The communal maloca of Watoriki, Yanomami Indigenous Territory, State of Amazonas, Brazil, 2014.
The Yanomami are the largest low-contact indigenous ethnic group in the world. They have a population of around 40,000 people, with 28,000 in Brazil and the rest in Venezuela. They live in mountains ranges and valleys in the far north of Brazil, in the country's largest indigenous territory. The land extends from the north of the state of Roraima to the Rio Negro in the state of Amazonas. Shamanism is central to Yanomami culture. Their main leader is the shaman Davi Kopenawa, a pioneer in the campaign to establish the Yanomami Indigenous Territory, starting in the late 1970s. In 1993, Haximu, a Yanomami community, suffered a massacre by illegal miners. This led to the only conviction for the crime of genocide in the entire history of Brazilian justice. The Yanomami include at least one isolated group.
