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74-485: The ethnonym Yanomami was produced by anthropologists on the basis of the word yanõmami , which, in the expression yanõmami thëpë , signifies "human beings." This expression is opposed to the categories yaro (game animals) and yai (invisible or nameless beings), but also napë (enemy, stranger, non-Indian). According to ethnologist Jacques Lizot : Yanomami is the Indians' self-denomination ...

148-439: A loincloth . The menstrual cycle of Yanomami women does not occur frequently due to constant nursing or child-birthing, and is treated as a very significant occurrence only at this time. Yanomaman languages comprise four main varieties: Ninam , Sanumá , Waiká , and Yanomamö . Many local variations and dialects also exist, such that people from different villages cannot always understand each other. Many linguists consider

222-471: A Brazilian woman kidnapped by Yanomami warriors in the 1930s, witnessed a Karawetari raid on her tribe: They killed so many. I was weeping for fear and for pity but there was nothing I could do. They snatched the children from their mothers to kill them, while the others held the mothers tightly by the arms and wrists as they stood up in a line. All the women wept... The men began to kill the children; little ones, bigger ones, they killed many of them. Following

296-416: A compound word related to origin or usage. A polito-ethnonym indicates that name originated from the political affiliation, like when the polysemic term Austrians is sometimes used more specifically for native, German speaking inhabitants of Austria , who have their own endonyms. A topo-ethnonym refers to the ethnonym derived from a toponym (name of a geographical locality, placename), like when

370-528: A dead person except on the annual "day of remembrance", when the ashes of the dead are consumed and people recall the lives of their deceased relatives. This tradition is meant to strengthen the Yanomami people and keep the spirit of that individual alive. Infanticide is also noted amongst the Yanomami for reasons of disability, adultery, and rape. The women are responsible for many domestic duties and chores, excluding hunting and killing game for food. Although

444-479: A good harvest with a big feast to which nearby villages are invited. The Yanomami village members gather large amounts of food, which helps to maintain good relations with their neighbors. They also decorate their bodies with feathers and flowers. During the feast, the Yanomami eat a lot, and the women dance and sing late into the night. Hallucinogens or entheogens , known as yakoana or ebene , are used by Yanomami shamans as part of healing rituals for members of

518-509: A greater evolution; older terms such as colored carried negative connotations and have been replaced by modern-day equivalents such as Black or African American . Other ethnonyms such as Negro have a different status. The term was considered acceptable in its use by activists such as Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s, but other activists took a different perspective. In discussing an address in 1960 by Elijah Muhammad , it

592-531: A response to specific historical situations. Writing in 1985, anthropologist Jacques Lizot , who had lived among the Yanomami for more than twenty years, stated: I would like my book to help revise the exaggerated representation that has been given of Yanomami violence. The Yanomami are warriors; they can be brutal and cruel, but they can also be delicate, sensitive, and loving. Violence is only sporadic; it never dominates social life for any length of time, and long peaceful moments can separate two explosions. When one

666-470: A word, everyone in Yanomamo society is called by some kinship term that can be translated into what we would call blood relatives.”   The Yanomami are known as hunters, fishers, and horticulturists. The women cultivate cooking plantains and cassava in gardens as their main crops. Men do the heavy work of clearing areas of forest for the gardens. Another food source for the Yanomami is grubs . Often

740-533: Is a name applied to a given ethnic group . Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and used by the ethnic group itself). For example, the dominant ethnic group of Germany is the Germans. The ethnonym Germans is a Latin -derived exonym used in the English language, but

814-399: Is absent, but because it is present, and present in certain specific forms. All Yanomami warfare that we know about occurs within what Neil Whitehead and I call a "tribal zone", an extensive area beyond state administrative control, inhabited by nonstate people who must react to the far-flung effects of the state presence. Ferguson stresses the idea that contrary to Chagnon's description of

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888-662: Is acquainted with the societies of the North American plains or the societies of the Chaco in South America, one cannot say that Yanomami culture is organized around warfare as Chagnon does. Anthropologists working in the ecologist tradition, such as Marvin Harris , argued that a culture of violence had evolved among the Yanomami through competition resulting from a lack of nutritional resources in their territory. However,

