1) The Yanomamo view killings as transgressions that must be reciprocated with a revenge killing. When a member of a village is killed, it is the duty of male family members and the men of the tribe to lead a raid against the tribe that killed one of their members, with the goal of killing rival tribe members. In Western cultures, killings are met with legal repercussions, usually prison time or capital punishment. In certain cases, killing can be permissible in self-defense or during war, but all other times have consequences for the act of killing another person.
2) Revenge killings occur when a fight, usually over a woman, escalates and leads to the death of a tribe member. The killed person's tribe then retaliates and leads a raid on the killer's tribe, hoping to kill the killer, but generally killing the first person they run into.
3) A man who has the title of unokais is seen as more masculine, has the privilege of being part of the political elite (headmen), and takes part in the decision process of which killings will be avenged. Men who are not unokais tend to live longer and have more offspring compared to their unokai tribesmen. There is a very high mortality rate for those trying to become an unokai, and the risk, according to Chagnon's article, doesn't outweigh the benefits on average. A man could choose to try and become an unokai because he wants the power, privilege, respect, and doesn't want to be deemed as a coward for not taking part in revenge raids.
4) A) In Yanomamo political structure, the elite political body is composed of unokais and they decide which killings within the tribe will be avenged. The people who risk their lives for the status get to decide which deaths are worth the risk.
B) Unokais are given a higher social status than non-unokais and they generally take more wives, sometimes by force. Their unokai status also makes them more appealing mates to women in their tribe, elevating them as a wanted commodity.
C) In tribes where kinship bonds are stronger, revenge killings are more likely because more individuals are willing to risk their own lives in order to avenge the death of one of their tribesmen. The stronger the ties of kinship, the stronger the group identity of the tribe is and the more willing they are to go on a revenge killing.
D) Unokais, due to the Yanomamo viewing them as masculine and attractive figures to women, along with their non-reluctance to use force to take wives from other villages, tend to have more wives over the course of their lives than non-unokais. However, non-unokais, not partaking in the dangerous revenge killings, tend to live longer and have more offspring over time.
5) Things that no one should want to do aren't necessarily the same as things people don't do. Sometimes blood obligation or status, such as is the case with the Yanomamo tribe, killings are needed to restore community balance. Through laws against murder, a society takes vengeance out of the hands of the people and replaces it with justice at the hands of the government. For example, the Yanomamo who have encountered missionaries and government agents have near-zero levels of revenge killings. The incorporation of legal or moral systems that dictate what is appropriate and punish negative acts allows for revenge killings to be replaced. With these systems, people should not want to partake in killings and can readily see the personal consequences of their actions if they do so.
You made very valid points in your blog regarding kinship. The bigger the kinship the bigger and better opportunity for protection and revenge as well. I found the unokais interesting and compared it to numerous situations in western culture. The strong survive and feed off the weak. I see that as competition in numerous ways. Your final point on how laws are placed to differ any type of the same situations Yanomamo had are valid as well. Western culture has severe punishment for revenge killing.
ReplyDeleteGood post. I agree with you when you said that the reasons that the Yanomamo tribes that do not do revenge killings are because of government and missionaries. I think that having a set of rules for everyone to follow, and a body of people tasked with the job of enforcing those rules is very important in society. When there is no law, we have the wild west all over again.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things that I find interesting is that there is an implied punishment for committing a crime within the Yanomamo culture. That implied punishment is that a person may be killed for certain crimes. However, it would seem based on mortality rates, that the threat of punishment is a mild determent to committing crimes. I think the Yanomamo can be used as an argument against the effectiveness of the death penalty as a deterrent to murder. What do you think?
Actually, Chagnon found that Unokais actually have greater reproductive success than did non-Unokais and he suggested this is one reason why this behavior persists. Yes, the mortality rate is higher, but apparently the benefit is high enough to balance this cost. Furthermore, non-unokais tend to have trouble attracting a mate and keeping her. He may not be sure that the children she produces are actually his own.
ReplyDelete"Things that no one should want to do aren't necessarily the same as things people don't do."
Exactly. Issues of "want" and "need" are often two different things. The point of our judicial system is to increase the cost of behaving selfishly so that the benefit gained is not enough to justify carrying out the action. Good final discussion.