Any type of killing, whether it is murder or revenge
killing is against the law in Western cultures. You are not allowed to kill
anyone no matter the circumstance. The
only time you won’t get in trouble for killing someone is if it was in
self-defense (which has to be proven) and of course if you do not get caught
(if you did murder someone). Our job is to report the crime and let the police
officers handle the situation. A court trial then commences to determine the
fate of the killer (with factual evidence proving the killer is indeed the killer).
There is jail time for the killer and that is how justice is served. In the
Yanomamo culture, revenge killing is expected in order to have respect from
your village. Boys are taught from a young age to start showing
aggression/violence in order to be perceived as a man who is capable of
surviving and taking care of his wife and kids. Women find this violence to be
a great quality for a husband/father.
The Yanomamo are okay with vengeance as a legitimate
motive for killing. If something drastic happens and they are hurting, then it
is common for them to be on this sort of killing spree. A common statement heard
among the Yanomamo is “If my sick mother dies, then I will kill some people.” If there is no revenge raid for the killing of
someone in the village then those tribes are considered to be cowards. That
gives other tribes the upper hand because they take advantage of the lack of
action by raiding their village. When a Yanomamo man kills, he must then perform
a ritual purification (unokaimo) to prevent any type of supernatural harm
caused by the victim.
A unokias are those that have killed. “Recruitment
to the unokai status is on a self-selective basis, although boys are
encouraged to be valiant and are rewarded for showing aggressive tendencies.”
(Chagnon page3) It is encouraged for men
to show that they are tough through violence if need be. If no considerable
action is taken then those men are seen as cowards. The more aggressive men
are, the better they are perceived even by the women as a possible mate choice.
Revenge killings have
victims of mostly male during revenge raids. This means that is a kinsman is
killed then his village must avenge his death by killing the killer or members
of that killer’s tribe. Sexual jealousy is an extreme common case of violence
among the Yanomamo tribes. If no revenge killing has taken place then the
opposing villages are seen as cowards and those men are made fun of and
mistreated. If they have wives, other men take advantage of them sexually. In
some cases, the wives degrade their husbands for lack of action against the
tribe that killed one of their people. Women find this type of aggression from
men to be desirable and it’s a quality they look for in order to marry and have
kids.
We need laws against
revenge killing and violence to prevent unwanted harm against one another. Even
now with laws that we have to follow as citizens people still break those laws.
Not having any type of structure would lead to complete mayhem and we do no
need to live in a society where there is no type of respect or boundaries among
citizens to live peacefully. People will always make their own decisions based
on the morals they are taught at home. Overall, structure is needed and laws
are the foundation required in order for us all to get along. If we acted with
violence in order to show our strength like the Yanomamo people then we would
not be able to co-exist as we have been without there being wars between cities
on a daily basis like there was with the Yanomamo villages when a member of
their tribe was killed by another tribe.
Hi Cristina!
ReplyDeleteYou've got some really good information in your post. :) Overall, I wish there would have been a little more digging at the end when considering a world without laws. I think laws are more than just what we need to get along, because even with laws in place, total peace hasn't been reached. (Although maybe I just took what you said too literally; I'm guilty of that often!) Laws provide structure that keeps mayhem at bay for the most part, that's true - but what power do our laws have to upkeep that structure? That's where I would have tried to expand!
"Any type of killing, whether it is murder or revenge killing is against the law in Western cultures."
ReplyDeleteThis is a very brave statement right of front. :-) You then go on to contradict yourself by explaining the exceptions to that rule, so is it still accurate to say that "any type of killing" is against the law? You are right to point out the exceptions... but then perhaps someone from the Yanomamo culture might also say that killing is forbidden in their culture... but there are exceptions that are culturally recognized. Those exceptions are different but both cultures do have accepted laws that guide people's accepted and expected behavior. Step back from the obvious differences and be aware of the similarities.
"Women find this violence to be a great quality for a husband/father."
Is it the violence itself of what it represents? Those who are successful as a unokais have higher status and political power. They also have a larger kinship network, meaning more people who will carry out a revenge killing for the man. Wouldn't that be the safest man to marry and have children with? Who would attack such a man?
Good description of the revenge killing process. What happens after the revenge killing? What are the kin of the person killed expected to do next? There is a cyclic nature to this practice that should be recognized. What stops the cycle?
You discuss the benefits of being a unokais. Are their disadvantages? What are the costs and benefits of choosing to be a non-unokais?
Your next paragraph doesn't really address the fourth point of the guidelines. How does the system of revenge killings impact these other aspects of the Yanomamo culture? How does it shape the culture politically? Socially? How does it determine kinship networks? Marriage and reproductive success?
For your final section:
"Even now with laws that we have to follow as citizens people still break those laws."
But that is the question we are trying to ask here. These are behaviors people shouldn't want to do, correct? We can generally agree that they are wrong, so why do we need laws against them? Why do people do them anyway? This isn't about how we were raised and humans are not generally inclined to anarchy without those laws. We are remarkably cooperative, because it benefits us to be so in a large population. And that word "benefit" is the key here. Behaviors, in general, don't happen out of the blue. They occur because those behaviors benefit the person doing those behaviors in some way. So do people in our society who kill do so because they receive some benefit? Certainly those who kill in defense of property, family or themselves receive a benefit, but how about a thief or a murderer? Often the murder happens in the process of obtaining some type of resources. You also see gang related murders that follow a pattern similar to the unokais system which assigns power and status benefits to those taking part, correct? So we have laws against these behaviors not because no one should want to do them, but because people can benefit from doing them, and we need to provide a cost (imprisonment) to balance the benefits to deter these behaviors.