THIRTY-TWO years ago, two American researchers carried thousands of doses of
measles vaccine through the Amazonian rainforest to study the remote Yanomami
people. This much of the story everyone can agree on. But whether this
scientific duo were medical heroes or imperialistic villains is the basis of a
fierce row that is brewing in the scientific community—and threatens to
destroy anthropology’s good name.
In a book to be published in the US next week called Darkness in El
Dorado: How scientists and journalists devastated the Amazon, author
Patrick Tierney presents the case that anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon of the
University…
