No matter the location, people everywhere must become adapted to the physical environment within which they live in order to survive, and produce offspring who will carry on their traditions. The Yanomamo are no different. Their physical environment contains not only lands, forests, resources, and foods, it contains many other things as well. Rivers and streams are a vital part of Yanomamo living quarters. Most of the rivers and streams begin in the hills as tiny trickles that are dry at some times of the year but dangerous torrents at other times. A sudden heavy rain c

1995 Philosophy and Language in Leibniz: The Cambridge Companion to Leibniz

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Alliances between groups are incorporated through trade and feasting. The relationship between two parties are strengthened when the exchange of women takes place. For the Yanomamo women are like how money is for Americans. They need them for political game (Chagnon 1997: 160-161). There are three distinct features of Yanomamo trading practices that are important in the context of alliance formation. First, each item must be repaid with a different kind of item; the recipient is responsible for repaying his partner in exchange. Secondly, the payment is delayed, a temporal factor in trading techniques that is implied by the exchange. The problem with these two is that once there has been one trade, it never ends, for the members of one village in an alliance always owes the members of the other village trade goods from the last confrontation. The third feature is the specialization in the production of trade items. Each village has one or more special products that it provides to its allies. These could include: dogs, hallucinogenic drugs, hunting tools, cotton, and both clay and aluminum pots (Chagnon 1997: 162). However, alliances between villages may stabilize by reciprocal trading, mutual feasting, or reciprocal women exchange (Chagnon 1997: 163). Another method of political alliances is feasting. This is when one village invites another for a feast or dinner. During these feasts there is much social activity, such as dancing and mingling with each other, along with eating a different variety of foods. Just like anything else, when a village is invited to a feast they must reciprocate a feast in return. A feast, however, can be dangerous and even fatal for those who attend. The Yanomamo can be very deceiving, and will pretend to be loyal friends, then beat the invited party to death after the feast.

Some topics in this essay:
South America, According Yanomamo, Venezuelan Amazons, chagnon 1997, Spanish Chagnon, , Fluency Spanish, smoles 1976, physical environment, University Press, Body Vol, yanomamo culture, Rutherford Donald, chagnon 1997 186, university press, hallucinogenic drugs, material culture, women children, 1997 186, chagnon 1997 47, cotton yarn, Lemonick Michael, plant animal food, jungle chagnon 1997, chagnon 1997 112,