Tibet Essay Research Paper The Yanomamo people

Tibet Essay, Research Paper The Yanomamo people live in the Amazon rainforests of Northern Brazil and Southern Venezuela, living in almost complete seclusion. Napolean Chagonon was the first Anthropologist to do field work on the Yanomamo people in 1966. The first films were made in 1968-71; Contact was filmed in 1983. The film Contact is a narration by the anthropologist with little dialogue from the Yanomamo. The film interprets the life and culture of the Yanomamo through the anthropologist s perspective. In the film, the Yanomamo are captured living out their everyday lives without any deviation for the filmmaking. The men and women are seen in their traditional half naked attire undisturbed by the presence of the filming. The Shaman, is seen acting out his religious

ritual with green snot running out his nose from the hallucinogenic ebene power that they use to help communicate with the spirits. You can see the Yanomamo in their Shabono lounging in hammocks. They have very little privacy and the men are seen with many wives and children. They are cultivators and feed on plantains, manioc, bananas, sweet potatoes and peach palm fruit. They are also seen using tobacco. The men do the hunting and hunt wild pigs, monkeys, armadillos, birds and rodents. They also fish, feed on insects, crabs and frogs and they love wild honey. From the film you can see that it is a very male oriented society. The men do all the hard work and fight the warfare while the women bare the children, do the gardening, fetch water and respond to the needs of the husband.

The film depicts a scene of revenge where the men using long wooden poles attacks another clan by hitting them in the head with the poles. This scene is commonplace in the Yanomamo society; the women standby screaming as this attack occurs while the children standby and watch. This is a great film, because it captures the Yanomamo in their indigenous life style. The Yanomamo people live in small bands of tribes and live in a series of round connected huts called shabonos, which are actually made up of individual living quarters. Clothes are minimal, and much of their daily life revolves around gardening, hunting, gathering, making crafts, visiting with one another and practicing cosmology. A definite culture shock takes place between Napolean and the Yanomamo people, during

Napoleans first contact. The introduction of peanut butter as excrement by Napolean, for example, cleverly scared the Yanomamo from eating it. They of course didn t know any different and held a genuine contempt for excrement. Napolean was therefore able to discourage the Yanomamo from completely raiding all his supplies as the Yanomamo so liked to do. Napolean on the other side struggled with the high humidity, lack of bathing practices and dietary food sources of the Yanomamo. The Yanomamo men are seen to have many wives and children and they are responsible for their health and well being. It is a very male oriented society and the men are warriors, shamans, headman and politicians. The shaman, are the intermediate between the spirit world and the family. The shaman, snort a

green hallucinogenic powder called ebene. The hallucinogenic is used to help contact the sprits. The film Contact captures a male disparately trying to contact the hekura sprits to help rid his child s illness. Green snot and chanting is vividly illustrated during this ritual. This practice is very important in the Yanomamo culture and can go on for hours. It demonstrates the power the male has over life, death and the family structure. In the scenes of warfare, the Yanomamo are seen batting their enemies heads with wooden sticks as the women and children standby yelling. Raids on neighboring enemies are seen to be commonplace in the film. These small tribes hold their men in high ranks. Chiefs are always men who are held responsible for the general knowledge and safety of the