Anthropology in “Yanomamo” by Napoleon Chagnon Essay (Book Review)

Written by Napoleon Chagnon, the book Yanomamo is a masterpiece collection of information on the Yanomamo people of Brazil and Venezuela. These people form part of the ever-diminishing sovereign tribal groupings in existence in modern times. The book is majorly based on the author’s encompassing fieldwork amongst the Yanomamo coupled with chronicling what has changed amongst these people from 1996 onwards. The book has several editions, with the latest one being the sixth edition, which was published in 2013. This latest edition includes an interview with Napoleon, the author. The interview highlights the author’s personal experiences, perspectives, work-life, and anthropological changes in contemporary times, coupled with the many controversies that the book has elicited amongst critics.

The interview also clarifies issues that the reader might question given that the book is written from the first-person perspective. The book’s contents are subjective, and the reader is likely to question the authenticity of the sources and claims, and thus in the interview, the author clarifies such issues. This paper is a review and analysis of the book, The Yanomamo. It gives a summary of the book, together with thoughts, sentiments, and insights regarding the information contained in the book.

The book is divided into nine chapters, each with rich content on different issues concerning the Yanomamo based on the author’s extensive fieldwork. The book opens up with a prologue where the author introduces the Yanomamo by noting that they live on the Venezuela-Brazil border. This tribe is of the Tropical Forest Indians, and they number about 20,000 people scattered in around 200-250 villages scarcely distributed across the region (Chagnon, 2013).

Interestingly, the Brazilian and Venezuelan authorities had very limited information on these people until recently when anthropologists started visiting the region to do some studies. In the prologue, the author clarifies that the book is a case study on the Yanomamo together with their sovereignty. It took the author sixty months to complete his study, and he lived amongst these people in different villages starting from 1964. Before this time, very little was known about the Yanomamo, and very little changes had occurred in their sovereignty and the way they live.

Doing Fieldwork Among the Yanomamo

In chapter one, the author starts by giving a vignette of the Yanomamo. He notes that even though these people are sparsely scattered across am extensive tropical forest living in small villages; they have a rich and complex language. They are mostly farmers, but they supplement it with hunting. Civilization is yet to permeate the social fabric of the Yanomamo. The author highlights how he collected data in the field, where he notes that he had to learn their language and culture in his sixty months’ stay in the region. The author used first-hand information ranging from what he saw to what he was told concerning the Yanomamo’s way of life.

The author then chronicles his experiences with these people and notes that the longest day was the first one. The author notes that anthropologists encounter numerous challenges whilst collecting data, and he was not an exception. He posits, “I collected data under somewhat trying circumstances, some of which I will describe giving a rough idea of what is generally meant when anthropologists speak of culture shock and fieldwork” (Chagnon, 2013, p.10). This assertion helps the audience, which is mainly students, to understand, appreciate, and anticipate the future as anthropologists. As the author closes the chapter, he brings up a scientific problem that emerged in his study.

He notes that he realized that each village was a splinter group of a larger village upon which different patterns and problems emerged. The author noted conspicuous cause-effect relationships within the outstanding variables. The variables included “village size, the genealogical composition of villages, age and sex distributions, ecological and geographic deal of mutual suspicion, and occasional expressions” (Chagnon, 2013, p.33).

Cultural Ecology,

In chapter two, the author highlights the physical environment of the Yanomamo. He notes that these people live in the forest in an uncivilized manner. They live in the forest, which makes traveling tedious for a visitor like Napoleon. They sleep in makeshift structures made from the locally available materials. The people spend their days hunting, gathering, and gardening with the common form of farming being the slash-and-burn farming. The author then moves to the cultural ecology of settlement patterns, where he highlights the micro-movements of villages and gardens together with the macro aspects of the same. From 1990, new data emerged, and coupled with the 1991 fieldwork collections; the author highlights the Bellicose and refugee strategies together with the emergence of the great protein debate surrounding the Yanomamo data and anthropological theory.

Myth and cosmos

In chapter three, Napoleon investigates the spiritual environment of the Yanomamo. These people believe that everything under the sun has a spirit. The author explores the different myths surrounding the Yanomamo’s origins and beginnings of time. At this point, the author selects a few myths and focuses on them to unravel their role in the life of these people. One of these myths is the jaguar myth. The events surrounding the twins Omawa and Yoawa account also play a key role in the lives of these people. The Shamans act as priests cum doctors, and they control the spirits by taking yakoana, which is a psychotropic substance.

Social organization and demography

In chapter four, the author starts by chronicling the Yanomamo’s daily routines in their social lives. He notes clear divisions between males and females as well as with children and adults. The daily activities amongst these people are routine, and everyone is assigned specific duties depending on his or her status in society. The author explores the rules and principles governing the Yanomamo society. The rules are abstract, but the people abide by them altogether. For instance, men marry the suaboya, and any woman who does not meet the requirements of this definition is unmarriageable. The author then gives a pictorial presentation of an ideal Yanomamo society starting with the founder, then patrilineal descendants, who then multiply to form a village. The nuclear family in this society is insignificant, as everything happens in the communal scope.

Political alliances, trading, and feasting

In chapter five, Napoleon starts by highlighting the general features of alliances. The alliances hinge on conflicts as they are formed during clashes. The alliances are dissolved after achieving the set objectives. For instance, one group might form an alliance with a second group in a bid to massacre the third group. In this case, the second group invites the third group to a feast, after which the first group launches a surprise attack on the third group. The culmination of these attacks is perfidious feasts, commonly known as nomohori. Napoleon gives a historical background of such feasts before wrapping up the chapter with the chest-pounding duel, which normally emerges from dissatisfaction amongst individuals.

