3 Raids and Revenge Why Villages Fission and Move The First Vengeance Raid
Note:3@@@@@@@@ LA GUERRA PATA VS MONO+BISA
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there had been a bloody club fight the day before I arrived. Matowä, the hotheaded Monou-teri headman, had provoked it. He and his men had captured seven Patanowä-teri women and taken them to their village several hours to the south.
Note:L INCIDENTE
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The name changes were made to help them deny culpability for wrongs they wanted to associate with a group with a different name
Note:IL NOME E LA COLPA
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I knew I had to find out more about how these groups were interrelated and the specific reasons why they broke up.
Note:IL MSTERO CHE VOGLIAMO SCOPRIRE
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they were fighting over women. My anthropology textbooks and my professors had taught me that on the “rare” occasions that tribesmen fought, it was inevitably over some scarce material resource like cultivable land, water
Note:PRIMO MISTERO
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He was known to seduce the wives of other men in his own small village, and on one occasion, he even seduced the wife of one of his younger brothers. The young man was afraid to stand up to him and challenge him, so in his anger and frustration, he shot his own wife with an arrow.
Note:MATOWA
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he and his group fissioned away from Kaobawä’s Bisaasi-teri group to form Monou-teri.
Note:A CAUSA DEL SUO VIZIETTO
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the characteristic Machiavellian way that most Yanomamö
Note:VENDETTE COMPLOTTI CONGIURE FAIDE INFINITE
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Matowä’s group was about 60 people, and the Patanowä-teri group was about 225 at that time.
Note:MANU VS PATA
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he organized a raiding party against the powerful Patanowä-teri and set out to attack them by stealth and kill one or more of them.
Note:IL PIANO DI MATO
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painted their bodies black with masticated charcoal,
Note:PRIMA DELL ASSALTO
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The attacks usually come at dawn, giving the raiders a long period of daylight in which to retreat.
Note:QUANDO
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Thus in times of war there is much less meat at Yanomamö hearths.
Note:CACCIARE È RISCHIOSO
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Rasha trees have thousands of four-inch-long, rigid, very sharp spines sticking out from the entire length of their trunks.
Note:IL PRIMO BOSI LO FANNO FUORI MENTRE SI ARRAMPICA CON CAUTELA SU UNA PIANTA
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He was pierced by several arrows, fell some thirty feet from the tree, and died almost instantly.
Note:Ccccccccccccc
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one of the raiders who shot an arrow into Bosibrei was married to one of his daughters!
Note:SPAVENTOSO
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any Patanowä-teri raiders would have to cross the Mavaca, a major obstacle. To do so they would expose themselves and would lose the advantage of surprise.
Note:IL NUOVO VILLAGGIO MONO
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the Patanowä-teri’s revenge was swift, extraordinary, and lethal.
Note:DOPO L UCCISIONE DELL UOMO SULLA PALMA
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They deliberately targeted Matowä and went after him
Note:MIRATO
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They caught Matowä a short distance from the new gardens, searching for honey with two of his wives.
Note:L IMBOSCATE
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At least five arrows struck Matowä in his chest and abdomen. Although he was probably mortally wounded, he nocked one of his own arrows, cursed his assailants defiantly, and feebly shot back at them.
Note:MODALITÀ
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It flew true, striking Matowä in the neck, just below his ear.
Note:LA SECONDA SCARICA
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Bisheiwä, who shot the fatal arrow into Matowä’s neck, was one of Bosibrei’s sons.
Note:IN FAMIGLIA
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The raiders also included two men who called Matowä by the kinship term meaning brother;
Note:I CUGINI IM PRIMA FILA
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This underscores the fact that kinship is not an impediment to lethal violence,
Note:MORALE
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they were stunned and thoroughly demoralized by the death of their leader, their waiteri.
Note:CONSEG SUI MONO
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They mournfully cremated Matowä’s body the next day
Note:CENERI CONSUMATE DALLA TRIBÜ IN UNA ZUPPA VEGETALE
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Matowä’s two wives were taken by his brothers as additional wives,
Note:LA SORTE DELLE DONNE
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The Monou-teri then fled deep into the jungle to hide. This cowardice disgusted Matowä’s patrilineal relatives
Note:LA REAZIONE
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The Bisaasi-teri were furious that the Monou-teri displayed unforgivable cowardice by not pursuing the raiders and trying to kill at least some of them. To show fear and timidity is an invitation to others to further intimidate and exploit your group
Note:IL GIUDIZIO
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Kaobawä then assumed the responsibility of organizing a revenge raid against the Patanowä-teri.
