Visualizzazione post con etichetta napoleon chagnon noble sevage. Mostra tutti i post
Visualizzazione post con etichetta napoleon chagnon noble sevage. Mostra tutti i post

giovedì 3 ottobre 2019

RIP NC

RIP
La tesi centrale dell'antropologo Napoleon Chagnon – morto ieri - é sempre stata piuttosto sgradevole: la violenza paga. Nella storia dell'uomo ha sempre pagato e chi ne ha fatto ricorso è regolarmente sopravvissuto ai danni dei "pacifici". Sesso, violenza ed egoismo sono i nostri principali motivatori e nelle tribù amazzoniche primitive la cosa è di un'evidenza plastica.
Non sorprende che fosse poco amato, sia dai colleghi - l'antropologia è una disciplina altamente politicizzata - sia dai Salesiani, suoi vicini di casa negli esperimenti sul campo in Amazzonia.
Ma ecco che a un certo punto si presenta l'occasione di accusarlo seriamente e poterlo finalmente escludere, ci sono infatti elementi per supporre che, somministrando vaccini controindicati e scaduti, avesse indotto presso la tribù degli Yanomamö un' epidemia letale di morbillo con lo scopo di inasprire i conflitti tra i vari gruppi. Ma è questa un’ accusa fondata oppure solo una vendetta trasversale di natura ideologica? Siamo di fronte a uno scandalo professionale o ad una versione riveduta e corretta dei tribunali del popolo nell’era del politically correct?
La cronaca dettagliata di questo articolo fa luce su molte cose ma soprattutto ci insegna che la lega tra religiosi un po' disorientati e fanatici dei diritti umani, sotto l'alta egida delle buone intenzioni, può realizzare ancora oggi nel XXI secolo una sorta di persecuzione ai danni della scienza.

sabato 4 maggio 2019

IL PROBLEMA DEI POTENTI

IL PROBLEMA DEI POTENTI

Gruppi storicamente potenti come i Patanowä-teri hanno un particolare tipo di problema: diventano potenti intimidendo e molestando i loro vicini... questi vecchi nemici non dimenticano mai e non perdonano mai: fingono semplicemente amicizia e fiducia quando si incontrano sporadicamente. Nel momento del bisogno, per esempio quando si combatte con un'altra tribù numerosa, su di loro sarà ben difficile contare.

venerdì 3 maggio 2019

CIVILTA' DELL'URBE

CIVILTA' DELL'URBE

"Ho evitato deliberatamente di stabilirmi in piccoli villaggi perché erano pieni di persone molto aggressive e spiacevoli da frequentare. Era il loro modo per compensare la debolezza militare".

LA SCALA DEI VALORI

TRA I NOSTRI FRATELLI MAGGIORI

L’infamia più spregevole: la codardia.

Ovvero, l’esitazione nel vendicarsi o vendicare i propri cari.

RATTO

“I miei libri di testo di antropologia e i miei professori mi avevano insegnato che nelle "rare" occasioni in cui le tribù combattono, era per per assicurarsi alcune scarse risorse materiali come la terra coltivabile, l'acqua, eccetera… Questa verità è ora profondamente rivista, anche nella mia esperienza le tribù sono quasi sempre impegnate in faide e quasi sempre con l’obbiettivo di rapire le donne degli villaggi altrui.”
AMAZON.IT
ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT SCIENTIFIC MEMOIRS OF OUR TIME When Napoleon Chagnon arrived in Venezuela’s Amazon region in 1964 to study the Yanomamö Indians, one of the last large tribal groups still living in isolation, he expected to find Rousseau’s “noble savages,” so...

