Yanomamo Revenge Killings
The Yanomamo population do not have any formal laws. They also do not have written language. When it comes to killing they practice revenge warfare in the form of raids. The men that participate in revenge raids' lives are also put in danger as well since families of the victims will also seek revenge. In Western culture killing someone is a very serious offense. You will be punished for killing someone by being in prison. The government does not give someone a pass out of prison simply because it was revenge killing. We follow a legal system to prosecute anyone that has killed someone.
In the Yanomamo population revenge killing is essentially a “tit for tit” as expressed in the reading. If a family member is killed by someone or if someone passes away they will seek revenge. The Yanomamo believe that a person becomes ill from someone performing harmful magic and will kill those that were involved in inflicting the harmful magic. Another reason for killings is due to sexual issues such as infidelity and suspicion of infidelity. Killings are usually within the village. They will form village fissions and begin to raid each other. Some form “raid parties” of 10-20 men for 1-2 victims. They will either shoot the victim or ambush them with arrows. Before the victim is found they retreat. Before they begin the raid, in the morning of the killing they will make an no awa for the person they want to kill. As they venture out for the killing they will kill the first man they see.
The advantages of gaining the status of Unokais is having higher martial and reproductive success. The goal is to have a large number of kin in the village. Yanomamo also believe that becoming a Unokais will lower their chances of losing kin. Another advantage of becoming an Unokais is becoming a leader in your village. The higher number of killings the more likely you will reach a higher status. Those that are non-unokais are often ridiculed by the members of the village. Their wives will also become targets of sexual attacks by other men. Men would choose to become Unokais because they do not want their kin to be the target of raids. They seek to display aggressive behaviors as a warning to others. It lets other members of the group know they are not afraid to seek revenge. Men that are trying to become or are Unokais display more athletic ability that allow them to move swiftly through the forest during raids.
The Yanomamo political structure consists of about 200 political groups. These political groups have Patas. Pata are territorial governors. It is estimated that each descent group has 1-2 Patas. Due to the Patas in these communities, their warfare has almost diminished. The political leaders of the village are the kinsmen. There are more kinsmen than other men present in the village. The leaders will decide whether killings are revenged.
The social status/social organization consist of 3 groups. Unokais, non-unokais and Waitern group. The two groups mentioned were previously discussed. The last group, Waitern, is a term given to those who have killed more than 10 people. The order would go as follows: Waitern, Unokais,and lastly non-unokais. The number of killings make the men seem more valuable as they promote bravery and seen as fierce for avenging deaths.
Closeness of kinship relationship is expressed as the members of the village are related to each other more closely than half cousins. Kinship density for the Yanomamo population is also defined in the reading as the number of kin an individual has. This kinship underlines the expectations and obligations of kinship relatedness.
The Yanomamo population practices the unnamed patrilineal descent group patterns. They need to find spouses in another patrilineal descent group within their village. Those that practice reciprocal marriages over several generations of any descent group will have close relatives in other descent groups. Headmens of the village practice polygynous.However, they have no more than 6 wives at the time. This is beneficial to the headmens because they reproduce many children with all of their wives. Men that are non-unokais are less likely to have a larger amount of children.
Laws against killings are essential because it demonstrates to the society that there are consequences to something so grave. If we did not have these laws, I think people would go around killing for the simplest matters or arguments. In the Origin of law reading, Ancient Greece rooted our legal system; they also had juries to decide if someone was guilty or innocent. Before laws and rules were established in Ancient Greece, they practiced Revenge killings. A person that was found guilty of murder was killed by the victim's family. Another illustration of laws would be that Ancient Mesopotamia would elect an assembly to overlook the laws of its people and to ensure the king also obeyed those set laws. Laws have always been a concept in history; even though there weren’t written.
Hi Alejandra,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post. You summarized the main points really well, and it truly displaced your understanding of the topic. I liked the examples you used for #5, I think it really helped when answering this question by demonstrating how the laws bring stability into the cultures and if there was no stability everything would run wild within the communities .
Hello Alejandra,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your post describing the power an individual would get from participating in revenge killing. They may gain leadership roles, respect, and due to women preferring men who seemingly are brave and powerful, the men will more likely to have more wives and children. Participating in revenge killing also make them seem more dominant. I agree with your statement in question 5, with no order, there will just be chaos.
Thank you for sharing
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1. The Yanomamo population do not have any formal laws. They also do not have written language. When it comes to killing they practice revenge warfare in the form of raids. The men that participate in revenge raids' lives are also put in danger as well since families of the victims will also seek revenge. In Western culture killing someone is a very serious offense. You will be punished for killing someone by being in prison. The government does not give someone a pass out of prison simply because it was revenge killing. We follow a legal system to prosecute anyone that has killed someone.
2. In the Yanomamo population revenge killing is essentially a “tit for tit” as expressed in the reading. If a family member is killed by someone or if someone passes away they will seek revenge. The Yanomamo believe that a person becomes ill from someone performing harmful magic and will kill those that were involved in inflicting the harmful magic. Another reason for killings is due to sexual issues such as infidelity and suspicion of infidelity. Killings are usually within the village. They will form village fissions and begin to raid each other. Some form “raid parties” of 10-20 men for 1-2 victims. They will either shoot the victim or ambush them with arrows. Before the victim is found they retreat. Before they begin the raid, in the morning of the killing they will make an no awa for the person they want to kill. As they venture out for the killing they will kill the first man they see.
