The Yanomami are an indigenous people living in the Amazon rainforest in an area including parts of Venezuela and Brazil. There are currently an estimated 20,000 Yanomami. Their ancient culture has survived throughout the years, due in part to the fact that this area is so isolated.
In general, the Yanomami live in villages with extended families under open structures with roofs, called shabonos, built from raw jungle materials. Foliage including vines and tree trunks go into creating these roofs. Because they can be easily damaged, new shabonos are built every few years.
Yanomami villages can typically hold as many as 400 people. Polygyny is common among Yanomami marital unions, but monogamous marriages also occur.
Luckily, the rainforest provides much of the resources the Yanomami need. They practice slash and burn agriculture, whereby they cut down and burn forests to create fertile fields from the burned plant life. This method is simple and effective, but they change location every so often when areas become overused and the soil has weakened.
The Yanomami people rely on hunting, fishing and agriculture. Their main crops are plantains and cassava. They eat different kinds of insects, mainly grubs, for protein. It is interesting to note that this group has among the lowest blood pressure in the world. In fact, some studies have looked into their diet for this very reason.
There are a variety of important festivals in the Yanomami culture. For example, when they experience good harvests, the people celebrate with a large feast including singing and dancing. The men will also use alcohol and hallucinogenic drugs. One notable and unusual tradition of the Yanomami is the practice of endocannibalism. When a person dies, their kin eat their ground up bones with their food. They believe this practice can keep a person's spirit alive.
The Yanomami were completely isolated until the 1960s when anthropologists first encountered them. They have since been studied extensively and are now one of the best-understood Amazonian cultures. Researchers find it fascinating to observe the traditions and lifestyle of a group that was isolated from the rest of the world for so many years.
As modern societies continue to grow and displace native cultures, it is important to study these groups and learn what we can about their traditions, diets, economic and social structures. Native cultures are mostly much closer to the natural lifestyles humans have evolved into and are in many ways much healthier than us.
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