Blog Post Image: In Amazon Wars, Bands of Brothers-in-Law

In this mid-1960s photo, men from two Yanomamö villages in the Amazon engage in nonhostile combat to determine the strength and fighting prowess of potential alliance partners. A new study from the University of Utah and University of Missouri indicates the Yanomamö – who engaged in killing to gain status in past decades – often formed alliances with men in different villages when they attacked and killed people in other communities, then married their allies’ sisters or daughters. The idea is they fought like a “band of brothers-in-law” more than a closely related “band of brothers,” fathers and sons from a single community. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Napoleon Chagnon

(Visited 7 times, 1 visits today)