Who are the Yanomami?
Copyright 2000
The Times (London)
November 30, 2000, Thursday
ALSO known as the Yanomamo or the Yanoamo, the Yanomami are a tribe of South American Indians. Their territory extends from the remote forest of the Orinoco river basin in Venezuela to the northernmost reaches of the Amazon river basin in Brazil.
They have a reputation for aggression, and first came to Western attention through a 1971 documentary called Ax Fight, made by Napoleon Chagnon, one of the anthropologists accused of unethical practice. Chagnon also wrote a bestseller on his discoveries.
The Yanomami, who speak the Xiriana language, refer to themselves as waitiri, which means fierce and valiant. Internecine warfare is rife, with villages forming alliances with some neighbours and waging war on others. The villages are semi-permanent - groups move on if their property comes under repeated attack from rivals.
Villages comprise up to 400 people, all of whom live in an enormous doughnut-shaped house made from trees and thatched with palm leaves. The central area is for communal activities, such as dancing and ceremonies. Each family unit has its own "hearth". Beyond the houses, villagers grow crops of banana, plantain, cassava and corn, and hunt monkey, deer and armadillos. Tobacco is cultivated and used widely among all ages.
What is not disputed is that the tribe is under threat. It numbers between 10,000 and 20,000, a steep decline from the estimated 100,000 of a century ago. Their territory has come under serious attack from gold prospectors.
In 1991 the Brazilian Government set aside 36,000 square miles of the country as a homeland for the tribe.