Analysis of Chagnon Yanonomo

875 Words4 Pages
Chagnon describes his experience among the Yanonomo as completely different from what he was used to, the very definition of culture shock. He notes that experiences differ from group to group in field studies, but it is almost always nothing what you expect. The biggest problem he experienced in this new culture had to do with privacy, eating, bathing, sleeping, and loneliness. He goes on to explain that our own expectations of how we should be treated in another culture far differ from what actually happens, his own experience greatly different from his expectations. However as Chagnon spent more and more time with them he learned their ways, so different from our own, and his standing amongst them grew. Examples of how he adapted his culture was learning how to display aggression so that other members respected him, a common form of establishing status among these people, but something in American culture would never stand. Chagnon’s time among the Yanomamo taught him many things. They primarily subsist on what they gather for that day from small self-sustained gardens and from natural vegetation. Life is simple on requiring a few hours of work a day to sustain them. Many weapons and tools are developed crudely but effectively from surrounding resources. Marriage is an important function in Yanomamo society, it is used to create alliances between families and groups as well as provide units to create children in. Because marriages often hold political and social ties many of them are arranged by older members of the family, however marriages can also come in the form of conquest of other villages, taking wives from prisoners. It is common for men to hold multiple wives and encouraged to marry cousins. Having many wives is functional for these people due to the high infant mortality rate; it increases the chances of having decedents. Although both men and women
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