Customer Reviews

Into The Heart: One Man's Pursuit of Love and Knowledge Among the Yanomami

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With Into the Heart, Good and Chanoff have created that all-too-rare phenomenon-- a book that can be equally enjoyed by the general reader and the academic specialist. A riveting account of Good's years with the Yanomami people of Venezuela and Brazil, it can be read as a rich ethnography, an "insider's view" of the scientific research process, an edge-of-your-seat travel yarn, or a rainforest version of "Romeo and Juliet." I first encountered it quite by chance in the trade-book section of a chain bookstore, where the word "Yanomami" on the cover caught my eye. In my graduate training as a cultural anthropologist, I had read descriptions of the Yanomami characterizing them as "the fierce people." jungle warriors whose obsession with violence and warfare alledgedly proved that human nature was innately nasty and brutish. So I was both astonished and pleased to read Good's nuanced descriptions of life in a Yanomami village, to find that this much-maligned group was composed of unique, complex individuals, some aggressive, some gentle, all impressively resourceful in adapting to their rainforest environment. I now use it as an auxiliary text in my introductory classes, and student response has been overwhelmingly positive. Good's discussion of his research brings to life the interplay of scientific theory and data in a dramatic and accessible way. At the same time, his sketches of daily life among the Yanomami transport the reader so effectively that one can almost smell the meat roasting on the campfires, hear the low murmur of voices punctuating the night, feel the rhythm of lives enjoyed in attunement with nature and kin. The Yanomami no longer seem like strangers in a strange land, but like neighbors-- people we feel we know. And then there's the love story that propels the narrative and provides suspense, the memoir of gradually flowering trust, tenderness, and commitment between Ken and Yarima, the Yanomamo woman who would become his wife and the mother of their three children. The emotional richness of their struggle to preserve love in the face of immense cultural barriers is especially appealing to college-age readers, and probably explains why more than one undergraduate has confessed that "Ken Good's book was the only one I read cover-to-cover this semester-- I just had to find out what happened!" A rare human document that can be enjoyed on many levels, this unique story will find its way "into the heart" of any reader who enters its rainforest world-- and will not be soon forgotten.

"Into the Heart" by Kenneth Good with David Chanoff was for me the most inspiring book of this decade and this century. When I began reading it, I could not put it down until I read the last sentence, in the wee hours of the morning.

This book had such an impact on me that I was compelled to read it over and over again. It was THIS BOOK that inspired me to travel to the Amazon in October 1999. I would highly recommend this excellent account of life among stone age people for anyone who has an open mind and wants to learn of aboriginal cultures in South America. This book is for everyone who likes to read about adventure, travel, altruism, love, and the dangers one may encounter travelling in "unchartered waters."

It would have been difficult for me not to identify with the protagonist (the author)as I read of his struggles to learn the language, to gain acceptance in Yanomami society, to learn the simple code of ethics in a primitive culture as well as his efforts to acquire survival skills such as learning to fish, hunt, climb trees, go on long treks. My own sense of wonder and excitement grew when I read of the author's "first contact" with hitherto uncontacted Yanomami tribes, and the reaction of these people upon seeing an outsider-a white man-for the first time! I was filled with admiration for the author when I read in chapter 9 that he distributed his very last malaria pill to a Yanomami tribesman, a deed for which he almost paid the ultimate price.

His inner struggles with his conscience are apparent when in chapter 7 the author could no longer be the casual observer, the detached scientist-researcher, and allow the stabbing of a poor, whimpering, malaria stricken woman. A scientist in the field is supposed to observe but not intervene. By putting his feelings first, he saved a life.

Upon reading this book, I felt the utter despair that the author must have experienced when he thought he would lose his wife, Yarima, because of needless red tape, delaying his permit to return to her and her tribe. I also felt his happiness upon finding her again. I was sorry to learn when I saw the National Geographic documentary entitled "Yanomami Homecoming" that Yarima decided not to return to the USA with her husband and children, especially since she indicated in the documentary that she loved her husband. This was why she had married him and moved to New Jersey where she lived for 6 years trying to adapt to western life.

