The Shirishana of the Yanomami: A demographic study

Abstract

The Shirishana, a primitive Yanomami group in north Brazil, first made contact with Western civilization in 1958. The author resided eight years among them and has researched social change in the group over a twenty‐three‐year period. At contact, the population was 118 with a sex ratio of 149. Despite foreign diseases and the practice of abortion and infanticide, the group in 1980 numbered 280 with a sex ratio of 93. This research shows a small population to be highly volatile, particularly when in the flux of cultural change. The early second stage in demographic transition theory is shown to have an initial high death rate due to foreign diseases and lower infant mortality due to medical aid. Population stability is not anticipated in the immediate years ahead.