Yanomami and Their Interpreters

Scholars, especially Napoleon Chagnon, have portrayed the Yanomami as fierce people. Yanomami themselves resent that portrayal and state that they are no more fierce than those who label them. Moreover, a number of scholars argue that such a portrayal has had dire consequences for these Indian people. Governments and their subjects tend to regard them as primitive and not really part of their citizenry. Recent quarrels between the Salesian missionaries and Napoleon Chagnon have highlighted this debate. This book examines this dispute in detail and presents the views of the Salesians, New Tribes, and the Yanomami in response to outsiders' interpretations.