Darkness in El Dorado

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Darkness in El Dorado (subtitled: How Scientists and Journalists Devastated the Amazon) is a book written by investigative journalist Patrick Tierney in 2000 that accuses geneticist James Neel and anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon of exacerbating a measles epidemic among the Yanomamo people and conducting human research without regard for their subjects' wellbeing. While publication of the book provoked scandal, outrage and public hearings, a number of academics have rejected the most serious of Tierney's claims.

Contents

[edit] Claims

Many of the book's accusations had to be cut down or removed, because the publisher's libel lawyers warned against including them.[citation needed] The following allegations have been rebutted point by point by a panel at the University of Michigan:[1]

  • That the Chagnon and Neel directly and indirectly caused a genocide in the region through the introduction of a live virus measles vaccine.
  • That Chagnon demanded "villagers bring him girls for sex."
  • That the researchers came as part of a sinister plot to justify an invasion of gold miners.
  • That the researchers introduced violence to the Yanomamo, actually causing violence among them.

[edit] Investigation

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The American Anthropological Association has since made stern statements concerning the proper conduct for anthropologists in the field. The book was examined and many of Tierney's claims challenged by various panels of historians, epidemiologists, anthropologists, and filmmakers who had direct knowledge of the events soon after its publication.

A detailed investigation of these charges by a panel set up by the University of Michigan found the most serious charges to have no foundation and others to have been exaggerated. Sponsel and Turner, the two scientists who originally touted the book's claims, admitted that their charge against Neel "remains an inference in the present state of our knowledge: there is no 'smoking gun' in the form of a written text or recorded speech by Neel."[2]

[edit] References

  1. ^ University of Michigan Report on the Ongoing Investigation of the Neel-Changon Allegations
  2. ^ John Tooby, "Jungle Fever: Did two US scientists start a genocidal epidemic in the Amazon or was The New Yorker duped? Slate, October 24th, 2000.

[edit] External links