[Fwd: Tr : En: Imminent anthropological scandal]

[crebello <crebello@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

 Message fowarded to me by:

> -----------
> Clarice Ehlers Peixoto
> Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Sociais/PPCIS
> Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro/UERJ
> Tel/Fax (UERJ) : (5521) 587 7962
> ----------
> De : "Bela Feldman-Bianco" <bfb@xxxxxxxxxx>
> À : [deleted enormous list of recipients]



> Colegas:
> >
> >        Estou encaminhando a vocês uma longa mensagem sobre 'aventuras
> >antropológicas' contra os Yanomami da Venezuela, por parte de Napoleon
> >Chagnon e co.  A mensagem me foi encaminhada  por uma antropóloga americana
> >minha amiga (eu 'deletei' a imensa lista de e-mails que veio junto).  Por
> >favor, encamihem a mensagem a outros antropólogo/as.
> >
> >Abraços,
> >
> >Cecilia Sardenberg
> >>>>
> >>>>>>==========
> >>>>>>To: Louise Lamphere, President, American Anthropological Association
> >>>>>>(lamphere@xxxxxxx)
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>Don Brenneis, President -elect, American Anthropological Association
> >>>>>>(brenneis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx)
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>From: Terry Turner, Professor of Anthropology, Cornell University.
> Head of
> >>>  >>>the Special Commission of the American Anthropological Association
> to
> >>>>>>Investigate the Situation of the Brazilian Yanomami, 1990-91
> >>>>>>(tst3@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>Leslie Sponsel, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Hawaii,
> >>>>>>Manoa. Chair of the AAA Committee for Human Rights 1992-1996
> >>>>>>(sponsel@xxxxxxxxxx)
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>In re: Scandal about to be caused by publication  of  book by Patrick
> >>>>>>Tierney (Darkness in El Dorado. New York. Norton.  Publication date:
> >>>>>>October 1, 2000).
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>Madam President, Mr. President-elect:
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>We write to inform you of an impending scandal that will affect the
> >>>>>>American Anthropological profession as a whole in the eyes of the
> public,
> >>>>>>and arouse intense indignation and calls for action among members of
> the
> >>>>>>Association. In its scale, ramifications, and sheer criminality and
> >>>>>>corruption it is unparalleled in the history of Anthropology. The AAA
> will
> >>>>>>be called upon by the general media and its own membership to take
> >>>>>>collective stands on the issues it raises, as well as appropriate
> >>>>>>redressive actions. All of this will obviously involve you as
> Presidents of
> >>>>>>the Association-so the sooner you know about the story that is about
> to
> >>>>>>break, the better prepared you can be to deal with it. Both of us have
> seen
> >>>>>>galley copies of a book by Patrick Tierney, an investigative
> journalist,
> >>>>>>about the actions of anthropologists and associated scientific
> researchers
> >>>>>>(notably geneticists and medical experimenters) among the  Yanomami of
> >>>>>>Venezuela over the past thirty-five years.  Because of the sensational
> >>>>>>nature of its revelations, the notoriety of the people it exposes, and
> the
> >>>>>>prestige of the organs of the academic establishment it implicates,
> the
> >>>>>>book  is bound to be widely read both outside and inside the
> profession. As
> >>>>>>both an indication and a vector of its public impact, we have learned
> that
> >>>>>>The New Yorker magazine is planning to publish an extensive excerpt,
> timed
> >>>>>>to coincide with the publication of the book (on or about October
> 1st).
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>The focus of the scandal is the long-term project for study of the
> Yanomami
> >>>>>>of Venezuela organized by James Neel, the human geneticist, in which
> >>>>>>Napoleon Chagnon, Timothy Asch, and numerous other anthropologists
> took
> >>>>>>part. The French anthropologist Jacques Lizot, who also works with the
> >>>>>>Yanomami but is not part of Neel-Chagnon project, also figures in a
> >>>>>>different scandalous capacity.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>One of Tierney's more startling revelations is that the whole Yanomami
> >>>>>>project was an outgrowth and continuation of the Atomic Energy
> Comissions
> >>>>>>secret program of experiments  on human subjects James Neel, the
> originator
> >>>>>>and director of the project, was part of the medical and genetic
> research
> >>>>>>team attached to the Atomic Energy Commission since the days of the
> >>>>>>Manhattan Project. He was a member of the small group of researchers
> >>>>>>responsible for studying the effects of radiation on human subjects.
