Napoleon Chagnon

Napoleon A. Chagnon ( /ˈʃæɡnən/ shag-nən;^[1] 1938— ) is an American anthropologist and retired professor emeritus at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He was born in Port Austin, Michigan. Chagnon had earlier taught at the Pennsylvania State University.

Career

Chagnon is best known for his long-term ethnographic field work among the Yanomamö, his contributions to evolutionary theory in cultural anthropology, and to the study of warfare. The Yanomamo are a society of indigenous tribal Amazonians that live in the border area between Venezuela and Brazil.^[2]

Working primarily in the headwaters of the upper Siapa and upper Mavaca Rivers, Chagnon conducted fieldwork among these people from the mid-1960s until the latter half of 1990s. Because the Yanomamö people could not pronounce his last name, they nicknamed him "Shaki", the closest pronunciation they could approximate, which also seemed appropriate because Chagnon was constantly asking questions, and "Shaki" means "pesky bee". A major focus of his research was the collection of genealogies of the residents of the villages that he visited, and from these he would analyze patterns of relatedness, marriage patterns, cooperation, and settlement pattern histories. Applying this genealogical approach as a basis for investigation, he is one of the early pioneers of the fields of sociobiology and human behavioral ecology.

Chagnon is well known for his ethnography, Yanomamö: The Fierce People (Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1968) which was published in more than five editions and is commonly used as a text in university level introductory anthropology classes, making it the all-time bestselling anthropological text. Chagnon was also a pioneer in the field of visual anthropology. He collaborated with ethnographic filmmaker Tim Asch and produced a series of more than twenty ethnographic films documenting Yanomamö life. His life's work has made him both a celebrated figure and a lightning rod for controversy and criticism.

Chagnon studied under Leslie White at the University of Michigan.^[3]

Controversies

Darkness in El Dorado

In 2000, journalist Patrick Tierney in his book Darkness in El Dorado accused Chagnon and his colleague James Neel, among other things, of exacerbating a measles epidemic among the Yanomamö people. Groups of historians, epidemiologists, anthropologists, and filmmakers who had direct knowledge of the events investigated Tierney's claims. These groups ultimately rejected the worst allegations concerning the measles epidemic. In its report, which was later rescinded, a task force of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) was critical of certain aspects of Chagnon's work, such as his portrayal of the Yanomamö and his relationships with Venezuelan government officials.

The American Anthropological Association convened the task force in February 2001 to investigate some of the allegations made in Tierney's book. Their report, which was issued by the AAA in May 2002, held that Chagnon had both represented the Yanomamo in harmful ways and failed in some instances to obtain proper consent from both the government and the groups he studied. However, the Task Force stated that there was no support to the claim that Chagnon and Neel began a measles epidemic.^[4] In June 2005, however, the AAA voted over two-to-one to rescind the acceptance of the 2002 report,^[5] noting that "Although the Executive Board’s action will not, in all likelihood, end debate on ethical standards for anthropologists, it does seek to repair damage done to the integrity of the discipline in the El Dorado case."

Most of the allegations made in Darkness in El Dorado were publicly refuted by the Provost's office of the University of Michigan in November 2000.^[6] For example, the interviews upon which the book was based all came from members of the Salesian Society (an official society of the Roman Catholic Church) which Chagnon had criticized, and thus angered, in his book.^[7]

Tierney has since claimed that, "Experts I spoke to then had very different opinions than the ones they are expressing now."^[8]

Brazilian director José Padilha revisits the Darkness in El Dorado controversy in his documentary Secrets of the Tribe. The film, screened at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival was nominated for a Grand Jury Prize. It provides testimonials from all the key players and will surely lead to renewed debate.^[9]

Researcher contamination in Yanomamö findings

Chagnon wrote that the Yanomamö were "innately violent" and engaged in "chronic warfare". Other anthropologists argued that the Yanomamö became violent after Chagnon arrived to conduct his research and offered machetes, axes and shotguns to selected groups to elicit their cooperation.^[10][11]

In the television documentary film The Trap, Chagnon walks off-camera in disgust during an interview after having been asked if his presence in the village could have affected his study.

Written works

• Chagnon, N. A. (1966), Yanomamö Warfare, Social Organization and Marriage Alliances, Ann Arbor, Michigan: Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan 

Books

• Yanomamö: The Fierce People, 1968.
• Studying the Yanomamö, New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1974.
• Yanomamo - The Last Days Of Eden, 1992.
• Adaptation and Human Behavior: An Anthropological Perspective (with Lee Cronk and William Irons), 2002.