Yanomamo Warfare

In chapter six, Chagnon explores the levels of violence in society. The author notes that the Yanomamo men fight over women. In society, women are scarce, and even though the shortage is caused by some set rules, men invade other villages to steal women. However, the wars sometimes emerge within villages due to individual differences. Nevertheless, irrespective of the source and cause of the warfare, the duels are normally defined by a set of rules. The author highlights how a raid occurs where a certain number of men from the invading village ambush another village at dawn. The culmination of this ambush is a feast known as nomohori.

Alliance with the Mishimishimabowei-teri

In chapter seven, Chagnon gives the conceptions of the Mishimishimabowei-teri. The author goes back to 1950 when Ruwahiwa as treacherous killed by the Kaobawa, and these two groups now form the Mishimishimabowei-teri. The author explores the contact between Bisaasi-teri and Mishimishimabowei-teri. The 1950 treacherous feast, the nomohori, occurred at Amiana-tika. Ultimately, the author talks about the social and heroic ingredients of the Neolithic peace. In this chapter, Chagnon explores the history of the Mishimishimabowei-teri, coupled with its formation and progression. The recurring issue in the chapter is the murder of Ruwahiwa and the revenge attacks that ensued. This incident defined the following two decades until 1970. The author was personally involved in some of the attacks, and on page 225, he chronicles one of the many events that he witnessed.

The acceleration of change in Yanomamoland

In chapter eight, Chagnon (2013) focuses on “change that has most affected Kaobawa’s village and the nearby villages to which he and the Baasi-teri have traditionally linked” (p.233). The changes occurring are either gradual or catastrophic. One of the most outstanding changes is occurring from the Brazilian Yanomamo as they have started visiting the Salesian mission in Brazil. The Venezuelan counterparts are also following the same route, and they frequent the Salesian mission at Ocamo. In 1990, Napoleon collaborated with the Venezuelan authorities, which provided helicopters to open up areas that had never been visited before.

The author notes the 1993 massacre at Hashimo-teri, where Brazilian garimpeiros killed numerous people from the Hashimo-teri village. In 1987, there was a gold rush in the area, and this aspect opened the region to the authorities. As time progressed, the Yanomamo villages were reduced and concentrated on specific areas. The author closes this chapter by exploring the political, moral, and philosophical dilemmas that ensued after the outside world started visiting the Yanomamo region.

Reflections on the Yanomamo- fieldwork, and anthropology

The last chapter, is an interview with the author, Napoleon A. Chagnon, with William G. Iron posing the questions. In this section, the author answers some of the issues that critics have raised concerning the book. As aforementioned, this book elicited numerous debates within anthropological circles, with critics questioning Chagnon’s anthropological methods and ideas concerning the Yanomamo. Critics, together with human rights activists, argue that Chagnon used ethnography against the Yanomamo instead of using it for their benefit. However, in the interview, Chagnon clarifies his role as an anthropologist. He highlights the methods he used to collect his data together with his rich experience following the sixty months’ stay with the Yanomamo.

Overall, the book is written well in a manner that the reader does not struggle to understand the contents. The author admits, “I have organized this case study in such a way that students can appreciate the effects of warfare on Yanomamo culture in general and on their social organization and political relationships in particular” (Chagnon, 2013, p. 9). The strengths of this book are in the organization and structure that the author adopted. The book has a content-rich outline, which directs the reader on what to expect in every chapter. After the outline is an extensive topical illustration of the figures used throughout the book, which enables the reader to identify what each figure represents. The author also gives a list of diagrams and genealogies as used in the book with the respective page numbers, which simplifies navigation through the book.

The index is also rich with elaborate information concerning the different words used in the book with the corresponding pages of where they are used. The author also includes a list of the current movies on the Yanomamo. Chagnon was involved in the filming of some of these movies, and thus they act as complements to the book. The movies serve as an extension of the data presented in the book. This aspect is a plus to the book, as one can understand movies more easily as compared to reading a book.

The author’s prologue prepares the reader for what happens in the book. Therefore, even as one starts to read the book, s/he already knows the role of the author in the data collection and the central themes of the writing. The author uses thesis statements for each chapter by summarizing the contents therein. In compiling the book, the author consulted numerous references, which are given at the end of the book, and this aspect makes the work reliable. The glossary is also rich in information for the reader to understand the book in the best way possible.

However, the book’s weaknesses lie in the way the data was collected. The author used personal observation and stories from the Yanomamo. Unfortunately, this form of data collection is subject to bias; hence, it becomes unreliable. In addition, the available literature on the Yanomamo is limited, and thus the author was limited in his use of secondary sources for some referencing.

In conclusion, the book The Yanomamo by Napoleon Chagnon is a valuable text in anthropology. The author spent sixty months collecting data amongst the Yanomamo. This book is important as it adds to the limited literature available on the Yanomamo people living on the Venezuela-Brazil border. The book’s strengths are its structure and organization, which allows the reader to follow the highlighted events. The elaborate glossary, index, and the inclusion of pictorial presentation assist the reader in understanding the book in a better way. However, the information presented is subject to bias due to the nature of the data collection used. In a recap, the book is suitable for anthropology students, as they are the key audience targeted by the author.

Reference

Chagnon, N. (2013). Yanomamo: Case studies in cultural anthropology (6th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wardsworth Cengage Learning. Web.