Who says we can't learn anything from primitive peoples? Napolean Chagnon writes a book about the "fierce people," an Amazonian tribe that values violent passion above all, and low and behold -- the Nabas (Norte Americanos) all divide up into tribes and start shooting arrows (or is that errors?) at one another. Chagnon and his fellow "anthros" start wars to film people fight, engage in germ warfare, and don't care about the people they live among. The missionaries give shotguns away that are used for murder, practice cultural imperialism, and work for the CIA. (I believe Hugo Chavez himself pointed that out!) Some guy named Tierney is a dishonest scholar. (Apparently they got that one right, anyway!)
So pick your team, and grab a club.
Meanwhile, if you want a good book about a primitive tribe, both this and Spirit of the Rainforest make great reads, even though they come from opposing factions. Their portrayal of the Yanomamo is generally consistent and fascinating, in a sometimes horrifying way. Chagnon's is more detailed, a bit more objective (though he is certainly not afraid of voicing his opinions, and the personal style and details make the book so much more interesting than just an academic abstract on an Indian tribe).
I appreciated the detail Chagnon offers: the kinds of plants used for arrows, the size of villages, family relations -- though he offered a bit more of that than I wanted -- diet, dance, death, even a bit about "pets."
Spirit of the Rainforest is an even better read, and tells you a lot about the Yanomamo as well. My recommendation: read both. Chagnon didn't always stay in the same village, either.
Sometimes Chagnon touches on what for many may be the most interesting question. To what extent does the violent lifestyle of the Yanomamo reflect that of our own "common ancestors?" Is this what it was like for Cain and Abel?
I've been reading a very interesting, but more difficult book lately called Prehistory of the Americas, which helps answer some of these questions for me. It seems that the earliest tribes were, like the Yanomamo, small kinship groups -- even smaller, wandering bands, mostly living on big game. (mammoths, etc). Graves seem to suggest at times more equality between the sexes, and perhaps less violence, though I'm still a little unsure about that.
What is shocking is that settled peoples in the Americas seem to become, if anything, less attractive. Their diet goes south (food does not seem to be the problem for the Yanomamo), and then hierarchy develops, slavery, and human sacrifice, which seems to get worse as time goes by. Nor is Sumer much better. All of which is to say, I am coming in the process to appreciate our great prophets more -- Confucius, Lao Zi, Epictetus, Buddha, Isaiah, and Jesus -- and what they've done for the human race. Sometimes Chagnon, while recognizing how nasty life has been for the Yanomamo, seems to acquiesce in the nastiness, to display a kind of "zookeeper" mentality towards primitive tribes. He seems a bit conflicted over the issue.
My own feeling is that these two tribes of nabas, anthros and missionaries, can learn a lot from one another. Understanding a people should not, after all, conflict with helping them. Maybe the naba tribes should get together and have a feast.
ISBN-13: 978-0155053274
ISBN-10: 9780155053274
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One of the best books in the history of anthropological research and ethnographic studies
Reviewed in Italy on April 22, 2021
