Darkness in El Dorado

Darkness in El Dorado

Darkness in El Dorado (subtitled: How Scientists and Journalists Devastated the Amazon) is a book written by investigative journalist Patrick Tierney in 2000 that accuses geneticist James Neel and anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon of exacerbating a measles epidemic among the Yanomamo people and conducting human research without regard for their subjects' wellbeing. It was nominated for a National Book Award. Publication of the book provoked scandal, outrage and public hearings, and has been a source of significant academic controversy. These allegations have also been explored in the recent documentary film Secrets of the Tribe by Brazilian director José Padilha.

Contents

Claims

  • That Napoleon Chagnon and James Neel directly and indirectly caused a genocide in the region through the introduction of a live virus measles vaccine.
  • That the whole Yanomami project was an outgrowth and continuation of the Atomic Energy Commission's secret program of experiments on human subjects.
  • That Chagnon's account of the Yanomami are based on false, non-existent or misinterpreted data, and that Chagnon actually incited violence among them.
  • That French researcher Jacques Lizot, protégé of anthropology icon Claude Lévi-Strauss, made prostitution a way of life for young Yanomami boys.
  • That Kenneth Good married a Yanomami girl who was barely entering her teens.

Investigation

The American Anthropological Association has since made stern statements concerning the proper conduct for anthropologists in the field. The book was examined and many of Tierney's claims challenged by various panels of historians, epidemiologists, anthropologists, and filmmakers who had direct knowledge of the events soon after its publication.

A detailed investigation of these charges by a panel set up by the University of Michigan found the most serious charges to have no foundation and others to have been exaggerated. Sponsel and Turner, the two scientists who originally touted the book's claims, admitted that their charge against Neel "remains an inference in the present state of our knowledge: there is no 'smoking gun' in the form of a written text or recorded speech by Neel."[1]

References

  1. ^ John Tooby, "Jungle Fever: Did two US scientists start a genocidal epidemic in the Amazon or was The New Yorker duped? Slate, October 24th, 2000.

External links


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