Yanomamo

For the Yanomamo culture, when one wishes to break the rules they will do so if it interest them.  Some consequences are shouting matches, chest pounding duels, side slapping duels, club fights, fights with axes and machetes, and shooting with bows and arrows with the intent to kill with other men. The Yanomamo depend on themselves and their closes kin to help them out when dealing with these consequences. The Yanomamo also have no written language, precise number system, formal laws, or institutionalized adjudicators such as chiefs or judges which explains why their culture is the way it is. Western cultures differ from the Yanomamo culture because we are the exact opposite for the most part. In Western cultures we do have people that rebel and don’t care about any sort of consequences but for the most part, society abides by the rules and followes them. Written language, laws, judges, jails, etc; are all examples of systems the western culture has instilled into our society to prevent the lifestyle the Yanomamo live.

The process of revenge killing has a lot of factors behind it. Revenge is heavily based of gains and losses which a person in the Yanomamo culture heavily holds their decision on. In the Yanomamo population section is describes how the population is broken up into 12 villages where the men killed amongst each other. Recruitment to the Yanomamo status is on a self- selective bias. Being a non-unokais is not as respected as being a unokais because you have not killed and performed the ceremony. A man would rather be a unokais because other men do not go after them, the article states that out of the 282 violent deaths there are 153 living unokais. Unokais also may be given marital and reproductive benefits. It may be by force but there are higher reproductive rates within the unokais which is a direct relationship with revenge killings because that is how they attained their status in the first place.When a Yanomamo member kills, the tribe and surrounding tribes are aware of it and who they killed. Becoming a  unokais adds to one’s status make them more known. Because of violent killings, many people in the Yanomamo culture can relate to each other due to the loss of a mother or sibling. In addition the bigger the kinship bond is, the more likely the group is to take big risks such as raids.   

We need laws against killings because even though it is universally seen to be a bad thing that no one wants to do, there are people out in the world that do have psychological problems and will kill even though it is not an act out of defense. The article states that one must understand the complexity of kinship relationship and the role they play in their culture. I believe that statement was saying, you don’t know how you will act out because you are not in the Yanomamo shoes.A person not living in the Yanomamo culture cannot say "i would never act like that, i would never kill someone" because what you say and what you do is completly different when actually being in the situation. Laws provide protection that basically makes someone think twice before they act out in violence and kill.