962-426: Is an indigenous territory in the states of Amazonas and Roraima , Brazil . It overlaps with several federal or state conservation units. It is home to Yanomami and Ye'kuana people. There are ongoing conflicts with an overlapping national forest in which mining was permitted. The Yanomami Indigenous Territory has an area of 9,664,975 hectares (23,882,670 acres) in the states of Amazonas and Roraima, making it

1036-493: Is one of the leading causes of Yanomami death. Up to half of all Yanomami males die violent deaths in the constant conflict between neighboring communities over local resources. Often these confrontations lead to Yanomami leaving their villages in search of new ones. Women are often victims of physical abuse and anger. Inter-village warfare is common, but is less often fatal to women. When Yanomami tribes fight and raid nearby tribes, women are often raped , beaten, and brought back to

1110-417: Is usually required for action that involves the community, but individuals are not required to take part. Local descent groups also play important roles in regulating marriages and settling disputes within villages. Groups of Yanomami live in villages usually consisting of their children and extended families. Villages vary in size, but usually contain between 50 and 400 people. In this largely communal system,

1184-453: Is widely used in professional literature to discriminate semantics of the terms. In onomastic studies, there are several terms that are related to ethnonyms, like the term ethnotoponym , that designates a specific toponym (placename) that is formed from an ethnonym. Many names of regions and countries are ethnotoponyms . Yanomami Indigenous Territory The Yanomami Indigenous Territory ( Portuguese : Terra Indígena Yanomami )

1258-521: The Orinoco river and moved to the highlands of Brazil and Venezuela, the location the Yanomami currently occupy. Mature men hold most political and religious authority. A tuxawa (headman) acts as the leader of each village, but no single leader presides over the whole of those classified as Yanomami. Headmen gain political power by demonstrating skill in settling disputes both within the village and with neighboring communities. A consensus of mature males

1332-491: The Orinoco to its headwaters; he replied yes, and that he had gone to make war against the Guaharibo [Yanomami] Indians, who were very brave ... and who will not be friends with any kind of Indian. From approximately 1630 to 1720, the other river-based indigenous societies who lived in the same region were wiped out or reduced as a result of slave-hunting expeditions by the conquistadors and bandeirantes . How this affected

1406-422: The hekura , spirits that are believed to govern many aspects of the physical world. Women do not engage in this practice, known as shapuri . The Yanomami people practice ritual endocannibalism , in which they consume the bones of deceased kinsmen. The body is wrapped in leaves and placed in the forest some distance from the shabono; then after insects have consumed the soft tissue (usually about 30 to 45 days),

1480-518: The polysemic term Montenegrins , which was originally used for the inhabitants of the geographical area of the Black Mountain ( Montenegro ), acquired an additional ethnonymic use, designating modern ethnic Montenegrins , who have their own distinct endonyms. Classical geographers frequently used topo-ethnonyms (ethnonyms formed from toponyms) as substitute for ethnonyms in general descriptions, or for unknown endonyms. Compound terminology

1554-476: The shabono to be adopted into the captor's community. Wives may be beaten frequently, so as to keep them docile and faithful to their husbands. Sexual jealousy causes much of the violence. Women are beaten with clubs, sticks, machetes , and other blunt or sharp objects. Burning with a branding stick occurs often, and symbolizes a male's strength or dominance over his wife. Yanomami men have been known to kill children while raiding enemy villages. Helena Valero ,

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1628-413: The 1995 study "Yanomami Warfare", by R. Brian Ferguson , examined all documented cases of warfare among the Yanomami and concluded: Although some Yanomami really have been engaged in intensive warfare and other kinds of bloody conflict, this violence is not an expression of Yanomami culture itself. It is, rather, a product of specific historical situations: The Yanomami make war not because Western culture

1702-501: The Advancement of Colored People. In such contexts, ethnonyms are susceptible to the phenomenon of the euphemism treadmill . In English, ethnonyms are generally formulated through suffixation; most ethnonyms for toponyms ending in -a are formed by adding -n : Bulgaria, Bulgarian ; Estonia, Estonian . In English, in many cases, the name for the dominant language of a group is identical to their English-language ethnonym;

