The Yanomami people live in the rain-forests and mountains of northern Brazil and Venezuela. The Yanomami in Brazil occupy more than 9.6 million hectares of land while the Yanomami in Venezuela occupy 8.2 million hectares of land in the Alto-Orcinco - Casiquiare Biosphere Reserve. Their population stands at 32,000 and continue to be one of the largest isolated tribes in South America.
They migrated across the Bering Straits between Asia and America about 15,000 years ago and settled in South America.
The language of the Yanomami people predates that of the Caribs and Arawaks. They have no form of written language so they possess a large vocabulary and oral literature. They are a diglottic people, which means they use a special form of bilingualism.They have a formal and informal dialect. Wayamo which is the formal dialect is spoken by male tribesmen at social ritualistic events and the informal dialect is spoken in general.
The Yanomami are mainly horticulturalists whose diets consists of produce from local gardens and meat from hunting. Although fish is abundant at certain times of the year their diet doesn't not rely heavily on it and one of their main staple is plantain.
Yanomami kinship is based on the Iroquois System of Kinship Terminology. The father and father's brother and the mother and her sister are referred to by a single term. However the father's sister and mother's brother are given separate terms. Ancestory is traced through the lineage of the male thus the male is considered more important than the female.
"Culture ." Yanomami: Shabono to Suburbia?. www1.broward.edu/~hsorkin/Lib-
Arts/Projects/Fall2002/Hottinger/culture.html (accessed November 9, 2012).
"The Yanomami." Survival for tribal peoples. www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/yanomami (accessed
November 9, 2012).
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