Remember the old belief that taking a picture robs the subject of his/her soul? These people believe that having a picture taken increases the risk of dying soon:
And with good reason. In the day before quarentines were enforced, a white man carried at least two things with him into Yanomami territory: a camera and the flu virus. Not having normal defenses against them, the Yanomami died by the scores of simple flu... everytime they got photographed. It didn't take long for them to put two and two together.
So I had to pay for this picture. Not in money, as it is meaningless for them. In medicine, clothes and fishing equipment. At first, I was not very keen on giving them clothes, as I saw it as an insult to their nature. But after the first few days of being literally devoured by desease-carrying mosquitoes, it dawned on me that they
need the clothing.