My life was greatly enriched by reading this book. I had learned a great deal about birth and death in Yanomami society, about funeral practices, incest taboos, practising agriculture in the jungle, strange customs such as body painting and other forms of body beautification. Having read several other books about indigenous people of the Amazon I can truly say, this book eclipses them all.

Books I have read about the Yanomami include: "Amazon" and "Savages" both by Dennison Berwick; "Aborigines of the Amazon Rainforest" by Robin Hanbury Tenison; and "Amazon Journal" by Geoffrey O'Connor.

From an avid reader in Alberta, Canada, October 30, 1999 *****

I am a sociologist, and have used Good and Chanoff's book, Into the Heart, as required reading in one of my courses for four years in a row. It's a large second-year course on comparative sociology, and it aims to help students develop an ability to understand and analyze societies of very different types. To this end, the course blends sociology, anthropology and history. The book Into the Heart was originally brought to my attention by a college representative of its publishing company; she said it was one of the most fascinating books she'd ever read, and she thought it might work well in my course. I dutifully began to read it, and wound up making the decision to adopt it even before I'd finished reading it -- I found it that good. Four years later, now, I can say this: out of all the books I've used as required reading in all the courses I've taught, none has ever caught the attention of my students as well as Into the Heart. I've had students come up to me spontaneously to say things like it was the most interesting book they'd ever read, that having started it they'd stayed up all night reading it, that they'd bought a copy for a friend as a Christmas present, etc. The book is unique in my experience in that way. The issues it revolves around divide opinion among students, but it seems to never fail to fascinate them, and the disagreements make for excellent discussions class discussions. My teaching assistants tell me the same about their experiences with it in the tutorials they run. They also tell me that the students engage themselves with this book like no other. I'd encourage anyone to read it, and would specifically encourage faculty looking for captivating reading for their students, in relevant courses, to check it out.

As an anthropologist who did his doctorate research with Yanomami, teaches university courses using several books about them, and edited Indigenous Peoples and the Future of Amazonia, I would like to comment on Good's book. Among other things, Good illustrates remarkably well and with rare candor some of the practical, political, and human problems of fieldwork, like maintaining balance between detachment and involvement. For example, he was naturally concerned about companionship and integration into the community where he lived for 12 years. The most important opportunity to satisfy this concern gradually developed with an arranged marriage volunteered by the village headman following the customs of the Yanomami. The betrothal of the Yanomami girl Yarima to Good began when she was about 12, but the marriage was not consummated until she was several years older. From Yarima's quotes in the book this relationship clearly evolved into romantic love. Yanomami mature socially at a much earlier age than most Americans and it is not unusual for an older male to marry a much younger female in their society like many others. Thus, those who are quick to criticize this relationship fail to appreciate (or acknowledge) such details of the cultural context, and merely expose their own prejudice--- ageism, ethnocentrism, and racism. Such critics even ignore Yarima's own words! Whether or not a reader agrees with everything in the book, it is certainly a refreshingly candid account of one anthropologist's field experience and a balanced account of the daily life and culture of the Yanomami.

LIke many, I picked this book up from an interest in anthropology. Like most of those same people, when I finished it, it felt as if i'd ended a great novel. To be completely honest, there are a severely limited number of times I (a twenty-six year old male graduate student in politics) have read a book only to have tears roll down my cheeks. Seriously, this is a glorious story as well as a fascinating anthropological commentary.

Here's the context: Ken Good was a graduate student under Napoleon Chagnon who was one of the first to do work with the Yanomamo indians. Chagnon wanted Good to do some research (field work) that might help supplement Chagnon's thesis that that Yanomamo are violent more by nature than culture. No matter the reasons, Good ends up not only abandoning Chagnon and his research, but finds the Yanomamo significantly less violent (by nature or culture) than Chagnon did. This may, in part, have been due to the fact that where Chagnon always remained the detached observer (his book is full of graphs, charts, and statistics), Good's got very personal (no stats here, for better or worse).

