Bride Service

In this vignette from daily life, Dedeheiwa's son returns from hunting and brings a wild turkey and a basket of fruit for his father-in-law. He dumps the goods on the ground, since avoidance rules prohibit him from delivering them directly. Dedeheiwa shouts for someone to collect the offering, and the father-in-law's senior wife sends her husband's newest wife, a ten year-old girl, to fetch the food. She is small and the basket is large and heavy, but she manages to stagger across the village and deliver it. The film provides material for examining Yanomamö sex roles, division of labor, and obligations within the family.

This film is part of the Yanomamö series, a collaborative project undertaken by filmmaker Timothy Asch and anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon between 1968 and 1971 to film the Yanomamö Indians of southern Venezuela and northern Brazil.