Politics and Violence Blog Post

1. The rules between the Yanomamo culture and the western culture differ in many ways because although the western culture does have strict rules about killing someone or breaking the rules, the Yanomamo culture rules are even stricter. If someone in our culture now were to kill someone, or break the rules (law), than they would go to jail or prison for a very long time, or get a warning maybe even a ticket for not following the rules. The fact that the Yanomamo were to kill someone else for doing so is really extreme but than again that’s how there culture is and how everyone is brought upon.
2. The Yanomamo have many types of killing or as they call it “revenge killing”. They would have shouting matches, chest pounding duels, side slapping duels, club fights, fights with axes and matches, fights with bows and arrows all with the intent to kill the other person they are battling. Most of the men who die, which is 30% of the men, all die from violence.
3. The benefit of obtaining the status of Unokais is that you are well known throughout the village and throughout the neighboring villages. He becomes known by going through with a ritual know as the Unokaimou, which helps avert any supernatural harm that might come to him from a spirit of someone who he killed. Some decide not to become Unokais because most men who do become Unokais would die trying.
4. The men really take on the roles throughout the village, each is well known through the Unokais. They do have the main control of, fighting, battling, and going through raids and killing people. Men are usually in polygynous relationships and over a lifetime they might have up to a dozen different wives but rarely up to only six wives. Most of the Yanomamo people were closely related by half-cousin ship or as first cousins. The Unokais have a more successful reproductive rate than the non-Unokais because they are well known to everyone and have an easier time finding mates. Sometimes forcing them from others or by a customary alliance marriage arrangement which they seem to be more attractive to there mates.
5. We have laws to help restrict people on what they can and can not do. Some may not like it but it’s what the law does to mainly protect people, not only themselves but everyone around us. If we didn’t have laws or rules that needed to be followed than people wouldn’t be as, in line, as they should be. Killing someone is ultimately bad no matter what, but we don’t go to the extreme of killing someone only if its necessary, if the person is of harm to the rest of society.