...Which brings us to the next layer of the story. Beyond being an anthropological perspective on the Yanomama, it is a fantastic - FANTASTIC! - love story. After a few years of living in the Yanomama community, good was offered a wife according to tradition. It took him a while to warm to it (and her even longer, given that he had strange habits like writing in notebooks and wearing 'foot coverings' Who would do such things?!). Their love blossomed, though, and the second half of the book is much about a host of difficulties: his struggle to 'hold on to her' when obligation took him out of the village for months at a time, the struggle to get a legal marriage to a woman who has no birth records, and later, how to get her out of the village with him.

The only problem i had with the book has less to do with the book and more with its circumstances. Good comments that Chagnon, in painting the Yanomama to be 'fierce people' overexaggerated (rather than fabricated) their ferocity. My guess, after reading both books, is that Good did the same thing by possibly underexaggerating. Good, for instance, will speak of some of the heinous things that Yanomama do, speak of it as a ancillary side-note, and wrap it up in two sentences, only returning to the topic chapters down the road. Truth be told, I think the truth lies betwixt Chagnon's and Good's accounts and I can't fault either book, but when one reads the two together, one gets the impression that BOTH authors completely missed (or ignored) things that the other got. How else could such different accounts come to pass?

For all that I strongly recommend this read both for education in anthropology and as one of the best love stories around.

Ken Good's Into the Heart is a valuable addition to anthropological literature for several reasons: it gives us a personal account of the trials, tribulations, and rewards of fieldwork; it adds some balance to the literature on the Yanomama, which has at times focused almost obsessively on the violent aspects of their culture; and it provides a context within which some aspects of the ethics of ethnographic fieldwork can be discussed.

Ken's book is an account of the encounter between one anthropologist and the people he studied. It is absorbing always, joyful at times, painful at other times, and it certainly contains lessons about the difficulties of cross-cultural relationships.

Ronald Kephart Ph.D., Anthropology

Good's work is a participant observation study of a primitive group of Indians who live along the Orinoco river in the Amazon. These people live communally and have a different world view than most of us are familiar with. As a result, the Yanomama normative structure is based on their world and culture. As I tell my sociology students, certain patterns may be considered universal, but the content of culture varies. For example, the Yanomama have no concept of privacy. Everything they did according to Good was public, except for sex and defecation. This is similar to the south African !Kung (Bushmen) who have no word for stranger. (Lee, 1969, !Kung Bushmen Subsistence...) They lived in large circular houses called shapono. There were no walls in these structures, and people arranged themselves by kinship and lineage so that the social organization of the families in the village is reflected in the placement of hearths and hammocks. It is within this structure and the central plaza that nearly all domestic activity takes place: child rearing, food distribution and preparation, trading and feasting, curing and cremation, drug taking of the men, singing and dancing of the women. (p. 33)

Good referred to the Yanomama as the pain in the neck people instead of the fierce people as Napoleon Chagnon did in his original work of the same title. Good found the Yanomama's lack of concern for privacy somewhat difficult to deal with. In our culture, privacy and independence are the expected norm. We even have terms for behaviors that violate such norms such as invasion of privacy and, of course, trespassing. The Yanomama are not viewed as violent or aggressive but rather as highly emotional and acting without (social) constraints. We might call this behavior impulsive.

Good believed that "... the best way to study the Yanomama was to understand the entire cultural context, rather than concentrate solely on the quantitative measurements...wanted to understand them--and I wanted them to understand me...not simply to record what they were doing, but to comprehend what it meant in the context of their lives." (p. 47)

The Yanomama never use their names in public...they call each other by the appropriate kinship term (father, mother, son, daughter) (p. 52) With a numeric system that stops at two, the Yanomama do not reckon years or ages; instead they categorize people according to general age groups: infants, children, adolescents, adults, elders. (p. 66) Their sense of self (women) included lack of concern for the way they appeared to others. Judgments about another person were not based on how they looked/appeared. Although skills in hunting and shamanism were valued, still every person was on the same level as every other one. There was minimal concern with vanity. (p. 80).

