Yanomami Baskets
Yanomami means “human being”. The Yanomami are located in the Amazon rainforests of Brazil and Venezuela. The Yanomami are an indigenous tribe, which is made up of subdivisions of Indian villages that live in seclusion.
Each household contains one to six family compartments and live together in a larg circular structure called a Shabono. Social life is organized around kinship relationships, descent from ancestors, and marriage. They are hunters and gatherers and tend small garden plots. The Yanommami are believed to be the most primitive, culturally intact people in the world and the last culture to come into contact with the modern world.
The women weave and decorate flat baskets and carrying baskets, which are carried by a strap around the forehead. Red berries called onoto are used to dye the baskets and to paint their bodies. Their baskets are often decorated with dots, circles, waves and lines by using masticated charcoal pigment.
