Yanomamo: The Fierce People

Chagnon emphasizes the roles that trading and feasting play in forming Yanomami alliances. Because the villages tend to take advantage of allies when they are in a position of power, villages are often wary of meeting. Therefore, to form any alliances, they need to use various strategies to conceal their actual motives. Trading and feasting serve as the main methods of concealment. First, each traded item requires repayment with an item of a different type. Second, the repayment of the item is delayed to ensure repeated visits between villages. Finally, each village specializes in certain commodities, such as hallucinogens, bows, arrows, dogs, yarn, hammocks, pots, or dogs. Villages that have contact with foreigners can trade metal items such as pots and tools. With the exception of metal items, each village is technically capable of producing all of these trade goods, so the choice of each village to specialize in specific goods serves a larger social function. Because villages must trade with each other to obtain certain items, this dynamic fosters contact between villages and bolsters the creation of alliances. For example, Chagnon recounts his discussion with the Momaribowei-teri regarding the creation of clay pots. They told him that they could no longer make pots because their allies, the Mowaraoba-teri, now provide pots as trade goods. The specialization is also not as individualized as it appears in the example, for some villages also choose to trade in the same items that they produce for trade. Chagnon further emphasizes that the specializations are not driven by economic necessity but a sociological one. He concludes by noting that the Yanomami do not acknowledge the complex web of alliances they engage in. In the case of the feasts, which are the next tier up in the Chagnon’s alliance system, the feast itself serves a higher function than the intervillage support that results from the event, for the hosts of the feasts display their affluence and challenge their guests to reciprocate.

In this section, Chagnon uses a specific feast as an example of the intervillage dynamics among the Yanomami during alliance formation. Chagnon sets up his description with more context from the history of Kaobawä’s village, building on information he presented in Part 3. While the village was desperate and isolated, its members sought to make an alliance with the Iwahikoroba-teri, a Shamatari group. Kaobawä agreed to move the alliance from a trading one to a feasting one with the acceptance of an invitation. However, the Iwahikoroba-teri betrayed them because of an arrangement with the main Shamatari enemies of Kaobawä, the Mowaraoba-teri. Many of the men were killed in the ensuing massacre, including Kaobawä’s father. Many of the women were captured, and the preoccupation with taking them may have been the choice that led to the survival of what remained of Kaobawä’s group. Chagnon again reviews the temporary alliance with the Mahekodo-teri, which also had risks of treachery.

Finally, he returns to the alliance he touched on being formed with the Paruritawa-teri in 1960, the goal of which was for Kaobawä’s people to get their revenge. This plot centered on a second feast which was meant to mimic the earlier one in reverse. However, only a few Mowaraoba-teri came because they were suffering from an epidemic at the time. While Kaobawä’s people did kill most of the men who attended, they weren’t satisfied. The second attempt came once Chagnon was with them in the field. Most of the men left, and those that remained were worried about a raid by another village that knew about the plan. This concern became a reality when a missionary told Chagnon that there was word of an incoming attack on the unprotected village. Kaobawä and the others returned before a raid could be launched, as their second feast attempt did not succeed due to the Mowaraoba-teri being warned en route. However, members of the Mahekodo-teri were camped nearby. Kaobawä invited the potential raiders and their accompanying allies to a feast using the food that remained unused during the weeks they were gone.

Chagnon describes the feast itself. The Mahekodo-teri and the allies accompanying them on the attempted raid, the Boreta-teri, were in attendance. Kaobawä also invited the Karohi-teri, whom Chagnon described as “a small but dependable ally [that] had […] separated from the Mahekodo-teri many years ago” (105). Because the strength of the thwarted raiders was enough to remain a threat, Kaobawä leveled the odds by inviting another ally. Chagnon states that the feast began with tension due to the Mahekodo-teri and Boreta-teri arriving long before the village was prepared. Because the two groups were guests, Kaobawä’s group was still obligated to feed them. Meanwhile, the feast preparations continued. A hunting party was sent to gather meat and met with some success. However, tensions rose further when the visitors consumed excessive amounts of food in a display of intimidation. Kaobawä’s village did not voice their concerns. Instead, they planned to throw a feast on a grand enough scale to send their own message. The hunters had better luck than usual and returned with many game animals. By this point, the Karohi-teri hadn’t yet arrived. The village decided to get the feast over with, as their visitors would be societally obliged to leave once it had finished and hold a smaller one for their allies later.

On the morning of the feast, the growing excitement was somewhat dampened by the rumors that the guests had raided the gardens overnight. The men and women decorated themselves with paint and feathers during the final preparations. During this time, villagers from Lower Bisassi-teri arrived, and their headman, Kaobawä’s uncle, took over the formal position of host of the combined groups. Finally, the guests’ delegate arrived to formally accept the feast invitation. The rest of the guests then arrived and danced to show off their own decorations. They then retired to the host village’s hammocks while the hosts fed them and danced as well. The feast continued through the night, and the two sides traded with one another at dawn. The guests were given food to take back with them and items that they requested. However, they chose not to follow the rules of feast etiquette and instead said they would also stay for the Karohi-teri’s feast. Responding to this final threat, the hosts warned that there would be a chest-pounding duel if they didn’t leave. This was enough, and the guests finally departed.

Chagnon concludes his sections on the recounting of the aftermath of the feast by writing that, during the feast for the Karohi-teri, the Mahekodo-teri and Boreta-teri returned to accept the previously issued challenge. Both sides had their weapons ready and argued about the food. The Karohi-teri joined Kaobawä and the village, along with the returning members of Lower Bisaasi-teri. The ensuing chest-pounding duel involved blows exchanged between pairs of individuals from the opposing sides. Chagnon describes the setup of each attack and explains that the number of strikes was reciprocal: a man who hit three times had to endure three strikes himself; three was the minimum number for injured men. He would be replaced at that point, and the number of strikes would be reset. As the duel continued, it generated excitement from each duelist’s respective supporters. The fighting intensified, with the possibility of actual bloodshed looming. Some younger men quit early for fear of injury, which put additional pressure on those engaged in the brawl. When it seemed they were on the losing side, Kaobawä’s group proposed escalating the fight to side slapping, a more severe form of dueling due to more fatalities. Tensions peaked when both groups drew their bows, but the crisis was narrowly averted when Kaobawä and the other leaders stepped in to defuse the situation. The Mahekodo-teri left and did not invite Upper Bisaasi-teri to their own feast. Chagnon notes that, when he wrote the book, the relationship between the two villages was strained nearly to the point of hostility. While he comments that the majority of feasts between allies do not end in this degree of violence, he also says that even good alliances sometimes have one side challenging the other to duels. He adds, “[O]f the six feasts I witnessed […] two of them ended in fighting” (117). He concludes by stating that although any feast can turn violent, feasting is still a necessary way to reduce the violence between villages.