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J Scott Hill

What are the major accusations or questions of debate concerning "Darkness in El Dorado?" - 70 views

questions

started by J Scott Hill on 31 Jan 13
  • Lily Coryell
    #2 Lily Coryell on 01 Feb 13
     
    One important issue to this article is Neel's eugenic theory, which was central to the "work" that these anthropologists did in Venezuela.
  • Megan Fenrich
    #3 Megan Fenrich on 01 Feb 13
     
    Another issue in the article is Chagnon refusing to get help for the village Iwahikoroba-teri. Rather, he believed he was only there for research, and that it was not his job to help the sick.
  • anonymous
    #5 anonymous on 03 Feb 13
     
    Another major issue is that Jaques Lizot and Chagnon took advantage of the people they were studying by asking for sexual favors in turn for gifts. What's worse is that it was children that were being sexually molested.
  • Gunnar Baskin
    #6 Gunnar Baskin on 04 Feb 13
     
    Medical experts specifically said that the vaccination should not be used on those with no prior contact/immunity to measles. Even those who have had prior contact/immunity are not supposed to receive only the vaccine, but also gamma globulin injections along with the vaccine. Neel's group disregarded the medical experts and used the vaccine by itself without informing Venezuelan Govt. of the details of their experiment.
  • Derek Stavarski
    #8 Derek Stavarski on 05 Feb 13
     
    From studying the Yanomami, damages were caused. As a result from one of Chagnon's visitation, his helicopter had damaged the villages. One event almost blew the leaves of the top of the huts. This had the people in terror and the villagers were even throwing rocks at the helicopter in response. The villagers were going crazy.
  • Courtney Bell
    #10 Courtney Bell on 05 Feb 13
     
    Another issue is that Neel felt he was above the law. He was not qualified to give out this medical treatment and did not have the permission that was required by law. He was legally bound to inform and obtain the right to do so from the government, instead of taking it upon himself to inject this group of people with vaccines.
  • bobby macdonald
    #12 bobby macdonald on 06 Feb 13
     
    I think the largest and most significant action that took place was the "illegal" use of vaccines. Specifically, he mentions the Edmonson B vaccine. He says that vaccine alone killed hundreds possibly thousands and that Chagnon had no right to give these vaccines to these people. They did not have major sicknesses before Chagnon arrived. As a result, measles was an epidemic that spread like a wildfire and Tierney blames that on Chagnon. Also, another interesting part about the reading was the fact that Chagnon made these people almost into movie characters. He made the Yanomami start fights to try and film it on camera which is messed up. Additionally, these fights that began as just simple footage actually caused tension and eventually major conflict within the community.
  • Conrad Sharkin
    #13 Conrad Sharkin on 06 Feb 13
     
    I thought it was really bad that Chagnon went in search of "pure people" who were uncontaminated by the industrial revolution, and went bearing gifts of machetes and axes that the indigenous people just immediately traded for other items that were of use to them. They were said to be very vicious people, but Chagnon's reports were all wrong because when people went back and visited they said that the Yanomami were the opposite and not murderers at all.
  • Luis Quintana
    #14 Luis Quintana on 06 Feb 13
     
    I thought a major problem that Napoleon Chagnon brought upon the Yanomami people was his method in collecting information. Chagnon had a system of bribery where he influenced the Yanomami people to speak upon their dead, something taboo in their culture, with gifts such as axes and other metals that could have been highly useful in their bare society. Metal goods, being coveted items, the Yanomami sold their information with much resentment and guilt in the end. These gifts, more specifically the ax and machete, helped grow violence within the Yanomami giving Chagnon the violence he yearned for in his manipulated homicide studies.
  • Molly Lindberg
    #17 Molly Lindberg on 07 Feb 13
     
    Although there is quantifiable evidence that Neel and Chagnon miss-used the vaccine, the accusations upon Chagnon with his further field work have been stated but not proved. Chagnon could have been unaware of the intentions of Neel. They were not there during his stay with the Yanomami, but with more research on this topic, I will come to a conclusion on Chagnon's actions. Currently, I think he might be guilty by association, but should his actions be proven true, they are of grave nature especially the sexual assault charges. More importantly, why did no one question the actions of Neel while he was going behind the back of all that is Anthropology? Neel was only concerned with his research and did not care about the people he was testing.
  • Parker Delmolino
    #19 Parker Delmolino on 07 Feb 13
     
    The underlying accusation of this article is that Neel and Chagnon performed their experiments without taking into account the health, feelings and overall well-being of the Yanomano. They were willing to put the lives of many innocent people at risk in order to test a very loosely based theory that Neel had developed. Examples of this are when they exploited many members of the tribe by offering gifts in exchange for sexual favors and injected a vaccine that was seen as the cause for a deadly measles epidemic.
  • Christian Pyros
    #20 Christian Pyros on 07 Feb 13
     
    A major issue in this article was the introduction of the axes into their societies. By introducing these highly sought after tools to the Yanomamo, different tribes waged conflicts on other tribes, which did not show Chagnon how they usually acted. In a way Chagnon changed the way these tribes interact by introducing axes.
  • andrew carlino
    #21 andrew carlino on 07 Feb 13
     
    The major issue to me in this article was the fact that many of Neel and Chagnon's findings were very loosely based on fact when they were further explored. Other anthropologists had studied many of the same tribes that they had and came up with completely different interpretations of the Yanomami's culture and way of life. Not only were they based mostly on fiction, but there are many reasons to believe that Chagnon and Neel were bribing the Yanomami with machetes and other items in order to get them to act in a desired way. Ultimately, while both of these anthropologists did extensive work with the Yanomami, one must always consider their bias and motives for writing before completely accepting their writings as facts.

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