The Yanomami case - a Mega-Camelot?

Dear Colleagues,

With gravest concern I hear the news about the debate on the research ethics
implications of what might be termed the James Neel versus the Yanomami
Indians case.

BBC world service carried an excellent documentation on this terrible
subject:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/spanish/news000923brasil.shtml

The BBC article reads in Spanish as follows (no English language version is
given, although the broadcast was carried on BBC Newshour in English as well
this weekend, on Saturday night):

Un genetista de Estados Unidos que murió hace pocos meses ha sido acusado de
haber infectado deliberadamente con el virus del sarampión a miles de indios
de la tribu Yanomami, matando a centenares de ellos.

El científico, James Neel, trabajó en la selva amazónica donde habitan los
Yanomami -entre Brasil y Venezuela- durante los años 60.

En un libro que se publicará el primero de octubre, se acusa a Neel de haver
vacunado a los Yanomami en un experimento para probar los efectos de de la
selección natural en las sociedades primitivas.

En el libro se asegura que el experimento fue financiado por la Comisión de
Energía Atómica de los Estados Unidos, que quería conocer las consecuencias
que podía tener para una comunidad pequeña la muerte masiva causada por una
guerra nuclear.

El libro, titulado "Oscuridad en El Dorado", está escrito por un periodista,
Patrick Tierney.

Se calcula que hoy existen 21.000 indios Yanomami.      
El periódico londinense "The Guardian" publica la opinión del profesor Terry
Turner, de la Cornell University, que leyó el libro: "es la historia de una
pesadilla; el corazón de lo prohibido para la antropología".

La Asociación Americana de Antropología, la AAA, que lucha por mantener
vivas las comunidades indígenas, expresó también su preocupación por el
contenido del libro.

La AAA sabe del sufrimiento de los Yanomami durante los años de los
buscadores de oro, que les llevaron la polución y las epidemias.

La AAA prepara un foro abierto sobre el libro para su reunión anual.

Muriendo "sin ayuda"

El libro dice que Neel utilizó vacunas de sarampión para expandir la
enfermedad que mató a centenares o quizás miles de indios Yanomami.

Presuntamente Neel ordenó a sus ayudantes que no ayudaran a los enfermos y
moribundos, insistiendo que su misión era la de observar y registrar todo lo
que sucedía.

El profesor Turner dice que Neel usó la vacuna llamada Edmonson B, cuyos
síntomas son indistinguibles de los del sarampión.

El grupo de Neel estudió los efectos de las bombas de Hiroshima y Nagasaki.

Sobre el experimento no se informó al gobierno venezolano de la campaña de
vacunación, a pesar de que legalmente debería haberlo hecho.

Según Turner, Neel creía que sociedades "primitivas" como la Yanomami,
estaban genéticamente aisladas y que por ello los machos de la raza no
poseían los genes de "liderazgo" indispensables para mejorar la especie
genéticamente.

Neel creía también que en las sociedades modernas se acabaría con los "genes
superiores de liderazgo" por la mediocridad de las masas.

Experimentos

Sin embargo, el experimento no pretendía sólo verificar sus propias teorías,
sino que debía trabajar para los propósitos de la Comisión de Energía
Atómica.

Neel estudió los efectos de la radiación en los seres humanos y dirigió un
equipo que investigó los efectos de las bombas de Hiroshima y Nagasaki en
los sobrevivientes y sus hijos.

El profesor Turner asegura que el equipo de Neel estuvo involucrado en
experimentos en EE.UU. en los que se inyectó plutonio a personas, sin su
autorización previa.

Según Turner, el libro de Tierney abrirá un debate sobre los métodos de la
antropología para realizar sus estudios.

En la selva amazónica se calcula que quedan vivos unos 21.000 indios
Yanomami, que todavía ven amenazada su supervivencia.

El desgaste medioambiental les hace cada día la vida más difícil, ya que
tienen pocas posibilidades de sobrevivir de la pesta y la caza.  <<...>> 
Búsqueda en BBC Mundo   
Top of Form 1 Bottom of Form 1  

        
VÍNCULOS        
 <<...>> Survival Internacional 
 <<...>> Sitio de los Yanomami (en inglés)      
 <<...>> Asociación Antropológica Americana (en inglés) 
Nota: el contenido de las páginas sugeridas no es responsabilidad de la BBC.



A Yanomami website is found under:

http://www.mayastudies.org/yanomami.html

Another Yanomami website is found under:


http://www.ran.org/ran/ran_campaigns/brazil/yanomami.html

Excerpts say:

IN FOCUS: THE YANOMAMI
Five centuries ago there were somewhere between six and nine million
indigenous people living in Brazil. Today, approximately 250 thousand
remain, resisting encroachment by loggers, gold miners, cattle ranchers, and
state sponsored development projects. Ranking within these numbers are the
Yanomami with an estimated population of 8,500 in Brazil and 12,500 in
Venezuela. Their territory covers about 19 million hectares of Amazon
rainforest spanning across the two countries. 