> He
> >>>>>>personally headed the team that investigated the effects of the
> Hiroshima
> >>>>>>and Nagasaki bombs on survivors,. He was put in charge of the study of
> the
> >>>>>>effects of atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and later was
> involved
> >>>>>>in the studies of the effects of the radioactivity from the
> experimental A
> >>>>>>and H bomb blasts in the Marshall Islands on the natives (our
> colleague May
> >>>>>>Jo Marshall has a lot to say about these studies in the Marshalls and
> >>>>>>Neel's role in them). The same group also secretly carried out
> experiments
> >>>>>>on human subjects in the USA. These included injecting people with
> >>>>>>radioactive plutonium without their knowledge or permission,in some
> cases
> >>>>>>leading to their death or disfigurement ( Neel himself appears not to
> have
> >>>>>>given any of these experimental injections). Another member of the
> same AEC
> >>>  >>>group of human geneticists and medical experimenters, a Venezuelan,
> >Marcel
> >>>>>>Roche, was a close colleague of Neel's and spent some time at his
> >>>>>>AEC-funded center for Human Genetics at Ann Arbor. He returned to
> Venezuela
> >>>>>>after the war and did a study of the Yanomami that  involved
> administering
> >>>  >>>doses of a radioactive isotope of iodine and analyzing samples
> >>>of blood for
> >>>>>>genetic data. Roche and his project were apparently the connection
> that led
> >>>>>>Neel to choose the Yanomami for his big study of the genetics of
> >>>>>>"leadership" and differential rates of reproduction among dominant and
> >>>>>>sub-dominant males  in a genetically "isolated" human population.
> There is
> >>>>>>thus a genealogical connection between the  the human experiments
> carried
> >>>>>>out by the AEC, and Neel's and Chagnon's Yanomami project, which was
> from
> >>>>>>the outset funded by the AEC.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>Tierney presents convincing evidence that Neel and Chagnon, on their
> trip
> >>>>>>to the Yanomami in 1968, greatly exacerbated, and probably started,
> the
> >>>>>>epidemic of measles that killed "hundreds, perhaps thousands"
> (Tierney's
> >>>>>>language-the exact figure will never be known) of Yanomami. The
> epidemic
> >>>>>>appears to have been caused, or at least worsened and more widely
> spread,
> >>>>>>by a campaign of  vaccination carried out by the research team, which
> used
> >>>>>>a virulent vaccine (Edmonson B) that had been counter-indicated by
> medical
> >>>>>>experts for use on isolated populations with no prior exposure to
> measles
> >>>>>>(exactly the Yanomami situation). Even among populations with prior
> contact
> >>>>>>  and consequent partial genetic immunity to measles, the vaccine was
> >>>>>>supposed to be used only with supportive injections of gamma globulin.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>It was known to produce effects virtually indistinguishable from the
> >>>>>>disease of measles itself.  Medical experts, when informed that Neel
> and
> >>>>>>his group used the vaccine in question on the Yanomami, typically
> refuse to
> >>>>>>believe it at first, then say that it is incredible that they could
> have
> >>>>>>done it, and are at a loss to explain why they would have chosen such
> an
> >>>>>>inappropriate and dangerous vaccine. There is no record that Neel
> sought
> >>>>>>any medical advice before applying the vaccine. He never informed the
> >>>>>>appropriate organs of the Venezuelan government that his group was
> planning
> >>>>>>to carry out a vaccination campaign, as he was legally required to do.
