One thing that I found interesting from the second half of this book was how the concept of merchandise relates to other Yanomami values. For example, one in particular that I am curious about is how merchandise relates to Yanomami conceptions of death. In the merchandise chapter, it is explained how white people are greedy, and they find a need to create endless products that will outlast them. This resonates with a typical anti-capitalist narrative you might hear today, especially relating to overconsumption. After reading this, I was expecting the following sections to discuss long lasting goods, building them to get a full use out of them rather than to sell them, or some other lesson about the longevity and purpose of products apart from being bought and sold. I was surprised, then, when reading the part about death. The first part made sense to me, when they talk about how they value the dead, and must respect their bones. I was surprised, however, by the bit about burning all of their possessions. To me this seems wasteful, as then you need to create new products for every living person even though, as was mentioned in the novel, most of the products will last longer than humans live. I was surprised about this from a consumption standpoint, but also about how they honor the dead. The book discusses how seeing the possessions of the dead distresses their families after they die. This was surprising to me because I feel like for most people I know, keeping possessions of the dead is an important way to honor and remember them. Some of the surprise on my part I think might come from some existing biases I have about what the Yanomami “should” believe in, but other parts of it are merely tied back to what we have learned about them from this book already.
Another thing that I am curious about is the choice of the word “merchandise.” While I know that this is partially the result of translations, I am also curious what led to that choice over another term. In a lot of anti-capitalist discussions or writings that I am familiar with, it is more common to refer to property, ownership, or words of that type. I suppose merchandise places the emphasis on the act of buying and selling, which is key here, but the notion of ownership still seems important to me. Regardless, I wonder what led to that word being chosen, even if it was via translation.
I agree that merchandise and condemning capitalism and neoliberalism was a huge theme especially throughout the second half. I also thought that when Kopenawa was talking about the practices of burying and honoring the dead, it made kind of a parallel with what he (and you) said about white people obsessed with building material things that will outlast them, but instead in a spiritual and cultural manner, with wars transending the dead for families to avenge their deceased.
The part about how merchandise is seen, especially when it comes to dead people’s possessions, also caught my eye. Just how the Yanomami treat death and possessions compared to the west shows how there are multiple ways to look at how to do things. The mindset you have about it will influence how you see things as right or wrong. It can be greedy to hold onto possessions or it can be about remembering family. Context is key.
I hadn’t really thought about the dichotomous nature of this relation w/ merchandise. While it does seem a bit counter-intuitive, Kopenawa also mentions how when someone is dying, they give away their possessions. And as he mentions, when things are given or shared with guests, they ask them to tell the next person who will receive the item to tell them about them. So a persons memory through things they used to won continue. I guess the implication is if someone was unwilling to give something away before they die, they have a deep personal connection to the item, and as such shouldn’t be shared. It is def an interesting thing to think about given the topic of the book, although we can assume that the scale the Yanomami are destroying things at is negligible in light of the destruction by white people
I also found the idea of burning all of the dead belongings also a little strange. When considering it from a different view it kind of reminds of me of how the Egyptians buried all of the mummies belongings in the tomb. This way they travel with them to the after-life. I wonder if they other cultures also par take in such tradition of burning or riding themselves of the deads belongings.