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

This book is at the center of considerable controversy. Tierney (visiting scholar at U. of Pittsburgh) spent 11 years writing it. His subject is the activity of Napoleon Chagnon and other preeminent anthropologists who, in the 1960s, encountered and described a remote tribe inhabiting the jungles and highlands of Venezuela and Brazil; and Tierney's claim is that these anthropologists not only grossly misrepresented the Yanomami, but exploited and damaged them as well. In response to the book, the president of the National Academy of Sciences issued a detailed statement that specifically (and convincingly) identifies "misleading and inaccurate information about Academy activities, the nature of the Edmonston B Vaccine, and a deceased member of the Academy...." Tierney's book makes a scathing case, but not if his facts are inaccurate. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Patrick Tierney spent ten years researching and writing Darkness in El Dorado. His first book, The Highest Altar, will be the subject of a National Geographic TV documentary in 2000.