Book chapters

• Chagnon, N. (1986), "Yanomamö social organization and aggression", in FRIED, M., War; the Anthropology of Armed Conflict and Aggression, New York: Garden City 
• Chagnon, N. (1995), "Chronic Problems in Understanding Tribal Violence and Warfare", in WILLEY & CHICHESTER, Genetics of Criminal and Antisocial Behavior, Ciba Foundation Symposium 
• Chagnon, N. A. (1972), "Tribal social organization and genetic microdifferentiation", in HARRISON, A. & BOYCE, A., Structure of human populations, Oxford 
• Chagnon, N. A. (1973), "Daily life among the Yanomamo", in ROMNEY, A. K. & DEVORE, P. L., You and others, Cambridge 
• Chagnon, N. A. (1973), "Yanomamo social organization and warfare", in FRIED, M., Explorations in Anthropology, New York: Crowell 
• Chagnon, N. A. (1973), "The culture-ecology of shifting (pioneering) cultivation among the Yanomamo Indians", in GROSS, D. R., International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, New York: Garden City 
• Chagnon, N. A. (1977), "Yanomamo - the fierce people", in GOULD, R., Man's many ways, New York: Herper & Row 
• Chagnon, N. A. (1977), "Yanomamo warfare", in COPPENHAVER, D., Anthropology full circle, New York: Prager 
• Chagnon, N. A. (1979), "Is Reproductive Success Equal in Egalitarian Societies?", in CHAGNON, N. & IRONS, W., Evolutionary Biology and Human Social Behavior, North Scituate: Duxbury 
• Chagnon, N. A. (1979), "Mate Competition, Favoring Close kin, and Village Fissioning Among the Yanomamö Indians", in CHAGNON, N. & IRONS, W., Evolutionary biology and human social behavior, North Scituate: Duxbury 
• Chagnon, N. A. (1982), "Anthropology and the Nature of Things", in WIEGELE, T., Biology and the Social Sciences, Boulder: Westview 
• Chagnon, N. A. (1982), "Sociodemographic Attributes of Nepotism in Tribal Populations: Man the Rule-Breaker", in GROUP, K. S. C. S., Current problems in sociobiology, New York: Cambridge University Press 
• Chagnon, N. A., Ayers, M. j. a., Neel, J. V. j. a., Weitkamp, L. j. a. & Gershowitz, H. j. a. (1975), "The influence of cultural factors on the demography and pattern of gene flow from the Makiritare to the Yanomama indians", in HULSE, F. S., Man and nature : studies in the evolution of the human species, New York: Random House 
• Chagnon, N. A. & Bugos, P. E. (1979), "Kin selection and conflict : an analysis of a Yanomamö ax fight", in CHAGNON, N. & IRONS, W., Evolutionary biology and human social behavior, North Scituate: Duxbury Press 
• Chagnon, N. A., Flinn, M. V. & Melancon, T. F. (1979), "Sex-ratio variation among the Yanomamö Indians", in CHAGNON, N. & IRONS, W., Evolutionary Biology and Human Social Behavior, North Scituate: Duxbury Press 

