Was Chagnon qualified to conduct research among the Yanomami?
An examination of the arguments presented thus far raises the question of whether Napoleon Chagnon was really qualified, academically and temperamentally, to do research among the Yanomami. His account of their allegedly high rate of violence based on genetic factors must be reconsidered. A much more likely explanation is found in his bumbling version of anthropological research–his actions led directly to the onset of violence. That is, of course, if one accepts the accounts of other anthropologists and researchers who have done studies of the Yanomami. Kenneth Good, for example, has witnessed a single war during his twelve years among them, in contrast to the great many apparently witnessed by Chagnon (no doubt as the result of his own activities). Data from other researchers, some of which predates Chagnon’s work (as in the case of the data collected by Hamilton Rice in 1924, forty years before Chagnon’s first journey to Venezuela) support a much more benevolent view of the Yanomam
