of their culture and heritage will help you to better to understand how and why they live the way they do as compared to how you live. I would read books or articles on the Yanomamo people to use as a resource and reference to better understand what kinds of foods they eat, how they dress, what kind of language they speak, and their beliefs. But my best bet would be to have a guide from the Yanomamo village who spoke and understood English so he or she would be able to show me around and help me with understanding their culture and heritage better. The one memory I have when I experienced culture shock was when I went with my friend along with his parent to visit their grandparents in Mexico when I was 15 years old. Then grandparents lived in a small town called Patzcuaro which was close to Mexico City. It was a culture shock for me to see just how life in that town was and how they lived. My friend’s grandparents living conditions were different from what I was use having at back home in Arizona. For instance the water that came out from the faucets was bad to drink and had to be boiled in order to drink. When taking a shower sand would come out with the water so it didn’t feel like you were ever getting clean. If you wanted to take a shower with clean water with no sand, you had to go down to the wale at the neighbor’s house and collect water. After that you had to put the water in a large container and when you took a shower you had to pull a chain for that water in the container to come out but it comes out slowly. Once the water was gone you would have to repeat the process over again. I soon figured out how much I took the basic living necessities back at home for granted. I believe that it is very important to understand the components of a culture when and if you are ever visiting a different culture or village. You don’t want to upset or offend the people of that culture or heritage by not understanding their customs, beliefs or language. I was fortunate to have my friend there with me because even though I’m Hispanic, the language spoken down in that particular town was different from Spanish. I wasn’t the best Spanish speaker to begin with so I relayed on my friend for communicating and letting me know what was going on. If I had not had him there with me, I would have been in trouble and not understood what anyone was saying. Thus causing them to possibly think I was being disrespectful to their culture or heritage.
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