The Yanomami people are one of the truly Neolithic-age human groups in the
world. The remoteness and sheer ruggedness of the region encompassing their
traditional homelands allowed these people to develop in almost complete
isolation from the outside world. Consequently, the Yanomami live more like
their ancient ancestors than any tribal people surviving in Brazil today.
The Yanomami, like many Amazonian forest dwellers, are a semi-agrarian
hunter-gatherer people. They depend upon the forest for all their needs.
These Indians cultivate about 80 percent of their food and also grow
numerous plants for medicinal purposes. They live in large communities
centered around a donut-shaped shelter called a 'yano'. A single yano may be
shared by as many as 400 people. 
The Yanomami territory had been left relatively undisturbed in the decades
preceding 1970, when Brazil's then military government launched the first
large-scale development scheme in the region. At this time a series of roads
were constructed throughout Amazonia in order to make valuable forest
resources accessible to multinational corporations and to allow settlement
by landless migrants from the country's overcrowded cities, where political
dissent was growing. In conjunction with these projects, the Brazilian
government carried out the first aerial surveys of the forest. The data
gathered from the Yanomami area revealed that these lands contained valuable
cassiterite ore, uranium, and gold. 
Shortly after this discovery 'garimpeiros' (gold miners) began invading the
Indian territory by the thousands. By 1987, 45,000 gold miners were in
Yanomami territory. The gold miners engaged in armed conflicts with the
Yanomami, introduced malaria and other diseases to which the Indians have no
natural immunity, and generated internal strife between Yanomami groups.
Furthermore, gold prospecting has led to serious damage of the natural
environment. Rivers are contaminated with mercury used in the identification
and purification of gold, while the existing fauna is ransacked to support
the multitude of miners. In a short period of time several thousand Indians
perished. 
Legally protected under the constitution of 1988, the Yanomami territory in
Brazil has, recently, been safeguarded by a military surveillance operation.
In 1996, however, the operation was suspended. Once again the territory is
being invaded and the disastrous results of the gold rush of the 80s could
be repeated if no measures are taken. Already, many Indians have either been
murdered or are dying of malaria. The sole health care program organized by
the Pro-Yanomami Commission (CCPY) is in jeopardy due to insufficient
funding. Funds for these projects which, in fact, are available through the
Amazon Pilot Program are not being used, possibly due to lack of political
will on the part of the Brazilian government. 
Necessary steps for the preservation of the Yanomami culture should include
the re-institution of surveillance programs, comprehensive health assistance
strategies, and the collaboration between the Brazilian and the Venezuelan
governments in developing protection projects that are not conflicting. As
it stands, the Venezuelan stricter protection program only leads to an
exodus of gold miners across the border into Yanomami territory in the
Brazilian side. 


What You Can Do


Send the following letter to the President of Brazil:  Sr. Presidente da
Republica Fernando Henrique Cardoso Palacio do Planalto Praca dos Tres
Poderes 70.160-900 Brasilia, D.F. BRASIL or e-mail him:pr@cr-df.mp.br  Mr.
President, I am aware that the Yanomami territory is being invaded by gold
prospectors. This invasion has led to a series of grave problems that
threaten the Indian community. Many Yanomami have already died in conflicts
with gold miners or from diseases to which they have no natural immunity.  I
urge you to release the funds necessary to re-install the surveillance
program of the Yanomami territory. Also, it is necessary to maintain the
health program conducted by the Pro-Yanomami Commission (CCPY) which is now
in serious jeopardy due to lack of funds. The lives of the Indians and the
preservation of their culture might be in your hands. Please act expediently
on this matter.  Sincerely,  Your name and address...   

Further articles are found under:

http://nativenet.uthscsa.edu/archive/nl/yanomami.html



The American Anthropological association carries a statement on the subject
as well:


http://www.aaanet.org/press/eldorado.htm


The University of Michigan obituary can be read under:

http://www.southalabama.edu/genetics/neel3.htm

One ofmost famous books, written by James Neel, is:



Excessive Human
Population Growth
and Human Geneticists
J. V. Neel, M.D., PhD.
F. M. Salzano,PhD.
W. Wertelecki, M.D.


Other titles, listed at the Library of Congress are:

Query Results
Records 1 through 9 of 9 returned. 