Note:ALLA FINE
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Peace between Kaobawä’s faction of Bisaasi-teri and Patanowä-teri was now a very remote possibility
Note:PER COLPA DEL TESTA CALDA
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Despite the fact that Yanomamö villages at war are like modern nations at war, there is concern for kinsmen when they live in a village that is now a belligerent.
Note:PREOCCUPAZIONE DI KAWA IL CAPO BISA
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distinction between warrior and civilian is fuzzy in the Stone Age.
Note:GUERRE PRIMITIVE
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there is safety in numbers, so Yanomamö groups conscientiously attempt to maximize the size of their villages
Note:PRIMA PREOCCUPAZIONE
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Historically powerful groups like the Patanowä-teri have a special kind of problem: they become powerful by intimidating and harassing their neighbors,
Note:IL PROBLEMA DEI POTENTI
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these old enemies never forget and never forgive: they simply feign friendship and trust when they sporadically meet.
Note:Cccccccccccccc
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Instead of spending time attempting to raid all of the relatively minor groups that were now attacking them with undeserved boldness, they concentrated their efforts on just a few of their more notable adversaries, like the large village of Hasuböwä-teri, just a day and a half to their east.
Note:LA STRATEGIA PATA
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steal women.
Note:L OGGETTO DI OGNI RAID COME DIO COMANDA
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everyone wept loudly, and plaintively called to their fallen kinsman with endearing kinship terms. It was very sad.
Note:FUNERALE
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Later in the day the raiders conducted a mock raid, a ceremonial rehearsal of what they hoped to do
Note:PROVE GENERALI
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Their anger, aggression, and determination were premeditated and resolute, not spontaneous like the sudden, aggressive bite or attack of a feline or canine predator. Each raider repeated this process until they were all standing in a straight line,
Note:PRELIMINARI
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I later learned that I was watching a ritual that the Yanomamö call wayu itou, the ritual pre-raid assembly of the raiders.
Note:Cccccccccccc
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Again the silence was suddenly broken, this time by a deep baritone voice slowly singing, “I am meat hungry! I am meat hungry! Like the carrion-eating vulture, I am hungry for flesh!”
Note:CANTI DI GUERRA
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The rest of the raiders repeated the lines of the song, ending the final word with a disturbing high-pitched scream.
Note:Ccccccccc
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On reaching their hammocks, they all began to vomit and retch symbolically, making disgusting, loud puking noises. They were vomiting out the “rotten flesh” of the enemy
Note:IL VOMITO
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the Meat Hungry Vulture song,
Note:L INNO
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Let me emphasize the Yanomamö view that when members of a group acquire a reputation of timidity and cowardice, their neighbors take ruthless advantage of them, push them around, insult them publicly, and take their women. Thus it is strategically important to react decisively to any affront, no matter how trivial.
Note:LA COSA PEGGIORE CHE TI PUÒ CAPITARE
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I often deliberately avoided visiting small villages because they were predictably very aggressive and unpleasant to be around in order to compensate for their actual military weaknesses.
Note:QUEL XHE L ANTRIPOLOGO DEVE SAPERE
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The raiders were not gone a half day when a few of them began to return to the village. They complained of pains in their legs, or thorns in their feet.
Note:I GIOVANI
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I always felt very cold whenever the fire went out at any altitude, and it was much worse at higher elevations. The Yanomamö have no clothes or blankets, so they shivered uncomfortably all night long,
Note:LA NOTTE È TERRIBILE SENZA FUOCO
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Fire is what makes Yanomamö yahi tä rimö—different from beasts.
Note:Ccccccccccc
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their concern that the younger men might defect and turn back. The excuses would be fear of a nocturnal jaguar attack without a campfire, the cold, the sore feet—and any other plausible justification,
Note:ALTRO PROBLEMA
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It is acceptable to use as excuses injury, the cold, jaguar threats, sore feet, etc. and not admit you were afraid.
Note:STRANO
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On this particular raid they brought along a boy of about twelve years. He was Matarawä, Matowä’s oldest son. He was the youngest raider I ever saw on any of the raiding parties I witnessed. This would be his first raid: they wanted him to taste and enjoy the cold dish of revenge for the death of his father.
Note:LA VENDETTA....12 ANNI
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The women were nervous and irritable, and several bitter arguments broke out among them over trivial issues. One woman became very angry when her sister left her baby with her to babysit for a brief time.
