The dynamics of war and alliance among the Yanomami
Sociologus Beiheft/Supplement 1.1999:103-116
##This article explores the dynamics of war and alliance among the Yanomami in the Mavaca-Orinoco area of Venezuela between 1930 and 1980.
I will first turn to the structural conditions conducive to war and deal with the models in game theory that analyse the strategic interaction of political actors. In the second part the dynamics of war and alliance among the Yanomami will be discussed.
Although indigenous wars are not pristine wars but take place in a national and global context that influences the course and intensity of wars in the tribal zone, they cannot be explained only by reference to this wider context. Important as expanding states and the world economic system may be, it seems nevertheless imperative to analyse the internal logic of indigenous war. Both the wider political and economic context in its historical dimension, as well as the inherent logic of war in the tribal zone, should be taken into consideration. War can be explained structurally by the multipolarity of the political system consisting of autonomous local groups, i. e. the lack of an overarching institution, and by the fact that shifting cultivation limits the mobility of local groups so that they cannot prevent an armed conflict by simply moving to another place. This socio-cultural constellation forms the conditions under which the strategic interaction of local groups takes place.##
Keywords: war among Yanomami, Yanomami warfare, alliance and war, tribes and war, shifting cultivation and war
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