1776-703: The Brazilian border by constructing roads and military bases near Yanomami communities, led to a campaign to defend the rights of the Yanomami to live in a protected area. In 1978 the Pro-Yanomami Commission (CCPY) was established. Originally named the Commission for the Creation of a Yanomami Park, it is a Brazilian non-governmental nonprofit organization dedicated to the defense of the territorial, cultural, and civil and political rights of

1850-557: The French speak French, the Germans speak German. This is sometimes erroneously overgeneralized; it may be assumed that people from India speak "Indian", despite there being no language in India which is called by that name. Generally, any group of people may have numerous ethnonyms, associated with the political affiliation with a state or a province, with geographical landmark, with the language, or another distinct feature. Ethnonym may be

1924-407: The Germans call themselves Deutsche , an endonym. The German people are identified by a variety of exonyms across Europe, such as Allemands ( French ), tedeschi ( Italian ), tyskar ( Swedish ) and Niemcy ( Polish ). As a sub-field of anthroponymy , the study of ethnonyms is called ethnonymy or ethnonymics. Ethnonyms should not be confused with demonyms , which designate all

1998-530: The Organização dos Povos Indígenas de Roraima (OPIR). The Yanomami Indigenous Territory was created through a series of steps that began with ordinance 1.817 of 8 January 1985 and led to the first homologation on 16 February 1989. The Roraima National Forest was created by decree nº 97545 of 1 March 1989 and covered 2,664,685 hectares (6,584,580 acres) of the Amazon biome . This had the effect of dividing

2072-540: The Tribe . Illegal gold mining has significantly harmed the Yanomami people’s health and environment. According to a 2023 report, mercury pollution from mining has contaminated rivers, leading to widespread malnutrition and increased disease rates, including malaria. From 1987 to 1990, the Yanomami population was severely affected by malaria , mercury poisoning , malnutrition, and violence due to an influx of garimpeiros searching for gold in their territory. Malaria, which

2146-633: The Yanomaman family to be a language isolate , unrelated to other South American indigenous languages, while others believe the language of the Yanomami to be part of the Macro-Jê group. The origins of the language are obscure. In early anthropological studies the Yanomami culture was described as being permeated with violence. The Yanomami people have a history of acting violently not only towards other tribes, but towards one another. An influential ethnography by anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon described

2220-446: The Yanomami as living in "a state of chronic warfare". Chagnon's account and similar descriptions of the Yanomami portrayed them as aggressive and warlike, sparking controversy amongst anthropologists and creating an enormous interest in the Yanomami. The debate centered around the degree of violence in Yanomami society, and the question of whether violence and warfare were best explained as an inherent part of Yanomami culture, or rather as

2294-602: The Yanomami as unaffected by Western culture, the Yanomami experienced the effects of colonization long before their territory became accessible to Westerners in the 1950s, and that they had acquired many influences and materials from Western culture through trade networks much earlier. Lawrence Keeley questioned Ferguson's analysis, writing that the character and speed of changes caused by contact with civilization are not well understood, and that diseases, trade items, weapons, and population movements likely all existed as possible contributors to warfare before civilization. Violence

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2368-532: The Yanomami is unknown. Sustained contact with the outside world began in the 1950s with the arrival of members of the New Tribes Mission as well as Catholic missionaries from the Society of Jesus and Salesians of Don Bosco . In Roraima , the 1970s saw the implementation of development projects within the framework of the "National Integration Plan" launched by the Brazilian military governments of

2442-661: The Yanomami people whom they had studied in the 1960s. This began a heated debate. The book's claims were found to be largely fabricated by Tierney, and the American Anthropological Association in the end voted 846 to 338 in 2005 to rescind a 2002 report on the allegations of misconduct by scholars studying the Yanomami people. In 2010, Brazilian director José Padilha revisited the Darkness in El Dorado controversy in his documentary Secrets of

