Revenge Killings Within Yanomamo Culture
A writing done referencing the article "Blood Revenge and Warfare in a Tribal Population" by Napolean Chagnon.
In present day Western culture, typically the people who kill wrongfully are subject to retribution, being punished in the court of law. If done correctly, the victim's kin should be satisfied and not seek further revenge. The end result is the killer alone receiving punishment.
Within Yanomamo society, retribution is achieved via revenge killings. The revenge killings are performed in raids that while targeting the initial killer, can result in any man come across belonging to the killer’s kin group being killed.
Among the Yanomamo, when someone in a group is killed, the person’s kin will seek revenge and form a raiding party, primarily to kill the initial killer but usually killing the first targets they see from the killer’s village. To prepare the revenge seeking party, made up of men, the women of the village will drink a portion of the initial victim’s ashes. This brings the raiding party to extreme anger, strengthening their resolve to conduct the raid. The revenge killing is performed by ambush, arrows are shot at the raid targets and then the party makes a fast retreat. This in turn can prompt the kin of people killed by the raiding party to make a revenge killing themselves. After a man kills in a raid, he must perform the unokaimou ceremony, becoming an unokai, or one of “those who have killed.”
Data suggests the benefits of being an unokai include increased reproductive success due to being more attractive for alliance forging marriages, and also taking other people’s wives. There is a possibility that significant portions of people attempting to become unokais die while doing so. As far as reproductive success is concerned, there appears to be a risk and reward in achieving unokai status. Those that are aggressive and survive to achieve unokai status after a raid may have increased benefits compared to their non-unokai counterparts, but only if they survive without dying in the raid, and avoid getting killed in a counter raid by the kin of their victim.
Revenge killings serve as a means of securing autonomy and minimizing attacks on a village. This benefit appears to outweigh the risk of counter revenge killings from other villages. Swift revenge killings earn the village that conducts them a reputation that inhibits potential assaults from other villages.
The residents of individual villages can change frequently. If a member of one group lives in a village different to his first due to marriage, he could hold hostilities against groups in his current village if they revenge kill his kin from his first village. In this case he can either leave his wife for his original village, seeking to conduct a revenge killing, or hold internal resentment for the killers of his kin.
Those who partake in a revenge killing raid are usually the kin of the victim. After a revenge killing is done, the kin of the people killed would then seek to kill those who conducted the initial revenge killing. The revenge killing system is overall grounded in closely bonded kin groups, with members who would risk their lives to avenge their kin.
When given the opportunity, groups will attempt to take females from groups that appear less aggressive. Aggression in this case is defined by the willingness of a group to conduct revenge killings and their swiftness in doing so. Groups who fail to conduct revenge killings risk finding their women encroached upon by other groups who see them as weak.
The article shows that for the Yanomamo people, revenge killings also serve as a form of self defense by projecting deterrent power. The revenge killing culture appears to have a kill or be killed aspect to it, as not killing is to make one’s group a bigger target. This causes the issue of individuals having to live in constant fear of being killed. Even if a man didn’t kill the person being avenged, he might still be killed by the raid party if a massacre is done, or if he happens to be the first target they come across.
The presence of certain laws and judicial systems could prevent revenge killings and provide retribution in a controlled manner that does not involve constant risk of death.
In present day Western culture, typically the people who kill wrongfully are subject to retribution, being punished in the court of law. If done correctly, the victim's kin should be satisfied and not seek further revenge. The end result is the killer alone receiving punishment.
Within Yanomamo society, retribution is achieved via revenge killings. The revenge killings are performed in raids that while targeting the initial killer, can result in any man come across belonging to the killer’s kin group being killed.
Among the Yanomamo, when someone in a group is killed, the person’s kin will seek revenge and form a raiding party, primarily to kill the initial killer but usually killing the first targets they see from the killer’s village. To prepare the revenge seeking party, made up of men, the women of the village will drink a portion of the initial victim’s ashes. This brings the raiding party to extreme anger, strengthening their resolve to conduct the raid. The revenge killing is performed by ambush, arrows are shot at the raid targets and then the party makes a fast retreat. This in turn can prompt the kin of people killed by the raiding party to make a revenge killing themselves. After a man kills in a raid, he must perform the unokaimou ceremony, becoming an unokai, or one of “those who have killed.”
