The Yanomamo and the Fierce Anthropologist

The Fierce Anthropologists The controversy revolving the tribe of the Yanomamo and the professionals linked to anthropology has caught the world’s attention. Rapid and unforeseeable events have set the tone for the controversy. The study of these Amazonian Indians, who live in regions of the Venezuela and Brazil border, has turned in western exploitation. Accusations about of unethical anthropologist are abundant, but little facts about such accusations are evident. The grand attention that these events have attained has turned into a focus on larger issues in anthropological practices.By comparing the approach and relationships of other research projects, we can identify just ethical standards. Most of the controversy stems from the publications about the Yanomamo tribe by anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon. His 1968 volume Yanomamo: The Fierce People made the tribe famous due to good writing and extensive interaction with one of the most isolated people on the planet. But ultim ately, the way that he portrayed them–violent and fierce–is what attracted wide audiences.Much of his books and his video productions are centralized around the theme that the Yanomamo have an immutable trait of violence. According to Chagnon, he collected data, interacted with opposing Yanomamo villages, and received testimony to arrive to his findings. His researched was very lucrative; his book sold more than 4 million copies, which is well beyond the average of other ethnographies. He not only gained financial benefits, he began to be praised and attacked by people around the globe. People accused Chagnon of exaggerating the fact that violence is a part of their culture.For instance, French anthropologist Jacques Lizot, who lived with the Yanomamo for more than twenty years, said that violence is periodic; it does not govern their social life for long periods of time. It is worth noting that Lizot was accused of homosexual acts with young Yanomamo and distributing guns. Others, like Kenneth Good, accused Chagnon of sensationalizing violence, which he elaborated in his book, New Yorkers: The Mugging and Murdering People. He explains that just because violence occurs within the Yanomamo, does not mean they should all be generalized as violent.Good also received backlash for his research because he married a young Yanomamo girl, whom he now has three children with. Another compelling argument came from the studies of Brian Ferguson. He identified Chagnon’s representation of violence as a historical situation. He states that there is a spike in violence during contact with Westerners. As it relates to Chagnon, because he brought western manufactured goods, such as steel and iron tools, he disrupted trading relationships, which lead to inter-village violence for the unequal access of those scarce and desired tools.Among all the accusers, journalist Patrick Tierney gave the controversy the most attention. Tierney’s book, Darkness in E l Dorado: How Scientist and Journalist Devastated the Amazon, explored the affects of Yanomamo’s exposure to the outside world. Published in 2000, the book accuses Chagnon of misrepresenting the Yanomamo as fierce people, being responsible for warfare by interrupting trading relationships, staging film scenes, fabricating data, giving unsupported claims of being the first to contact with the Yanomamo, violating Venezuelan law, and overall unethical practices.The next set of accusations involves geneticist James Neel, who joined Chagnon in the fieldwork of the Yanomamo in 1968. He accuses Neel of helping the measles epidemic worsen because he provided outdated vaccines and misadvised the Yanomamo, which resulted in the deaths of thousands. Many of these accusations were prevalent since Chagnon’s work in the 1960’s, but Tierney’s publication brought them together for mainstream audiences. Subsequently, the American Anthropological Association (AAA) was comp elled to launch an investigation on the controversy.After investigating the abundant accusations, the AAA exonerated Neel from worsening or causing the measles epidemic, found insufficient evidence to charge Chagnon with all of Tierney’s accusation, but did find that he did not have the Yanomamo’s best interest in mind. It is undisputed that this controversy is repelling. Even if all of the accusations were false, the mere accusations show that ethical standards were broken. Surprisingly, the