{"product_id":"noble-savages-my-life-among-two-dangerous-tribes-the-yanomamo-and-the-anthropologists-1","title":"Noble Savages: My Life Among Two Dangerous Tribes -- the Yanomamo and the Anthropologists","description":"The most controversial and famous anthropologist of our time describes his seminal lifelong research among the Yanomamö Indians of the Amazon basin and how his startling observations provoked admiration among many fellow anthropologists and outrage among others.\n\nONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT SCIENTIFIC MEMOIRS OF OUR TIME\n\nWhen Napoleon Chagnon arrived in Venezuela’s Amazon region in 1964 to study the Yanomamö Indians, one of the last large tribal groups still living in isolation, he expected to find Rousseau’s “noble savages,” so-called primitive people living contentedly in a pristine state of nature. Instead Chagnon discovered a remarkably violent society. Men who killed others had the most wives and offspring, their violence possibly giving them an evolutionary advantage. The prime reasons for violence, Chagnon found, were to avenge deaths and, if possible, abduct women.\n\nWhen Chagnon began publishing his observations, some cultural anthropologists who could not accept an evolutionary basis for human behavior refused to believe them. Chagnon became perhaps the most famous American anthropologist since Margaret Mead—and the most controversial. He was attacked in a scathing popular book, whose central allegation that he helped start a measles epidemic among the Yanomamö was quickly disproven, and the American Anthropological Association condemned him, only to rescind its condemnation after a vote by the membership. Throughout his career Chagnon insisted on an evidence-based scientific approach to anthropology, even as his professional association dithered over whether it really is a scientific organization. In Noble Savages, Chagnon describes his seminal fieldwork—during which he lived among the Yanomamö, was threatened by tyrannical headmen, and experienced an uncomfortably close encounter with a jaguar—taking readers inside Yanomamö villages to glimpse the kind of life our distant ancestors may have lived thousands of years ago. And he forcefully indicts his discipline of cultural anthropology, accusing it of having traded its scientific mission for political activism.\n\nThis book, like Chagnon’s research, raises fundamental questions about human nature itself.\u003cbr\u003eASIN: 0684855100\u003cbr\u003eVSKU: BVV.0684855100.G\u003cbr\u003eCondition: Good\u003cbr\u003eAuthor\/Artist:Chagnon, Napoleon A.\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eNote:\u003c\/b\u003e Any images shown are stock photographs and product may differ from what is shown.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition Notes\u003c\/b\u003e: The item shows wear from consistent use, but it remains in good condition and works perfectly. All pages and cover are intact  including the dust cover, if applicable . Spine may show signs of wear. Pages may include limited notes and highlighting. May NOT include discs, access code or other supplemental materials.  \u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Blue Vase Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43397568528445,"sku":"BVV.0684855100.G","price":9.32,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0589\/4225\/9261\/files\/0684855100-0.jpg?v=1784927276","url":"https:\/\/www.bluevasebooks.com\/products\/noble-savages-my-life-among-two-dangerous-tribes-the-yanomamo-and-the-anthropologists-1","provider":"Blue Vase Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}