Napoleon Chagnon

An anthropologist and the author of the book. Chagnon spends several years over the course of several visits with the Yanomamo tribes of Brazil and Venezuela. He notes that it is an acceptable anthropological practice to spend a year or more with a single group of a tribe and then to report on them as representative of the entire people. He says that it is unusual for a single anthropologist to return to other tribes of the same people as he did, or to split the time among several groups, which he also did.

Chagnon spends his time documenting the genealogies of the Yanomamo tribes but makes many observations about the people themselves. Chagnon's job is made very difficult by the fact that the people believe speaking their names or that of deceased relatives is taboo. He admits that he wastes months gathering incorrect information only to...