controversy does reap some positive consequences; it encourages personnel–within and outside the field–to consider the appropriate standards that anthropologist should be held to.Ethical questions arise, such as: how an anthropologist explains and gains consent from the targeted group, what is just compensation, or the dynamics and limits of ‘doing no harm’ to the subjects. The unbalance of power between the anthropologist from developed societies and th eir isolated subjects is a relationship that needs to be treated with delicacy to avoid exploitation. We can compare the relationship that researcher and filmmaker John Marshall had with the Juhoansi people of the Kalahari Desert for ethical analysis.John Marshall first went to the Kalahari in 1950 and researched the Juhoansi for fifty years thereafter. His relationship with the Juhoansi was one of friendships. He, alike other anthropologist, compensated the Juhoansi for their cooperation with western goods, but he did not stop there. During one of Marshall’s visits, he found the Juhoansi living in government settlements, which provided food relief and low wage jobs, but also inflicted alcohol abuse, domestic violence, and the lack of independence.In the late 1970’s, Marshall began to advocate for more water access and agricultural opportunity from the government. Because there was such a significant interruption to the traditional way of Juhoansi life, desired changes beset different challenges. Marshall justly compensated the Juhoansi and kept their best interest in mind to avoid causing harm to them. The latter characteristic is one that is of greatest importance because harm can come in direct and indirect ways that are temporary or permanent.The American Anthropological Association standard, labeled the ‘do no harm’ rule, is one that anthropologist often have little ability to prevent. At bare minimum, anthropologists almost always interrupt a group’s way of life when doing research and compensating with goods that are scarce to their environments. Interruptions in general, require adjustment and adaption, and when dealing with groups that have customs and traditions that have not changed for possibly hundreds of years, those adjustments are problematic and often prove to be vitally harmful.For instance, Chagnon’s and other Yanomamo researchers brought western goods and weapons into their community, which created a n interruption in trading and likely contributed to their state of warfare. Further, John Marshall also unintentionally created a significant interruption when his tire tracks that he created during his visits facilitated the contact with government entities, which ultimately changed most of the Juhoansi traditional ways of life.The difference between the two examples is that Marshall actually returned and improved their situation by advocating to their interests. Chagnon not only used more coercive techniques in gaining cooperation, there is also no trace of tangible efforts made to improve the harm he contributed to in the Yanomamo community. If the AAA standards were altered to ‘do not harm only while researching’ or compensate for cooperation, little ethical analysis would be needed, but that is not the case. Doing no harm to the group is indefinite and needs to be examined even after research is complete.Additionally, a â€Å"just† amount of compensation mea ns that it needs to be fair, not just in the context of the region researched, but also that of the western entities benefiting from it; i. e. ten machetes given to the Yanomamo for an ethnography research is not equivalent $500k and advancement in the anthropologist respective career. Alike the Yanomamo, the Juhoansi continue to face challenges due to outside interference. However, their interference mostly comes form governmental entities, and the Juhoansi have been assisted by Marshall and treated ethically by other anthropologists, like Richard Lee.On the other hand, the Yanomamo face problems from miners camping in their territories, destruction of the environment by mining and other outside forces, along with other governmental issues, but it is also clear that the Yanomamo have been significantly exploited by the western world. This could be because of the lack of oversight and/or due to little ethical standards. In any case, these unfortunate chain of events should serve a g reater purpose to the ethical standards of practicing anthropologist and aspiring students.

