The Mysterious Arrow Poison of the Yanomamo

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The Mysterious Arrow Poison of the Yanomamo

By Oleg Nekrassovski

Helena Valero’s famous autobiographical narrative contains a chapter

(Ch. 12) titled “The Poisoned Arrow” (Valero 1971: 92-96). In that chapter

she describes a clear instance of her being shot in the leg by a Yanomamo

arrow, which she believed had a poisoned head. But what kind of an arrow

head (or point) was it? And, most importantly, with what kind of poison (if

any) was it covered?

Valero describes that when she pulled on the arrow that hit her, its

head remained deep in her flesh, and it was very difficult for her to retrieve

it. This suggests that this was a husu namo point, which is manufactured in

such a way as to allow it to break off inside the target, in order to make its

retrieval very difficult (Chagnon 1983: 46). Moreover, according to Chagnon

(1983: 46), such an arrow point is often used to hunt monkeys; and it is

always covered with poison, which is usually curare.

Also, in Valero’s narrative, the Yanomamo man who shot her, clearly

states that he is confident that Valero is dead; because he shot her with a

poisoned arrow, which carried the same poison with which he instantly

killed a monkey the day before.

Consequently, it is nearly certain that Valero’s assailant shot her with

an arrow tipped with a husu namo point. And it also seems no less certain


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that the husu namo point, which went into Valero’s leg, was not coated with

curare.

Valero (1971: 92-93) describes how not long after being shot, her

arms and legs started to feel terribly heavy and her sight became misty with

yellow overtones. Soon she collapsed to the ground and could no longer

move; and it seemed to her that her whole body has fallen asleep. But

while she lost control of all muscles that are normally under voluntary

control and her vision became disturbed, her hearing and reasoning still

remained completely functional for some time, as she easily managed to

hear and understand a nearby conversation. Awhile later, however, her

hearing, together with her remaining sight, rapidly disappeared and her

consciousness was completely lost. However, she did not die, but only fell

into a deep, temporary sleep.

Though it is true that victims of curare poisoning experience a total

impairment of the function of the motor nerves (Thomas 1963: 63), and

hence a loss of voluntary muscle function (similar to that experienced by

Valero); they also experience a paralysis of respiratory muscles and

subsequent, quick death from asphyxia. In fact, great breathing difficulty is

experienced even before generalized paralysis (McIntyre 1947: 132). While

Valero neither experienced any breathing difficulties nor died.

There is strong evidence of visual disturbances among victims of

curare poisoning. However, this usually occurs when curare is injected

intravenously, rather than slowly dissolves into the bloodstream through


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capillaries; as is the case when the victim is shot with a poisoned arrow

(McIntyre 1947: 177-178).

Finally, it is generally agreed that during curarization (at least with

small doses, such as those delivered by poisoned arrows) full

consciousness is retained (provided, of course, the respiration is artificially

maintained) (McIntyre 1947: 179). In direct contrast to this, Valero’s

consciousness was completely lost.

Moreover, Valero (1971: 93) states that after waking up from her

arrow poison induced sleep, she felt no pain in her severely wounded leg

for about half a day, during which she slowly recovered control of her

muscles. Only during the second half of that day, during which her muscles

became more and more functional and she warmed up, did the pain slowly

start and began to increase.

On the other hand, in victims of small dose curare poisoning, only the

function of the motor nerves is impaired (hence a loss of all muscular

function), while sensory nerves (and hence sensations of pain) remain

unaffected (Thomas 1963: 63).

Valero (1971: 93) also recounts that during the second half of her first

day of recovery, she had a very bitter taste in her mouth, similar to that

produced by chewing quinine.

So, it seems fairly certain that Valero was not hit by a curare tipped

arrow. But then what kind of substance could it have been?


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References

Chagnon, Napoleon A. 1983. Yanomamo: The Fierce People. 3rd ed. New

York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

McIntyre, A. R. 1947. Curare: Its History, Nature, and Clinical Use.

Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Thomas, K. Bryn. 1963. Curare: Its History and Usage. Philadelphia: J. B.

Lippincott Company.

Valero, Helena, and Ettore Biocca. 1971. Yanoama: The Narrative of a

White Girl Kidnapped by Amazonian Indians. New York: E. P. Dutton

& Co.

Dr. Daniel Hoffman, who is an expert on South American arrow poisons, sent

me the following comment on the above article:

In addition to curare, and the frog-based substances, there are several

other lesser-known classes of arrow-poison known from South America, including

cardiac-glycosides, from the Northwest Amazon, and anticoagulants, from the

Southern Amazon. Although I am not very familiar with the Valero case, from

what you have written it nonetheless seems consistent with curare poisoning.


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It is important to recognize that curare is not a single substance, but a

diversity of native preparations which—though all causing paralysis—vary in

composition, strength and secondary effects. McIntyre’s research, for example,

was conducted with a highly-purified curare extracted from a single plant species

in the family Menispermaceae. While it is impossible to know the exact

composition of the poison that allegedly affected Valero, I believe that Yanomami

curare is based on Strychnos, in the family Loganiaceae. The phytochemistry of

the genus is highly complex, and any one species can have many chemically-

related but pharmacologically distinct secondary compounds. While yes, the

monkey will become weak and fall out of the tree, it is difficult to say what other

pharmacological effects may follow poisoning by a given preparation, and one

can’t assume that action of the Yanomami drug would be the same as that seen in

the curare studied by McIntyre. That curare became a pharmaceutical drug,

owing to its clean action (few effects other than paralysis). In contrast, even

relatively-purified Strychnos-based preparations tended to provoke fatal allergic

reactions and other unwanted complications, and, as far as I know, Strychnos

extracts were never were deemed suitable for medical uses.

Regarding the Valero account, the experience of very heavy limbs, leading

to partial or total paralysis, is perfectly consistent with non-fatal curare poisoning.

Curare’s effects are dose-dependent, and most scientists have asserted that

respiratory collapse is the final effect of curare-poisoning. A human being is much

heavier than a monkey, and the dose needed to cause a monkey to fall from a

tree is probably far lower than that needed to kill a person. Finally, curare

preparations themselves vary considerably in strength. I don’t believe the

Yanomami poison is as strong as some others, but I can’t say this with certainty.

Though the issues of awareness and pain are significant, I think consciousness and

the experience of pain may be quite unpredictable under such stressful

circumstances as those Valero described, in addition to the many possible real but

unknown effects of such a complex and varied product as a native curare.

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The Mysterious Arrow Poison of the Yanomamo