> >>>>>>Neither he nor any other member of  the expedition, including Chagnon
> and
> >>>>>>the other anthropologists, has ever explained why that vaccine was
> used,
> >>>>>>despite the evidence that it actually caused or at a minimum greatly
> >>>>>>exacerbated the fatal epidemic.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>Once the measles epidemic took off, closely following the vaccinations
> with
> >>>>>>Edmonson B, the members of the research team refused to provide any
> medical
> >>>>>>assistance to the sick and dying Yanomami, on explicit orders from
> Neel. He
> >>>>>>insisted to his colleagues that they were only there to observe and
> record
> >>>>>>the epidemic, and that they must stick strictly to their roles as
> >>>>>>scientists, not provide medical help.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>All this is bad enough, but the probable truth that emerges, by
> >>>>>>implication, from Tierney's documentation is  more chilling. There
> was, it
> >>>>>>turns out, a compelling theoretical motive for Neel to want to observe
> an
> >>>>>>epidemic of measles, or comparable "contact" disease, or at least an
> >>>>>>outbreak virtually indistinguishable from the real thing-precisely the
> >>>>>>effect that the vaccine he chose was known to cause-and to produce one
> for
> >>>>>>this purpose if necessary. This motive emerges from Teirney's
> documentation
> >>>>>>of Neel's extreme eugenic theories and his documented statements about
> what
> >>>>>>he was hoping to find among the Yanomami, interpreted against the
> >>>>>>background of his long association with the Atomic Energy Commission's
> >>>>>>secret experiments on human subjects.  Neel believed that  "natural"
> human
> >>>>>>society (as it existed everywhere before the advent of large-scale a
> >>>>>>gricultural societies and contemporary states with their vast
> populations)
> >>>>>>consisted of small, genetically isolated groups, in which, according
> to his
> >>>  >>>eugenically slanted genetic theories, dominant genes (specifically,
> a
> >gene
> >>>>>>he believed existed for "leadership" or "innate ability") would have a
> >>>>>>selective advantage, because male  carriers of this gene could  gain
> access
> >>>>>>to a disproportionate share of the available females, thus reproducing
> >>>  >>>their own superior genes more frequently than less "innately able"
> males.
> >>>>>>The result, supposedly, would be the continual upgrading of the human
> >>>>>>genetic stock. Modern mass societies, by contrast, consist of vast
> >>>>>>genetically entropic "herds" in which, he theorized, recessive genes
> could
> >>>>>>not be eliminated by selective competition and superior leadership
> genes
> >>>>>>would be swamped by mass genetic mediocrity. The political implication
> of
> >>>>>>this fascistic eugenics is clearly that society should be reorganized
> into
> >>>>>>small breeding isolates in which genetically superior males could
> emerge
> >>>>>>into dominance, eliminating or subordinating the male losers in the
> >>>>>>competition for leadership and women, and amassing harems of brood
> females.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>A big problem for this program, however, was the tendency, generally
> >>>>>>recognized by virtually all qualified population geneticists and
> >>>>>>epidemiologists, for small breeding isolates to lack  genetic
> resistance to
> >>>>>>diseases incubated in other groups, and their consequent vulnerability
> to
> >>>>>>contact epidemics. For Neel, this meant that the emergence of
> genetically
> >>>>>>superior males in small breeding isolates would tend to be undercut
> and
> >>>>>>neutralized by epidemic diseases to which they would be genetically
> >>>>>>vulnerable, while the supposedly genetically entropic mass societies
> of
> >>>>>>modern democratic states, the antitheses of Neel's ideal
> >>>>>>alpha-male-dominated groups, would be better adapted for developing
> genetic
> >>>>>>immunity to such "contact" diseases. It is known that Neel, virtually
> alone
> >>>>>>among contemporary geneticists, rejected the genetic (and historical)
> >>>>>>evidence for the vulnerability of genetically isolated groups to
> diseases
> >>>>>>introduced through contact from other populations. It is possible that
> he
> >>>>>>thought that genetically superior members of such groups might prove
> to
> >>>>>>have differential levels of immunity and thus higher rates of survival
> to
> >>>>>>imported diseases. In such a case, such exogenous epidemics, despite
> the
> >>>>>>enormous losses of general population they inflict, might actually be
> shown
> >>>>>>to increase the relative proportion of genetically superior
> individuals to
> >>>>>>the total population, and thus be consistent with Neel's eugenic
> program.
