On 5/2/13 12:58 PM, Jim Devine wrote: > The American Anthropological Association and other groups looked into > all of the charges and discovered that Tierney’s book was really a > work of fiction based very loosely on fact. With the exception of > relatively minor transgressions by individuals other than Chagnon or > Neel, everyone was cleared. Neel was asked to drop off half of the > vaccine doses with missionaries, which accounts for the “missing” > portion. He was instructed to dose only half of the villagers at time > since the vaccine was expected to make many of the people who received > it ill. By giving half the people the vaccine, the un-dosed half could > care for the sick, and later the other half could be given the shot. > > A long list of cultural anthropologists used Darkness in El Dorado to > discredit both Neel and Chagnon. After investigations cleared these > researchers, most of those anthropologists either remained silent or > continued to uncritically refer to Darkness in El Dorado, despite the > book having been discredited.
Actually, the most important critique of Chagnon's work was done by Brian Ferguson well in advance of the publication of Tierney's book. You can read Ferguson's “Life Histories, Blood Revenge, and Warfare in a Tribal Population” at http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/chagnon.pdf. It is devastating. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
