A funny account of one man's cruise down the Yangtze with a group of American millionaires... Insightful, biting humor. An accurate description of tour-isms.

American Anthropology Association El Dorado Task Force Preliminary Report:

"We regard [Darkness in El Dorado] with profound ambivalence, finding the book deeply flawed, but nevertheless highlighting ethical issues that we must confront."

Visit the American Anthropology Association web site for the complete report.

Patrick Tierney doesn't like anthropologist-legend Napoleon Chagnon, James Neel, or any number of other scientists, journalists, politicians, bureaucrats, perverts, and debutantes who have made reputations and money among and at the expense the Yanomami. This message is crystal clear. To Tierney's credit, his extensive, meticulous research and annotation, at times even distractive in its excruciating detail show just how serious he is about the pointed and refreshingly direct accusations he makes throughout his book.

Tierney's argument is extensive and lengthy, clearly fueled by alternating rage and conviction. His knowledge of the area, its history, and the academic body surrounding the Yanomami is obvious. But, to my reading his narrative is poorly organized, even rambling. His detailed attacks against Chagnon, Neel, and others continue throughout the book, more or less chronologically, with detailed analyses and the debunking/disproving of Chagnon's studies and products continuing right to the very last paragraph on the very last page. It seems to me, however, that the discussion of the US Atomic Energy Commission's Project Sunshine, the radioactive injection programs, the mysterious bone collection program, the encroachment of miners and other agents of plunder into Yanomami areas, and the tales of official corruption all would serve to be the bookends, the hard bands around a core of clinical and precise dissection of Chagnon, both personally and professionally. But such was not the case.

There are a great many issues going on here, and Tierney's need to address them all dilutes his overall work.... Tierney attacks constantly, without letting up, only rarely giving ground. To his credit, he does point out valid observations At the same time, he goes after the corrupt politicians and their cohorts, as well as the US Atomic Energy Commission, journalists, and any number of other individuals and organizations which he asserts have had impacts-all of them negative--upon the Yanomami. Many of these side stories are highly intriguing, worthy of additional research and publication, specifically the AEC's Project Sunshine and the bone collection program.

Reading the book gave me some insight of my own. I'd argue that a better subtitle to the book would be "How Vanity and Commerce Devastated the Amazon." From the information provided here, what is clearly driving the academic exaggerations and falsifications, and the increasing, destructive contact with the Yanomami is the quest for personal glory and/or greed. The scientists saw and still see Yanomamiland as a massive laboratory in which to make a global reputation, the locals (politicians and entrepreneurs) see it as a resource-rich region for exploitation, and the journalists regard the area as a made-for-publication, story-rich environment, full of newspaper-selling, viewer-inducing drama. Unfortunately, all of this is true. What comes through clearly is that the Yanomami are absolutely powerless, ultimately doomed, unable to even conceive of let alone competently oppose the forces conspiring constantly to exploit them.

In conclusion, the book serves three positive, educational purposes. First, it provides a detailed and accurate, albeit distorted slightly by Tierney's passion, history of the discovery and exploitation of the Yanomami. Second, it provides a cautionary tale on the nature of exploration and discovery, a real-world anthropological application of the Heisenberg Principle. And third, despite its rambling, unfocused message, it offers a textbook method for a point-by-point, meticulous refutation and indictment of apparently false ...scientific research. Tierney does not stoop to name-calling or insults; he retains the high ground yet ruthlessly, incessantly picks apart and destroys decades of Chagnon's and others' work, a lifetime of apparently wasted and falsified effort, all in the name of vanity.

im glad this book was written for the sole-fact that all these reviews are so concentrated on supporting the name of Anthropology and "Science" that they dont focus on the cultures people have destroyed in the name of science, "progress", profit, grants, warfare, etc, etc, etc.

"all of Chagnon's work is taken in vain." so are a lot of peoples livlihoods so he gets his paycheck. you can balance what you think its more important... a man coming back to his roots to observe for the rest of us or letting the people live autonomously.