THE FOOT PEOPLE
This book is about the Yanomano or Yonomani village
in the amazon forest on the borders between Venezuela and Brazil. They fall into the category of “Tropical Forest Indians”, called foot people. This ethnography focuses on the day-to-day routines that all members of
the Yanomamo follow. The village is very small so there is no
privacy. They have no writings but have rich and complex language. They have a
very simple life. Everybody in the village owns a garden where they grow crops.
They go hunting, collecting wild food, fetching water, and visiting others. Rituals are a very important part of the
Yanomano culture.
Napolean
Chagnon is an anthropologist who goes to Yanomano village to study about the
people living here. When he first arrived he didn’t know their language and had
a hard time. Now he has already spent about 60 months and has learnt their language.
The Yanomano were difficult people to live with, as they were different and
strange form the anthropologist as he is form the United States. The first time
he saw them he got a culture shock and wanted to return home instead of doing
the research. Napolean revels many aspects of the Yonomani tribe. There are two
seasons here the dry season and the wet season. The dry season is the one that
is liked by the people and they even celebrate by having feast and visiting
other villages. The clothes worn by they people consist of only some woolen
strings. They wear clothes for decoration rather than protection. Food sharing
is the method of displaying friendship if we don’t share our food they get very
angry. They were very interested and begged the food that the anthropologist
had as it was the first time they had seen these. Banana is the most famous
dish there, which is either roasted in coals or smoked. The people of Yanomano show ferocity among the men. The
young boys are taught to be fierce and are rewarded when they strike out at
others, even adults. Young girls are considered an asset only in that they are
able to take on many duties and do so at an early age. Girls have little said
in their lives, are handed off in marriages that are beneficial to their
fathers, brothers or male relatives, and are largely at the mercy of husbands.
When their husbands are cruel, male relatives may sometimes rescue the woman,
usually giving her in marriage to some other man. Because of this potential for
rescue from a bad situation, women hate the thought of being taken captive or
traded to some other village. Trading of women is fairly common as is being
captured. Men are allowed to marry as many times as he wants and is allowed to
hit his wife. Men are not allowed to kill women.
Men are more
competitive for status than women here.
It was said that all Yonomani men should
marry a cross cousin. The only close friend the anthropologist made is
Rerebawa. He found Rerebawa the bravest and the smartest among the entire
village. The people in the village were quite ill mannered they entered and left
the anthropologist hut whenever they felt like.
They Yonomani people would give the
anthropologist plantain seeds but in exchange they would steel tools form his
room. The fact that the Yanomano had lived in a chronic state of warfare is
reflected in their mythology, ceremonies, settlements pattern, political
behavior and marriage practice. The anthropologist main purpose was to collect
kinds of information on genealogy, reproduction, marriage practices, kingship,
settlement patterns, migrations and politics.
In my opinion: I
found the Yonomani people are one of the most primitive people living in the
world.
I found this very interesting and was easy to understand. I had never heard about the yanomano people before, their culture and rituals are also so different form ours. I really enjoyed reading it and most importantly
learning about a culture. Reading articles and books like this are making me
love the job of an anthropologist going to different places living with them
and learning experiencing so many new things.
