Kinship Organizations - Essay Example

The Kinship System and Culture of Yonomamo Their social life is organized around the respected tribesmen, where kinship relationship descent from ancestors and marriages between these kinships. According to Webster (2004), the tribesmen are given responsibility to maintain order in the villages and determine the village’s relationships with people of other villages. The tribesmen are given these positions owing to kinship and marriage customs, and it depends on the main kinship groups in the villages they come from.

Webster (2004) indicates that the social changes within Yonomamo villages are based on giving and receiving marriageable girls in society. Thus, marriages are arranged by order kin, who include uncles, brothers and fathers of the spouse. Marriage in Yonomamo is based on the political process where girls are promised marriages while their extremely young, and men involved forms alliances with other men via marriage exchanges. There is inadequate of women in the Yonomamo due to the sex ratio imbalance in the younger ages that result in men having more than one wife.

In case of fighting in the village, this is as a result of sexual relationships and attacks done to married women by other men. Meanwhile, the fight can cause internal fighting and conflicts of such greatness that lead to splitting and fission of villages, and create new villages. Yonomamo have a series of quality forms of violence that include club fighting and chest pounding that prevent severe violence like shooting to kill. This offers them a great deal of flexibility in resolving the conflict without immediate resort to deadly violence (Webster, 2004).

Meanwhile, they have incorporated patterns of alliance and friendship that serve to limit violence these include trading and feasting with others in order to promote friendships. According to Webster (2004), the thin line between friendship and hostility must be controlled by village leaders whose political acumen and strategies are both admirable and complex. The Yonomamo have developed one unique language that each community speaks in variety version of this language. Traditionally, they had no written language, but depended on the same words to describe several different things.

For instance the Yonomamo word “Xawara” can mean disease, gold and epidemics at the same time; thus, they communicate by chanting, telling stories and using lively expressions. The Yonomamo culture does not have political readers or police force to keep law and order. However, they depend on village leaders, who do not have power over anyone, but are allowed to make suggestions about matters of daily activities. Children are an essential part of the Yonomamo culture that means the more children living in a village; the more they assisted with household tasks.

To increase chances of having many, men are allowed to marry many wives that give the family a better chance of continuity. Moreover, the ceremonies are another significant part of the Yonomamo culture, and they are carried for many reasons and used to communicate with spirit. Webster (2004) indicates that ceremonial hunts may be introduced to practice catching a specific animal and they usually take part with the whole family. Meanwhile, they travel to other villages to share stories and socialize with other groups; thus, family and relationship are a significant part