Crimes against humanity and reparations come to mind.
Molly
"Paul H.Dillon" wrote:
> mike,
>
> truly chilling --
>
> is Chagnon still at UCSB or has he retired? will the UC system have to
> cover its ass on this as well?
>
> Paul H. Dillon
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Mike Cole <mcole@weber.ucsd.edu>
> To: <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
> Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2000 4:06 PM
> Subject: academic imperialism
>
> >
> > The following message was passed to me by a colleague. I thought it would
> > be of interest here. Its kinda long, so delete if you get bored.
> > mike
> > ----
> >
> > >---------- Forwarded message ----------
> >
> > >>
> > >> To: Louise Lamphere, President, American Anthropological Association
> > >> (lamphere who-is-at un>
> > >> Don Brenneis, President -elect, American Anthropological Association
> > >> (brenneis@cats.ucsc.edu)
> > >>
> > >> 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@cornell.edu
> > >>
> > >> Leslie Sponsel, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Hawaii,
> > >> Manoa. Chair of the AAA Committee for Human Rights 1992-1996
> > >> (sponsel@hawaii.edu)
> > >>
> > >> 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 gene
> s
> > >> 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@keene.edu Phone: (603) 358-2510 Fax: (603) 358-2184
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> George Aaron Broadwell, g.broadwell@albany.edu
> > >> 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>
> > http://www.albany.edu/anthro/fac/broadwell.htm
> > >> -
> > >>
> >
> >>**************************************************************************
> >
> > >>
> > >> JAY RUBY
> > >>911 Pleasant Street, No. 3W, Oak Park, IL 60302
> > >>voice - 708-445-8964 fax - 204-209-7764
> > >>
> >
> >>**************************************************************************
> >
> > >>My Web page is <http://www.temple.edu/anthro/ruby/jayruby.html>
> > http://www.temple.edu/anthro/ruby/jayruby.html
> > >>
> > >>Link to my new book, Picturing Culture -
> > >> <http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/hfs.cgi/00/13964.ctl>
> > http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/hfs.cgi/00/13964.ctl
> > >>
> > >>Link to a description of my ethnographic study of Oak Park, IL -
> > >> <http://astro.ocis.temple.edu/~ruby/opp>
> > http://astro.ocis.temple.edu/~ruby/opp
> > >>
> >
> >>**************************************************************************
> >
> > >>"I think when you are really stuck, when you have stood still in the
> same
> > >>spot for too long, you throw a grenade in exactly the spot you were
> > >>standing in, and jump, and pray." Renata Adler in Speed Boat.
> > >>
> > >************************************************************
> > >Jon Wagner
> > >Division of Education, UC Davis
> > >
> > >Office: 2397 Academic Surge, UC Davis
> > >E-mail: jcwagner@ucdavis.edu
> > >PH1: 530-752-5387
> > >PH2: 510-559-8006
> > >FAX: 530-752-5411
> > >Mail: Division of Education, UC Davis, 1 Shields Ave., Davis, CA 95616
> > >
> > >************************************************************
> > >
> >
> >
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Oct 01 2000 - 01:00:55 PDT