Among the Indians, a visit is never just a visit...and trade is always involved. (p. 97) Normally, the Indians don't like to have their pictures taken since they believe that the image (soul-noreshi) is captured. They were especially irritated when the German scientist Eibel-Eibesfeldt set up a video camera in the middle of the village all day. (p. 137)

I certainly empathize with Kenneth Good's comments about Chagnon's work. Unfortunately, I have never been to the Amazon, or lived with the Yanomamo. I do envy his experiences. In addition, I give complete credibility to his comments and find them most interesting. In the past, I assigned his book as required reading for my Sociology classes. I also list Chagnon's work as supplementary reading as well.

This is one of the most entertaining books that I've read from cover to cover throughout my college education. I've also been lucky enough to have Dr. Good as a professor for two classes. We used this book for both classes. In reading this book and hearing first hand of his life in the Amazon, has made me realize that the world is bigger and more diverse than I ever wondered. His marriage to Yarima shows the love that can happen to people being from anywhere in the world. Some of his colleagues at the University like to show their lack of intelligence by talking about this marriage to Yarima. If they had half the experience Dr. Good posses in the field they would realize that they are just jealous of being nobodies in his department.

This book is mixed. On the one hand, we obtain the perspective of a student of one of the more eminent anthropologists of the field, Napoleon Chagnon. He describes in detail the so-called Great Protein debate between Marvin Harris (who argues that competition for game leads to warfare) and his own mentor (who claims that abduction of women is the flashpoint for war), and, by measuring the weight of game brought into "his" village, concludes that Harris wins the debate in this instance. His attempt to explain why he is weighing all those porcupines to a people whose vocabulary contains no numbers exceeding "more than two" is hilarious.

I have no problem with his sex and marriage with a locally defined adult woman--even if she was only 13 years at first contact. We have a rigid view of sex that would put him in the slammer if he did it in New Jersey or even in Caracas--but this was Yanomamo territory. I have no truck with the bluenoses who cry ethics--unless he raped or otherwise coerced her. If the attraction was mutual, then their relationship is neither your business nor mine. (And they tell us that anthropologists are not ethnocentric!)

On the other hand, I do have a problem with all that whining and paranoia attending his falling out with Chagnon. What does he expect? Of course there is going to be friction. It may be that Chagnon is so rigid in his thinking that he tolerates no dissent--an anti-academic attitude if there ever was one, but what else is new? Tolerance of different opinions is the exception, not standard practice, in academia. If Good dissents from Massa Napoleon, he should prepare to take the consequences from the Stalins of academia.

For the record, I think Chagnon's view is closer to the mark, inasmuch as Good never reports an actual battle arising between two bands meeting at a contested game site. Indeed, affirming the protein weight as expected in Harris's hypothesis, in and of itself alone, does not settle the issue.)

All in all, not a bad book--if he cuts out all that self-pity.

My name is Bettina Schneider, I am German, a sports journalist and working as a commentator for Eurosport Television in Paris/France. When I discovered the book, I read it within one night, I couldn't stop, because I was too fascinated. People always told me, real lasting love between two different cultures is quite impossible - but Kenny and Yarima proved it to the whole world - it's not!! Just as Kenny, I am sick and tired of the superficial way of dealing with other people, the typical western way of looking for vanity first, appearence and - income! I want to be free, work with children, be alive - and thus I made up my mind! I am about to move to Paraguay, where last year during a long vacation at the Estancia Aventura close to Caacupé, I fell in love with a Paraguayan Gaucho. I always doubted, that a real future would be possible for us. But now I feel, I have the courage to do it. I am learning his language, Guarani, and I will try, I will give my best to believe in a similar miracle. All you need is love and understanding of each other, tolerance and real feelings. Thank you, Kenny and Yarima - I wish you, David and Vanessa a wonderful life! How I would love to meet you one day... Following your example, I will try to dream a real dream, far away from artificial life and close to something real - the incredible nature and the loving of natural people. Nothing is comparable to what you guys went through, but your example gave me confidence, and reading your book, Kenny, I felt alive and full of hope, despite all your problems with burocracy... I'll never forget you!