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TSR Wiki > Study Help > Subjects and Revision > Revision Notes > Anthropology > Destruction of the Yanomamo (Davus 1980)

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The 8500 Yanomamo Indians of Amazonia, whose homeland is divided by the Brazil-Venzuela border, comprise one of the last strongholds of traditional subsistence economy and intact community organisation in Amazonia. They have fiercely defended their autonomy- while fighting one another.- for the centuries since Europeans invaded South America.

Now the Northern Perimeter Highway, part of Brazil"s new network of highways through Amazonia, and massive mineral development, threaten to destroy this autonomy, and the Yanomamo themselves.

Although the highway is still not completed, one section has been built along the southern fridge of Yanomamo territory. Diseases carried by highway workers have already destroyed 15 Yanomamo villages along with the first 100 kilometres of the new road. Indians were witnessed in a state of misery, sickness and shock. They refused to speak their language, their gardens had been uprooted by bulldozers, and they were wearing ragged clothing given to them by highway workers and infested with influenza, tuberculosis, measles and other germs.

The agency which supposedly protects Indian rights, FUNAI, which in fact works closely with development interests, proposed creation of 21 small Indian reserves for the Yanomamo of Brazil. But these enclaves would leave out 2,900 living in 58 villages.

In response, a group of prominent Brazilians proposed to the government the creation of a 16 million acre Yanomamo Indian Park, that would at least give the Indians a chance of viable future life. The government countered by appointing to the presidency of FUNAI a retired army officer with no experience with Indian affairs, who previously had been chief of security and information for the mineral corporaion that is seeking mining rights in Yanomamo country.

The Yanomamo are under threat from "development", which will:

• Disrupt their natural habitat
• Cause a loss of habitat- forced resettlement of the poor farmers along the highway margins
• It will increase the number of industries located there
• Urbanisation will occur
• Modernisation will start, causing a change in their way of life.

Societies such as the Yanomamo should be protected because:

• These people have a comprehensive knowledge of their environment.
• They make good use of what they have.
• They use sustainable development.
• They have slash and burn, and shifting/swidden cultivation.

Pg 108- Tsembaga Maring Culture as an Adaptive System (Rappapport)

They are maladaptive- as they are producing many pigs but there still exists a deficiency of protein. Their fighting, however, is adaptive.

This confirms Cultural Ecology.

Notes on The Johansi in 1998 (video)

• Hunting and gathering skills/techniques are very similar to !Kung in the 1970s.

The Johansi had governmental support. Materially, there were given clothes/shoes, food/water/housing/cattle.

• Because of all this Westernisation, many of the Johansi people started drinking alcohol, and eventually became alcoholics.

Comparison between the !Kung and the Johansi

• The environmental aspects between the !kung and the Johansi are very similar. They both share a very extensive and detailed understanding of the land, and have similar hunting and gathering skills and techniques (e.g. using poison from insect larvae in their arrows). There is a slight difference in their housing set-up, as, at one point, due to governmental encouragement, the Johansi moved to more "Western" housing made of concrete. However, they soon moved out back to their traditional mud and straw huts, which are similar to those which house the !Kung.
• In terms of social change, much more has occurred in the Johansi in relation to the !Kung. The !Kung have had very little interference from any foreign people, whereas the government has intervened on the Johansi band in an attempt to Westernise them.

Quotes from books which support the theory that Capitalist ideas are penetrating SSSs:

• "Efficient forms of economic and managerial organisation lead to development, which many SSSs are adopting.î
• "Most MEDC governments encouraged foreign investment and placed few restrictions on the operation of foreign investors in their states.
• "Capitalist economies depend on Southern Imports.

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