Biography
Napoleon was an American social anthropologist, master of socio-cultural anthropology at the University of Missouri, Columbia, and an affiliate of the National Academy of Sciences. Napoleon Chagnon was born on August twenty-seven in 1938. He was the second child in a family of twelve siblings. As a teenager, Chagnon joined Michigan College of Mining and Technology in 1957. Later, Napoleon transferred to the University of Michigan. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in 1961, a Master’s in Anthropology, in 1963, and a Ph.D. in the same 1966. He was known for his ethnographic fieldwork amongst the Yanomamo (Hames et al., 2020). While in the Yanomami society, Napoleon used an evolutionary model to understand social attitudes in terms of an ancestral connection. His profession concentrated on the investigation of brutality among tribal groups (Chagnon, 2012). Applying socio-biological reflections, Chagnon developed the dispute that intensity between the groups is kindled by an evolutionary manner in which prosperous fighters have more children. His 1967 ethnography The Yanomamo, (The Fierce People) became a blockbuster and constantly is enrolled in basic anthropology programs.
Chagnon also spent some months in association with the Yanomamo of Brazil and Venezuela, analyzing demography, and cultural systems, including hostilities. He further lived for nearly a month with the Carib-speaking Makiritare of Brazil and Venezuela, investigating the social standard (Hames et al, 2020). Napoleon distributed numerous chapters in Natural History and Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. He has conferred essays at conferences of the American Anthropological Association and the National Academy of Science.
Summary
In the community of Yanomamo, high child fatalities are experienced. Individuals believe that the deaths are caused by the evil spirits from their rival alliances. This leaves them with a desire to revenge by sending their evil spirits back to the other communities. Chagnon is an anthropologist who takes some periods during various walks to the Yanomamo society of Venezuela and Brazil, then describes his verdicts in the form of this thesis. He describes several qualities of the races, including information concerning two essential men in his analysis. Karbala is the Sheriff of a Bisaasiteri community of the Yanomamo individual (Chagnon, 2012). He is a modest, humble male who commands mainly by model. When he requires his community to clear the weeds from a common division in readiness for a ceremony, he starts the task and is supported by others who prepare most of the business. The other man is Rerebawa, who Chagnon considers his best friend.
Themes
Imbalance
In the community, junior men train to be aggressive and receive presents when they beat out others. Youthful ladies are regarded as an asset only if they can exercise various tasks in their early lives. Girls are restricted and get surrendered at weddings that are profitable to their fathers, siblings, or male relatives and serve their spouses (Hames et al., 2020). When their companions are ruthless, male siblings occasionally deliver the lady, usually providing her in the wedding to another man. Because of this possibility of redemption from evil circumstances, ladies despise the idea of being taken inmates or swapped to another community. The selling of women is accepted as is being apprehended (Chagnon, 2012). When a community gets attacked, ladies take their juvenile offspring with them whenever they flee. Therefore, if they get caught, they will not part from their kids.
Conflict
Battle, in different designs, is prevalent in several situations. Chagnon states that several individuals have lost a spouse, daughter, parent, or sibling to hostilities. The thorax contest is a legal custom Yanomamo practices to evade full-fledged conflict (Hames et al., 2020). In this fight, two gentlemen contest, one chap stretching his chest and the opposite hitting by his fist. Chagnon says he sees many changes occur among the Yanomamo people throughout his research.
Superstition/Notions
Another topic noted in this book of Yanomano is the theme of superstitions. Notions perform a crucial part in the everyday experiences of the Yanomamo characters. Child fatality percentages are high, and it is claimed that all anonymous losses result from evil ghosts (Chagnon, 2012). The community people believe that someone conveys these malignant powers. To seek revenge, society affiliates send their sinister vitalities to the neighboring communities.
The Structure of the Book
The Yanomami have branches going within their snouts and attention to detail and ritual ideas. The society kids help their parents while the men safeguard the community (Hames et al., 2020). The alliances dwell in large, round, public organizations called shabonos, and most races survive entirely in the jungles, shooting, fishing, and gathering. They produce crops for diet and medication and use them to establish homes and create ordinary gadgets.
The Relevance and Usefulness of the Book
The Yanomamo book describes the Yonamami society that speaks languages such as Sanumá, Yanomamo Waiká, and Nigam. Various regional differences and languages also persist, such that personalities from separate communities cannot continually know each other. Several translators, particularly the Latin Americans, consider the Yanomami language to be a literature to appreciate. The book of Yanomamo is useful because suggests topics fundamental to the sector of anthropology proposals concerning the application of fieldwork. It is also useful because it evaluates the generation of consciousness and anthropology’s intelligence including moral imagination (Chagnon, 2012). The article describes beliefs that incite dispute and ways to turn around social traditions that have been amazingly prevalent in society, such as woman captures, necromancy complaints, and vengeance raids. Finally, this book aims to provide medical education on some diseases that the Yanomami tribes do not recognize.
References
Chagnon, N. A. (2012). The Yanomamo. Nelson Education.
Hames, R., Irons, W., & Flinn, M. (2020). In memoriam: Napoleon A. Chagnon. Evolution and Human Behavior, 41(3), 177-182. Web.