Note:A CASA SI ASPETTA IN UNA CONDIZIONE DI VULNERABILITÀ...LE DONNE SI LEGNANO
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shortly after they dropped out and were headed home, Shararaiwä stepped on an arowari—a very poisonous snake—and was bitten by it.
Note:INCONVENIENTE SULLA RITIRATA BISA
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The rainy season had already begun, and the snakes were concentrating in the higher areas—where the Yanomamö trails usually were.
Note:PERICOLO ATTESO
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He had been shot with an arrow that was tipped with a lanceolate-shaped rahaka point. It had gone completely through his chest, just above his heart, and the tip of the point had protruded out of his back.
Note:LA VENDETTA DEI PATA CONTRO KONO UN MRMBRO DEI MONO
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Konoreiwä was coughing up blood filled with air bubbles, and he wheezed with each breath.
Note:MESSO MALE DURANTE IL TRASPORTO
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They asked me to “cure” him, that is, “treat” his wound. I thought Konoreiwä’s chances without major surgery were poor.
Note:APPELLO ALL UOMO BIANCO
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my first-aid skills had been putting about ten stitches into the mangled foot of Shiimima, one of Kaobawä’s brothers. He had wanted to see if there was a caiman in a submerged den he found in the bank of a small stream. He quickly found out that, indeed, there was a caiman in that hole, one who was ferociously
Note:IL MIO INTERVENTO MEDICO PIÙ SERIO
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The Yanomamö believe that when you are wounded with a rahaka-tipped arrow you can drink only minute quantities of water until you recover.
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CURA YANO
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keeping the entry and exit wounds clean and giving him antibiotics in an attempt to prevent infection.
Note:L UNICA CURA CHE CONOSCEVO
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Yanomamö customs and taboos that proscribed water be damned. I made a conscious decision to interfere in their culture—and I do not feel the least bit guilty for doing so.
Note:L INTERFERENZA...CRITICHE DEI COLLEGHI
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Thanks to his inherently superior constitution, and with a generous ration of mönasönö, Konoreiwä slowly recovered. My reputation as a curer increased further.
Note:GRANDE SUCCESSO
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Since they were now unokai—killers of men—they had to ritually purify themselves by undergoing a special ritual:
Note:SORTE DI CHI HA UCCISO
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an important, permanent, and earned status position in Yanomamö society: unokais.
Note:ASSASSINI
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The two unokais were given a special space in Kaobawä’s shabono, where they strung their hammocks.
Note:PRIVILEGI
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The unokaimou ceremony was, in almost all respects, nearly identical to the ceremony that pubescent girls went through when they had their first menses—the
Note:PURIFICAZIONE
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Unokais are both respected and somewhat feared because they have demonstrated a willingness to kill people and are likely to kill again.
Note:L ATTEGGIAMENTO
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many men who are not unokais seem to be compelled to behave in such a way as to imply that they are killers of men. Such men can be very obnoxious and unpleasant in their public lives—ordering people around, intimidating them, threatening to hit them with their machetes or axes, even threatening to kill them.
Note:LO SBRUFFONE
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This is the quality that leads ultimately to the power behind law: the odiousness of sanctions.
Note:VENDETTA TERRIBILE
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It began to be clearer to me that patrilineal descent—acknowledging membership in a patrilineal descent group called mashi—was important in Yanomamö political relationships.
Note:AL CENTRO
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What these Yanomamö descent groups control and defend are reproductive rights in nubile females and the male kin who give these women to you and take them from you according to rules of incest and marriageability. All additional “functions” of patrilineages are secondary and derived from these initial functions.
Note:IL FINE...NN LA RICCHEZZA
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The Monou-teri Raid
Note:Tttttttttttt
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They were in an extremely distressed and almost violent mood known as hushuwo.
Note:DURANTE LE CERIMONIE PREPARATIVE
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The children, who inevitably gather around my hammock, were told to go home and not bother me. The adults told the children that I was hushuwo, in a state of emotional disequilibrium, and that my soul was cold. To them I was finally acting like a human being, like a Yanomamö. The ones whose hammocks were close to mine quietly reached over to me, looked at me, and touched me gently. And we wept together.
Note:IDENTIFICAZIONE CON LA TRISTEZZA DEL VILLQAGGIO....GRANDE RISPETTO DEGLI INDIGENI
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In Yanomamö warfare the time to strike a new blow is when an enemy is temporarily down and struggling—and
Note:LA TATTICA E LA DIATRIBA INTERNA
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Machiavelli could have written The Prince about the political strategies of Yanomamö headmen and villages.
SOLITA STORIA
