The Yanomami (also spelled Yąnomamö or Yanomama) are a group of about 35,000 indigenous people who live in the Amazon rainforest between Brazil and Venezuela. Distributed in approximately 250 autonomous villages, each community is economically and politically autonomous. However, they maintain a vast social network throughout the whole Yanomami territory. It extends over nearly 20 million hectares, which makes it the largest indigenous forest territory in the world (9.6 million hectares in Brazil and 8.2 million in Venezuela).

The Amazonian forest where their territory resides is dense and humid. It is crossed by many rivers, including the great Orinoco River. However, the Yanomami are wary of water and prefer the cloudy heights and mountainous hills of the forest.
This territory has been under threat for almost a century. In the 1950s, the first sustained contacts with the outside world began, and the arrival of evangelical and Catholic missionaries disrupted the lifestyle of the indigenous people. But the door to their territory was brutally opened during the military dictatorship of Brazil, in the 70’s great roads were traced in the middle of their territory, destroying everything that was in their path. Then, during the gold rush of the 80’s, miners came following cattle ranchers and military. Nearly 40,000 Brazilians invaded their land. They defiled their natural environment, but above all they destroyed villages and imported diseases that decimated the Yanomami population. 20% of the Yanomami population was eradicated in only 7 years. Although the areas and people are now preserved under the Yanomami Park label, many violations, violence and degradation continue to occur and land exploitation is still a serious problem. However, there are still small communities that have not been exposed to this. The uncontacted Yanomami, Moxihatetea, nevertheless lives in an area near illegal mining corporations, potentially exposing them to the same perils as other communities.