Politics and Violence

             As far as I could tell, the Yanomamo do not have rules regarding killing. It is stated in the article, “The Yanomamo have no written language, precise number system, formal laws, or institutionalized adjudicators such as chiefs or judges.  Although there are customs and general rules about proper behavior, individuals violate them regularly when it seems in their interests to do so.” These people do not have laws against killing people, and the laws they do have, they do not hold in very high regard. Western cultures are based on rules. They are the basis of the culture, and peace and prosperity come from the citizens of the country abiding by these laws. The consequences of the Yanomamo people for breaking laws differ from Western cultures in that Western cultures actually have consequences for killing someone and the Yanomamo people do not. There are strict rules against killing in Western cultures and harsh consequences if a person breaks those rules.

             Revenge is sought for many different things. It might be that over a woman or it might be because one the people in the village died and they blame it on the magic of someone in another village.  The night before a man goes on a revenge killing, the women in the village eat the ashes of the person who died to essentially provide the revenge party with good luck. Normally there are ten to twenty people on a raiding party and when they attack, they all shoot victim at the same time. Once a man has killed a victim, he becomes a Unokias. But he only becomes one of this elite group after he has performed a ritual purification. He is looked up to in the community and everyone knows how many men he has killed. Because the Yanomamo are all very closely related, it is possible that a man may go on a raiding party against a village in which one of his relative’s lives. But the interrelatedness of these villages are becoming more and more distant due to fusions in which one village will split due to disagreement in the group.

             The benefits of being Unokias are that you receive higher marital and reproductive benefits. The Unokias do not have look very far to find a partner. They are popular men and any women would be more than happy to marry one. They therefore, because they are more likely to get married, are more likely to have more children. Most men strive to be Unokias and if they have become Unokias, they are more attractive to the women in the village as compared to the non-Unokias. A man would choose to become a Unokias as opposed to a Non-Unokias because Unokias have a prestigious spot in the village and have more success with the women than the Non-Unokias. In terms of the Western world, I think it would be comparable to being called a coward if you were a Non-Unokias.

             The influence that revenge killings have on the political structure of the Yanomamo people is that the headman of the village, decide whether or not a killing is revenged. The headman can also have many wives, which means many children, which causes most of the village to be related to each other in some way. The social status and social organization is affected by the revenge killings because the very social organization of a culture could be torn apart because of a revenge killing. This could be because a relative was killed by someone else in his village. This is when a fission happens. The social status is affected because those who have killed (Unokias), have a higher social status than those who have not killed. Kinship is affected by the revenge killings in that as the article says, “The higher the kinship density in a local community, the greater is the likelihood that a large number of mutually supportive individuals will take such life-threatening  risks  and  that  retaliation  will  occur  if  one  of  the members  of  the  group  is  killed.” And this is very likely to happen because, as the article says again, “In most villages well over 80% of the members are related to more than 75% of the village.” They are a very closely related group of people.  Marriage and reproduction are affected by revenge killings because, as was previously discussed, women are more likely to want to marry Unokias, and because of this, many children are born. Not only do women want to marry Unokias over non-Unokias, but the Unokias have the ability to force women to marry them or be their partner. 

             I think the answer to the question, why should we have laws against something no one should want to do, is because there is someone out there who does want to do it! Killing people for a reason other than self defense is acceptable in this culture, so therefore, there are people in the world who want to do it! I believe that we have to have laws against killing people in places like America, because even though most people wouldn’t do it, there is always that one person who is the exception.  And we have to have these laws just to make sure we are protected. Just because something is accepted as wrong in one culture does not mean it is wrong in another. This is clearly illustrated here and is seen in the direct opposite opinions in these two cultures on this issue.