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Noble Savages

My Life Among Two Dangerous Tribes--the Yanamamo and the Anthropologists
silentq
Jul 29, 2013silentq rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Every once in a while, you hear about uncontacted tribes in the Amazon, New Guinea or Indonesia. For a long time, I've been interested in reading detailed accounts of what life is like for these isolated groups. Chagnon's account does not disappoint. The book contains a wealth of interesting stories about his travels among the various villages, what the villages are like, how they get too large and break up into smaller groups from time to time, and what it's like to live in this environment. I tend to sometimes romanticize life outside the mainstream of our world culture, and it certainly sounds like there are a lot of things to admire about that life. But there are also nasty, brutish elements which, in the end, make me grateful for the life I have. In the notes at the back of this book, the author mentions another book which he published in 1992 entitled _Yanomamö: the Last Days of Eden_. Here's what he has to say about that book: "[This] is largely an expansion on my original textbook, _Yanomamö_, but with the more difficult and technical material on kinship and social organization eliminated and sections of new text added." My guess is that that book might be a more interesting one for people who are less interested in the politics of anthropology and history of Chagnon's run-ins with others of his profession over the years. One thing that I think might be missing from this book is insight into the religious beliefs and practices of the Yanomamö. Or it might just be that religion doesn't make up a very significant part of their lives. It's difficult to speculate fruitfully without knowing more about their situation. However, there is another book about this tribe which was written by a missionary whose title implies that it addresses this theme to some degree. I've just purchased the book, but I have not yet read it. The author's name is Mark Andrew Ritchie, and the title of the book is _Spirit of the Rainforest: A Yanomamo Shaman's Story_.