Darkness in El Dorado: How Scientists and Journalists Devastated the Amazon - Softcover

Tierney, Patrick

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393322750 ISBN 13: 9780393322750

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2002

Synopsis

The explosive and highly controversial National Book Award finalist that has forever changed the discipline of anthropology.

Thought to be the last "virgin" people, the Yanomami were considered the most savage and warlike tribe on earth, as well as one of the most remote, secreted in the jungles and highlands of the Venezuelan and Brazilian rainforest. Preeminent anthropologists like Napoleon Chagnon and Jacques Lizot founded their careers in the 1960s by "discovering" the Yanomami's ferocious warfare and sexual competition. Their research is now examined in painstaking detail by Patrick Tierney, whose book has prompted the American Anthropological Association to launch a major investigation into the charges, and has ignited the academic world like no other book in recent years. The most important book on anthropology in decades, Darkness in El Dorado will be a work to be reckoned with by a new generation of students the world over. A National Book Award finalist; a New York Times Notable Book, a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year, and a Boston Globe Best Book of the Year. 16 pages of b/w photographs. "In many respects, the most important book ever written about the Yanomami...."―Leslie Sponsel, University of Hawaii "An astonishing tale of scientific vainglory and blinding pride....Subtly argued and powerfully written."―The National Book Award Foundation Judges' Citation "[A] tale of self-interested agendas carried to such extremes as to seem an anthropological Heart of Darkness."―Los Angeles Times "Best Books of 2000" "[W]ill become a classic in anthropological literature, sparking countless debates."―The New York Times Book Review, John Horgan "Its most immediate effect may be to provoke a needed dialogue on the crucial importance of informed consent in anthropology."―The Chronicle of Higher Education, Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban "An enthralling and well-researched look at the unscrupulous practices of anthropology and journalism."―Booklist, Vanessa Bush "Copiously annotated and well documented... the culmination of a decade-long study of what Tierney claims is false science."―Publishers Weekly starred review "Nowhere is there a better case study of the effects of intervention on tribal peoples..."―Christian Science Monitor "[A] brilliant and shocking book....This book should shake anthropology to its very foundations."―Terrence Collins, Carnegie Mellon University "An extremely important contribution."―John Frechione, University of Pittsburgh "[C]arefully researched and documented...reveals an interlocking series of scandals that constitute the most flagrant violations of scientific ethics..."―Terrence Turner, Carnegie Mellon University "[A] devastatingly truthful story of massive genocide in contemporary times."―Chief Wilma Mankiller, Board Member, The Ford Foundation "The case of Napoleon Chagnon, as harrowingly documented by Patrick Tierney, appears to be an archetypal and unbelievably appalling one."―Alex Shoumatoff, author of The Rivers Amazon, and The World is Burning 16 pages of black and whtie photographs

About this title

Review

Since Napoleon Chagnon set foot in the Amazon in 1964, the Yanomami Indians have been an emblem of savage primitive man, as well as a staple of anthropology classes. Chagnon's Yanomami: The Fierce People is the all-time bestselling anthropology book, and his award-winning documentaries brought images of brutish, wife-stealing, naked Indians into classrooms around the world. Chagnon, however, has been dogged by criticism and controversy for years, and with the publication of Patrick Tierney's Darkness in El Dorado, the debate has erupted, forcing what may be the most tragic and shameful chapter of anthropological history into public view. Tierney's allegations, if true, are devastating. While Chagnon made 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.

Tierney's research is meticulous and exhaustive (and includes the discovery of sound recording outtakes never before heard). He has penned a riveting story backed by a flood of facts that condemn Chagnon and his cohorts, and those who continue to abuse the Yanomami:

In the economics of exoticism the more remote and more isolated a tribal group is, the greater its market value. As the last intact aboriginal group, the Yanomami were in a class by themselves, poster people whose naked, photogenic appeal was matched by their unique genetic inheritance. Their blood was as coveted by scientists as their image was by photographers.

Anthropologists have been fearful of public reaction to the Chagnon scandal, and for good reason. As Yanomami spokesman Davi Kopenawa says, "For many years now anthropologists have been saying how exotic we Yanomami are. But when we finally tell our story the world will find out who is truly exotic." --Lesley Reed

About the Author

Patrick Tierney spent eleven years researching and writing Darkness in El Dorado.

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0393322750
• ISBN 13: 9780393322750
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 462