Chagnon’s writings and films have promoted a long-standing view of the Yanomami as exceptionally violent and war-loving. According to Chagnon, about one third of adult Yanomami males die violently, about two thirds of all adults had lost at least one close relative through violence, and over 50 percent had lost two or more close relatives. He has reported that one village was raided 25 times during his first 15 months there.
Chagnon provides a sociobiological explanation for the fierceness of the Yanomami. He explains that village raids and warfare are carried to obtain wives. Although the Yanomami prefer to marry within their village, there is a shortage of potential brides because the Yanomami practice the killing of female infants, which creates a scarcity of women. While the Yanomami prefer to marry within their own group, taking a wife from another group is preferable to remaining a bachelor. Men in other groups, however, are unwilling to give up their women; hence the necessity for raids. Chagnon also argues that, as successful warriors will be able to gain a wife or more than one wife, they often have more children than unsuccessful ones. Successful warriors, Chagnon suggests, carry a genetic advantage for fierceness, which they pass on to their sons, leading to a high growth rate of groups with violent males through genetic selection for fierceness. Male fierceness, in this view, is biologically determined.
Marvin Harris, who has a cultural materialist perspective, says that food scarcity and population in the area are the underlying causes of warfare. The Yanomami lack plentiful sources of meat, which is highly valued. Harris suggests that when hunting in an area was exhausted, the Yanomami would venture into territories of neighboring groups, thus giving rise to conflicts. Such conflicts in turn resulted in high rate of adult male deaths. Combined with the effects of female infant killing, this meat-warfare complex kept population growth rate down to a level that the environment could support.
In contrast, Patrick Tierney, a journalist, points the finger of blame to a large extent at Chagnon himself. Tierney presents evidence that it was the presence of Chagnon and his team of co-researchers and many boxes of trade goods that triggered a series of deadly raids, for the Yanomami competed with other groups for his trade goods. In addition, Tierney argues that Chagnon intentionally prompted the Yanomami to act fiercely for his films and to stage raids that actually led to bad feelings where they had not existed before.
16．The first sentence in the second paragraph implies that_________________.
A．the Yanomami are fierce by nature
B．the Yanomami are historically a fierce people
C．Chagnon influenced people’s view of the Yanomami
D．Chagnon was the discoverer of the Yanomami fierceness
17．According to Chagnon’s explanation, the fierceness of the Yanomami originates from_______.
A．the lack of men B．the shortage of women |
