Women of the Yanomami tribe looking for fish and shellfish in the Igarape River.
The Yanomami tribe rely on the abundance of the jungle and rivers and have much knowledge of their natural environment.
A Yanomami woman looking for small fish and shrimp under stones in the river.
Yanomami children splashing and playing in the river.
Both Yanomami adults and children bathe frequently in the river.
A Yanomami mother bathing her child.
The Yanomami dig holes in the ground to find white ants which they eat raw.
A Yanomami hunter aims his bow and arrow towards the trees where there are monkeys, <br>small anteaters and various kinds of birds.
A Yanomami boy climbing a palm tree.
A birds-eye view of a Yanomami shabono or village surrounded by gardens.
There were 107 people within 21 families living in Shabono. <br>The families sleep in hammocks.
At a Yanomami shabono or village.
A Yanomami Indian girl.
A Yanomami man caught a paka , a rodent which is a member of the mouse family.
The Yanomami carefully butcher and consume most parts of the game they shoot.
Yanomami women perform much heavy labor, such as chopping and carrying firewood.
Pieces of a butchered paka are placed over a fire on a wooden stand to smoke the meat.
For festive occasions Yanomami men and women decorate their faces and bodies.
I was also invited to attend the Yanomami celebration.
The participants at the celebration were decorated with bird's feathers and flowers. They sometimes use white breast feathers to decorate the top of their heads.
The Yanomami use charcoal to paint designs on their bodies.
Even if there is not a celebration, the Yanomami will decorate themselves when they visit people at other other shabono (villages).
Once they were decorated, the guests ran to the celebration.
Young people and children dance as they arrive at the shabono for a Yanomami festival.
Everyone, including adults, take part in a tug of war as part of the celebration.
Although the Yanomami do not sing or play instruments, the dances at their celebrations are filled with excitement.
Yanomami men taking a hallucinogenic drug called ebene at night.
The Yanomami believe that when the hallucinogenic drugebene is blown into a man's nose, he will be able to see and communicate with the hekura spirits.
Yanomami children playing in the central open space of the shabono.
At the end of the celebration, the Yanomami sometimes mix the crushed bones of a recently deceased villager into a banana soup. Mournful, the relatives of the dead person drink this mixture with tears in their eyes.
Yanomami children not only play in the shabono but also in the jungle and the river.
Yanomami villagers gather around Sekino with friendly curiosity.
Sekino has visited the Yanomami several times. He thinks that no other Indians in South America have remained as independent and free as the Yanomami.
