The Yanomamo By Jenn Tim and Drew Background

The Yanomamo By: Jenn, Tim, and Drew

Background • The Yanomamo are located along the Brazil. Venezuela border. • Their population reaches to nearly 23, 000 • They live primitive lifestyles in which survival is of great importance. • The Yanomamo are believed to be the most primitive, culturally intact people in existence in the world. They are literally a stone age tribe. Cataloged by anthropologists as Neo. Indians, they have cultural characteristics that date back more than 8000 years

Background Cont. • Until the late 1900’s they were the largest American Indian group whose way of life was unaffected by Western culture. • Their communities range from single extended family to about 300 people. • In each tribe, men are held in high ranks • Traditional Yanomamo travel several months each year hunting animals and gathering wild plant foods.

Background cont. • Many wars have broken out between each Yanomamo group. • Reasons for this warfare range between scarcity of game, competition over women, and competition for Western manufactured goods.

Information on Brazil • Brazil is the largest country in South America in both area and population and has a varied landscape. The world’s largest tropical rainforest lies across the northern border. • Brazil is a country that is rich in minerals • It ranks among the worlds top producers of amethysts, beryllium, diamonds, gold, graphite, iron ore, magnesium, mica, and tin.

Business • Mining gold in Yanomamo would not only benefit the area itself, it would benefit the people. • They would be given a chance to work in the mines and receive an education. • Gold mining is very prosperous and would bring a great amount of attention and prosperity to the area. • It would increase ties with other countries throughout the world and create more of a chance for buying and selling.

Government • Gold mining would help make the Yanomamo a more modernized society than they are now. • The people will be trained to work in the mines. • Not only would the people be receiving a fixed salary, they would be paid for the use of their land be given a percentage of the profit. • Gold mining in this area would increase the value of the land bringing more attention to the area.

Environmentalist • There are many different methods that can be used to mine gold. Some of them are more harmful to the land than others. Using the open pit method to mine for the gold will create a minimal amount of damage. • This method is done close to the surface and doesn’t require digging too deep down therefore creating an area that is easy to repair and mend. • First, The miners remove the layer of rock and other material that covers the deposit. Then, they break up the layers of hard rock right underneath that.

Environmentalist continued • To make sure that the land is completely rehabilitated, trees would be planted to assure that the land gets back to how it was before the mining.

Conclusion • Mining gold in this area is a great idea. Not only does it benefit the people by giving them employment and education, it will modernize them. Also, mining this area will bring attention which will then increase wealth. Their land would not be harmed when everything was through and the people of Yanomamo will be able to go on living their lives.

The End