Two cultures are compared to see the similarities or differences, the Yanomami and the Massai. The Massai a pastoralist tribe of 500,000 individuals resides in Africa in the Kenya and Tanzania territories. The Yanomami, a horticultural, tribe that is formed of 40 to 250 individuals per tribes, resides in the Amazons in South America near Venezuela and Brazil. The livelihood of the Massai is circumscribed to the cattle herding, pasting in the Savannahs; while the Yanomami represents horticulture and gathering surrounded by raining tropical forests. Both groups of families live in different tribes where the male represent the main figure. The horticultural labor is distributed between men and women. Yanomami men clear the field and tend and harvest the crop. When a ritual is going to be performed, the Yanomami males do the cooking. Even though males depend on women for preparing and gathering food and all the ingredients, manioc root or other forest produce, women hard working contribution do not necessarily grants a higher status within the tribe. Because is a male dominated society, the control over the food distribution relies in males decisions. In the other hand, within the Massai tribes, women are in charge of gathering. They collect wood for fire; take care of the education of the children, especially …show more content…
The Yanomami children acquired skills necessary for hunting and warfare through play. Boys practice war by learning how to use clubs, arch and bow, games as chest-pounding (go Broncos), and dueling. According to Napoleon Chagnon the Yanomami are exceptionally violent and inclined to use warfare to cause damage, most of the time, death. The society is patriarchal and practices polygyny to secure descendents. Similar to Yanomami, Massai has a prolong interval of interaction between boyhood to adulthood. This time is occupied in creating solidarity between groups of same
While the Yanomamo travel for several weeks when the jungle fruits and vegetables are ripe, they are a tribal society settled in villages, which break into small groups to go off on collecting expeditions. During such expeditions, game such as wild pigs, large and small birds, monkeys, deer, rodents, and anteaters, are hunted. The bulk of the Yanomamo food, more than eighty percent, is grown in their village gardens. The size of the garden is dictated by the size of the family it must feed. Because village headmen will have the responsibility of entertaining visitors and sponsoring feasts, they plant and care for larger plots. Plantain is their most important domesticated crop. Manioc, taro, and sweet potatoes are also cultivated along with cane, used for arrow manufacture, and tobacco, a crop of central importance. All women, men, and children chew tobacco daily and guard it jealously. The Yanomamo word for being poor is literally translated as without tobacco. Cotton is also grown in the village gardens to provide the materials for hammocks and clothes. The Yanomamo envision the universe as having four layers hovering at...
Yanomami is a group located in the Amazonas, between Brazil and Venezuela. For the paper I will be using as source the article, “Yanomami Indians: The Fierce People?” by Charito Ushiñahua. It will be helpful because the author does a specific resume about the group. I am interested in this group due to the habits they still use as, hunting. As an anthropologist I would be interested to a research in their system of organization through participant observation, and both structured and unstructured interviews my research. If they have a hierarchy which is elected or if they just follow the age rule, which is the oldest is responsible for the
The Yanomamo people of Central Brazil are one of the oldest examples of the classic pre-Columbian forest footmen. The Yanomamo live in almost complete seclusion in the Amazon rain forests of South America. The Yanomamo live in small bands or tribes and live in round communal huts called shabonos, which are actually made up of individual living quarters. The Yanomamo language consists of a variety of dialect, but no real written language. Clothes are minimal, and much of their daily life revolves around gardening, hunting, gathering, making crafts and visiting with one another. 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 group's women. The men are able to beat their wives if they feel the need to and are able to marry more than one woman at a time. This loose form of polygamy is a way of increasing the population of the tribe. Yanomamo people rely heavily on a system of political alliances based upon relationship. As part of that system, they have incorporated a complex feasting and trading system into their culture. One of these methods of forming political alliances is feasting. Feasting is when one village invites another village for a feast or dinner. During the feast there is a lot of social activity. The Yanomamo dance and mingle with each other along with eating a different variety of foods. The only catch is the other village must reciprocate a feast by one village. This feast is more like an American dinner party in which members of family or social group invite others to attend. A feast however can be dangerous and or fatal for those who attend. The Yanomamo can be very conniving and deceiving. They pretend to be loyal friends and invite the other village for a feast. The other very village very trustfully attends the feast not knowing that this might be their last meal.
The Yanomamo’s or also referred as Yanomami and Yanomama, are a group of nearly 35,000 indigenous people who live in some approximately 200 villages in the Amazon rainforest of South America between Venezuela and Brazil. Like most other tribes the Yanomamo migrated across the passages between Asia and America about 15,000 years ago making their way down to South America and is one of the last ancient cultures still remaining. The meaning of Yanomamo is “Human Being.” The Yanomamo are made up of four subdivisions within their tribe and have their own language which consists of: The Sanema which live in the Northern Sector, the Ninam which live in the southeastern sector, the Yanomam that live in the southeastern part, and the Yanomamo which live in the southwestern part of Yanomami area. The Yanomamo were one of the tribes that remained unknown until the 1960’s who were discovered by anthropologists, Napoleon Chagnon and which his first impressions described them as fierce people.
In Machi ritual practices, wholeness or balance is associated with well-being and health, therefore the performative element of gender takes precedence over the concept of gender as associated with sex. In order to achieve wholeness, it is necessary to encompass male and female principles, as well as those of youth and old age. When performing healing rituals, a machi will “assume masculine, feminine and co-gendered identities”, moving between these identities or combining them (Bacigalupo, 2007, p. 45). These co-gendered identities are fundamental to machi ritual practices. Because of the performative aspects associated with the taking on co-gendered identities, male machi will dress in traditional women’s clothing. This allows them to perform and embody the feminine aspects associated with healing and fertility. Altered states of consciousness such as dreaming, visions and trance states are also considered feminine characteristic By the same token, female machi have the ability to on the masculine aspects associated with warfare, aggression and hunting, although they do not dress in male clothing.
