e the Yanomami synonymous with aggression, Tierney charges that Chagnon himself fomented wars through his tactics of creating false alliances, giving away machetes, and staging scenes in order to substantiate his own belief in male aggression. Even worse, Tierney believes that Chagnon and his mentor, the famous geneticist James Neel, actually started the measles epidemic that decimated up to 20 percent of the tribe’s population by administering a contraindicated “dinosaur vaccine” to a highly vulnerable population. Tierney paints a horrific picture of Neel and his team of scientists rushing to get their samples of blood, urine, and saliva out of the tropical heat–and Chagnon choreographing his documentary–while the Yanomami fall like flies around them.
So we’re not just talking about a lack of professional ethics here: we’re talking about mass murder, on a scale even Mengele (whose name inevitably crops up) would have been proud of. But really, any old accusation will do, even including child abuse.
The vaccine accusation was effectively rebutted as soon as the book appeared. As for the rest, well, read the article.
In Venezuela and Brazil, as we write, the Yanomami are dying from malaria, tuberculosis, and malnutrition. In the face of this tragedy, the association has squandered its moral capital and its civility on an ad hominem attack on Napoleon Chagnon and the late James Neel. While the Yanomami die, the association debates whether Neel’s lifesaving research and immunization campaign in 1968 met standards of informed consent.
There’s also a good summary of the case from 2001 by Andrew Brown here.
It’s worth noting though from the Amazon reviews how much people want to believe this sort of anti-Western anti-science guff. The UK site has only one, five-star review:
A very moving book to read indeed. An untouched, isolated, civilised tribe called the Yanomami’s are exposed to the greediness of a modern civilisation brought down to Brazil from the capitalist west. Financial riches is the motivation for Gold diggers who destructively cause environmental damages to what was once a serene and natural area.
The US site has a far more balanced range, but again there are enough of those for whom such accusations merely confirm what they already knew:
Tierney weaves a spellbinding tale of how a mild-mannered group of starving Amazonian Indians came to be misportrayed as “The Fierce People” to promote the careers and ideological beliefs of scientists funded by a powerful U.S. govt. agency in the mid-20th century. This book rights a great wrong — the domination and extermination of native American peoples, making it a hero’s tale and thus a joy to read. The author also fulfills a journalist’s most important mission — bringing truth to light. There’s always a place on my bookshelf for books like “Darkness” that entertain, enlighten, and correct social myths that excuse, cover-up and glorify violence. I have a social science Ph.D. and Mr. Tierney’s exhaustive research, careful analysis and reasonable, thoughtful arguments seemed to me a model for social science and journalists. I’m also a working journalist, and this book was as we say in the biz, a “great read.”
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