1. The Yanomano tribe's fight and conflicts that end with killings usually begins over sexual issues, with someone trying to seduce another man's wife. There are many fights both within the village and between the villages. If there are killings within the village, the village fission and the principles of the two new groups begin to raid each other. In Western societies, if someone kills another person, revenge killing is not acceptable, and the suspect is apprehended by law enforcement, and is punished by the set law in the country. There are ways in certain states where revenge killing is acceptable, such as if someone breaks into your house, and tries to kill a family member, or even does kill a family member, you have the right to attack the suspect, to protect and defend your family at any cost.
2. If there are killings within the village, the village fission and the principles of the two new groups begin to raid each other, to gain revenge killing. Revenge killings can be caused by provoking a grieving person about a lost kin, no matter the cause of the lost. When someone is killed, the village will keep the ashes of the person, and give ashes out in small quantities for the women to consume on the eve of a revenge raid against the village that killed the person. The reasoning of the ashes being consumed is for the raiders to be filled with "anger verging on violence," and fill them with resolve.
3. If you obtain the status of unokais, you are seen as brave and strong, and not a coward, such as non-unokais. Non-unokais are seen as weak and cowards, become subject to frequent insult and ridicule, and their wives are targets of increased sexual attention from other men. Some advantages of being an unokais is that you are able to have more offsprings, as well as more wives, because you're seen as brave, strong, and powerful.
4.A). Political structure and revenge killing are related because the tribe gathers together to plan out and follow through with a revenge killing, when one of the members of the village are killed by another village or someone within their own village.
4.B). Revenge killings and social status are connected by how the men participate in the killings. If men participate in the killings, they're known as unokais, and if they don't participate in the killings because they're too scared, they are called non-unokais, and are constantly insulted and called cowards. Their wives are also affected, because they'll gain more sexual attention from the other men in the village.
4.C). Revenge and kinship are related because children of deceased relatives are more likely to revenge kill the man who killed his father or mother, making a connection from a dead relative to the person who did the killing.
4.D). Revenge killings are related to being an unokais, which relates to marriage and offspring. When you're an unokais, you have a higher chance of marrying more women, as well as having more kids, because the women see these men as powerful, as well as strong and brave. When you are a non-unokais, you still are able to marry and reproduce, but the numbers aren't as high as it is for the unokais. The unokais' overall average offspring rate is 4.91, and the highest number of offsprings is 524, while the non-unokais' overall average offspring rate is 1.59, and their highest number of offsprings is 193.
5. We need laws against things we shouldn't want to do, such as killing another person, because if lethal killings for revenge was apart of our culture, we would all be targets against each other, and live in constant fear. Having the laws that we have to stop killings won't completely stop people from committing manslaughter, but it will prevent it from happening on a constant basis. There will still be serial killers, or people that will get too fed up and commit the crime, but it ensures the population that there is help and safety out there to stop what shouldn't occur in the first place, and keep people's minds at rest from constant fear of revenge killings.
I completely agree with you in #5 in how although having laws won't eliminate committing manslaughter completely, it will prevent it from happening more frequently. There are still those individuals that will go out and kill others, but having laws set in place can certainly cause others to stop, thus preventing it from becoming a frequent event in society.
ReplyDeleteIn Number 1, you said that revenge killing is allowed in certain circumstances in our society - however, the instances you brought up include where the attacker is still in the house, and still a clear and present danger to the people in the house. Do you know of any cases where a person has committed murder, been killed by another member of the family while not a threat, and that family member was not prosecuted for it?
ReplyDeleteWell-presented post. Clear and easy to follow.
ReplyDelete"There are ways in certain states where revenge killing is acceptable"
This is actually a very interesting point. Our society has sub-cultures that has their own system of "justice". We can see that in multiple sub-populations and it really serves to highlight that this concept of revenge killing isn't all that "foreign" to us. It does help us better understand why we do need laws against the killing. More on that in the last section.
You discuss some of the causes and post-killing practices, but you don't describe the practice of the revenge-killing itself. There is a lot to this practice. Expand.
You describe the benefits of being a unokais, but the prompts also asks you to explain the benefits of choosing to be a non-unokais. Missing that important part. These are two viable paths for a Yanomamo man to take and both types of men exist. So why would a man choose to be a non-unokais? What benefits outweigh the costs?
It is also interesting to ask why a woman would agree to marry a non-unokais?
"Political structure and revenge killing are related because the tribe gathers together to plan out and follow through with a revenge killing..."
Okay, but "political structure" is also about leadership, who leads and how power in the population. So how does the unokais system help determine who leads?
RE: Status -- Yes, the unokais system influences status, but can status determine his participation in the unokais system? Becoming a unokais can raise your status, so perhaps low status men are pushed to participate, but a man might decide that a rise in status would not be worth the risk to his life.
Re: Kin -- Correct, but additionally, this system of killings works to give high status unokais a larger system of kin, through marriage, tying the population together.
Good thorough discussion regarding marriage and reproduction.
"...because if lethal killings for revenge was apart of our culture..."
But isn't it a part of our culture? We have killings every day, including mass killings, including horrifying shootings in our schools. We can't argue that it isn't part of our culture given that it happens so frequently.
"... but it will prevent it from happening on a constant basis."
Well, it does deter it, but in 2017, about 47 people were murdered in the US on a daily basis. I think we need to define what you might mean by "constant basis".
You don't really address the key question in this last section: Why do we need laws against something that no one should want to do? Let's dig a little deeper here to answer this question...
We are creatures of biology, regardless of how "civilized" we might want to think we are. Killing can benefit an organism if they gain resources or a mate or defend their offspring in the process, correct? So that benefit is still there in humans, whether we like it or not. Killing is an instinctive, biological reaction to a threat of some sort, to our lives, to our family (genes) or to our resources, but it can also be a strategy to advance your survival, such as (for example) killing off a rival. Understand that this isn't excusing the behavior. It just explains it. But we need laws against this behavior, not because no one wants to do it but because sometimes people can benefit from this behavior... i.e., they DO want to kill because it benefits them. Laws protect us from selfish actions of others, acting to their own benefit and the harm of others.