A Book to Transmit Values: Yanomami Collaborations and Educational Will

ABSTRACT This article takes as its starting point the request, in the form of letters, by Yanomami people living in Venezuela to produce a book that would enable young children to learn about the culture of their ancestors and thus avoid losing it. It will analyze this autonomous initiative, the socio‐political context of its emergence, and the political and educational will underlying this request. It will briefly present previous experiences of producing printed educational material in Indigenous languages in Venezuela. The discussion will address a number of issues, in particular the conflict between generations and the “generational gap”, and the search for autonomy through the publication of books showing how, in response to divergent positions between modern and traditional lifestyles, the publication of cultural texts corresponds as much to a political response to the imposition of external values as to a desire for transmission. The aim of this article is to highlight the ideology of transmission as a value. This configuration includes the transmission of values and therefore its control. The latter is actively desired and effective thanks to operations designed to control the transmission of knowledge as a fundamental operation guaranteeing the reproduction and perpetuation of society.