Genetic Drift and the Founder Effect Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Genetic Drift and the Founder Effect - Essay Example This reduces variation in genetic characteristics with reduction in population size but retains the developed genetic frequencies as the population grows (Shulka, 2009). An example of the bottleneck effect is the case of white elephants that were protected from extinction. The resultant thousands of the species that originated from about 20 animals exhibits â€Å"no variations in 24 proteins† that significantly varied in the originally large population (Russel, Hertz and McMillan, 2011, p. 440). The founder effect, however, is characterized by movement of a small section of a population to a different locality. The reduced population leads to convergent traits that are retained within an internally growing population (Jurmain, Kilgore and Trevathan, 2008). An example is the â€Å"Old Order Amish of Lancaster County,† a small community that originated from a trio of immigrants. The emergent community however developed a convergent high frequency of â€Å"Ellis-van Creveld syndrome† leading to higher frequency and more significant dwarfism as compared to the original population (Russel, Hertz and McMillan, 2011, p.

Are Mergers the most appropriate method of strategic growth in todays Essay

Are Mergers the most appropriate method of strategic growth in todays business environment - Essay Example This will be followed by an explanation of key terms namely: mergers, acquisitions, alliances and joint ventures. The main body of the paper will identify the issues and challenges of external methods of strategic growth as well as well as to attempt to establish how these relate to today’s business environment. According to BusinessDictionary (2013), strategic growth is growth aimed at winning larger market share even at the expense of short term earnings. There are four broad growth strategies namely product development, diversification, market penetration and product development. Campbell, Gaule & Morrison (2005) also suggest that â€Å"growth in profits can come from improving the profitability of the existing revenue stream, expanding existing businesses by gaining market share or extending into new markets or products, or entering one or more new businesses by acquisition, joint venture or greenfield investment.† On the other hand, Liabotis (2007) posits to the ef fect that growth strategy can be achieved through growing the core business, growing by sub-segmenting the customers as well as growing adjustment opportunities. As a point of departure, it is imperative to explain the meaning of key terms highlighted above. Weinberg and Blank (1979) â€Å"define merger as an arrangement whereby the assets of two companies become vested in or under the control of one company,† (as cited in Marimuthu, 2008, p. 8). On the other hand, an acquisition can be defined as any transaction where a buyer acquires the assets of the other company and eventually takes control of them (Scharf,1971 as cited in Marimuthu, 2008). A joint venture is a strategic alliance where two or more people or companies agree to contribute goods, services and or capital to a common commercial enterprise (Cook, 2010). The main advantage of joint ventures is related to access and sharing of resources among the partners which can also contribute to the joint ventures profitabi lity. However, this paper will specifically focus on mergers and acquisitions and their contribution to strategic business growth during the contemporary period. There are different reasons why mergers are carried out by different companies. The merging companies will be seeking to increase their market share since they may be joining operations with successful companies in the market. The other reason is that the merged companies may be seeking to gain the skills and expertise of the other employees from the other company as they will cross the floor when a major has taken place. Growth can be achieved through product development, diversification, market penetration or market development (Kotler, 2003). Ansoff suggests that the growth strategy of a company mainly depends on two variables, whether it is the desire to develop new products or new customers as shown in appendix 1. More customers for a specific product can contribute to an increase in the company’s market share. The major aim of various businesses is to attract customers who form the foundation of the organization. In order to attract new customers, there may also be need for developing the products so that they can appeal to a large number of the targeted customers. Product expansion is mainly concerned with keeping the same market of customers while at the same time trying to increase sales through offering more products (Kotler, 2004). This can be achieved through identification of the changes in the customers’

Realism and Liberalism are classical theories of International Essay

Realism and Liberalism are classical theories of International Relations. In terms of ethics, to which normative approach can t - Essay Example Additionally, countries interact through the activities of intergovernmental organizations, international non-governmental organizations and non-governmental organizations among others. The nature of the operation of such organizations dictates that countries coexist peacefully and have a mutual understanding of the legislations of each other in order to address any form of conflict arising from the interactions through the international citizens (GRAY, 1995). Several theories explain the nature of relations between different countries often explaining the best forms of such relationships. A conducive relationship should encourage development of the different countries. Sovereignty refers to the ability of a state making its own legislations without the coercion or interference of other countries (Hutchings, 2010). One such theory is realism, the theory espouses for the truthful representation of the different countries without any attempt by the state to conceal their political, eco nomic or social nature. Realists believe that by presenting itself factually, a country makes itself open for interpretation by others who therefore decide to conduct businesses with it regardless of its current state. Despite their autonomous states, countries depend on each other. Through trade, citizens travel from country to country thereby validating the inter country relationships. This implies that the regulations and policies in a specific country affect every citizen in the country some of who are often from other countries (NAAMAN ZAUDERER, 2010). Because of this, countries strive to develop effective working relationships with each other, the world is currently a global village and people invest in any country with a possible market for the products or services regardless of the nationality of the investor. In the event of an internal conflict for example, not only the citizens of the country are likely to suffer the consequences for some international citizens in the cou ntry may also fall victim of such squabbles and often lose their investments. For such unprecedented occurrences, countries strive to formulate effective policies to safeguard the interest of the different countries that interact on different platforms through their citizens. Such possibilities therefore validate the increasing amount of interest that the international community obtains in the event of an economic, political or social crisis in the country. Some countries forcefully intervene in creating peace in such regions as was the case in Ivory Coast, a North African state in which the incumbent presidential had forcefully clung to office despite having lost an election. Realism opposes romanticism a theory commonly applied in the early French society in the country through which its officials gave a deceptive representation of the country’s political structure to the international society thereby creating a virtual state with a different preventability from the truth. Realists revolted against the poor representation that portrayed the country as stable thereby giving the actual representation of the country. They fearlessly revealed the poor commercial policies that had resulted in acute food shortages and widespread poverty of the people while the elite political society lived of the jobless population burdened by inconsiderate tax