> >>>>>>However this may have been, Tierney's well-documented account, in its
> >>>>>>entirety,  strongly supports the conclusion that the epidemic was in
> all
> >>>>>>probabilty deliberately caused as an  experiment designed to produce
> >>>>>>scientific support for  Neel's eugenic theory.  This remains only 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. It is
> >>>>>>nevertheless the only explanation that makes sense of a number of
> otherwise
> >>>>>>inexplicable facts, including Neel's known  interest in observing an
> >>>>>>epidemic in a small isolated group for which detailed records of
> genetic
> >>>>>>and genealogical relations were available, his otherwise inexplicable
> >>>>>>selection of a virulent vaccine known to produce effects virtually
> >>>>>>identical with the disease itself, his behavior once the epidemic had
> >>>>>>started (insisting on allowing it to run its course unhindered by
> medical
> >>>>>>assistance while meticulously documenting its progress and the
> genealogical
> >>>>>>relations of those who perished and those who survived) and his own
> >>>>>>obdurate silence, until his death in February, as to why he carried
> out the
> >>>>>>  vaccination program in the first place, and above all with the
> lethally
> >>>>>>dangerous vaccine.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>The same conclusion is reinforced by considering the objectives of the
> >>>>>>anthropological research carried out by Chagnon under Neel's initial
> >>>>>>direction and continued support. Chagnon's work has been consistently
> >>>>>>directed toward portraying Yanomami society as exactly the kind of
> >>>  >>>originary human society envisioned by Neel, with dominant males (the
> most
> >>>>>>frequent killers) having the most wives or sexual partners and
> offspring.
> >>>>>>If this pristine, eugenically optimal society could be shown to
> survive a
> >>>>>>contact epidemic with its structure of dominant male polygynists
> >>>  >>>essentially intact, regardless of quantitatively serious
> >>>population losses,
> >>>>>>Neel might plausibly be able to argue that his eugenic social vision
> was
> >>>>>>vindicated. If the epidemic was indeed produced as an experiment,
> either
> >>>>>>wholly or in part, the genetic studies on the correlation of blood
> group
> >>>>>>samples and  genealogies carried out by Chagnon and some of his
> students
> >>>>>>thus formed integral parts of this massive, and massively fatal,
> human
> >>>>>>experiment.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>As another reader of Tierney's ms commented,  Mr. Tierney's analysis
> is a
> >>>>>>case study of the dangers in science of the uncontrolled ego, of lack
> of
> >>>>>>respect for life, and of greed and self-indulgence. It is a further
> >>>>>>extraordinary revelation of malicious and perverted work conducted
> under
> >>>>>>the aegis of the Atomic Energy Commission.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>Tierney's revelations begin, but do not end, with the 1968 epidemic.
