What do you think "YANOMAMI" means?

Question

It is a kind of an anthropological character.

Answer 1

The Yanomami Indians (aka Yanomamo) have lived in the borderlands between Brazil and Venezuela for millennia--they are NOT some kind of anthropological character.  They are human beings with a their own culture and language.  "Yanomami" means "Human Being." The ethnonym 'Yanomami' was produced by anthropologists on the basis of the word yanõmami which, in the expression yanõmami thëpë, signifies 'human beings.'

The Yanomami are one of the most numerous, and best-known, forest-dwelling tribes in South America. Their home is in the Amazon rainforest, among the hills that line the border between Brazil and Venezuela. It is probable that they have been there since the first peoples arrived in South America, anything up to 50,000 years ago. Each Yanomami community lives in a huge communal house called a 'yano', which can house up to 400 people, although it is usually fewer. They build these in a large ring shape - the centre is a wide open space for dancing and ceremonies, and each family has its own hearth under the covered part around the edge. The family sleeps in hammocks around their fire. The Yanomami provide for themselves partly by hunting, gathering and fishing, and largely by growing crops in large gardens cleared from the forest. As Amazonian soil is not very fertile, a new garden is cleared every two or three years. They grow around 60 crops, of which about 20 are for food, and the rest for medicine, making everyday objects, or ritual purposes. No hunter ever eats the meat that he has killed, rather sharing it out among friends and family; in return he will be given meat by another hunter.

During the 1970s and 1980s, the Yanomami suffered hugely from Brazilian goldminers invading their land. The miners shot them, destroyed their villages, and exposed them to diseases to which they had no immunity. Twenty percent of the Yanomami died in just seven years. After a long international campaign led by Survival, Yanomami land was finally demarcated as the 'Yanomami Park' in 1992 and the miners at last expelled. But the Indians still do not have proper ownership rights over their land - Brazil refuses to recognise tribal land ownership, despite having signed an international law guaranteeing it, and there are many within the Brazilian establishment who would like to see the Yanomami area reduced and opened up to mining and colonization.

Answer 2

Here's the Wiki article on the Yanomami, who are a South American forest tribe:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yanomami

"It should be noted that "Yanomamö" is not what the Yanomamö call themselves, but is rather a word in their language meaning "man," adopted by American anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon as a convenient way to refer to the culture and by extension the people."

Answer 3

I remember the Yanomamo (sp) were one of the tribes we studied for anthropology class.  I remember them saying it meant the fierce ones which is what they seemed to value above all else.