where do the yanomami live? · where do the yanomami live? the yanomami live in the amazon...
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Where do the Yanomami Live?
The Yanomami live in the Amazon rainforest. Their land covers an area of 130,000 square miles. The town of Fleet is about 40
square miles, so the Yanomami live in an area that is the size of 3,250 Fleet towns!
Their land is in between Brazil and Venezuela in South America. They live around the Orinoco River. The total population of the
Yanomami today is around 26,000 people. Fleet has a population of 39,000 people. They live in villages of up to 300 people, usually
one large extended family makes up one community (parents, children, uncles, aunts, cousins, grandparents etc.)
The Yanomami Tribe
What do they eat?
The Yanomami eat the foods that they grow, hunt or find in the rainforest. They grow corn and a type of banana called the plantain.
Each year, the Yanomami travel in the forest for several months to hunt, fish and collect plants. Men do the hunting and women
gather and help with the crops.
They hunt tapir, monkey and deer. They also catch crabs, fish, frogs and caiman (a type of alligator). They collect wild plants that
they can eat like the fruit of the Peach Palm, they also collect wild honey, nuts and seeds.
They use bows and arrows for hunting, hooks and line for fishing.
The Yanomami Tribe
What are their homes like?
Most of the village live in one large round house called a yano or xapono. Each family builds part of the house – the roof and back
wall, and they build side by side to make a circle. When they look left or right or straight ahead they can see the home of everyone
in the village from their own house.
The houses are built using materials from the jungle, such as leaves, vines and tree trunks. The walls are held up with poles and the
village roof is made of thatch using dry leaves and branches.
The houses get damaged by wind, rain and insects and are usually rebuilt every 1 to 2 years.
The Yanomami Tribe
Do the Yanomami go to school?
Children do not go to school. The children are expected to help their mothers with jobs from a very young age. Boys go off with the
men from the village from about 8 years of age. Boys then spend about 3 hours a day playing with bows and arrows, tracking ani-
mals and stalking.
In the morning while the men are off hunting, the women and young children go off to find termite nests and other grubs to roast
on the family hearth. The women and children look for frogs, crabs or caterpillars, and vines to weave into baskets. Other women
and children go fishing or stay at home and cook.
The Yanomami Tribe
What jobs do men and women do?
The women do most of the work. They look after the children, find wood, cook, fish and gather wild plants.
Men cut trees to burn, make houses and do most of the hunting and fighting. They also clear areas of the rainforest for growing
crops. Men go on long distance hunts that can last for a week.
Both the men and women plant and harvest food.
The Yanomami Tribe
What Clothes and Celebrations do they have?
They do not wear much clothing, other than a small loincloth. Men and women have the same round hair cut. They paint their
bodies with natural dyes.
Men wear bracelets made from coloured flowers or feathers. They pierce their noses with thin bamboo sticks. Women wear flow-
ers or nice smelling leaves in holes in their ears.
When men go to war they wear black body paint to represent night and death.
The Yanomami celebrate a good harvest with a big feast, and invite people from nearby villages. They gather huge amounts of
food, and decorate their bodies. During the feast they eat a lot, and the women dance and sing late into the night.
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