IHSS HMNS Amazon Exhibit

September 14, 2016

    We saw the Amazonian exhibit at the HMNS for IHSS on Monday. The Amazonian exhibit is about different tribes that live in the Amazon. THere was a lot of different information on the tribes and their way of life, but one thing that interested me the most were their rituals. There are so many different tribes with so many generations of rituals and traditions having to do with so many different things.

    One of the rituals that stood out most to me was the Wayana Apalai’s coming of age ceremony (Marake). This ceremony is where kunana (grasses weaved together with wasps and bullet ants) are made to use to sting young children. These strips will be pressed against the children’s skin, stinging them multiple times. They hold this ceremony multiple times throughout their childhood where at the last one they are expected to get through it without any sign of pain. Once they can do that, they are considered adults, and are able to go into their adult roles with adult responsibilities.

When I first heard this I was completely shocked and thought it was totally crazy, but this is their culture and their way of life which just shows how different it is from what we think as “normal”. All of these cultures have things that people from different countries would think are the most outrageous traditions and customs but they have such a rich and in depth culture that it's just totally normal for them.

Another ritual I found very interesting was the Yanomamö people's way of dealing with the dead. They bury the people that have died with leaves, then wait for bugs and animals to eat all of their flesh so they decompose to the point where it’s just bones. Once they have the bones, they burn the bones into ashes. Once a year, on the anniversary of the person’s death, they make a banana soup and sprinkle the ashes on the top. They do this every year until the ashes run out, so they are literally eating the dead person’s bones. This is another good example of the total difference in culture that we have. 

There are many other rituals, such as head shrinking which is a very well known one for its craziness. A few different tribes would practice this but the last one known to was the Shuar tribe. How this worked was they would decapitate someone that they considered “an enemy”, so pretty much everyone. Once they decapitated them they would take their heads. While running away from the people of the person’s head they took, they had this big process to shrink their head. First, they would cut it open and get everything out till there's just skin. Then they would fill it with hot water and big rocks, soon after refilling with smaller rocks, again and again, till they eventually get to sand. They would do this because they considered it good luck when fighting because they have the heads and the souls of people they have defeated around their waist. 

I really enjoyed this exhibit and found it very interesting. I was amazed at the difference of our cultures and how theirs is so secluded in a way. In the past few years they have modernized a bit, with things like watches, more modern clothes, etc. Yet they still have their original culture in them which I find fascinating.