2516-400: The Yanomami tribe in conflict over land. In addition, mining techniques by the garimpeiros led to environmental degradation . Despite the existence of FUNAI , the federal agency representing the rights and interests of indigenous populations, the Yanomami have received little protection from the government against these intrusive forces. In some cases the government can be cited as supporting

2590-423: The Yanomami will cut down palms in order to facilitate the growth of grubs. The traditional Yanomami diet is very low in edible salt. Their blood pressure is characteristically among the lowest of any demographic group. For this reason, the Yanomami have been the subject of studies seeking to link hypertension to sodium consumption. Rituals are a very important part of Yanomami culture. The Yanomami celebrate

2664-462: The Yanomami. CCPY devoted itself to a long national and international campaign to inform and sensitize public opinion and put pressure on the Brazilian government to demarcate an area suited to the needs of the Yanomami. After 13 years the Yanomami indigenous land was officially demarcated in 1991 and approved and registered in 1992, thus ensuring that indigenous people had the constitutional right to

2738-451: The age of menstruation, they are sought out by males as potential wives . Puberty is not seen as an important time period for male Yanomami children, as it is for females. After menstruating for the first time, the girls are expected to leave childhood, enter adulthood, and take on the responsibilities of a grown Yanomami woman. After a young girl gets her period, she is forbidden from showing her genitalia and must keep herself covered with

2812-433: The approximately fifty documented societies that openly accept polyandry , though polygyny among Amazonian tribes has also been observed. Many unions are monogamous. Polygamous families consist of a large patrifocal family unit based on one man, and smaller matrifocal subfamilies: each woman's family unit, composed of the woman and her children. Life in the village is centered around the small, matrilocal family unit, whereas

2886-431: The beginning of womanhood . Girls typically start menstruation around the ages of 12 to 13. Girls are often betrothed before menarche and the marriage may be consummated only once the girl starts menstruating, though the taboo is often violated, and many girls become sexually active before then. The Yanomami word for menstruation ( roo ) translates literally as "squatting" in English, as they use no pads or cloths to absorb

2960-551: The blood. Due to the belief that menstrual blood is poisonous and dangerous, girls are kept hidden away in a small tent-like screen of leaves. A deep hole is built in the structure over which girls squat, to "rid themselves" of their blood. These structures are regarded as isolation screens. The mother is notified immediately, and she, along with the elder female friends of the girl, are responsible for disposing of her old cotton garments and replacing them with new ones that symbolize her womanhood and availability for marriage. During

3034-421: The bones are collected and cremated . The ashes are then mixed with a kind of soup made from bananas, which is consumed by the entire community. The ashes may be preserved in a gourd and the ritual repeated annually until the ashes are gone. All of the dead person's personal belongings are also burned, because it is believed that they may harbor some evil spirits. In daily conversation, no reference may be made to

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3108-400: The calories in the Yanomami diet. Protein is supplied by wild resources obtained through gathering, hunting, and fishing. When the soil becomes exhausted, Yanomami frequently move to avoid areas that have become overused, a practice known as shifting cultivation . Children stay close to their mothers when young; most of the childrearing is done by women. Yanomami groups are a famous example of

3182-421: The community who are ill. Yakoana also refers to the tree from which it is derived, Virola elongata . Yopo , derived from a different plant with hallucinogenic effects ( Anadenanthera peregrina ), is usually cultivated in the garden by the shaman. The Xamatari also mix the powdered bark of Virola elongata with the powdered seeds of yopo to create the drug ebene . The drugs facilitate communication with

3256-486: The concentration of mineral deposits. In 1990, more than 40,000 garimpeiros had entered the Yanomami land. In 1992, the government of Brazil, led by Fernando Collor de Mello , demarcated an indigenous Yanomami area on the recommendations of Brazilian anthropologists and Survival International , a campaign that started in the early 1970s. Non-Yanomami people continue to enter the land; the Brazilian and Venezuelan governments do not have adequate enforcement programs to prevent

