Yanomami Tribe

The Yanomami are one of the most numerous, and best-known, forest-dwelling tribes in South America. They can count only up to 2 and anything more than that is called “many.” They fart as a greeting to each other. Yanomami girls experiencing their first period are isolated, forced to whisper, and fed with a stick. In 1978, anthropologist Kenneth Good, while living with the Yanomami tribe in the Amazon, was offered a 12-year-old girl as a wife, in accordance with tribal customs. They consummated the marriage soon after her first period (he says she was 15, but the tribe doesn't record ages) and had kids. The tribe cremates their dead and the resulting ash is mixed with fermented banana. This mixture is then consumed by the tribespeople, as a way of making sure that the spirit of the deceased member continues to live among them.