Noble Savages: My Life Among Two Dangerous Tribes -- the Yanomamo and the Anthropologists by Chagnon Napoleon

Author:Chagnon, Napoleon [Chagnon, Napoleon]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2013-02-18T23:00:00+00:00

Guns and Germs

But even the remote Yanomamö villages were not outside the range of Salesian influence. As early as 1960 the Salesians were providing shotguns to the Yanomamö at Ocamo. They may have given shotguns to the Mahekodo-teri at about the same time. By 1967 Padre Berno had introduced shotguns at Mavaca, using them to lure about half of the Lower Bisaasi-teri to “his” side of the Orinoco. To the Yanomamö, shotguns are powerful incentives to move. Guns are more efficient at killing game—and defenseless neighbors—than arrows.

I first became aware of the shotguns in 1965 while collecting genealogies and making a census of several remote villages north of the Orinoco and east of Padre Cocco’s mission at Ocamo. Part of my demographic efforts entailed obtaining causes of death of all deceased people I encountered in the genealogies I collected. Several very recent deaths were attributed to raids by the Iyäwei-teri at Padre Cocco’s mission. My Makorima-teri informants insisted that Padre Cocco’s group used shotguns to kill several of their village’s men.

I made a special trip to Padre Cocco’s mission and told him what my informants said about the shotgun killings by men from his village. He readily admitted that he had provided the shotguns and ammunition but vehemently denied that “his people” would use them to kill other people. He insisted they used them only for hunting game, the purpose for which he had provided them. He was, in fact, incensed that I would even suggest that the shotguns were used in lethal raids against others.

As we were talking about this, one of the adult men was walking by and Padre Cocco called him over to ask him about my outrageous account. Padre Cocco had given him the Spanish name Carlito. In the mission pidgin he asked Carlito if they had gone to the distant villages along the Höräta River and killed people with their shotguns. Carlito responded in a matter-of-fact way: “Sí, Padre. We killed this many with our shotguns,” holding up several fingers.

Padre Cocco was shocked, then outraged. He read the riot act to Carlito and immediately went to the shabono with Carlito and confiscated all the shotguns he had given to them, some half-dozen or so as I recall.

Padre Cocco thanked me for making him aware of this situation and we continued to be friends. But he later returned the shotguns to the Iyäwei-teri, who solemnly assured him that they would use them only for hunting, a promise that was soon and predictably broken. The Iyäwei-teri just became more secretive about their raids.

When I returned to Venezuela in 1968 to do fieldwork and reached Mavaca, I learned about Padre Berno’s decision to give the Lower Bisaasi-teri several shotguns, the first of many, along with dugout canoes and several outboard motors. He had “purchased” half of the Bisaasi-teri to get them to move to his side of the river. I remember the haughty and conniving headman named Paruriwä (also known as Hontonawä) swaggering down to my canoe as I pulled up to the riverbank to give my regards to Padre Berno.

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