Data suggests the benefits of being an unokai include increased reproductive success due to being more attractive for alliance forging marriages, and also taking other people’s wives. There is a possibility that significant portions of people attempting to become unokais die while doing so. As far as reproductive success is concerned, there appears to be a risk and reward in achieving unokai status. Those that are aggressive and survive to achieve unokai status after a raid may have increased benefits compared to their non-unokai counterparts, but only if they survive without dying in the raid, and avoid getting killed in a counter raid by the kin of their victim.
Revenge killings serve as a means of securing autonomy and minimizing attacks on a village. This benefit appears to outweigh the risk of counter revenge killings from other villages. Swift revenge killings earn the village that conducts them a reputation that inhibits potential assaults from other villages.
The residents of individual villages can change frequently. If a member of one group lives in a village different to his first due to marriage, he could hold hostilities against groups in his current village if they revenge kill his kin from his first village. In this case he can either leave his wife for his original village, seeking to conduct a revenge killing, or hold internal resentment for the killers of his kin.
Those who partake in a revenge killing raid are usually the kin of the victim. After a revenge killing is done, the kin of the people killed would then seek to kill those who conducted the initial revenge killing. The revenge killing system is overall grounded in closely bonded kin groups, with members who would risk their lives to avenge their kin.
When given the opportunity, groups will attempt to take females from groups that appear less aggressive. Aggression in this case is defined by the willingness of a group to conduct revenge killings and their swiftness in doing so. Groups who fail to conduct revenge killings risk finding their women encroached upon by other groups who see them as weak.
The article shows that for the Yanomamo people, revenge killings also serve as a form of self defense by projecting deterrent power. The revenge killing culture appears to have a kill or be killed aspect to it, as not killing is to make one’s group a bigger target. This causes the issue of individuals having to live in constant fear of being killed. Even if a man didn’t kill the person being avenged, he might still be killed by the raid party if a massacre is done, or if he happens to be the first target they come across.
The presence of certain laws and judicial systems could prevent revenge killings and provide retribution in a controlled manner that does not involve constant risk of death.
Submission noted. I will return and provide feedback later.
ReplyDelete1. You touch on some important issues in your opening paragraph. A key difference is that their laws allow (and even encourage) revenge killing, while our laws punish it. Do our laws allow or even encourage killing under any circumstances? I would have liked to see you do a direct comparison between the two systems of justice.
ReplyDelete2. Excellent description of the practice. Good detail.
3. Good discussion on the unokais but short on the non-unokais. Missed a key question: "Why would a man choose to become an unokais instead of being a non-unokais?"
4.
Political structure: In your next section, I'm not sure how this addresses the issue of political structure, i.e., power in the culture. How does the practice of revenge killings influence the leadership of the population? Can a non-unokais become a leader?
Social status/organization: I'm not seeing where you address this cultural aspect of the population and how it is influenced by the revenge killings system.
Kinship: Good.
Marriage and reproduction: Okay, but missing important aspects here. Who is more likely to marry well, a unokais or a non-unokais? Who is likely to have MORE wives? Who is likely to produce more children (reproductive success)?
5. Skirting around the final question and describing the practices instead of addressing the prompt directly.
We are creatures of biology, regardless of how "civilized" we might want to think we are. Killing can benefit an organism if they gain resources or a mate or defend their offspring in the process, correct? So that benefit is still there in humans, whether we like it or not. Killing is an instinctive, biological reaction to a threat of some sort, to our lives, to our family (genes) or to our resources, but it can also be a strategy to advance your survival, such as (for example) killing off a rival. Understand that this isn't excusing the behavior. It just explains it. But we need laws against this behavior, not because no one wants to do it but because sometimes people can benefit from this behavior... i.e., they DO want to kill because it benefits them. Laws protect us from selfish actions of others, acting to their own benefit and the harm of others.