Politics & Violence

1.     How do the Yanomamo rules regarding killing and the consequences for breaking these rules differ from the rules in Western cultures in general? 

            - The Yanomamo rules regarding killing and the consequences for breaking these rules differ 

 from the rules in Western cultures in general. “The Yanomamo have no written language, precise number system, formal laws, or institutionalized adjudicators such as chiefs or judges. Although there are customs and general rules about proper behavior, individuals  violate them regularly when it seems in their interests to do so” says Napoleon A. Chagnon. One of the key differences is how often and how permitted killing is in Yanomamo culture. Their conflicts are usually resolved by seriousness and potential lethality, such as shouting matches, chest pounding duels, slide slapping duels, club fights, fights with axes and machetes, and shooting with bows and arrows with the intent to kill. They have a strong need to kill when necessary and they describe this feeling as hushuwo meaning ‘anger verging on violence.’ Chagnon says, “It is common to hear statements such as, ‘If my sick mother dies, I will kill some people.’” Now this statement sounds like something one of us would say as a sarcastic response to our mother being sick. The difference between that and the Yanomamo is that the Yanomamo mean it and will go ahead and actually do it. The Western cultures have more serious consequences, such as prison.

2.     Describe the process of revenge killings as it is expressed in Yanomamo populations. 

            -Raiding parties usually include 10 to 20 men, but not every man goes on raids and not every man goes on every raid. There are some reasons as to why some men never actually go forward with the raid. Since an enemy village usually takes around 4 or 5 days to get there, some men decide to turn back and they never reach their destination. This can be either because they had a bad dream about the outcome or because the destination was not where it was planned to be. Another reason for not all men making it to the raid is due to being frightened and therefore will come up with the excuse of being sick or stepping on a thorn. The number of victims usually is small (one or two) but sometimes massacres do occur (deaths of ten or more people). They usually kill the first person they encounter. They “shoot the victim or victims from ambush with their arrows and hastily retreat” in order to keep a safe distance.

Here is an example of the aftermath of a raid: First of all it was the headman of one of the smaller villages (around 75 people) that was killed in a raid as revenge to from a prior killing. His ashes were kept for a very long time (after ten years some of his ashes remained). Some women in the village would drink the ashes to make raiders hushuwo and fill them with resolve.

           

3.     What are the benefits of obtaining the status of unokais? How do they compare to the benefits of being a non-unokais? Why would a man choose to become an unokais instead of being a non-unokais?

- Unokais are the Yanomamo men that have killed. After he has killed, he must perform a ritual purification called unokaimou, “to avert any supernatural harm that might be inflicted on him by the soul of his victim.” After the ritual the man is referred to as a unokai and is known throughout the village and in most neighboring villages. Men who are killers will usually gain marital and reproductive benefits. According to Chagnon, “The higher reproductive success of unokais is mainly due to their greater success in finding maters either by approaching them forcibly from other, or by customary marriage alliance arrangements in which they seem to be more attractive as mates than non-unokais.” Chagnon continues by explaining that some of the “benefits” of unokais are not all benefits. First of all, high male reproductive success can have something to do with membership in large descent groups. If unokais come from these groups, that can explain the data. Secondly, men that do not engage in violence (non-unokais) might have a lower risk of mortality due to violence and they produce more offspring then those who try to be unokais. Third reason, is that there might be biometric attributes of unokais and non-unokais not apparent to the outside observer (skills, agility, athletic ability, etc). Fourth reason, “a logical assumption would be that if unokais deter the violence of enemies, they would lose fewer close kin than non-unokais.” This is not true and instead they lose about the same kin to violence as to non-unokais.

4.            Identify and describe the relationship between revenge killings and these aspects of the Yanomamo culture. How do they influence and affect each other 

a. Political structure

- Each descent group has one or more patas (‘big ones’) who are the political leaders of that group. Usually the leader of the largest descent group with be the headman, but if the village has an equal size it will have two or more leaders” who, because of past marriages between their groups, are often first (cross) cousins and married to each other’s sisters.” If they choose to go forward with killing it could affect their power. If they choose not to revenge kill this could make them look weak since the Yanomamo culture respects and values killing.

b. Social Status/Social Organization

-On top are the headmen. The unokais are also of status because they are recognized throughout the village. The more mean unokais kills the more respected he is around the village and villages near by. Non-unokais (those who do not kill) are looked at as more towards the coward spectrum. Women in the Yanomamo culture are looked at as possessions, meaning if a man wants her, he can usually get her by killing. Women’s key role is for reproduction. Status is primarily won through revenge killing.

c. Kinship

-All the Yanomamo villages have several patrilineal descent groups: males and females of all ages who are related to each other through the male line of descent. If someone in the village is killed, there is a very high chance that he or she will have many bereaved close kin and that includes village leader(s). As time and generations pass each village becomes more related to each other. Fission occurs and it produces two new villages in which relatedness is higher. When revenge killing occurs the family of the person who was killed will most likely want to seek revenge on the killer.

d. Marriage & Reproduction

- Most members have to marry outside of their patrilineal decent group, but still within the village. “Not all the individuals are able to remain with the closest of kin at fission because they usually have to marry a person whose kin group elects to leave, and they have to go along or dissolve their marriages.” If someone of his close kin is killed on a revenge raid by members of his current residential group a man may have to move by grief to the point of deserting his wife. The headmen are usually polygynous, and may have had up to a dozen or more different wives, but usually no more than six at a time. Unokais are said to have plenty of children because they are most attractive to the women due to being powerful and recognized in the village. 

  

5.            Why do we need laws against something that no one should want to do? Use your reading of the article to help you explain your answer. 

- We need laws against something that no one should want to do.  If we do not have laws to have some control over the people, people would work on instinct and do as they please. The Yanomamo culture relied on killing people for prestige; killing was a sense of revenge and the Yanomamo people were ok with this. The more they killed, the more respect they got in this culture and they even had more social status, such as being headman of the village. Laws protect us from this fear; the fear of someone seeking revenge and killing us. They take the risk of this actually happening away. Nothing is ever certain, but laws make things less prone to actually occur.