3 The advantages of gaining the status of Unokais is having higher martial and reproductive success. The goal is to have a large number of kin in the village. Yanomamo also believe that becoming a Unokais will lower their chances of losing kin. Another advantage of becoming an Unokais is becoming a leader in your village. The higher number of killings the more likely you will reach a higher status. Those that are non-unokais are often ridiculed by the members of the village. Their wives will also become targets of sexual attacks by other men. Men would choose to become Unokais because they do not want their kin to be the target of raids. They seek to display aggressive behaviors as a warning to others. It lets other members of the group know they are not afraid to seek revenge. Men that are trying to become or are Unokais display more athletic ability that allow them to move swiftly through the forest during raids.
4 . The Yanomamo political structure consists of about 200 political groups. These political groups have Patas. Pata are territorial governors. It is estimated that each descent group has 1-2 Patas. Due to the Patas in these communities, their warfare has almost diminished. The political leaders of the village are the kinsmen. There are more kinsmen than other men present in the village. The leaders will decide whether killings are revenged.
DeleteThe social status/social organization consist of 3 groups. Unokais, non-unokais and Waitern group. The two groups mentioned were previously discussed. The last group, Waitern, is a term given to those who have killed more than 10 people. The order would go as follows: Waitern, Unokais,and lastly non-unokais. The number of killings make the men seem more valuable as they promote bravery and seen as fierce for avenging deaths.
Closeness of kinship relationship is expressed as the members of the village are related to each other more closely than half cousins. Kinship density for the Yanomamo population is also defined in the reading as the number of kin an individual has. This kinship underlines the expectations and obligations of kinship relatedness.
The Yanomamo population practices the unnamed patrilineal descent group patterns. They need to find spouses in another patrilineal descent group within their village. Those that practice reciprocal marriages over several generations of any descent group will have close relatives in other descent groups. Headmens of the village practice polygynous.However, they have no more than 6 wives at the time. This is beneficial to the headmens because they reproduce many children with all of their wives. Men that are non-unokais are less likely to have a larger amount of children.
5. Laws against killings are essential because it demonstrates to the society that there are consequences to something so grave. If we did not have these laws, I think people would go around killing for the simplest matters or arguments. In the Origin of law reading, Ancient Greece rooted our legal system; they also had juries to decide if someone was guilty or innocent. Before laws and rules were established in Ancient Greece, they practiced Revenge killings. A person that was found guilty of murder was killed by the victim's family. Another illustration of laws would be that Ancient Mesopotamia would elect an assembly to overlook the laws of its people and to ensure the king also obeyed those set laws. Laws have always been a concept in history; even though there weren’t written.
My feedback:
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1. "The Yanomamo population do not have any formal laws. They also do not have written language."
Why does this matter? Are laws/rules less effective if they aren't "formal" or "written"?
" In Western culture killing someone is a very serious offense. You will be punished for killing someone..."
I would argue it is considered to be a "serious offense" among the Yanomamo as well! The punishment for it isn't just prison. It's a death sentence. ;-)
Note that, just like us, the Yanomamo distinguish between two categories of killings: "acceptable" (for us that would be self-defense, criminal punishment and war) and "unacceptable". Be careful to notice the similarities as much as the obvious differences.
2. Good overall. Do women play any roll in these traditional behaviors?
3. Are there any benefits to being a non-unokais? Why do men opt for this path? Are there any costs to being an unokais to consider?
4. The question here is about the unokais system influences all of these factors.
Political structure: This is a general description but it doesn't explain how the unokais system impacts the political structure of a population. Who tends to be the political leaders in a village?
Social status/organization: Okay... so how can a man change his social status in a population through the unokais system? Can women use the system to change their social status?
Kinship: Again, this is a general description and doesn't connect the kinship system to the system of revenge killings. This system of killings works to give high status unokais a larger system of kin, through marriage, tying the population together. From the other perspective, kinship determines who are expected to kill and who they can kill.
Marriage and reproduction: "Men that are non-unokais are less likely to have a larger amount of children. "
Correct... but what about the converse? Success in revenge killings is associated with more mates and more offspring. That is how the unokais system impacts marriage and reproduction.
5. "I think people would go around killing for the simplest matters or arguments. "
But why would they do this if it is generally agreed upon that these are bad behaviors? THAT is the question being asked here.
Both Western cultures and the Yanomamo have laws against these behaviors, not because they are "bad" but because people may gain some benefit from engaging in those laws to the detriment of those around them.
We are creatures of biology, regardless of how "civilized" we might want to think we are. Killing can benefit an organism if they gain resources or a mate or defend their offspring in the process, correct? So that benefit is still there in humans, whether we like it or not. Killing is an instinctive, biological reaction to a threat of some sort, to our lives, to our family (genes) or to our resources, but it can also be a strategy to advance your survival, such as (for example) killing off a rival. Understand that this isn't excusing the behavior. It just explains it. But we need laws against this behavior, not because no one wants to do it but because sometimes people can benefit from this behavior... i.e., they DO want to kill because it benefits them. Laws protect us from selfish actions of others, acting to their own benefit and the harm of others.
Hello Alejandra! After taking the time to carefully read throughout the entireity of your blog submission, I could not help but realize how similar our thoughts were. It is great to see that others share the same perspectives as me. I really enjoyed reading how you expanded on the ideas as to why laws against killings are necessary! Overall, well done and I hope to read more from you in the future.
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