Yanomami

The Yanomami, some 35,000 people in 200 to 250 villages, hold the rainforest ridges of the Venezuela-Brazil border, the largest relatively isolated Indigenous nation of Amazonia. Swidden gardeners of plantain and manioc, hunters of peccary and monkey, they live in great conical shabonos housing whole villages under one thatched ring, governed by headmen whose authority rests on generosity, oratory and shamanic power. Yopo snuff carries shamans to the hekura spirits who order sickness, game and war; intervillage raiding and peacemaking feasts have long structured politics. Contacted region by region through the 20th century, the Yanomami faced road builders, gold miners and epidemics, notably the Haximu massacre and the mercury poisoning of rivers. Brazil's Yanomami Indigenous Territory and Venezuelan reserves now shield the homeland, though garimpeiros still invade, and shamans like Davi Kopenawa carry the forest's warning to the world. The 200-odd villages range from mountain ridges to lowland rivers across the border highlands.