ANTH 565: ETHNOGRAPHY AS SCIENCE AND LITERATURE November 5-7: Napoleon Chagnon, the Ethics of Ethnography, and the Craft of Writing

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This week, we're back to everyone reading the same stuff. And what stuff!! Napoleon Chagnon's work on the Yanomamš or Yanomami (even the spelling carries huge political connotations) has occasioned more controversy than any ethnography at least since Mead's. There are issues of ethnographic accuracy, of fieldwork ethics, of the responsibility of the ethnographer, of the role of rhetoric...to the point that I once taught an entire core course centered around Chagnon and the Y. This year, just one week. Nov 5: The Work First, read Yanomamš: The Fierce People. Make sure you get the original edition if at all possible, or if not get the earliest edition you can. It looks like you can get it for $6.00 or less. Also read selections from Studying the Yanomamš. Post your impression of Chagnon as gained from these two of his earliest works: how does he do research, gather data, and draw conclusions, and how does he write to convince or seduce readers? Nov 7: Parts of the Storm Read the selection from Tierney's Darkness in El Dorado, as well as some of the following: A review symposium in Current Anthropology The Review of Tierney's book by David Stoll in the New Republic A review from Clifford Geertz in The New York Review of Books A report from UC Santa Barbara, where Chagnon taught A report from The University of Michigan, where Neel taught and where Chagnon was a student The official report of The American Anthropological Association, which purported to be definitive and was not Finally, read the summary by Robert Borofsky from Yanomami: The Fierce Controversy. Surely you will be able, without much trouble, to think of something to write!

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