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Transcript

Why?

The tribe view the cremations as a liberation of the soul and spirit. They also don’t believe that death is natural and instead hold the belief that a rival tribe has sent an evil spirit to take out tribe members specifically. They feel that by consuming the person's ashes it keeps their spirit 'alive' in them and in generations to come as well.

Who and Where?

What is it?

The Yanomami Tribe are the only practicing group of this ritual. The tribe was first reported about in 1759. The tribe today has roughly 16,000 members in Venezuela and just over 19,000 in Brazil. They all live in approximately 200-250 villages in the amazon rainforest bordering Venezuela and Brazil.

The Yanomami Death Ritual of Endocannibalism is the consuming of a loved ones ashes once they have passed away. The ashes are consumed by everyone in the community except for when the

person who died was a man. In this case, they save the ashes until the night a revenge raid is planned and carried out. In some instances the tribe will keep the man's ashes for months, or even years, until they feel his death has been properly revenged. Once he has been revenged only the females of the tribe eat the ashes.

Origins and Today

All though no time could be placed as to when this ritual originated, it is believed that the tribe has been doing it for over 300 years (roughly since the 1700s).

Today the ritual is still in practice. Due to the exclusivity of the tribe and the fact that they live undisturbed in the rain forest the ritual has no impact on current society. There has questions raised about weather or no the ritual is safe for those eating the ashes but no action has been taken and the tribe continues to do so.

How?

To start the ritual, the tribe members cover the body of the member in leaves and proceed to place the body in a forest not too far away from the shaman (A religious hut used by the yanomami) and cover it in leaves. They then wait a total of 45 days until the body has decayed. They collect the bones and cremate them. Once cremated the ashes are mixed together in a soup made with fermented bananas. Everybody in the community must consume the mixture. To accomplish this, they pass around gourds containing it to the kin poeple. The consumption is usually finished in one sitting. However, an exception to finishing the consumption in one sitting is permitted only in the case where enemies have killed the yanomani men.

Ritual Specifics

There are none. Simply everyone from the tribe must be there

The Yanomami Death

Ritual of Endocannibilism

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