3330-505: The day. The women also prepare cassava , shredding the roots and expressing the toxic juice , then roasting the flour to make flat cakes (known in Spanish as casabe ), which they cook over a small pile of coals. Yanomami women are expected to take responsibility for the children, who are expected to help their mothers with domestic chores from a very young age, and mothers rely very much on help from their daughters. Boys typically become

3404-685: The economic venture of the garimpeiros over the land rights of the Yanomami. Alcida Rita Ramos, an anthropologist who worked closely with the Yanomami, says this three-year period "led to charges against Brazil for genocide." The Haximu massacre, also known as the Yanomami massacre, was an armed conflict in 1993, just outside Haximu, Brazil, close to the border with Venezuela. A group of garimpeiros killed approximately 16 Yanomami. In turn, Yanomami warriors killed at least two garimpeiros and wounded two more. Ethnonym An ethnonym (from Ancient Greek ἔθνος ( éthnos )  'nation' and ὄνομα ( ónoma )  'name')

3478-455: The entire village lives under a common roof called the shabono . Shabonos have a characteristic oval shape, with open grounds in the center measuring an average of 100 yards (91 m). The shabono shelter constitutes the perimeter of the village, if it has not been fortified with palisades . Under the roof, divisions exist marked only by support posts, partitioning individual houses and spaces. Shabonos are built from raw materials from

3552-436: The entry of outsiders. Ethical controversy has arisen about Yanomami blood taken for study by scientists such as Napoleon Chagnon and his associate James Neel . Although Yanomami religious tradition prohibits the keeping of any bodily matter after the death of that person, the donors were not warned that blood samples would be kept indefinitely for experimentation. Several prominent Yanomami delegations have sent letters to

3626-537: The exclusive use of almost 96,650 square kilometres (37,320 sq mi) located in the States of Roraima and Amazonas . The Alto Orinoco-Casiquiare Biosphere Reserve was created in 1993 with the objective of preserving the traditional territory and lifestyle of the Yanomami and Ye'kuana peoples. However, while the constitution of Venezuela recognizes indigenous peoples’ rights to their ancestral domains , few have received official title to their territories and

3700-423: The forest, or 142,000 hectares (350,000 acres), had been left out of the indigenous territory, and decided to repossess the unit. However, in the mid-1990s two settlements, Samaúma and Vila Nova, had taken 50,000 hectares (120,000 acres), leaving 92,000 hectares (230,000 acres) unclaimed. To regularize the situation, the boundaries were revised by law 12058 of 13 October 2009. The resized national forest now excludes

3774-519: The government has announced it will open up large parts of the Amazon rainforest to legal mining. The Yanomami do not recognize themselves as a united group, but rather as individuals associated with their politically autonomous villages. Yanomami communities are grouped together because they have similar ages and kinship, and militaristic coalitions interweave communities together. The Yanomami have common historical ties to Carib speakers who resided near

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3848-553: The increase in threats and attacks against the uncontacted Yanomami, member of parliament Joenia Wapichana , Dario Kopenawa Yanomami and some other Brazilian indigenous leaders met with Michelle Bachelet , United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights , to assess the inability of the government to protect their constitutional rights. On September 13, 2021, in her report to the United Nations Human Rights Council , Michelle Bachelet declared that she

3922-400: The infiltration of mining companies into Yanomami lands. In 1978, the militarized government, under pressure from anthropologists and the international community, enacted a plan that demarcated land for the Yanomami. These reserves, however, were small "island" tracts of land lacking consideration for Yanomami lifestyle, trading networks, and trails, with boundaries that were determined solely by

3996-624: The larger patrilocal unit has more political importance beyond the village. Men of the Yanomami are said to commit significant intervals of bride service living with their in-laws, and levirate or sororate marriage might be practiced in the event of the death of a spouse. Kin groups tend to be localized in villages and their genealogical depth is rather shallow. Kinship is critical in the arrangement of marriage and very strong bonds develop between kin groups who exchange women. Their kinship system can be described in terms of Iroquois classificatory pattern . To quote anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon , “In

