Anthropology: Understanding Subsistance Patterns

Horticulture is defined as "the production of plants using a simple nonmechanized technology" (Nanda and Warms 2006:148), while Webster's Dictionary defines horticulture as the art or science of growing fruits, vegetables, plants, flowers, or trees. When most people think of horticulture, they simply think of gardening or farming. Most people do not associate horticulture with culture itself or how horticulture relates to anthropology, or the study human culture. In all actuality, horticulture is a major part of cultural anthropology. The groups that hunt and grow food, and the associated eating rituals or ceremonies associated with food differs by culture or environment. This paper will discuss the subsistence pattern of horticulture as it relates to the Yanomami Indians of South America.

The Yanomamo Indians live in the Amazon between Brazil and Venezuela for thousands of years. Everyone lives together villages where the houses are built in a circle, often times, the place of shelter is one large circular house. These structures are often referred to as yanos. In the middle of the yanos, the Yanomamo Indian villagers conduct feasts and other cultural celebrations. The Yanomamo Indians do not have any written language but speak the language of Guycan. Yanomamo religion beliefs are based on hallucinogenic drugs and myth like tales handed down through ancestry.

The subsistence pattern of horticulture involves planting or farming and the up keep of domesticated animals like chickens, pigs, lambs or cows. The bananas, hunt fish and animals, and gather the fruit that grow in the forest for their diet and for medical treatment. Horticulture works well in humid, tropical conditions like those found in the Yanamamo Amazonian environment. In these environments, temperatures and rainfall are usually high, there are no cold seasons, and plants usually grow year round. Horticulturists grow plants and harvest their lands with simple tools like digging sticks, hoes, and spades. Normally, horticulturalists like the Yanomamis grow enough food to feed their group although each Yanaomano community can consist of 40 to 400 people. (Enzlin-Dixon 2006:26)

The Yanomamis practices slash and burn cultivation. This method of cultivation areas of the forest are burned and cleared for planting; the ash provides some fertilization, and the land is less fertal and weeds increase making it difficult for cropping and farming. The area is left fallow and reverts to secondary forest of bush. Cultivation then shifts to a new plot; after about a decade the old site may be reused. As a result, Yanomami Indians move around often to avoid that areas become overused Ð'-- a practice known as shifting cultivation. The cultivator selects an area of forest large enough to support his family, cuts and clears the trees and slashes the brush, allows the cut material to dry, then burns it. When one group of Yanomami people leaves an area field for reforestation, there is little likelihood that they will ever return to that area considering the reforestation process takes a number of years to complete.

The Yanomamo diet consists of plantains, cassava, tubers, corn (maize), and other vegetables with gathered fruits, nuts, seeds, grubs, and honey. They also hunt monkeys, deer, tapirs, and armadillos. Yanomamo grow tobacco and cotton which they use to make their clothes and other necessities. For cropping, farming and hunting, the Yanomami people use simple tools like digging sticks, bow and arrow, and axe like cutting tools. The Yanomamo culture was included in a study to determine the link between sodium and hypertension because their diet is so low in sodium. The Yanomamo Indians had one of the four lowest blood pressure averages of a fifty-two population study. (Carvalho et al. 1989:239)

The Yanomamo Indians of the Amazon rain forest are organized by patrilineal kinship relationships, patrilineal descent from ancestors, and marriage exchanges between kinship/descent groups. In the Yanomamo tribes, the men are the leaders. The male leaders' positions are mostly because of marriage patterns and kinship. Yanomamo people often participate in arranged marriages and the tribesmen often take multiple wives. In addition to polygamy, cross cousin marriages are also a part of the Yanomamo culture. Woman are more or less possessions in the Yanomami culture and the males position of power or importance is often rated or scaled based on the number of wives he has.

The woman spend most of their time fetching water, caring for their children, and visiting with one another. The woman of the tribe often spend a good deal of time weaving baskets and other small crafts and also engage to some degree in fishing. The other main responsibilities include cooking, gathering firewood and berries and fruits. The men of the tribe are responsible for the distribution of food for the Yanomamo people. Males do the majority of the fishing and hunting and while they do not eat the animals they hunt, rather they share their meat with others within the tribe. The favor is returned by other male hunters within the tribe. Male Yanomamis also spend time in their gardens. Several times a year the Yanomamo