> There
> >>>>>>are many more episodes and sub-plots, almost equally awful, to his
> >>>>>>narrative of the antics of anthropologists among the Yanomami. Enough
> has
> >>>>>>been said by this time, however, for you to see that  the Association
> is
> >>>>>>going to have to make some collective response to this book, both to
> the
> >>>>>>facts it documents and the probable conclusions it implies.There will
> be a
> >>>>>>storm in the media, and another in the  general scholarly community,
> and no
> >>>>>>doubt several within anthropology itself. We must be ready. Tierney
> >>>>>>devotes much of the book  to a critique of Napoleon Chagnon's work
> (and
> >>>>>>actions). He makes clear Chagnon has faithfully striven, in his
> >>>>>>ethnographic and theoretical accounts of the Yanomami, to represent
> them as
> >>>>>>conforming to Neel's ideas about the Hobbesian savagery of "natural"
> human
> >>>>>>societies , and how this constitutes the natural selective context for
> the
> >>>>>>rise to social dominance and reproductive advantage of males with the
> gene
> >>>>>>for  "leadership" or "innate ability" (thus Chagnon's emphasis on
> Yanomami
> >>>>>>"fierceness" and propensity for chronic warfare, and the supposed
> >>>>>>statistical tendency for men who kill more enemies to have more female
> >>>>>>sexual/reproductive partners). He documents how all these aspects of
> >>>>>>Chagnon's account of the Yanomami are based on false, non-existent or
> >>>>>>misinterpreted data. In other words, Chagnon's main claims about
> Yanomami
> >>>>>>society, the ones that have been so much heralded by sociobiologists
> and
> >>>>>>other partisans of his work, namely that  men who kill more reproduce
> more
> >>>>>>and have more female partners, and that such men become the dominant
> >>>>>>leaders of their communities, are simply not true. Thirdly and most
> >>>>>>troublingly, he reports that Chagnon has not stopped with cooking and
> >>>>>>re-cooking his data on conflict but has actually attempted to
> manufacture
> >>>>>>the phenomenon itself, actually fomenting conflicts between
> Yanomami
> >>>>>>communities, not once but repeatedly.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>In his film work with Asch, for example, Chagnon induced Yanomami to
> enact
> >>>>>>fights and aggressive behavior for Asch's camera, sometimes building
> whole
> >>>>>>artificial villages as "sets" for the purpose, which were presented as
> >>>>>>spontaneous slices of Yanomami life unaffected by the presence of the
> >>>>>>anthropologists. Some of these unavowedly artificial scenarios,
> however,
> >>>>>>actually turned into real conflicts, partly as  a result of Chagnon's
> >>>>>>policy of giving vast amounts of presents to the villages that agreed
> to
> >>>>>>put on the docu-drama, which distorted their relations with their
> neighbors
> >>>>>>in ways that encouraged outbreaks of raiding. In sum, most of the
> Yanomami
> >>>>>>conflicts that Chagnon documents, that are the basis of his
> interpretation
> >>>>>>of Yanomami society as a neo-Hobbesian system of endemic warfare, were
> >>>>>>caused directly or indirectly by himself: a fact he invariably
> neglects to
> >>>  >>>report. This is not just a matter of bad ethnography or unreflexive
> >>>>>>theorizing: Yanomami were maimed and killed in these conflicts, and
> whole
> >>>>>>communities were disrupted to the point of  fission and flight.(Brian
> >>>>>>Ferguson has also documented some of this story, but Tierney adds much
> new
> >>>  >>>evidence). As a general point, it is clear that Chagnon's whole
> Yanomami
> >>>>>>oeuvre is more radically continuous with  Neel's eugenic theories, and
> his
> >>>>>>unethical approach to experimentation on human subjects, than appears
> >>>>>>simply from a reading of Chagnon's works by themselves.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>Chagnon is not the only anthropologist mentioned in Tierney's
> narrative.
> >>>>>>Some of his students, like Hames and Good, are also dealt with (not so
> >>>>>>unfavorably). The F French  anthropologist, Jaques Lizot, also gets a
> >>>>>>chapter. He has had nothing to do with Neel or Chagnon (in fact has
> been a
> >>>>>>trenchant and cogent critic of their work), but he has an Achilles
> heel of
> >>>>>>his own in the form of a harem of Yanomami boys that he keeps, and
> showers
> >>>>>>with presents in exchange for sexual favors (he has also been known to
> >>>>>>resort to young girls when boys were unavailable). On the sexual
> front,
> >>>>>>there are also passing references to Chagnon himself demanding that