It is Chagnon’s conclusion that Yanomamo villages grow to a certain size, than split off to form new villages. The offshoots in turn also grow and eventually split off. These migrations can be the result of stress within the village. A village is under constant tension from conflicts within, as well as from outside. Inside tension can be brought on by personal conflicts between men in the village. The reasons for these conflicts can vary from unaddressed grievances from the past, conflicts over women, perceived insults or breeches of etiquette. Depending on kinship and lineage obligations this may cause different political alliances to form. At this point before things get too bad, the aggrieved party may decide to leave the village taking his kin with him to form his own settlement elsewhere. However if tensions finally boil over, a duel or fight may erupt sometimes fought with axes or clubs. These fights may result in death or serious injury. At the very least, a new grievance is born from the out come that eventually festers into a new conflict at a later time. Outside pressures can come from attacks from other villages; usually t...
In Patrick Tierney’s article “The Fierce Anthropologist,” he discussed the faults that are, or may be, present in Napoleon Chagnon’s anthropological research of the Yanamamo, or “The Fierce People,” as Chagnon has referred to them in his best-selling book on the people.
However, Brown claims on how gender roles and identities shaped the perceptions and interactions of both English settlers and the Native American civilizations. Both Indian and English societies have critical social orders between males and females. In addition, their culture difference reflexes to the English and Indian males and females’ culpabilities as well. However, the Indian people put too much responsibility to their women. Women were in charge as agriculturalists, producers and customers of vital household goods and implements. They were also in control for providing much of the material culture of daily needs such as clothing, domestic gears and furnishings like baskets, bedding and household building. Native American females were expected to do a range of tasks. On the other hand, the Indian men only cleared new planting ground and constantly left the villages to fish and hunt. Clearly, Native Indian women had more tasks than the men did. Therefore, Indian males’ social and work roles became distinctive from females’ at the moment of the huskanaw (a rite of passage by which Virginia Indian boys became men) and reminded so until the men were too old to hunt or go to war. English commentator named George Percy underlines, “The men take their pleasure in hunting and their wares, which they are in continually”. “On the other hand the women were heavily burdened with”, says other commentator, John Smith. Gender is directly referential in an important sense, describing how sexual division was understood in the social order. Consequently, Native American people prescribed the gender social practice that women should be loaded with range of liabilities than the
The women were in charge of cleaning their homes, called wigwams or earthen lodges. A major role of the Cheyenne women was building their home/ tepees and lugging the heavy wooden polls every time the tribe moved. The women taught the daughters how to cook, clean, make the houses, etc. The Cheyenne men were hunters and warriors. The men were responsible for protecting their family and tribe if anything tragic occurred. The Cheyenne men would go on hunting trips for many days, but when the men returned from hunting, the women cooked the and preserved it for later. The Cheyenne tribe would not have been able to function without the division of labor of the men and
My life compared to the Dobe Ju and the Yanomamo are extremely different and it's hard to imagine either of us living the other person's lifestyle. But when we compare the ways in witch we gather and consume our food their are differences but their are also some similarities that make us seem alike. One of these differences between the Yanomamo, the Dobe Ju, and me is the way whe aquire our food. When collecting food the Yanomamo and the Dobe Ju have a much more complicated time than when I have to go get food. Since these trives live a hunter gatherer lifestyle, and in the Yanomamos case also farming they must understand a lot more about their sources of food than I ever have to. In my case gathering food is a very normal thing that when I
In the beginning of the story she tells us that the family sits around the fire in a circle and talk for me which means that everyone is equal in the family but the fact that grandmother does not talk to his son in law makes me draw a conclusion the separation of gender roles, I wasn’t surprised. “This may be the reason the young man’s father’s passes the time away by carving a stone pipe (Sa, 669).” Furthermore, that Zitkala mentions that only the man’s father build tools specifically indicate that only men in Sioux community were crafting. Men have to learn hunting and provide food for the family. “My son, be always active. Do not dislike a long hunt. Learn to provide much buffalo meat and many buckskins before you bring home a wife.” Zitkala does not mention the role of women as much as she does men role, except he mentions that his grandmother wears a bracelet. “The loose buckskin sleeve fell off at her elbow and showed a wrist covered with silver bracelets.” Which indicates that only women wear jewelry as she does not mention men wearing
Apache native Americans all genders had mostly the same roles like looking for food and cleaning up and rounding up the horses. Both males and Females have different roles but most of them are the same.
As long as the husband lived with his wife, the wife and children were fed and clothed off the husband's labor. Men and women had specific roles in the Hopi tribe. While men were in charge of politics, war, and agriculture, the women did the nurturing, storytelling, music, and some of the artwork. The house, fields, and orchards belonged to the wife since the husband moves in with the wife after marriage, but the husband owns his tools and animals. At about age four the children were threatened if they did not begin to do small tasks. Boys were treated more harshly than girls. Several years ago, sending children to school was a big conflict between families, while today education is valuable to the Hopi. Livestock was usually passed onto the children of both sexes from the parents, but most commonly given to the sons, while the daughters inherited the houses. Each family belongs to one of the 34 clans in the Hopi tribe. Hopi clans are matrilineal, meaning they trace their family through the mother. Each clan has special duties they perform and ceremonies they hold. You are not allowed to marry someone within your clan since you are considered a “family.” When a mother has her child, it is the father’s clan that takes care of the mother and child and names the child (Hopi- Marriage and
The women bear children, cook and take care of the household in many other ways. Through their labor, they are an important pillar of the society.
From Early history, we have seen gender roles being displayed in a society. As villages were created, a