"The Yanomamo Indians"

Today, in my Sociology 1 class, I learned about the Yanomamo Indians’ culture.

In the essay “The Fierce People,” anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon describes his personal experiences, when living for about a year and a half, with the Yanomano Indians of southern Venezuela. His major duty in this region of the world was to learn more from the Yanomamo culture (a groups way o living), and to find and record their genealogy data. Chagnon remembers the fear he felt when he had to be introduced to the Yanomamo Indians. This tribe would stare at him because he was a new individual in the region. Chagnon describes them as “the fierce people,” intimidating, aggressive, and demanding. He also describes the Indians as being naked and duty looking.
As the time passed by, he learned their language. He also learned to become aggressive and demanding like them. He also learned techniques to gain personal benefit. For example, when an Indian would steal some of his supplies, he would ask for the person who did it and later pay back by stealing something from that person, too. At the end of the day the Indian would come back and exchange the item. Chagnon also learned how to gain personal benefit from specific situations like fights. For this tribe, mentioning the name of a deceased tribe member was a taboo (a norm so strong that it often brings revulsion if violated). This taboo made it harder for him to find out about the Yanomamo ancestors. Since a group of people was against another group, he would contact the enemy. This enemy was most likely to answer his questions accurately without worrying about the norm since the Indian did not care about the person he was giving information about. With the Indian’s help, Chagnon was able to obtain accurate information about the Yanaomamo Indians. Therefore, he was capable of tracing back some generations.