Anecdotal Record Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Anecdotal Record - Assignment Example Teacher Anthony walked up to Jane and asked,† What is happening here,† John replied by saying, â€Å"It is Jane who is bullying me around† Jane further stated, â€Å"Why doesn’t he take his problems to another place.† John further stated â€Å"I have a right to be in this center same as you; therefore I do not see a reason why I should not participate in the activity of my choice.† There was context in Jenifer’s dance as he was responding to the emotions she was feeling about her father’s death. Children are mostly attached to their parents while they are young and while they pass on, they are affected psychologically (Thomas, 2009). Jennifer is expressing her sadness because of her father’s death. It has been established that â€Å"one of the purposes of working with young children is to help them develop their social and emotional issues. When children are involved in independent activities the things they do are reflected in their actions.† By so doing, the teacher manages to establish issues affecting the child, which are then, take care of through counselling as in the case of Jennifer. There was context in Jane’s behavior when he dragged John of the stage. â€Å"In most case the behavior that is seen in children is a replica of what they are going through in their lives.† For example, Jane’s action reflect lack of attention at home from the parents and, therefore, taking out the anger on another student (Frydenberg, Deans & OBrien, 2011). Jane was expressing anger towards John because of the way her parent treats her at home. â€Å"The most significant thing while attending to children is to understand the underlying problem before reprimanding them to understand their social and emotional; problems. By so doing, such issues may be addressed woven if it means calling in the parents to discuss how to help the child.† Frydenberg, E., Deans, J., & OBrien, K. (2011). Developing

Are violent video games bad for kids Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Are violent video games bad for kids - Term Paper Example However, some studies have also indicated positive side of video games on children. This paper explores the negative and positive influence of video games on children. Violent video games promote aggressive behavior among children. According to Coon and Mitterer, children who are addicted to violent video games are most likely to develop violent and anti-social behavior (263). Most violent video games are designed in such a way that the more violent a child is when playing, the more points he or she earns. Active involvement of children in violent scenes shapes their behavior into aggressive individuals as they grow up. The interactive nature of the video games creates a perfect learning mode for children to master the art of violence. Video games adversely impact on performance at school. Video games are addictive in nature leave too little time for children to do their homework (Craton Para 15). For example, a child who takes three-quarters of his or her time playing video game will have no adequate reading time and hence likely to record poor academic performance in school. Video games make children to live fantasy life and lose touch with reality. Children addicted to violent video games usually want to do the things they do see in the video games. However, the reality is that video games are packed with fictional scenes. For instance, children usually want to try shooting and or other queer behaviors rewarded in violent video games. However, video games also have some benefits to children who play them. Video games enhance critical thinking in children and enable them to integrate well in the society. The games engage the brain in active and constant abstract thinking (Coon and Mitterer 263). They sharpen mental skills of children by fostering instruction following, logical problem solving, planning resource use, multitasking, quick and effective decision-making skills among others. The present world is technology driven and demands people to

Assets, liabilities, equity Essay Example for Free

Assets, liabilities, equity Essay Accounting, per se, is based on five types of accounts namely: assets, liabilities, equity, income and expense. These account types belong either of the Balance sheet accounts or Income and Expense accounts. Assets, liabiliites, and equity fall under the balance sheet account and the rest goes to the income and expense accoutnts. Definining each, asset is composed of a group of things that an individual or an entity owns. These includes tangible items like car, cash or often stocks (intangible) and others that possess convertible values. On the other hand, liabilities are group of things on which an individual or an entity is indebted to. Loans and mortgages are the common examples of liabilities. Equity, is what we also call net worth an amount that is represented to be the remainder after deducting the liabilities of an individual’s or an entity’s from its group of assets. Meanwhile, income is the same as profit – something that you earn as payment from the time, services, or goods that you offered in exchange of money. Expenses include all those monetaries that were used to acquire the goods or services of someone else. Amongst various accounts in an entity, the stocks swap and replacement costs are the fundamental accounts that change when an entity assimilates to a corporate merger. Stock swap is frequently used in the accounts of a corporate merger since it does not prohibit the shareholders of merging companies to distribute among them the risk that is involved in the merging transaction. Replacement cost, on the other hand is comes in when entities will employ cost in replacing that target company. However, replacment cost can only be true in most cases where an industry does not give services. References Investopedia ULC (2008) Mergers and Acquisitions: Introduction. Retrieved November 17, 2008, from http://www. investopedia. com/university/mergers/default. asp Money Instructor (2005) Basic Accounting Terminology 101. Retrieved November 17, 2008, from http://www. moneyinstructor. com/art/basicaccounting. asp