4070-707: The largest indigenous territory in Brazil in terms of area. The territory is bounded by the frontier with Venezuela to the northwest. In the west it adjoins the Balaio and Cué-cué/Marabitanas indigenous territories. 50% of the Pico da Neblina National Park overlaps the western part of the territory. Most of the Amazonas National Forest is within the territory, as is most of the Serra do Aracá State Park . In

4144-583: The major tributaries of the Branco River between 1987 and 1990. The number of gold miners in the Yanomami area of Roraima was then estimated at 30 to 40 thousand, about five times the indigenous population resident there. Although the intensity of this gold rush has subsided greatly since 1990, gold prospecting continues today in the Yanomami land, spreading violence and serious health and social problems. Increasing pressure from farmers, cattle ranchers, and gold miners, as well as those interested in securing

4218-409: The mornings, while the men are off hunting, the women and young children go off in search of termite nests and other grubs, which will later be roasted at the family hearths. The women also pursue frogs , terrestrial crabs , or caterpillars , or even look for vines that can be woven into baskets. While some women gather these small sources of food, other women go off and fish for several hours during

4292-522: The national forest area. This was followed by a vigorous international campaign in support of the Yanomami people. The gold mines were closed and the miners removed. In an indigenous territory the indigenous people have the exclusive right of use according to their customs and traditions. Although technically the Roraima National Forest remained, exploitation of the forest would violate these rights. In 2001 IBAMA realized that 5% of

4366-509: The people of a geographic territory, regardless of ethnic or linguistic divisions within its population. Numerous ethnonyms can apply to the same ethnic or racial group, with various levels of recognition, acceptance and use. The State Library of South Australia contemplated this issue when considering Library of Congress headings for literature pertaining to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people . Some 20 different ethnonyms were considered as potential Library of Congress headings, but it

4440-515: The responsibility of the male members of the community after about age 8. Using small strings of bark and roots , Yanomami women weave and decorate baskets. They use these baskets to carry plants, crops, and food to bring back to the shabono . They use a red berry known as onoto or urucu to dye the baskets, as well as to paint their bodies and dye their loin cloths. After the baskets are painted, they are further decorated with masticated charcoal pigment. The start of menstruation symbolizes

4514-530: The scientists who are studying them, demanding the return of their blood samples. As of June 2010 these samples were in the process of being removed from storage for shipping to the Amazon, pending the decision as to whom to deliver them to and how to prevent any potential health risks in doing so. In 2015 the blood samples were returned and buried by the Yanomami. In 2000 Patrick Tierney published Darkness in El Dorado , charging that anthropologists had repeatedly caused harm—and in some cases, death—to members of

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4588-809: The southeast it adjoins the Serra da Mocidade National Park and the Caracaraí Ecological Station . In the east it adjoins the Roraima National Forest . The Yanomami Indigenous Territory is home to Yanomami people speaking the Ninam , Sanumá , Yanomamö and Yanomami languages of the Yanomamam linguistic family , and to Ye'kuana people speaking the Ye'kuana language of the Carib linguistic family. The population as of 1989

4662-448: The surrounding rainforest, such as leaves, vines, and tree trunks. They are susceptible to heavy damage from rains, winds, and insect infestation . As a result, new shabonos are constructed every 4 to 6 years. The Yanomami can be classified as foraging horticulturalists, depending heavily on rainforest resources; they use slash-and-burn horticulture , grow bananas , gather fruit, and hunt animals and fish. Crops compose up to 75% of

4736-596: The term refers to communities disseminated to the south of the Orinoco, [whereas] the variant Yanomawi is used to refer to communities north of the Orinoco. The term Sanumá corresponds to a dialect reserved for a cultural subgroup, much influenced by the neighboring Ye'kuana people . Other denominations applied to the Yanomami include Waika or Waica, Guiaca, Shiriana , Shirishana , Guaharibo or Guajaribo, Yanoama , Ninam , and Xamatari or Shamatari . Yanomamö and Yanomama are variant spellings. Supporters of

4810-540: The territory of the Yanomami people into several separate areas. In 1990 three gold mining reserves were created within the Roraima National Forest. The Yanomami Indigenous Territory was demarcated in 1992 in the lead up to the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro . The indigenous territory was created on 25 May 1992 with an area of 9,664,975 hectares (23,882,670 acres), and it was thought that this territory completely covered

