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The Yanomamo


A flexible piece of wood designs the bow, and is strung with a hand spun fiber found in the rain forest. The arrows are made with a piece of cane for the shaft, and is fletched with feathers. The arrowheads are sharpened with anything hard, such as animal bones. Women make both flat baskets and burden baskets, which are carried by a strap around the forehead. The baskets are used for everything from carrying fish to firewood (http://Indian-cultures.com/cultures/yanomamo.html). Hallucinogenic drugs are a big part of Yanomamo physical environment and culture. The jungle provides several highly prized plant products that are used in the manufacture of hallucinogenic snuff powders (Chagnon 1997: 53). When the hallucinogenic drug becomes a powder form it is termed ebene. The men usually make of a batch of ebene everyday. Sometimes several different groups of men in a village make their own batch (Chagnon 1997: 54). The Yanomamo live in hundreds of small villages, grouped by families in one large communal dwelling called a shabono (http://crystalinks.com/yanomami.html). All house construction materials such as: poles, vines, and leaves are all collected from the jungle (Chagnon 1997: 55). The shabono is probably one of the most labor-intensive products in the entire culture. Although, due to roaches, spiders, and other insects a normal shabano will generally only last about two years. The shabano looks like a large round communal house, but in fact it is a coordinated series of individual houses (Chagnon 1997: 56). Each family builds its own section of the roof. Men generally do the heavy work by placing heavy poles into the ground or overhead, while the women and older children help with thatching, and gathering necessary leaves and vines that constitute the major items in building the structure (Chagnon 1997: 57). The Yanomamo have a very sophisticated language, and it is hard to interpret due to the lack of alphabet.


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