3 Raids and Revenge Why Villages Fission and Move The First Vengeance Raid Note:3@@@@@@@@ LA GUERRA PATA VS MONO+BISA

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

sabato 20 aprile 2019

TI RACCONTO DA DOVE VIENI

TI RACCONTO DA DOVE VIENI
Ti stai forse chiedendo come viveva l’uomo primitivo?
La tua curiosità è lecita perché lì stanno le tue origini. Fortunatamente non è neanche troppo difficile da soddisfare: basta soggiornare presso quei popoli che ancora oggi vivono in quella condizione senza nessun contatto con la civiltà. Napoleon Chagnon lo ha fatto passando diversi mesi presso gli Yanomamö (foresta al confine tra Brasile e Venezuela). Il suo racconto ci disturba ma vale la pena ascoltarlo per capire la nostra natura più profonda.
L’uomo primitiva è sicuro di sé, piuttosto arrogante, sorprendentemente indifferente al mondo che va oltre la sua cerchia. La curiosità non è certo una sua virtù. Tu ti presenti al villaggio con motoscafi e torce elettriche, tutte cose che non ha mai visto e che gli farebbero immensamente comodo. Eppure lui non è sorpreso e non dà segno della minima ammirazione. Magari le desidera, le pretende, ma non ti dà alcun credito per il fatto che sei tu a detenerle. Capisci immediatamente quando sei al cospetto di un vero “selvaggio”. Lo distingui al volo da quelli che bazzicano le missioni: i primi hanno una specie di fierezza nello sguardo, un aspetto altezzoso. Sono cattivi e infidi. Quando sei in mezzo a loro, ti circondano incuriositi (tu ai loro occhi sei un essere subumano), ognuno chiedendo con grandi schiamazzi di essere ascoltato, e, se non rispondi prontamente, presumono che tu non senta e urlano ancora più forte. Se non ti capiscono la colpa è tua. Il primitivo è falso e racconta palle a raffica. Se penso alle cazzate sparate da antropologi che, accontentandosi di brevi presenze presso il suo villaggio, si sono bevuti di tutto... Il primitivo è un burlone, sempre intento a ordire dispetti puerili: si diverte, per esempio, a farti dire cose che offendono gli altri. Tra i primitivi il colpevole è l’ “ambasciatore”: ad esempio, se Kumamawä volesse dire a Wakupatawä che è veramente brutto, Kumamawä direbbe a me: "dì a Wakupatawä, 'Wa waridiwa no modahawa!' ('sei davvero brutto!')" Io, ovviamente , senza nessuna idea di quanto faccio mi limito a ripetere innocentemente quello che Kumamawä mi ha chiesto di riferire a Wakupatawä. Ecco, Kumamawä, anche se consapevole di come sono andate le cose, invece di prendersela con Wakupatawä, si arrabbierà nei miei confronti con grande spasso del mio emissario! Il loro criterio di bellezza femminile risiede essenzialmente nella quantità di peli pubici. Lo humor si fonda quasi sempre su volgarissimi doppi sensi a sfondo sessuale. Gli uomini hanno più mogli, le donne possono anche avere più compagni, finché questi non trovano una loro sistemazione migliore. Tra adulti è tassativamente proibito pronunciare i rispettivi nomi (tabù del nome). Sapere il nome di qualcuno e pronunciarlo dà una specie di potere su di lui. Ma puoi dire “la mamma di Nakabaimi”, i nomi dei bambini sono leciti (a meno che non siano malati). Oppure puoi usare uno dei tanti soprannomi denigratori. Lo straniero è sempre visto con sospetto e osteggiato. Il razzismo dei selvaggi è parossistico, bastano infime differenze per scatenare terribili invidia, crudeli esclusioni e disprezzi schifati. La parentela, ovvero il sangue, è al centro di tutto, quando vieni accettato dal gruppo diventi un parente "finzionale" e ti chiamano “fratello”. Ci si sposa solo tra cugini. Il primitivo è egalitarista a oltranza: uno vale uno e nessuno deve svettate, se qualcuno ci prova la sua testa cade presto e viene impalata davanti alla sua capanna. Solo la parentela ti eleva: il capo del villaggio è quello con più figli e cugini. I maschi sono ossessionati dal prestigio, l'onore è causa di duelli mortali. Occhio agli adolescenti, si arrabbiano rapidamente e si dimostrano aggressivi se qualcuno usa il loro nome ad alta voce (obbiettare all'uso pubblico del proprio nome è una sorta di esibizione di coscienza del proprio stato). I primitivi sono sessisti all'inverosimile e lo status delle sue donne risulta piuttosto infimo. Nelle sue conversazioni gli argomenti che ricorrono sono essenzialmente due: sesso e violenza. In un dialogo tipo c'è Tizio che dice a Caio di come si sia scopato X dopo aver spaccato la faccia a Y. Il primitivo ha sempre in testa la vendetta. Ogni famiglia che si rispetti è impegnata almeno in una faida che comporta raid settimanali nei villaggi finiti (minimo due morti)...
Eccetera.

mercoledì 10 aprile 2019

HL 2 Discovering the Significance of the Names

2 Discovering the Significance of the Names
Note:Arroganti, sprezzanti del mondo esterno e indifferenti alle tecnologie dei visitatori. Il disprezzo cresce al vrescere della natura selvaggia...

