Life among the Yanomami. The Story of Change among the Xilixana on the Mucajai River in Brazil

Abstract

best ethnographers are often sensible, yet sensitive with a well-developed appreciation of absurd. These are particularly valuable traits for a field worker engaged in long-term research in an isolated area, far from everyday amenities of Western life, among who are very much the other. When focus of study is of Brazil's Amazonia, originally characterized by Napoleon Chagnon as the people, common sense, humour and a high level of empathy become, more than assets, central to survival. In Life among Yanomami, John Peters shows us how, in a society where and deceit are endemic and warfare plays a central role such that at least 40% of men are murderers and 90% potential murderers, (p. 35) despite vast differences in culture, you develop strong, lasting friendships (p. 58). Amid controversy provoked by Patrick Tierney's recent allegations of abuse of by anthropologists, Peters' very human, balanced and, paradoxically, gentle portrayal of Mucajai River Xilixana is an especially welcome exemplar of ethical ethnographic norms.(1)Life among Yanomami is a comprehensive, complex and finely textured study. There is rich ethnographic detail of a traditional of life organized in conventional categories--village life and social culture; making a living off land; family and social organization; socialization and life stages; myths, spirits and magic. And, of course, there is a section on warfare, raids and revenge, which have captured anthropological imagination, perhaps because they seem so very different from Western battles for land or political control. Rather, protein deficiencies, competition over women, reproduction needs, quest for steel goods, revenge for past raids and sorcery have been posited as explanations for intervillage killings embedded in a matrix of cultural norms wherein violence seems always just a breath away (p. 207).The portrayal of culture is always dynamic, however, with an emphasis on impact of social change over four decades since contact with frontier Brazilians was initiated by Xilixana in 1957. We see how Xilixana coped with initial exposure to missionaries, more recent interactions with miners, and intervention of government and Non-Government Organizations (NGOs).The constant presence of missionaries in region since contact era is a central thread running through narrative. Peters first went to Brazil in 1958 as a young missionary charged with setting up a new mission station. He spent most of next eight years living among Xilixana, with his wife and family (four of their five children were born during that time) before returning to North America for graduate studies. He has since visited community frequently to conduct field research. Consequently, he is in an excellent position to assess both how missionaries have changed and how have changed mission project. have come to rely on trade goods, medical aid, brokerage and social life available at missions, but the Jesus way itself seems incompatible with community-structured context of and justice. The Xilixana considered missionary's Jesus to be something of a wimp (p. 201). missionaries now downplay evangelical priority of early years and are more inclined to see their very presence in area as witness to Christian message of hope and caring.Relations between Xilixana and miners have been far less cordial. miners have, at best, asked for food in exchange for Western goods, or hired men as labourers. At worst, they used women as prostitutes, brought diseases and contaminated Mucajai River with mercury. At times, these interactions led to bloodshed, as seemed to live up to their reputations via revenge killings, although Peters maintains that Chagnon's description of a fierce people is appropriate only for 1900-80 period (p. …