Yanomami Death Ritual of Endocannibalism
Consuming a mixture of fermented banana soup and ashes
(Credit: viralcy.com)
The Yanomami tribe, who live spread across 200-250 villages in the Amazon rainforest, practice the traditional death ritual of endocannibalism. This means that loved ones of the person who has died consume his or her flesh as long as he or she was a member of the kin group. A kin group does not singularly mean families; tribes, societies and cultures are also included in the mix.
The Yanomami view cremations as liberating in comparison with burials for their loved ones because decomposition would be a slow, tedious process.
For the Yanomami, they practice endocannibalism because they do not believe that death is a natural occurrence of life. Instead, they believe that a rival tribe’s shaman sent an evil spirit directly to strike someone in the tribe. Therefore, to immediately resolve the issue of what should be done to remove the body, cremation ensues. The Yanomami view cremations as liberating in comparison with burials for their loved ones because decomposition would be a slow, tedious process.
Shabano
(Credit: Wikipedia)
Consuming the ashes serves as a way to keep their beloved tribe member’s spirit alive and well for generations to come. Prior to cremation, tribe members cover the body in leaves and put it in a forest that is not too far away from the shaman, or hut. After allowing nature to take its course on the tribe member for about 30 to 45 days, they collect the bones and proceed to crematation. After cremation, the ashes are mixed together with a soup made from fermented bananas. Everyone in the community must consume the mixture. To accomplish this, gourds filled with the mixture are passed around among kin members and consumption is usually finished in one sitting.
The ashes of these men killed by enemies may linger around for years until the tribe believes that their deaths have been rightfully avenged.
However, an exception to finishing the consumption of ashes (in one sitting) is permitted in the case where enemies have killed Yanomami men. Rather than the entire community consuming the ashes, only the women must do it, and it has to happen on the night that a revenge raid is planned. The ashes of these men killed by enemies may linger around for years until the tribe believes that their deaths have been rightfully avenged. This is due to the Yanomami tribe’s belief that the spirit cannot completely transition to the spiritual world without completely vanishing from the material world. Therefore, the ashes cannot be fully consumed until the matter of avenging the death is resolved so that the late loved one can make the peaceful transition to the spiritual world.
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Nice! I learned a lot from this article. I hope you could do more!
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Interesting!👍
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The article opens our mind for this type of culture. and in this modern world this has to change the mindset of this tribe. That death is not only a word,or event in life. It is true. and Once you die, either youll go to hell or heaven. #realitycheck
Their belief of death and its cause(s) is kinda creepy and interesting at the same time. Education from the modern world and the reality of life and death may benefit their tribe, for consuming a dead’s ashes may be harmful to their health as well.
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These tribes are no different from us, it’s just that they consume the ashes of their loved ones while we just cremate them, with the same reason.Although there are harmful effects that can happen to them, tradition is a tradition. And this will go on no matter what they get from what they are doing. They have to practice their beliefs.
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We’re EXACTLY the same!! No different. While I bury grandma, the Yanomami eat grandma!!
Sounds the same to me.
Here’s another similarity: the #1 cause of death for Yanomami is murder … while ours is heart attack, cancer, car accidents, and falling off step-stools while juggling chain saws!!
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This is disgusting but we have to respect their own culture and beliefs as they do respect ours.
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No, we don’t need to respect murder. We don’t need to allow them to go on killing sprees against neighboring villages any more than we need to tolerate the Crips killing Bloods in revenge killings out on the streets of South Los Angeles.
Honestly, where do we get our moral reasoning?
In fact, Brazil is DUTY-BOUND to put a stop to the Yanomami bloodbaths that go on between neighboring villages! Locking up a number of Yanomami in modern-day prisons might cause them to change their barbarous ways.
…And when Yanomami prisoners ask the prison cafeteria workers for the Ash Special, give them old cigarette butts from the prisoners and prison guards! Since everyone knows prisoners and South Americans love to smoke, everyone should be happy — especially the prison’s custodial staff!! Just tell them that the Marlboroughs they’re REALLY eating is grandpa and they’ll be happy as can be!
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Amen. This is all complete depravity! And disgusting! We DO NOT need to respect others views. Anything outside of Truth does not need to be respected. Murder and cannibalism is disgusting. Any 5 year old would have a visceral reaction to it.
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I learned in Sociology a long time ago that they kill baby girls. Is that true?
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You are correct in saying that tribal warfare is a problem, but there are certainly better ways to remedy the problem. Not to mention that endocannibalism and their death ritual have nothing to do with that, and isn’t inherently much worse than the ways we deal with our dead.
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As editor-in-chief at SevenPonds, I appreciate all of your thoughts on this. We report on the death traditions of a wide variety of cultures to show that, while death is a universal experience, societies approach it in many different ways. This primitive tribe may engage in a practice we find somewhat hard to understand, but I believe it’s important to respect their beliefs.
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Why do you feel comfortable, Kathleen, labeling human beings as being “primitive”, yet you don’t feel comfortable labeling murder for what it is: an abhorrent violation of the Human Rights of victims? Where’s the compassion and empathy for at-risk people groups?
Why isn’t your website speaking up for the powerless Yanomami villages against the more powerful tribes attacking them?
Or do we have to sit back, watch, and put our hands in our pockets to tribal genocide … because the ones perpetrating the massacre aren’t mining or petroleum companies?
Letting the Comanches massacre the weaker Hopi, in the name of cultural and moral neutrality, really seems to lack all human compassion and and moral rectitude, I’d say. Respectfully speaking, of course.
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Thanks for your comment. “Primitive” is a term that Webster defines as “having a quality or style that offers an extremely basic level of comfort, convenience, or efficiency”. The Yanomami people live in primitive conditions by Western standards, hence my use of the term.
This post is about a cultural practice followed by the Yanomami tribe after a death. It’s not about tribal warfare. I’m afraid that is not a subject we cover on our blog.
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I found this useful for the simple fact of I had an assignment for my history class on strange customs of the world and this is what came up first with the results.
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that canabilism is weird.
HOW THEY GET TP LEARN AND PACTICE Endocannibalism.
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Error correction:
HOW THEY GET TO LEARN AND PRACTICE Endocannibalism.
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Hi, I’m not sure, but if you’re interested in the Yanomamis, check the anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon. He has spent a lot of time studying them. There are also movies made in partnership with Timothy Asch about the Yanomami and you can find them on the DER site. Although you have to pay to see the whole movie, there are some trailers. Napoleon has written a lot about the Yanomami and maybe you can find some of his work at your local library or the paid data bases that some libraries have. Hope it helps. Have a great time reading! 🙂
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Thanks I’m using this for a speech presentation that I got to give. I’ll cite this source. Thanks for the info!
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hm
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OMG! Insane to read.
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My goodness, reading some of these comments on human rights, murder, tribes
Let them live the life they have lived for generations way before we all got on a soapbox and try to make eveybody the same
The way this world is going we wont be able to sneeze without it offending someones Human Rights (load of rubbish) those who preach it wouldnt be so keen if someone popped into their home and started trying to change the way they lived 🤔🤔
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Hi Talia,
I tend to agree. SevenPonds presents this information to educate our readers on the many different practices around death, mourning and bereavement that exist throughout the world. I would like to think that our audience can set aside their prejudices and accept that there is no one “right” way to care for the dead. Even practices that we find morally or aesthetically repugnant have value to those who believe in them. Sadly, that’s not always the case.
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Very interesting my mother was cannibalised when she was found dead near a yanomami village!. I found it very insightful to read this. Great article very tasteful.
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what the actual fuck
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Any person interested and have some medical knowledge to help me out for scripting this?
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what the actual fuck
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