Napoleon Chagnon conducted his fieldwork amongst the
Yanomamö society going from one Yanomamö village to the other from 1964 to
1991.In the first chapter of his book he explains and paints an interesting
picture of the society they live in as compared what to has come from. Like any
other tribal society we imagine to be living in the Amazon, the Yanamamö people
had their own lifestyle, which was, gave Chagnon a ‘cultural shock’.
He goes on to explain his encounter with the Yanomamö
people, how unlike the other societies where they go on to live near the rivers
and stayed in large groups, the Yanomamö people did the opposite. How
aggression played an important role in the society and how the people never
took ‘no’ for an answer. At first Chagnon had a rather tough time fitting into
their society, that was obvious but unlike what he expected that the people
would actually help him, they did the opposite. Expoiting him and his goods as
much as they could. But as seen later on Chagnon was able to keep this under
control. Another part which I found interesting was when Chagnon goes to visit
a village where a ‘foreigner’ or ‘non-yanomamö’ has never encountered them.
Their initial reaction to him was how everyone surrounded him and speculated
his appearance. Although they had heard of him they had never seen him, and
when they did they realized how similar they were,yet different.
He had to go through instances when the entire village
played a “joke” on him. This way the yanomamö people were different ye similar
to him.
