YANOMAMO

Yanomamo: translation

AnAmazonianpeople whose traditional homeland spans the border of Venezuela and Brazil and who remained so remote thatNapoléon Chagnoncould claim that in 1990–91 he spent time in “villages that had never before been visited by outsiders.” Partly influenced by Chagnon’s writings, and partly due to media andChristianmissionary presentations, the Yanomamo have been portrayed as an intensely violent society. More recent research challenges this perception.

Among the Yanomamo, the role of shaman carries significant status and is sought by more than a few men of each village. A major part of the shaman hopeful’s training involves extreme fasting and instruction by older men in what Chagnon calls the “attributes, habits, songs, mysteries and fancies of thehekuraspirits.” Theseotherthanhuman personsare diminutive and “somewhat coy and fickle,” for example, disliking it if theirelectedtrainee shamans havesex.Hekura have to be attracted and tempted to take up residence in the inner geography (including mountains, streams, and forests) within the shaman. Once a trainee has successfully persuaded the hekura to move in, via the chest, and gainsmasteryover his indwellinghelpers, he too is calledhekura.Illnessescan be caused or cured by hekura (either the shamans or the spirits they control), sometimes by taking hallucinogens. Reliance on the consumption ofebenesnuff seems to decrease with experience, but shamanicperformancealways requires self-decoration to attract hekura helpers. As with other hallucinogens, ebene causesvomitingand the discharge of copious quantities of nasal mucus, “laden with green powder.” This is often described as an unpleasant distraction by ethnographers who are more interested invisionaryeffects than in messy embodiment. Indigenous interpretations rarely divide these results in such a prissy manner.

As elsewhere in Amazonia, Chagnon notes that Yanomamo shamans “cure the sick with magic,sucking, singing [cosmological creativechantepics involving hekura and “marvelous and fabulous events”], or massaging; diagnose illness and prescribe a magical remedy; and generally intercede [mediate] between humans and spirits in the context of health versus sickness.” Shamans may also be suspect, at least, of sending “malevolenthekura” to cause illness or death. As elsewhere, shamans and hekura are essentialambiguous, but they are typically honored “at home.”