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2@@@@@@@@@@@@@@FINO AL SEGNALIBRO

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they struck me as being more self-confident—even somewhat arrogant—and startlingly indifferent to the “outside world”
Note:ARROGANTI E SPREZZANTI VERSO IL MONDO ESTERNO... POCO CURIOSI

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they were not awed for very long by some of our technology, such as outboard motors, machetes, or flashlights.
Note:TECNOLOGIA

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I knew immediately when I saw my first Yanomamö what “wild” Indian meant compared to an “acculturated” one.
Note:DIFFERENZA BEN XCEPIBILE

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The wild ones had a kind of glint in their eyes and a haughty look
Note:IL SELVAGGIO

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surrounded by groups of Yanomamö—dozens—each clamoring to be heard and, when I didn’t respond to them in a normal Yanomamö fashion, they assumed that I was hard of hearing and would speak louder,
Note:CONVERSANDO AMABILMENTE CON Y

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tomorrowiplantotakeatripdownstreamin mycanoetocatchsomefishandiwillgiveyou someifyougivemesomematchesinreturn. Imagine trying to make sense of a phrase like this
Note:DISORIENTAMENTO

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the long strings of Yanomamö
Note:UN UNIVERSITÀ NCUBO

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For example, the Yanomamö have a frequently used phoneme that sounds to English speakers like the oe or ö in the name of the famous German poet Goethe.
Note:SUONI ESTRANEI ALL INGLESE

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FONEMI CHE NN ESISTONO ESISTANO N INGLESE

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no other native group speaks a related language
Note:DIMOSTRATO L ISOLAMENTO

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The Physical Appearance of the Yanomamö
Note:Ttttttttttttt

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Their cautious attitudes were understandable.
Note:ACCOMPAGNATORI...CHI SI INTERESSA A Y È X RAPIRLI

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Discovering the “Name Taboo” and the Structure of Yanomamö Society
Note:Tttttttttttt

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the Yanomamö were practical jokers and would play mischievous tricks on me, and (2) they would sometimes get me into trouble by having me repeat things aloud that angered others within earshot.
Note:PIACE IMBROGLIARE

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whenever I showed them photographs of women—even photos of women from their own village—the first thing that drew their attention was the relative amount of hair the women had around their pubic area.
Note:LA PRIMA COSA CHE NOTANO IN UNA DONNA

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beshi,
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horny.”
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One day a young man asked me what I thought was a question about the hair on my body, especially the hair on my pubic area. We were resting on a trail en route to a nearby village. He knew that I sometimes confused these two words. He asked me, “Wa beshi rä kä?” (“Are you horny?”), which I mistakenly heard as “Wa weshi rä kä?” (“Do you have pubic hair?”). There was a small crowd of young men with me. They all watched and listened attentively. When I said, “Awei! Ya beshi!” (“Yes, I’m horny!”) they broke into uproarious laughter because they had set me up to confuse the two words—and I fell into their trap.
Note:LO HUMOR Y..DOPPI SENSI...INGANNARE LO STRANIERO

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For example, if Kumamawä wanted to tell Wakupatawä that he is really ugly, Kumamawä would say to me, the stranger, “Say to Wakupatawä, ‘Wa waridiwa no modahawa!’ (‘You are really ugly!’)” I, of course, would have no idea what I was told to say and would innocently repeat what Kumamawä told me to say to Wakupatawä. But instead of getting angry with Kumamawä, Wakupatawä would get angry with me!
Note:AMBASCIATORE PUNITO PER Y VALE LO STRATAGEMMA

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the initiator of the insult is mysteriously invisible
Note:INVISIBILE

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Buutawä would get angry at me because I used his name publicly.
Note:TABÙ DEL NOME

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tribal societies are fundamentally kinship-based
Note:PARENTELA

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imagine a Yanomamö village as a large spiderweb.
Note:UNA RAGNATELA

