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The space of the forest used by each Yanomami
house-village can be described schematically as a series
of concentric circles. These circles delimit areas with
distinct modes and intensity of usage.
The first circle, within a five kilometer radius,
circumscribes the area of immediate use by the community;
small-scale
female gathering, individual fishing or, in the summer,
collective fishing with timbó poison, occasional
brief hunting trips (at dawn or dusk) and agricultural
activities. The second circle, within a five to ten kilometer
radius, is the area of individual hunting (rama huu)
and day-to-day family food gathering.
The third circle, within a ten to twenty kilometer
radius, is the area used for the collective hunt expeditions
(henimou) lasting one to two weeks that precede
the funerary rituals (cremation of bones, burial or
ingestion of ashes during the intercommunity reahu ceremonies),
as well as the long multifamily hunting and gathering
expeditions (three to six weeks) during the period when
the new swiddens are ripening (waima huu). Also
found in this 'third circle' are new and old swiddens:
here, people make occasional encampments nearby in order
to cultivate the former and harvest the latter, as well
as hunt the abundant game in the vicinity.
The Yanomami used to spend between a third and
almost half of the year camped in provisional shelters
(naa nahipë) in different locations of this
area of forest further away from their collective house
or village. This period of life in the forest tends
to diminish when relations of regular contact with whites
are established, as the Yanomami become dependent on
them for access to medicines and merchandise.
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