What is "yanoama"

Yanoama: The Story of Helena Valero, a Girl Kidnapped by Amazonian Indians (original Italian title Yanoáma: dal racconto di una donna rapita dagli Indi) is a biography of Helena Valero, a white woman who was captured in the 1930s as a girl by the Yanomami, an indigenous tribe living in the Amazon rainforest on the border between Venezuela and Brazil. She lived with the Yanomami for about two decades (variously given as 20, 22, or 24 years). While living with the Yanoama, Valero married twice and gave birth to four children (three sons and one daughter). She escaped in 1956 to what she refers to as "the white man" in the country of her birth. After rejection by her family and living in poverty at a mission, Valero chose to return to life with the Yanomami.

Valero recounted her life's story to Italian anthropologist Ettore Biocca, who published the account in 1965. In the book, Valero tells of life in the forest: hunter-gatherer living in the Amazon; the customs, lore, rituals, and observances of Yanomami culture; and the relationships and wars between individuals, families, and tribes. The book includes detailed information about life in several Yanomami tribes.

The account has been called rich, exotic, chilling, frustrating and tantalizing, and extraordinary. Its authenticity is accepted by anthropologists.