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men and women remarry
Note:IL GIOCO DELLE COPPIE

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many men have several wives at the same time (polygyny) or several wives that they divorce
Note:Cccccccc

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a few men share the same wife (polyandry) until one of them can find a wife for himself.
Note:Ccccccccc

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Social Intricacies of Name Avoidance
Note:Ttttttttttt

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The Yanomamö have what anthropologists call a name taboo.
Note:TIPICO

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strangers are generally suspect and viewed with distrust
Note:IL LORO ATTEGGIAMENTO VERSO DI VOI

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To know someone’s personal name is, in a sense, to “possess” some kind of control over that person,
Note | Page: 50
X ACQUISIRE POTERE

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What frequently happens is that the headman of the village adopts some fictitious kinship relationship with you.
Note:SE SEI AFFIDABILE

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brother-in-law that is most frequently chosen.
Note:IL CASO TIPICO

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when someone comes into a Yanomamö village to live there for a long period of time—as I did—they must somehow or other become incorporated into the social group by an extension of kinship ties.
Note:PARENTELA ARTIFICIALE

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Yanomamö villages comprise a small number of what we would call very large extended families.
Note:LA RAGNATELA

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Everyone is, by kin term, a blood relative.
Note:NO SUOCERI NO COGNATI

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Yanomamö in fact are obliged to marry their female cross cousins
Note:VINCOLO

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Yanomamö didn’t want me to know their names because I was a stranger, a nabä: a subhuman.
Note:PRIMO XIODO... DIFFICOLTÀ

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it was acceptable to use the names of young children in many circumstances,
Note:TRUCCHI X AGGIRARE L OSTACOLO

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It was acceptable to yell out something like “Hey! Go get Nakabaimi’s mother!” Nakabaimi being a child.
Note:ESEMPIO

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you should not use a child’s name if he or she is sick—it
Note:ALTRO VINCOLO

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Yanomamö were “egalitarian” and nobody had higher status
Note:TIPCO

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“differential access to scarce, strategic material resources.”
Note:DOVE SI ROVELA LO STATUS...DI SOLITO

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Individuals of the same age and same sex have the same social and political status. Kinship had nothing to do with biology. This was a fundamental message of Marxist social science that dominated most departments of anthropology in the 1960s,
Note:UN LUOGO COMUNE DI UN TEMPO

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For reasons I’ve never understood, “science” and “Marxism” were linked together.
Note:INCOMPRENSIBILE

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One implied the other because, I suppose, both were materialistic
Note:IPOTESI TRABALLANTE

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leaders in all Yanomamö villages almost always have the largest number of genetic relatives within the group.
Note:PIÙ PARENTI PIÙ LEADERSHIP

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status among the Yanomamö depended to a very large extent on the numbers and kinds of biologically defined (genetic) relatives one has in the community and was entirely unrelated to “control” one had over allegedly “scarce strategic resources.”
Note:STATUS E GENETICA.... NO POTERE

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Yanomamö males are concerned about their status and they strive for esteem.
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POSSIAMO DIRLO

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The Yanomamö have a rich vocabulary to describe stages of life during human maturation,
Note:PIÙ SI AVANZA PIÙ SI CHIEDE RISPETTO

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Objecting to the public use of your name is a kind of status consciousness
Note:SEGNALI

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they quickly get angry and unpleasant when someone uses their name aloud
Note:I MATURANDI SONO UN XICOLO

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the taboo on using names serves to endorse and reinforce the differential status system among males—and
Note:COORDINAMENTO ESEMPLARE

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See what happens when, on your next visit to your family doctor, you address him/her by their given name—or call the judge at a trial by his or her first name,
Note:NOI NN SIAMO MOLTO DIVERSI

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Yanomamö are male chauvinists.
Note:LO STATUS DELLE DONNE È INFIMO

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The Yanomamö “Sabotage” My Genealogy Research
Note:Tttttttt

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When a person dies, his or her name is not supposed to be used aloud again in that village.
Note:DEFUNTI

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avoid reminding the close kinsmen of the death of a loved one,
Note:FUNZIONE

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They try to name people with minute aspects or attributes of commonly used names of plants, animals, environmental features, etc.
Note:ORIGINE DEI SOPRANNOMI

