I remember reading Chagnon's famous book (Yanomamo: The Fierce People) in an undergrad anthropology class. Even though my bullshit detector was a lot less finely calibrated back then, I remember thinking, "Wow, this guy really thinks he's the shit" and "Hey, I didn't think anthropologists were allowed to be racist."
Marshall Sahlins still rocks. He bummed a cigarette from me years ago when he came to give a talk at Reed. In return, he gave me a quote to use in my thesis. Swell guy.
Survival International has compiled a list of materials from experts, anthropologists and the Yanomami themselves on the Chagnon debate, and how Chagnon's work has been disastrous for the tribe.
Visit Survival's website http://www.survivalinternational.org//ar… for statements from Davi Yanomami, Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, Philippe Descola and Manuela Carneiro da Cunha, and an open letter signed by over a dozen anthropologists who have worked for years with the Yanomami. They 'disagree with Napoleon Chagnon's public characterisation of the Yanomami as a fierce, violent and archaic people. [and] deplore how Chagnon's work has been used throughout the years - and could still be used - by governments to deny the Yanomami their land and cultural rights.'
Anthropology is as much a science as, say, epidemiology. Only prissy, sanctimonious, fops who never get out in the sun unless wearing a tin foil hat to protect them from the socialist conspiracy think anthropology isn't a science.
Visit Survival's website http://www.survivalinternational.org//ar… for statements from Davi Yanomami, Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, Philippe Descola and Manuela Carneiro da Cunha, and an open letter signed by over a dozen anthropologists who have worked for years with the Yanomami. They 'disagree with Napoleon Chagnon's public characterisation of the Yanomami as a fierce, violent and archaic people. [and] deplore how Chagnon's work has been used throughout the years - and could still be used - by governments to deny the Yanomami their land and cultural rights.'