Rumble in the Jungle
A bitter scientific dispute erupts around the Yanomami Indians
By Bruce Bower
Napolean A. Chagnon got a rude shock when he first trekked through the Venezuelan rainforest to a Yanomami village in 1964. The aspiring anthropologist expected that the then-obscure Amazonian natives would gladly describe their family histories and marriage practices.
Instead, a dozen naked men immediately surrounded Chagnon and a colleague, aiming drawn arrows at the horrified pair. Strands of dark-green mucus drizzled from the bowmen’s noses, the remains of a hallucinogenic powder that they had just sniffed. At the same time, a pack of snarling dogs snapped at the visitors’ legs and tore their trousers.