Week 6: Politics and Violence Post

It is said that the laws are universal regarding violence and killing within different cultures but when it comes to the Yanomamo Indians there is some differences in how they deal with issues. They Yanomamo don't have many formal laws or guidelines to uphold. They don't even have a chief or judges. When they deal with an issue it is delt with more within the family and on their own rather than by going to the law to settle it for them. They don't have a written language or number system really so this just shows how much differences they have with most all cultures as well. 

In the Yanomamo population revenge killings are usually a result of sexual jealousy. This can be from any form between sexual infidelity, rape, or failure to give a promised girl in marriage, and others. The process is done in various ways. Some involve shooting with bows and arrows with the intent to kill. The most common motive behind the original killing is women and the most common cause behind the raids that follow is for killing the first time so it goes around basically. The raids are usually the aftermath of a revenge killing within the village. 

The revenge killings are of course life-threatening for those who are involved, obviously but those who obtain the title of unokais. To gain this title it means you are a man who has killed and then once you have killed you have to perform a ritual purification called unokaimou. This ritual helps deflect any supernatural harm that might come the killer's way from the soul of the one whose blood he shed, this also is a form of honor to them because this means they become an unokai and that it is widely known who they are and who they killed. Recruitment is on a self-selective basis though boys are rewarded for signs of aggression. The benefit of an unokai member seems to be that they are not as likely to be killed in the raids because of their status. This is proven by the statistics that the unokai populate most of the village because the rest have suffered in the raids. The benefit of a non-unokais is that they don't have to go out and risk their life to have a killing on their hands if they do not wish to be of this status so they are not as in the danger as others would be.

There are many ways the Yanomamo culture's revenge killing's effect their political structure, social status/ social organization, kinship, and marriage and reproduction. The revenge killing's influence political structure because they deal with their issues through families so when they are involved in revenge killings in the form of a raid they can be risking the strength of their group politically and socially because if they die then that means their group becomes weaker in society as well as in politics of the Yanomamo population. The influence that revenge killing has on kinship is not in their favor for the most part. Though it sometimes adds to the number of people behind a group that is involved in a raid if they have kin they are close to, but this also will risk the lives of the kin that are involved which will create once again a smaller group politically and socially and will end with no kin because they are the main scapegoat for actions of those who do revenge killing when it comes time for raids since they are close to those who may have done the killing before. Now in reference to marriage and reproduction men are more likely to be polygynous and have many wives within their lifetime and this will create more kin for their raids because they have more supply as in women. The ones who are more likely to have more kin are the political leaders who marry each others families if they are equal in leadership of a village. This builds a stronger force for raids. 

I think it is very important to have laws and consequences for something that we "shouldn't want to do" because killing others based off revenge is an instinctual feeling of a mammal. We can cover our instincts with these laws that we know will only damper our happiness and not theirs but if we don't have these strict laws then some of us will become more violent and vengeful people. It is hard to control or communicate the feeling of losing someone dear to you because of someone else unless through anger, hate, and hurt. So if it is fresh in your mind and someone you love is to pass because of someone else whether it was premeditated or accidental, the idea of taking what they took from someone you love will probably cross your mind because when in that situation it seems there is no better justice than to take a life when they took a life first, but we have to remember we don't want to live in a society like that because in the end after you do your justice you still won't have that person back and now you will feel like you are just as bad as the person who killed first and this will not only lead in a lot of homicides but suicides as well and we would start to become our own extinction.