Omame

## Omame xapiripë

   The most recent wave of immigrants  to Fargo , in a long tradition of immigration, are the Yanomami  from Amazonia  (just called 'Amazonians' locally), who have carved out a niche for themselves in freelance cabs and seasonal labor.

The Yanomami practice a form of animism  which centers around spirits  known as *xapiripë*. And to the Yanomami, everything in nature has a spirit, from the smallest sprout to the largest mountain. As a result, when something dies, it’s spirit may cause disease unless a *shabori* (shaman) talks to it.

Rituals are central to Yanomami culture. Like many non-industrial peoples, they do not draw a clear line between the sacred and the secular. The Yanomami celebrate a good harvest (or, since fleeing north, paycheck) with a big feast to which nearby families are invited. The Yanomami gather large amounts of food, which helps to maintain good relations with their neighbors, decorate their bodies with feathers and flowers, feast, and the women dance and sing late into the night.

Hallucinogens or entheogens, known as *yakoana* or *ebene*, are used by Yanomami shabori as part of healing rituals for members of the community who are ill. Yakoana also refers to the tree from which it is derived, Virola elongata. *Yopo*, derived from a different plant with hallucinogenic effects (Anadenanthera peregrina), is usually cultivated by shabori. The some Yanomami tribes also mix the powdered bark of *Virola elongata* with the powdered seeds of *yopo* to create the drug ebene. The drugs facilitate communication with the *hekura*, spirits that are believed to govern many aspects of the physical world in a ritual known as *shapuri*. Even in the Sixth World, woman do not participate in *shapuri*.

The Yanomami people practice ritual endocannibalism, in which they consume the bones of deceased kinsmen.The body is wrapped in leaves and placed in the forest some distance from the homestead; then after insects have consumed the soft tissue (usually about 30 to 45 days), the bones are collected and cremated. The ashes are then mixed with a kind of soup made from bananas, which is consumed by the entire community. The ashes may be preserved in a gourd and the ritual repeated annually until the ashes are gone. In daily conversation, no reference may be made to a dead person except on the annual "day of remembrance", when the ashes of the dead are consumed and people recall the lives of their deceased relatives. This tradition is meant to strengthen the Yanomami people and keep the spirit of that individual alive. Among members of the Yanomami Diaspora, some provision for the eating of the dead is usually made, often well out of sight of their host cultures.

The Yanomami believe in a supreme Creator God called Omame. Omame created the animal spirits from people who have performed evil. Besides Omame, they also believe in a sky spirit named Hutucara who could, under the correct circumstances, create a wind large enough to clear all of the pollution from the world. Hurburibi are spirits of blindness and are hidden in the ground but when miners break rocks these spirits are released and cause disease.

The Yanomami people believe that the universe consists of four parallel layers or levels. The top layer, *duku ka misi*, is believed to be empty, but at one time was inhabited by ancient beings that now have dropped down into lower levels. The second layer is called *hedu ka mis* or the sky level. At this level lies the spirits of dead men and women. *Hei ka misi* or earth is the next layer, and the last layer is the *hei ta bebi* or “underworld.” This is where the *Amahi-teri* live which are ancient spirits that bring misfortune and harm to humans.

Since their contact with the outside world, the Yanomami have long believed that the world is endangered because of all of the smoke and pollution caused by mining, logging and other industry. This is part of what made them such fanatical adherents of the Amazonian cause, which, in combination with their fierce warrior tradition, put so many of them on the front lines of the Amazon-Aztlan War and made them the target of Aztlaner reprisals. So, in a way, their beliefs are part of what led to their presence in the Red River Valley.

Return to: Religion