Title:         The Children of atomic bomb survivors : a genetic
                  study / edited by James V. Neel and William J. Schull.
Published:     Washington, D.C. : National Academy Press, 1991.
LC Call No.:   RA648.3.C48 1991
More on this record 

Title:         Evolutionary perspectives and the new genetics :
                  proceedings of an international symposium honoring Dr.
James
                  V. Neel held in Ann Arbor, Michigan, June 17-18, 1985 /
                  editors, Henry Gershowitz, Donald L. Rucknagel, Richard E.
                  Tashian.
Published:     New York : Liss, c1986.
LC Call No.:   QH359.E937 1986
More on this record 

Title:         The Genetics of diabetes mellitus / edited by W.
                  Creutzfeldt, J. Köbberling, J. V. Neel, in cooperation
with
                  J. H. Edwards ... [et al.].
Published:     Berlin ; New York : Springer-Verlag, 1976.
LC Call No.:   RC660.G43
More on this record 

Author:        Neel, James V. (James Van Gundia), 1915-
Title:         Changing perspectives on the genetic effects of
                  radiation.
Published:     Springfield, Ill., Thomas [1963]
LC Call No.:   QH652.N43
More on this record 

Author:        Neel, James V. (James Van Gundia), 1915-
Title:         The effect of exposure to the atomic bombs on
                  pregnancy termination in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, by J. V.
                  Neel and W. J. Schull in collaboration with R. C. Anderson
                  [and others]
Published:     Washington, National Academy of Sciences-National
                  Research Council, 1956.
LC Call No.:   RG572.N4
More on this record 

Author:        Neel, James V. (James Van Gundia), 1915-
Title:         Human heredity, by James V. Neel and William J.
                  Schull.
Published:     [Chicago] University of Chicago Press [1954]
LC Call No.:   QH431.N42
More on this record 

Author:        Neel, James V. (James Van Gundia), 1915-
Title:         Physician to the gene pool : genetic lessons and
                  other stories / James V. Neel.
Published:     New York : J. Wiley, c1994.
LC Call No.:   RB155.N44 1994
More on this record 

Author:        Schull, William J.
Title:         The effects of inbreeding on Japanese children
                  [by] William J. Schull and James V. Neel in collaboration
                  with Arthur L. Drew [and others]
Published:     New York, Harper & Row [1965]
LC Call No.:   HV4995.J3S3
More on this record 

Author:        Symposium on Contributions of Genetics to
                  Epidemiologic Studies of Chronic Diseases (1963 : Ann
Arbor,
                  Mich.)
Title:         Genetics and the epidemiology of chronic
                  diseases. Edited by James V. Neel, Margery W. Shaw [and]
                  William J. Schull.
Published:     Washington, U.S. Dept. of Health, Education, and
                  Welfare, Public Health Service, Division of Chronic
Diseases;
                  [for sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Govt.
                  Print. Off., 1965]
LC Call No.:   RB156.S9 1963
More on this record

The Tierney title is already described in the Amazon.com:

Darkness in El Dorado: How Scientists and Journalists Devastated the Amazon
by Patrick Tierney


Hardcover - 416 pages (November 2000) 
W.W. Norton & Company; ISBN: 0393049221 
Amazon.com Sales Rank: 566 
Popular in: Education (#10) 



Editorial Reviews
Leslie Sponsel, University of Hawaii 
In many respects, the most important book ever written about the Yanomami. .
. . It candidly and systematically exposes with ample documentation the
data, interpretations, and ethics of the anthropologists who constructed and
publicized the fierce image of the Yanomami. . . . It is no exaggeration to
say that this is by far the ugliest affair in the entire history of
anthropology. 
Book Description 
What Guns, Germs, and SteelM did for colonial history, this book will do for
present-day anthropology. Darkness in El Dorado is an explosive account of
how ruthless journalists, self-serving anthropologists, and obsessed
scientists placed one of the Amazon basin's oldest tribes on the cusp of
extinction. First coming to prominence in the 1960s, the "savage" Yanomami
Indians were the subject of anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon's
multi-million-copy bestseller Yanomamo: The Fierce People and many... read
more 



For an expert opinion on the subject, please also consult:

http://www.hawaii.edu/cseas/faculty/sponsel_leslie.html

Colleague Sponsel from my dear good old University of Hawaii has written,
among others, 

Tropical Deforestation: The Human Dimension, Sponsel, L.E., T. N. Headland,
and R.C. Bailey, eds. NY: Columbia University Press. 1996.

CSEAS Contact Information
Our mailing address is
Center for Southeast Asian Studies
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Moore Hall 416
1890 East-West Road
Honolulu HI 96822 
Should you need to reach us,
telephone: 808.956-2688
fax: 808.956-2682.
Email: cseas@hawaii.edu 
Director 1999-2002:
Stephen O'Harrow, soh@hawaii.edu 

The above written text is my own private opinion. 
My address is: