The Yanomami Tribe: Endocannibalism For The Dead
Taking a closer look into the lives and rituals of different cultures around the world and discovering their process for losing a loved one can be very eye opening. A rather disturbing yet honorable ritual is carried out by the Yanomami Tribe, who are located in the amazon rainforest, near the border of Venezuela and Brazil. The Yanomami Tribe is fairly well known due to the fact that they are one of the larger tribes located in the Amazon Rainforest. They are said to have migrated from the Bering Straits between Asia and America. Some recent threats that the Yanomami tribe have faced are illegal gold miners…show more content… Death is a very important and sacred matter for the Yanomami tribe. They believe that a person’s soul still needs to be protected after death. They believe that the soul could enter into another life form, like reincarnation. Because of this belief, the Yanomami tribe does not hunt a certain bird, which they believe is a container for the soul after it leaves a body. What the Yanomami tribe does to the body may come as a shock due to their nonviolence beliefs. After a tribe member passes away, the tribe will proceed to cremate the body. While the body is burning the tribe members cry and sing, while their faces are blackened with grime. When the burning is finished, the bones are crumbled up and put with the ashes. They are combined together in a pot. During this process a festivity takes place in the tribe. While the festivity is taking place, they mash up the bones and the ash with bananas. The relatives of the dead ones then proceed to eat the banana mush along with the bones and ash. The reason the Yanomami tribe does this is all based upon their belief of the life after death. They believe that through eating the banana mush, the soul is absorbed by the tribe and therefore freed and remain between life and death. They feel they are caring for the deceased in a special way. They feel is someone dies and they cannot locate the corpse, that they are forever stuck in
