Yanomami Part II
has resulted in shorter premarital periods with subsequently shorter premarital payments and less of a social tie between sons-in-laws' and brides' families. Men and women are less likely to enter into or maintain arranged marriages.
Expanded contact with the outside world has increased the number of women available for marriage, which has meant that age difference between spouses has diminished. The age of betrothal is also coming at a later age.
The Yanomami have moved away from a central building for housing and live in smaller dwellings in a manner more in keeping with a nuclear family concept and making contact with the extended family more limited.
Because of their dependence on modern medicine most Yanomami children now receive a Brazilian name at birth. Medical professionals require a name for their records and will not treat children without one. Use of Brazilian names instead of the culturally descriptive ones formerly used might also have marked consequences. The taboos against using a persons name seems to be diminishing. The use of family terms such as mother, son, daughter, brother might also decrease and could further affect a change in family unity, world view, or even self-respect.
However, experts agree that the single biggest social and health problem facing the Yanomami is the increased efficiency in making home brew and rise of alcoholism. Men tend to become much more intoxicated than previously, exacerbating their proclivity toward violence, and producing later food shortages from the large amounts of produce used from their fields to produce the brew consumed in heavy bouts of drinking.
By its very nature culture is elastic. Change is inevitable and not the problem. The abrupt thrust into the twentieth century and the clash of cultures that we are only beginning to realize how to deal with, have left the Yanomami confused and floundering for their survival and cultural identity. But they are organizing and starting to establish some sense of self determination. And they are not alone in their struggle. World opinion is on their side in theory if not in practice. But the direction to go and the actions to take comprise a nebulous and uncertain future. Melding the old and new world views into a viable existance is still new territory with questions that have never been asked before, much less answered with any satisfaction.
Next, I'll discuss some of those questions, along with what the Yanomami themselves are saying, and if nothing
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