In the first chapter of his ethnography, Chagnon briefly describes the purpose of his research as follows. “My purpose for living among the Yanamamo was to systematically collect certain kinds of information of genealogy, reproduction, marriage practices, kinship, settlement patterns, migrations, and politics. Much of the fundamental data was genealogical… This turned out to be a staggering and very frustrating problem. I could not have deliberately picked a more difficult people to work with in this regard. They have a very stringent name taboos and eschew mentioning the names of prominent living people as well as all deceased friends and relatives “(p. 19). In short, Chagnon wanted to study something that the Yanomamo themselves did not want studied. Thus, early in his fieldwork, Chagnon had to make a decision: whether to change research topics, or to persevere with the research agenda he had formulated ahead of time. Chagnon chose the later, and much of what he writes in his ethnography is based upon knowing the genealogical relations among Yanomamo individuals.
Format: 1-inch margins, 12-point Times New Roman font, double-spaced, with page numbers in the bottom-center of pages. Use section headings to break up the three parts of the assignment. And, be sure to document points made in your paper by citing proper page numbers in Chagnon’s ethnography.
Write a 5 page paper, broken up in 3 distinctive sections, addressing the following:
Section 1. REVIEW how the Yanomamo tried to withhold genealogical information from the Chagnon, how the Chagnon became aware of their deceptions, and how he found ways to ‘get the truth, from generally un-cooperative informants. [about 1 page]
Section 2. EXPLAIN why Chagnon thought he needed to know genealogical relations amoung the Yanomamo and the role this kind of information played in his understanding of Yanomamo social organization. What was he trying to do and why? Were the genealogical data required to test some general hypotheses about Yanomamo culture and/or human behavior in general? And, what understandings of Yanomamo life were made possible by Chagnon knowing the actual genealogical relations among the various villagers? [about 3 pages]
Section 3, DISCUSS the ethical issue that arises when social scientists want to study something people themselves do not want studied. For instance, the fact that Chagnon went ahead with his genealogical study has prompted other anthropologists to criticize Chagnon’s research on the ethical grounds. What do you think of Chagnons choice? In general, is it okay for anthropologists to decide beforehand what topics they want to study (‘for the purpose of science’), or should they only study topics that people themselves are willing to have studied? [about 2 pages]
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