Life Among the Yanomami / / Health Care International c/o John F. Peters.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Toronto Press eBook-Package Archive 1933-1999
• VerfasserIn: c/o John F. Peters, Health Care International,
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2019]; ©1998
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Language: English
• Series: Teaching Culture: UTP Ethnographies for the Classroom
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (304 p.)

Life Among the Yanomami builds on literature and the author's personal experience of the northern Brazil people, the Mucajai Yanomami, with whom he lived from 1958 to 1967 and whom he has since frequently visited. The result is a rich and well-rounded understanding of this famously isolated people. While considerable detail of traditional way of life is provided, particular attention is devoted to the realities of social change arising from initial exposure to missionaries (of whom the author was one) to the more recent pressures from mining and the intervention of government and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). Family and village life, health and health care, demography, politicization (that includes Yanomami criticism of Western Society), and on cultural survival are among the key issues explored by Peters—compelling issues for indigenous peoples the world over.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Preface -- List of Maps, Figures, and Tables -- Glossary of Terms -- One. Yanomami, Xilixana, and the Anthropological Approach -- Part I. The Xilixana Way of Life -- Two. Field Entry, Language-Learning, and Cultural Surprises -- Three. Village Life and Social Culture: Basic Patterns -- Four. Everyday Life: Food and Child Care, Hunting and Fishing -- Five. Family and Social Organization -- Six. Socialization and Life Stages -- Seven. Myths, Spirits, and Magic -- Part II. Past and Present: The Xilixana Then and Now -- Eight. The Precontact Period: A Time of Isolation -- Nine. Postcontact History: Enter the Missionaries -- Ten. The Missionary Presence: Translation Literacy, and Social Effects -- Eleven. "Warfare," Raids, and Revenge -- Part III. Social Change -- Twelve. Adaptation in a Precapitalist Society: Agents of Change -- Thirteen. Health as an Agent of Change -- Fourteen. Broader Considerations in the Study of Social Change -- Fifteen. Reflections on Social Change Among the Yanomami -- Conclusion -- Appendix. Language-Learning -- References -- Index