Death Customs of Cashinahua and Yanomamö People

A Look at Two Amazonian Ways of Dealing with Death

Mar 13, 2009

Over the centuries, the Yanomamo and Cashinahua people who live deep in the Amazon Rain Forest have evolved their mourning practices in rare and emotional ways.

The Cashinahua of Peru and the Yanomamö of Venezuela are both known to be Amazonian people. But because of the complexity and denseness of the rain forest, they are essentially worlds away. Both nations have customs as to how to deal with death, and the types of ceremonies that accompany this experience. Both nations also believe in an after world to where the essences of the people go after they die. For example, the Yanomamö believe in the idea of soul eaters that never tire of the prospect of traveling the different dimensions of world to devour souls of all living things. On the other hand, the Cashinahua believe that death occurs when the eye spirit leaves the body forever. It is believed that this is the main spirit that the Cashinahua need in order to live within their bodies in the present time.

Yanomamö Death Drinks

The Yanomamö are Amazonian people who live their lives in Venezuela. When something in or around the village dies, it is believed that a soul eater has consumed the life force. In the instance of someone dieing in the village, the body is taken and cremated. This is done in the village when the days work is done. Only the men are present, and they bath and wash everything, from themselves to their homes to their weapons. After the cremations, the big pieces are separated and ground up using a pestle and mortar. There are two differently decorated mortars with one for each gender. When the cremation ceremony is finished, the pestle and mortar are burned. Then the ground up remains are then placed in gourds to be stored for a year. The remaining ash is mixed into a soup made of plantains and drunk during the day of the ceremony. After a year, the stored cremations are mixed into another plantain soup, and a feast is held in the deceased honor, and a chosen set of relatives will consume the soup.

Eye Spirit of the Cashinahua

According to the Cashinahua, the body possesses at least five spirits. These spirits enable the body to live in everyday life. The five spirits are urine, feces, dream, eye and body. The main spirit that the body relies on is the eye spirit. When that leaves for good, the soul leaves the body and travels through the villages of death in order to reach their father’s house. When a young child or woman dies, their eye spirit is thought to have little substance and leaves quickly to the father’s house. Women of importance and all men need to have chants sung for them during the designated mourning period to help them along to the father’s house. The mourning period happens when the person dieing first shows signs. They are not dead yet. The chanting and stylistic dancing is begun to ease the soul out of the body to begin its journey. The whole village is expected to participate in some way. The length of the ceremony depends on the age or importance of the person who has died. The Cashinahua now prefer to bury their dead at an old village site, preferably at the one that was lived at last. The person is wrapped in a shroud or palm fronds, and buried with personal possessions and other grave goods. Once the body leaves the village, mourning ceases, and life continues. An old practice was to boil the body in a pot, wrap it in a cloth (for men) or basket (for women) in the fetal position, take pieces of flesh of the deceased (men or women of influence) and then eat it with cooked plantains.

Both the Yanomamö and the Cashinahua are people living off of the land in the rainforests of the Amazon. The Yanomamö have had outside influences from the rest of the world, but try to keep their practices in check, but the Cashinahua has changed their practices and at times added Christian prayers during the mourning period. But the rituals of life and death are complex and beautiful in their own right, and at times purely unique. These two tribes are but a glimpse at the dozens of others that are living in pockets in the rainforests. Each tribe has its own way of life, and in turn, its own way at celebrating or mourning the event of death.

Chagnon, Napoleon A. (1977). Yanomamö: The Fierce People, second edition. New York, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Kensinger, Kenneth M. (1995). How Real People Ought to Live: The Cashinahua of Eastern Peru. Prospect Heights, Illinois: Waveland Press, Inc.

Lizot, Jacques. (1997). Tales of the Yanomami. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

The copyright of the article Death Customs of Cashinahua and Yanomamö People in Cultural Anthropology is owned by Maureen Zieber. Permission to republish Death Customs of Cashinahua and Yanomamö People in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.