CULTURE-VENEZUELA: New Compendium on Yanomami Language (fwd link)

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CULTURE-VENEZUELA: New Compendium on Yanomami Language
By Humberto Márquez

CARACAS, Nov 23 (IPS) - When a Yanomami Indian dies, his or her name is not to
be pronounced for some time, so as not to soil the memory of the deceased.

This may be a problem if, for example, someone is called Shoco, which is also
the term for Tamanduá, an anteater that is common in the jungles of southern
Venezuela and northern Brazil, where the Yanomami live.

However, the difficulty can easily be resolved thanks to the linguistic wealth
of this indigenous group that has existed for over 25,000 years, a living
testimony to the Neolithic era, the most recent period of the Stone Age.

There are several synonyms for the names of animals, and also of some plants.
Therefore, ”aroto” means exactly the same as ”shoco”, and the community can use
that word without violating the tradition that protects the deceased.

This explanation is provided by one of the 10,000 entries in the ”Compendio
ilustrado de lengua y cultura yanomami” (”Illustrated Compendium of the
Yanomami Language and Culture”), a book by French anthropologist and linguist
Marie-Claude Mattéi that has just gone to print.

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