> >>>>>>villagers bring him girls for sex.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>There is still more, in the form of  collusion by Neel and Chagnon
> with
> >>>>>>sinister Venezuelan politicians attempting to gain control of Yanomami
> >>>>>>lands for illegal  gold mining concessions, with the anthropologists
> >>>>>>providing "cover" for the illegal mine developer as a "naturalist"
> >>>>>>collaborating with the anthropological researchers, in exchange for
> the
> >>>>>>politician's guaranteeing continuing  access to the Indians for the
> >>>>>>anthropologists.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>This nightmarish story  -a real anthropological heart of darkness
> beyond
> >>>>>>the     imagining of even  a Josef Conrad (though not, perhaps, a
> Josef
> >>>>>>Mengele)--will be seen (rightly in our view) by the public, as well as
> most
> >>>>>>anthropologists, as putting the whole discipline on trial. As another
> >>>>>>reader of the galleys put it, This book should shake anthropology to
> its
> >>>>>>very foundations. It should cause the field to  understand how the
> corrupt
> >>>>>>and depraved protagonists could have spread          their poison for
> so
> >>>>>>long while they were accorded great respect throughout the Western
> World
> >>>>>>and generations of undergraduates received their lies as the
> introductory
> >>>>>>substance of anthropology. This should never be allowed to happen
> again.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>We venture to predict that this reaction is fairly representative of
> the
> >>>>>>response that will follow the publication of Tierney's book and the
> New
> >>>>>>Yorker excerpt. Coming as they will less than two months before the
> San
> >>>>>>Francisco meetings, these publication events virtually guarantee that
> the
> >>>>>>Yanomami scandal will be at its height at the Meetings. This should
> give an
> >>>>>>optimal opportunity for the Association to mobilize the membership and
> the
> >>>>>>institutional structure to deal with it. The  writers, both emeritus
> >>>>>>members of the Committee for Human Rights, have arranged with Barbara
> >>>>>>Johnston, the present chair of the CfHR, that the open Forum put on by
> the
> >>>>>>Committee this year be devoted to the Yanomami case. This seemed the
> best
> >>>>>>way to provide a venue for a public airing of the scandal, given that
> the
> >>>>>>program is of  course already closed. With Johnston's consent, we have
> >>>>>>invited Patrick Tierney to come to the Meetings and be present at the
> >>>>>>Forum. He has accepted. He has also agreed to have a copy of the book
> ms
> >>>>>>sent to Johnston, for the use of the CfHR. We have also tentatively
> agreed
> >>>>>>with Barbara that the CfHR should draft a press release, which the
> >>>>>>President (either or both of you) could (if you and the Executive
> Board
> >>>>>>approve) circulate to the media. There are obviously human rights
> aspects
> >>>>>>of this case that make the CfHR appropriate, but the Ethics Committee,
> the
> >>>>>>Society for Latin  American Anthropology, and the Association for
> Latina
> >>>>>>and Latino Anthropology should also be notified and involved,
> separately or
> >>>  >>>jointly. These obviously do not exhaust the possibilities--- a lot
> of
> >>>>>>thought and planning remains to be done. Our point is simply that the
> time
> >>>>>>to start is now.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>Rosemary Gianno, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Sociology/Anthropology
> Rhodes
> >>>>>>Hall Keene State College Keene NH 03435-3400 USA
> >>>  >>>
> >>>>>>rgianno@xxxxxxxxx Phone: (603) 358-2510 Fax:   (603) 358-2184
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>George Aaron Broadwell,  g.broadwell@xxxxxxxxxx
> >>>>>>Anthropology; Linguistics and Cognitive Science,
> >>>>>>University at Albany, SUNY, Albany, NY 12222 | 518-442-4711
> >>>>>>Web page: http://www.albany.edu/anthro/fac/broadwell.htm
> >>>>>>-
> >>>>>>----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ----
> >>>>>>"Where it is a duty to worship the sun it is pretty sure to be a crime
> to
> >>>>>>examine the laws of heat" -- John Morley
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>------- End of Forwarded Message
> >>>>>
> >>>>
> >>
> >>--
> >
> >>
> >Cecilia M. B. Sardenberg, PhD
> >Professora do Depto. de Antropologia e Pesquisadora do
> >Núcleo de Estudos Interdisciplinares sobre a Mulher-NEIM
> >Faculdade de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas
> >Universidade Federal da Bahia
> >Estrada de São Lázaro, 197 - Federação
> >40.210-730   Salvador, Bahia    BRAZIL
> >Telefax: (55-71)237-8239  (work)
> >cecisard@xxxxxxx
> >