Napoléon Chagnon

From Freepedia

Napoléon A. Chagnon (born 1938) is an American anthropologist.

Born in Chagawa, Michigan, he studied the Yanomamo people and has written many books on the subject, among others one especially successful called Yanomamo: The Fierce People.

Chagnon has done field work in their villages since the mid-60s. One focus of his field work has been the geneaologies of the members of the villages he has visited or lived in, in order to understand both migration patterns and kinship and marriage rules.

In 2000, journalist Patrick Tierney published a controversial book titled Darkness in El Dorado, which included interviews that called into question the ethics of significant aspects of Chagnon's field work as well as the accuracy of his publications based on that work.

Most of the allegation made in Darkness in El Dorado were publicly refuted by the Provost's office of the University of Michigan in November 2000.

The American Anthropological Association convened a task force in February 2001 to investigate some of the allegations made in Tierney's book. That report was issued by the AAA in May 2002.