The Yanomamo of the Amazon Basin Essay - 1458 Words

Yanomamo Paper Assignment nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Napoleon Chagnon has spent about 60 months since 1964 studying the ‘foot people’ of the Amazon Basin known as the Yanomamo. In his ethnography, Yanomamo, he describes all of the events of his stay in the Venezuelan jungle. He describes the â€Å"hideous† appearance of the Yanomamo men when first meeting them, and their never-ending demands for Chagnon’s foreign goods, including his food. There are many issues that arise when considering Chagnon’s Yanomamo study. The withholding of genealogical information by the tribesmen, and how Chagnon was able to obtain his information is an interesting and significant aspect of this study. Why did Chagnon feel that this genealogical information was†¦show more content†¦He even increased the reward given to villagers who were willing to give genealogical information and therefore created a rapid craze of helping villagers. This way, they were competing to give him information for their eventual rewards, not plotting against him. It took him months to compile his accurate collection of genealogical data, and even after gathering most of it, he still needed his friend, Rerebawa, to double-check most of it for him. He even went so far as to seek out other villages who had bad relations with Bisaasi-teri to break the â€Å"name taboo† and give away names. Chagnon felt that the most important aspect of his research in Bisaasi-teri was to collect genealogical information and organize the marriages and relations between the villagers. This turned out to be his most difficult task, but nonetheless the most useful. He tells in the very beginning of the ethnography that the Yanomamo are considered a very â€Å"primitive† societal organization of human beings. The most obvious sign of primitive human life is simply the way the dress. In addition, their fickle nature, lack of industry, methods of hunting and gathering, and political organization, contribute to their primitive nature. As proved by anthropologists, primitive human life is essentially based on genealogy, marriage practices, kinship, settlement arrangements and political affairs. It was throughShow MoreRelated Yanomamo Indians Essay880 Words   |  4 Pages This paper looks on Yanomamo Indians traits and describes their actual way of life; the basic question that might be asked will be answered: who they are, where do they live, how do they gather food to survive and what are their skills in this domain; also how these Indians are organized politically and how are the social relations among the families and between neighboring tribes. Then, how the devastation of the scientists and journalists have changed the Yanomamo Indians way of life in the currentRead MoreLeslie Sponsels Approach to Investigation of the Amazon Basin1632 Words   |  6 Pagesï » ¿Leslie Sponsel takes a remarkably sensible approach to certain academic controversies over anthropological investigation of the Amazon Basin. To som e degree, Sponsels article demands to be understood in a larger context within the overall ecosystem of academic anthropology, so to speak. As indicated in the title of her article, Sponsel approaches the subject with a special focus on adaptation, which necessarily implies changing conditions. As she notes in her introductory remarks: For convenienceRead More Yanomamo: People of the Rainforest Essay2947 Words   |  12 PagesYanomamo: People of the Rainforest Located in the Amazon Basin of Southern Venezuela and Northern Brazil, the Yanomamo are an indigenous group numbering close to 23,000. They utilize slash and burn horticulture, hunting and gathering to survive within their ecosystem. Napoleon Chagnon termed the group, â€Å"fierce people†, citing their numerous disputes within non-allied villages. Aside from their periodic warfare, they have managed to build and sustain their unique culture through adaptations