Early contacts with Yanomami: an ignored and little appreciated history of ethnographic reports

Abstract

In 1968, Napoleon Chagnon published his influential book Yanomamö: The Fierce People. Later, this book and Chagnon’s other publications were widely criticized. However, even his critics frequently describe Chagnon’s research as the first serious anthropological study of these Amazon rainforest people. This categorization, even if it is almost universally repeated up until this day, is far from reality. A vast and highly significant amount of information was already gathered and published on Yanomami before Chagnon even thought about starting his field research. Yet, these publications remain largely unknown, ignored, dismissed or underappreciated, perhaps partly because most were not in English. Here we review articles, scientific papers and books published before 1968, a literature essential for understanding the torturous path of anthropological studies portraying the Yanomami and reassessing Chagnon's place in the history of Anthropology.