Word: yanomamis
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Davi Kopenawa Yanomami cures ailing tribal brothers with incantations given to him by a fearsome anaconda spirit that slithers up from Amazonian waters. At least that's the way Davi describes it. Like other native medicine men in the Amazon rain forest, Davi relies on hallucinogenic powders to reach the spirit world, but this leader of the Yanomami Indians also wields a more modern means of communication: a two-way radio. When an otherworldly voice squawks through the speaker, Davi wraps up his shaman's crown of toucan feathers, dons uncomfortable city clothes and walks to a clearing...
...Yanomamo villages. Despite the well-intentioned concern for the Yanomamo voiced in the article, I was truly surprised at the racist assumptions pervading the description of this people. Beginning with a description of the Yanomamo as a "Stone Age tribe," the article concludes with the following: "For centuries, the Yanomami lived in virtual isolation, hunting and fishing with bow and arrows. They have no written language and count only up to two--anything more is 'wahoro,' or many...
Massacre of the Yanomami...
...years Brazilian gold miners have been pressing to prospect on the 37,000- sq.-mi. homeland of the Yanomami Indians. Rebuffed by the Brazilian government, which has sent police to break up their encampments, the miners apparently have turned to murderous violence against the Yanomami. In the worst outbreak to date, miners massacred more than 30 members of the tribe last week, including 10 children, some of whom were decapitated by machetes. International outcry over the killings could lead to trouble for Brazil in its requests for loans from international lenders...
...Brazil, with 240,000 Indians in a population of 146 million, the government last year set aside 37,450 sq. mi. for 9,500 Yanomami, a fragile Amazon tribe whose way of life had been virtually destroyed by migratory gold miners. In the past 2 1/2 years, Brasilia has created 131 reserves covering 120,000 sq. mi. in 19 states that are home to 100,000 Indians. It is a beginning -- but it does not come close to ending the threat to the tribes, whose lands are frequently invaded by aggressive miners and ranchers and who receive little help from...