- Rules or laws against killing are essentially a cultural universal, meaning all cultures have rules regarding the killing other people and the punishments for breaking these rules. How do the Yanomamo rules regarding killing and the consequences for breaking these rules differ from the rules in Western cultures in general? (5 pts)
While the Yanomamo people try to keep civility they often break their rules if they feel their women are threatened, infidelity has occurred, or a family member was killed by another tribe. It is more for revenge, compared to our culture when killing is frowned upon unless it is in defense or completely accidental, even then we don’t like killing. While our western culture leaves it to the police to deal with the incident, in the Yanomamo culture they deal will killings through revenge.
- Describe the process of revenge killings as it is expressed in Yanomamo populations. (5 pts)
Revenge killing is when a person is wrongfully killed so the kin of that family will take revenge on the kin of the person who killed. Often in raids the killings occur.
- Revenge killings are a dangerous for those who take part. What are the benefits of obtaining the status of unokais? How do they compare to the benefits of being a non-unokais? Why would a man choose to become an unokais instead of being a non-unokais? (10 pts)
The danger of revenge killing for anyone that takes part is when they do the killing they risk having a revenge killing place upon their own family or themselves. The benefit to being a unokais is the prestige of having killed someone, they are often respected however if a man is a non-unokais they do not have to worry about the consequences of a revenge killing. A man would want to be a unokais because they are more respected than unokais and they tend to have more children and more wives. The prestige is worth the risk to them.
- Identify and describe the relationship between revenge killings and these aspects of the Yanomamo culture. How do they influence and affect each other?
- Political structure (5 pts) - while the Yanomamo culture does have rule sort of against killing it still happens, so the revenge killings are almost above the “government”
- Social Status/Social Organization (5 pts) - unokais tend to have a higher social status and are looked up to.
- Kinship (5 pts) - Kinship groups stick together for revenge killing and kinship groups are targeted, it is not just the unokais they target.
- Marriage & Reproduction (5 pts) - the men that perform revenge killing on average tended to have more children and wives than non-unokais
- Behaviors that are usually labeled as “anti-social”, such as killing other people, are generally thought to be a bad thing to do under most circumstances, other than defense. Why do we need laws against something that no one should want to do? Use your reading of the article to help you explain your answer. (10 pts)
I believe we have laws against killing so that we don’t turn into the Yanomamo tribe, eventually killing could become a sport and people would take honor in saying they have killed someone, but if we prevent it through laws this won’t happen. We are prevent revenge killing. While most of us find it only acceptable for defense if there were not laws stopping us from killing someone we could, even if we found it morally wrong we would be able to get revenge
I really liked the ideas that you presented in your post. I like how you talked about the revenge killings as a norm as compared to killing in our society. In addition, I like how you described the costs and benefits of being unokais and no-unokais. I agree with the statements you gave there that being non-unokais is a less risky way of life. I was wondering why you think the revenge killing is above the political government? I also agree with your reasoning behind the idea that our laws against killing in our society are trying to prevent killing.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your statement that when one of the Yanomamo people performs a revenge killing they risk having a revenge killing placed upon their own family or themselves. Its a vicious circle that will keep going back and forth between families until the initial reason for the killings become blurred. This is a good reason for why laws against killing are necessary in modern society.
ReplyDeleteYour post is really well written, but I don't think we would necessarily turn into the Yonamomo people without laws. Even without the laws, it's still ingrained in our culture that killing is wrong. Plus, the Yonamomo kill over sorcery, and most Western civilizations don't believe in sorcery.
ReplyDeleteRandi, maybe not all of our society would but some of our society does even with laws in place, such as gangs and mobs. They kill people that threaten their reputation or for revenge if they know which gang killed one of their own. Yes some of Yonamamo's killing is based off sorcery but I felt that most of it was based off revenge.
DeleteI'm curious about a statement in your first paragraph: Are the Yanomamo really "breaking the rules" when they take part in revenge killings? This same reference when you use the term "wrongfully killed". From the perception of the victims family, okay, it might seem true, but to those who killed, they must have felt it was justified to be a revenge killing, correct? The process is cyclical, which might have clarified your statement and would have been good to include in your description.
ReplyDeleteIs there any benefit to being a non-unokais? Why do some men choose this option?
I actually disagree that this system of revenge killings is outside of the government system. I would suggest, given that those in power have that power because of their unokais status, that the revenge killing system is an integral part of their system of governance. Good job on the rest of the cultural impact issues.
In general, I agree with your final section. The system of revenge killings reflects one way of dealing with the fact that there ARE circumstances under which people will want to kill others because they will benefit in some way from the behavior. Our laws are another way of dealing with this tendency of humans to behave selfishly in a way that would hurt someone else.