Yanomamo: The Fierce People by Napoleon A. Chagnon
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Overview: I haven’t read "The Last Days of Eden" (yet), so I don’t know the extent to which the two books overlap (a problem raised by another reviewer); this review may need editing once I find out. However, in the meantime I strongly recommend this book. Chagnon is a delightful writer, who manages to provide engaging descriptions of the Yanomamo with whom he spent so much time without using complicated jargon (with the exception of his chapter on social organization and demography, which necessitates technical explanations and is much less accessible to non-anthropologists). His initial chapters, describing his experiences starting out to do fieldwork in a remote region without even knowing the language, are fascinating.
One reviewer of "Last Days of Eden" described Chagnon as being rather condescending and looking down on the Yanomamo; I did not find any trace of that attitude here. He seems to have immersed himself completely in this very alien culture, and to understand and accept it very well, without necessarily condoning some of its less attractive features (for example, to our sensibilities, the treatment of women as bargaining chips, to buy security when a village has to seek shelter with a stronger protector). In any case, for us in the west to condemn the ritual violence which permeates Yanomamo life, but which has careful graduations to avoid establishing blood-feuds which may last generations, seems somewhat hypocritical when we ourselves have recently engaged in "vanity wars" and are increasingly using drones to obliterate our perceived enemies (and anyone else in the vicinity).
Genre: Non Fiction > Anthropology
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