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Complicating the problem of collecting genealogies was the fact that a large number of Yanomamö have two (or even more) names.
Note:ALTRO PROBLEMA X LO STUDIOSO...DIFFICILE INCROCIARE OLE STORIE

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one is the “true” name and the other(s) are nicknames or derogatory names that people use behind the person’s back or in distant villages, which, in general, denigrate their neighbors when they are out of earshot.
Note:SOPRANNOMI DENIGRATORI

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Younger people tended to invent names (and relationships) to impress me with how much they knew,
Note:FONTI INAFFIDABILI

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My payment scale started with small items—small fishhooks, nylon fish line, spools of thread, a box of matches—and
Note:COMPENSO ALL INFORMATORE

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they would grab me by the head, pull my ear close to their mouths, and barely audibly whisper the person’s name into my ear.
Note:NEL RIFERIRE I NOMI DEI GENITORI

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Discovering the Elaborate Sabotage
Note:Ttttttttttttttt

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The Yanomamö are very ethnocentric and seize on the slightest of differences to make invidious distinctions between “them” and “us.”
Note:RAZZISTI AL INVEROSIMILE...LORO E NOI

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I discovered how the Bisaasi-teri had systematically deceived me.
Note:INFORMATORI INAFFIDABILI

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Yanomamö who, according to their Creation Myth, were descendants of the Blood of Moon.
Note:L ANTENATO

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Peribo (Moon) was an ancient Spirit who lived on the Sky Layer.
Note:Ccccccccccc

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As always on trips through the jungle we walked single file to get to Mömariböwei-teri.
Note:IN FILA INDIANA

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They combed their pudding-bowl bangs with their fingers, donned their monkey-tail headbands, washed their legs and arms in the stream, and quickly applied the red nara paint and a few brilliant feathers they carried in the bamboo arrow point quivers (toras) that dangled down their backs.
Note:SI FANNO BELLI PRIMA DELL INGRESSO NEL VILLAGGIO

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An instant, loud, collective hoot erupted from the residents, who excitedly took our whistle signal as a sign of peace
Note:L NGRESSO NEL VILLAGGIO

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everyone stays home when visitors arrive lest they miss something worth seeing, like, perhaps, a third arm or an extra eye of the subhuman nabä.
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L UOMO BIANCO

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The Yanomamö have a notion of nuclear family very similar to ours—unmarried sons and daughters usually lived at home, but married ones lived in different households within the same village.
Note:FAMIGLIA NUCLEARE

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Most Yanomamö girls want to be given in marriage to someone in their own village—because they will have brothers who will protect them from a possibly cruel husband.
Note:IL DESIDERIO DI OGNI RAGAZZA

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But the major strategy of intervillage political alliances is to get your allies to give you marriageable females—and
Note:POLITICA

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they quickly learned that I always brought a bigger gift for them than for other men and this news spread from village to village.
Note:TUTTI MOLTO COLLABORATIVI CON L ANTROPOLOGO

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the Polaroid prints would be soiled—full of red pigment and smudges from dozens of fingers. The Yanomamö loved to look at these pictures, run their fingers over them, and discuss them for hours;
Note:LE FOTO FATTE ALLE FAMGLIE

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It seemed that the Bisaasi-teri had collectively conspired to tell me a bunch of whopping lies about people’s names.
Note:LE OSCENITA FATTE DIRE ALL ANTROPOLOGO ...CHE DIVERTIMENTO...IL NOME DELLA MOGLIE DEL CAPO...FICA BARBUTA

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Hairy Cunt was married to the headman, Long Dong, their youngest son was Asshole,
Note:ESEMPIO

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I would have been totally ignorant of the elaborate hoax the Bisaasi-teri had played on me. I made this discovery some six months into my fieldwork!
Note:L HANNO FATTA BENE

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Many anthropologists do their fieldwork in less time than that—and usually in a single village, which means they cannot cross-check their information with people in other villages.
Note:LE CAVOLATE DEGLI ANTROPOLOGHI

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Thereafter, when I wanted to learn something about Village A, I would go to Village B and ask people there what I wanted to know.
Note:IL METODO PIÙ SICURO

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They enjoyed duping others, especially the unsuspecting and gullible anthropologist who lived among them.
L UNICA CERTEZZA