Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Doing Field Work Among the Yanomamo (cont.)

                                  Yanomamo Chief Selling Baskets / Yanomamo female loin cloth

In my last blog I talked about this article, "Doing Fieldwork Among the Yanomamo." I talked about how the Yano would beg Chagnon for food when he was eating, and if he wouldn't give them none they would start to tell him disturbing things and harrassing him basically. The reason I feel they did this was because in their tribe they share with eachother. When someone is eating they are expected to give to everyone, and if they don't it's disrespectful in their culture. Also, when he wouldn't give them what they wanted they would steal from him. Eventually, Chagnon became interested in the Yano's genealogies. When he started asking about people's ancestors it took the Yanos by surprise, and they found it rude for him to ask about the dead. So, they would trick him and tell him fake names, and then laugh because he would believe them. The thing about the Yanos is that they never give one name to mutiple people. Everyone has their own name and nobody else can have it. After so long some began giving him a couple names, but not too many were he could figure out the rest on his own. One day there was a club fight over possession of a woman who was suppose to be getting married to a man named Rerebawa. He had been married into the Yano's and was now engaged with the younger sister of his wife. So, this says that this tribe can have many wifes and it's normal to them. When Chagnon heard Rerebawa call the man he was in a fight with by his dead father's name he took action. Since Rerebawa was angry with the whole group he began giving Chagnon names, and even looked over the names he was given in the past and told him they were fake and that the people in the village laughed at Chagnon about the fake names. When he started saying the names to other people they would get mad and he knew then that they were real names. Some people even started giving real names in exchange for goods or products such as a man named Kaobawa. Kaobawa had 5 to 6 wifes and was having affairs with many other women. His eldest wife, Bahimi, was pregnant when Chagnon started is fieldwork, but she killed the child because she didn't want her nursing son to have to compete against the new baby. Also, Kaobawa would beat his wife once in awhile, and nevery hard but to the Yanos this was typical standards. People from other villages and tribes would raid one another and kill women.

My Opinion:
After reading this article I see now that the Yanomamos have a very different way of living than Americans, but there is also similiarties between us. The Yano people value sharing and exchanging. Also, I feel that the Yanos would get upset when Chagnon would ask about ancestors, because they wouldn't want to remember. One thing in particular I found interesting about the Yanos was that they wouldn't give anybody the same name, that part is very different from Americans. People in our society give their children names from the decieced people in their families or they give them part of their own names. We find this being a good thing because it shows that we're not forgetting our dead, and also we value certain names and pass them down from generation to generation. I was giving the middle name Maxine, and that comes from my grandmother. So, it's very special to me. The Yanos most likely find it disrespectful to name someone after someone else. Also, the Yanos are allowed more than one wife and it's ok to them to do that. For me and in our culture that is wrong and illegal to have multiple wifes. It's even wrong to have affairs with other women/men. Another thing is that it was ok for the Yano to beat their women, and here people would go to jail. When other people would enter their village and do bad things they call it raids, but in our society thats basically like gangs. Furthermore, the Yanos have certain values that they have and follow that are very different from ours, but at the end of the day we have two different cultures and if they were to observe us they would find us weird as we see them.
Using Hallucinogenic Yopo


2 comments:

  1. It is quit clear how different the Yano people are to the people who live in the United States. It seems as if everything that we value and the norms that our American society shares are looked down upon in the Yano culture and visa versa. In our culture it is very common for people to name their children after the dead or after someone who means a lot to the parents. I am Greek and the Greek tradition is to name your children after their grandparents. With that, everyone in my family has been named after their grandparents, which in the Yano culture would be a disgrace. On the other hand, in our culture we look down upon having many wives and we especially do not promote or approve of domestic violence.
    A sociologist would look at both points of view on each of the issues that our cultures do not agree on and look at both the pros and cons of each. In my opinion, although it may sound ethnocentric, I believe that our culture is more morally sound. At the same time I contradict myself when I say that the morals of the Yano, in their eyes, are just as equally right. So in order to make an assumption to whose culture is more morally sound, you would have to look at both the pros and cons of each culture and be completely impartial on the matters. In my case, it is hard to be impartial because of the morals that I have been taught throughout my life contradict the Yano culture morals, so I am going to stick with the morals that I have been taught. Vasi Panos

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  2. I totally agree with you about how different cultures look down upon one another, because while reading the article I found myself thinking the Yano were crazy people. The thing is when you look at it in a bigger perspective their culture is extraordinary. Also, the fact that the Yano don't use names more than once is really non-traditional for many different cultures I'm sure. The Greek, as you mentioned, are named after their grandparents and that is interesting. I take it they have a more "traditional" way of naming people. Even from the American culture. Americans name their children after many different things, but Americans relate more to the Greek culture than they do Yanos. Also, the Yano find it ok to beat their women, and on top of that they have multiple wives. I agree with you that we do look down upon that. That part of their culture is disgraceful. You mentioned that you think our culture is more morally sound and I agree. You do not sound ethocentric at all. It's normal to feel that way about one's culture. When we look at both cultures in a judgemental state of equality, you really have to take yourself out of your own way of life. Forget the morals and values you were taught for a moment, and wonder which culture is more vistigle to man kind.

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