Journal articles

• Chagnon, N. A. (1967a), "Yanomamo - the fierce people", Natural History LXXVII: 22–31 
• Chagnon, N. A. (1967b), "Yanomamö Social Organization and Warfare", Natural History LXXVI: 44–48 
• Chagnon, N. A. (1968a), "The Culture-Ecology of Shifting (Pioneering) Cultivation Among The Yanomamö Indians", International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences. 3: 249–255 
• Chagnon, N. A. (1968b), "The feast", Natural History LXXVII: 34–41 
• Chagnon, N. A. (1970), "Ecological and Adaptive Aspects of California Shell Money", Annual Report of the UCLA Archaeological Survey 12: 1–25 
• Chagnon, N. A. (1973), "The culture-ecology of shifting (pioneering) cultivation among the Yanomamo Indians", in GROSS, D. R., International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, New York: Garden City 
• Chagnon, N. A. (1975), "Genealogy, Solidarity and Relatedness : Limits to Local Group Size and Patterns of Fissioning in an Expanding Population", Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 19: 95–110 
• Chagnon, N. A. (1976), "Yanomamo, the true people", National Geographic Magazine 150: 210–223 
• Chagnon, N. A. (1980), "Highland New Guinea models in the South American lowlands", Working papers on South American Indians 2: 111–130 
• Chagnon, N. A. (1981), "Doing fieldwork among the Yanomamo", Contemporary Anthropology: 11–24 
• Chagnon, N. A. (1988), "Life Histories, Blood Revenge, and Warfare in a Tribal Population", Science 239: 985–992 
• Chagnon, N. A. (1989), "Yanomamö survival", Science 244: 11 
• Chagnon, N. A. (1990), "on Yanomamö violence: reply to albert", Current Anthropology 31: 49–53 
• Chagnon, N. A., Ayers, M. j. a., Neel, J. V. j. a., Weitkamp, L. j. a. & Gershowitz, H. j. a. (1970), "The influence of cultural factors on the demography and pattern of gene flow from the Makiritare to the Yanomama indians", American Journal of Physical Anthropology 32: 339–349 
• Chagnon, N. A. & Hames, R. B. (1979), "Protein Deficiency and Tribal Warfare in Amazonia : New Data", Science 203: 910–913 
• Chagnon, N. A., Le Quesne, P. & Cook, J., M. (1971), "Yanomamö Hallucinogens: Anthropological, Botanical, and Chemical Findings", Current Anthropology 12: 72–74 
• Chagnon, N. A., Margolies, L., Gasparini, G. & Hames, R. B. (1982-1983), "Parentesco, demografia, patrones de inversion de los padres y el uso social del espacio arquitectonico entre los Shamatari-Yanomamo del T. F. Amazonas: informe preliminar", Boletin Indigenista Venezolano 21: 171–225 
• Chamberlain, A. F. (1911), "The Present State of Our Knowledge Concerning the Three Lingiuistic Stocks of the Region of Tierra Del Fuego, South America", American Anthropologist 13: 89–98 

Filmography

• The Yanomamo Series, in collaboration with Tim Asch, includes 22 separate films on the Yanomamo culture, such as:
  • The Ax Fight (1975)
  • Children's Magical Death (1974)
  • Magical Death (1988)
  • A Man Called Bee: A Study of the Yanomamo (1974)
  • Yanomamo Of the Orinoco (1987)
• Yanomamo Filmography list, University of California, Santa Barbara

See also

• Visual anthropology
• The Trap (television documentary series); Chagnon features in The Trap, a BBC documentary.

References

1. ^ Though the name Chagnon is French, he uses the American pronunciation.
2. ^ Silva, Stacey (1988-01-20). "Meeting The Fierce People". The Daily Nexus. http://www.nku.edu/~humed1/darkness_in_el_dorado/documents/pdf_files/0001.pdf. Retrieved 2008-10-23. 
3. ^ McGee & Warms, p. 247
4. ^ "El Dorado Task Force Papers". http://www.aaanet.org/edtf/final/vol_one.pdf. 
5. ^ "AAA Rescinds Acceptance of the El Dorado Report". http://www.aaanet.org/stmts/05ref_eldorado.htm. 
6. ^ "Statement from University of Michigan Provost Nancy Cantor on the book, "Darkness in El Dorado"". http://www.umich.edu/~newsinfo/Releases/2000/Nov00/r111300a.html. 
7. ^ D'Antonio, Michael (1988-01-20). "Napoleon Chagnon's War of Discovery". LA Times Magazine. http://cogweb.ucla.edu/Abstracts/Chagnon_00.html. Retrieved 2008-10-23. 
8. ^ Miller, John J. "The Fierce People: The wages of anthropological incorrectness," National Review, 20 November 2000.
9. ^ Lim, Dennis. SECRETS OF THE TRIBE (World Documentary Competition, Sunfiltered blog, 31 January 2010.
10. ^ Brian Ferguson, Yanomami Warfare
11. ^ Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha, Sex at Dawn", Harper, 2010

• Ritchie, Mark Andrew. "Pulling His Eye Down", Spirit of the Rainforest, Island Lake Press, Chicago, 1996.
• McGee, Jon R. & Warms, Richard L. "Anthropological Theory: An Introductory History", Texas State University, San Marcos, 2008. ISBN: 0073405221

External links

• Official faculty website at UCSB
• Silva, Stacey. "Meeting The Fierce People", Daily Nexus, 20 January 1988.
• D'Antonio, Michael. "Napoleon Chagnon's War of Discovery", LA Times Magazine, 30 January 2000.
• Grossman, Andrew. "Napoleon Chagnon's Waterloo", The Dartmouth Review, 30 October 2000.
• Wallace, Scott. "Napoleon in Exile", National Geographic Adventure Magazine, April 2002.

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Name	Chagnon, Napoleon
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Date of birth	1938
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