4884-514: The time. This meant the opening of a stretch of perimeter road (1973–76) and various colonization programs on land traditionally occupied by the Yanomami. During the same period, the Amazonian resources survey project RADAM (1975) detected important mineral deposits in the region. This triggered a progressive movement of gold prospectors, which after 1987 took the form of a real gold rush . Hundreds of clandestine runways were opened by gold miners in

4958-433: The week of that first menstrual period, the girl is fed with a stick, because she is forbidden from touching the food in any way. While on confinement, she has to whisper when speaking, and she may speak only to close kin, such as sisters or her mother, but never to a male. Until the time of menstruation, girls are treated as children , and are only responsible for assisting their mothers in household work. When they approach

5032-523: The women do not hunt, they do work in the gardens and gather fruits, tubers , nuts and other wild foodstuffs. The garden plots are sectioned off by family, and grow bananas , plantains, sugarcane , mangoes , sweet potatoes , papayas , cassava , maize , and other crops . Yanomami women cultivate until the gardens are no longer fertile, and then move their plots. Women are expected to carry 70 to 80 pounds (32 to 36 kg) of crops on their backs during harvesting, using bark straps and woven baskets . In

5106-494: The work on the tribe of anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon usually use Yanomamö , while those who oppose his work or are neutral usually use Yanomami or Yanomama . The first report of the Yanomami is from 1654, when a Spanish expedition under Apolinar Diaz de la Fuente visited some Ye'kuana people living on the Padamo River . Diaz wrote: By interlocution of an Uramanavi Indian, I asked Chief Yoni if he had navigated by

5180-474: Was "alarmed by recent attacks against members of the Yanomami and Munduruku ," in Brazil, "by illegal miners in the Amazon." Gold was found in Yanomami territory in the early 1970s and the resulting influx of miners brought disease, alcoholism, and violence. Yanomami culture was severely endangered. In the mid-1970s, garimpeiros (small independent gold-diggers) started to enter the Yanomami country. Where these garimpeiros settled, they killed members of

5254-851: Was 9,910 according to FUNAI . This has risen steadily to an estimated 23,512 people as of 2016 according to Sesai. The state is represented in the territory of the Fundação Nacional do Índio (Funai). Registered indigenous organizations include the Associação das Mulheres Yanomami (Kumirayoma), Associação de Pais e Mestres Comunitários (APMC), Associação do Povo Ye'Kuana do Brasil (APYB), Associação Texoli, Associação Yanomami do Rio Cauaburis e Afluentes (AYRCA/FOIRN), Associação Yanomami do Rio Marauiá e do Rio Preto (KURIKAMA), Círculo de Pais e Mestres Escola Estadual (Indígena) Apolinário Gimenes (CIPAMESAG), Federação das Organizações Indígenas do Rio Negro (FOIRN), Hutukara Associação Yanomami (HAY) and

5328-476: Was first introduced to Yanomami populations by gold miners during the 1980s, is now frequent in Yanomami populations. Without the protection of the government, Yanomami populations declined when miners were allowed to enter the Yanomami territory frequently throughout this 3-year span. In 1987, FUNAI President Romero Jucá denied that the sharp increase in Yanomami deaths was due to garimpeiro invasions, and José Sarney , then president of Brazil, also supported

5402-482: Was recommended that only a fraction of them be employed for the purposes of cataloguing. Ethnonyms can change in character over time; while originally socially acceptable, they may come to be considered offensive . For instance, the term gypsy has been used to refer to the Romani . Other examples include Vandal , Bushman , Barbarian , and Philistine . The ethnonyms applied to African Americans have demonstrated

5476-508: Was stated "to the Muslims, terms like Negro and colored are labels created by white people to negate the past greatness of the black race". Four decades later, a similar difference of opinion remains. In 2006, one commentator suggested that the term Negro is outdated or offensive in many quarters; similarly, the word "colored" still appears in the name of the NAACP , or National Association for

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