Violence, Is it Worth it?

Violence is not something to be proud of. It is also something people do not want to be part in. Most people would not want to kill another and I can almost guarantee no body wants to be killed. However, violence is still a part of our lives. In this post, I will be discussing the different reasons for violence, the violence in the Yanomamo tribe and how it compares to the violence in the western societies, and the relationship between killings and culture in the Yanomamo.

In the Western countries, there are many laws against killings, rape, and any other type of violence. The laws forbid such actions to take place. However, having these laws do not necessarily stop such actions to be made. Due to that, there are punishments for such behavior. If a person is found to be guilty of raping someone else, in the Western countries, they would be arrested and put in jail. After being put in jail, each different crime is sentenced a different sentence depending on how many people were victims of this rapist and other extents. If a person is found to be guilty of homicide, there is also varying punishments such as jail time or even being sentenced to death. For whatever crime there is, there also follows a proper punishment. However, in the Yanomamo tribe, that wasn't exactly the case. For a killing, there followed revenge from the kinship of the one who was killed. In their tribe, violent acts were due to raping a woman, stealing a woman from her husband, infidelity and suspicion of infidelity, and not giving the promised girl in marriage. In the Yanomamo culture, vengeance is considered the main reason for killing, and it remained a legitimate motive for killing. So unlike the Western culture where the police and law handled such crimes, the Yanomamo villages handled the crimes on their own. Because of their way of handling such crimes, it seems to me that killings were simply a cycle that never ended as the family of those who were killed would always seek vengeance. The revenge killing was not a very complicated process. If a man from one village got killed for whatever reason, the village that he belonged to, or his kinship would go and kill one of the members of the one who killed the first man. However, some people took longer to retaliate against the initial killing. The ones who were the fastest were often seen as a bigger threat and therefore were less likely to be attacked. If the family or the village of the one who was killed did not attempt to get their revenge, they were seen as "cowards" and because of that, they would seek help of a stronger village.

An unokais is a "man who had killed". One of the benefits of the unokais is quite obvious, they are still alive with the satisfaction of having killed their enemy. They appear to be tougher and stronger. According to the article, it is said that an analysis of the reproductive rates comparison between an unokais and a non-unokais states that an unokais is more successful. This gives men a great reason to become an unokais. But why? It is because being an unokais means that the man has killed someone. By killing some other man, this man was able to forcefully attain the other man's female. Also, they appear to be more attractive which is why more females accept them.

Revenge killings have an effect on all aspects of the Yanomamo culture. For one, it allows for, in my opinion, an unstable political system. Their political system has no laws that prohibit the acts of killings and they do not have laws that punish killers. Because of that, I see their political system to be unstable and in a way, unhealthy. It is no justification for a killing to have occurred because a previous one had occurred. Not only do these revenge killings affect the political system, but it also effects the social organization and marriage. It is quite strange to praise those who kill. However, in that sense, the unokais are respected by more females and therefore marry more and this is why more men desire to be unakais. That has a negative effect on the society because in order for more men to be unokais, more men would need to be killed, and killing is not a thing to be praised. In my opinion, if they had the necessary laws to stop the killings or have proper punishments for killing and violence, their tribe would be a much different and safer place.

Laws are necessary because of accidents. According to the article, even if an accident occurs, the accident killing will be followed by killings for revenge. This is why there is a need for a law to punish a killing so that revenge back and forth would not have to be executed. Imagine living in a place where there were no laws to prohibit someone from killing another in retaliation. It's a very scary thought and I would not want to be a part of a society where vengeance alone is a legitimate reason to kill someone. I believe that there is never a good enough excuse to hurt someone, but since not everyone believes as I do, we need laws in order to maintain order and peace to a certain extent.