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Napoleon Chagnon's The Fierce People

506 Words3 Pages

Would you ever step out of your comfort zone and live in a remote village with aggressive Indians? Most people wouldn't, but that's exactly what Napoleon Chagnon did. The Fierce People is his accounts of the experience’s he had while living with the Yąnomamö Indians in Southern Venezuela. His trip lasted nineteen months, and he had the opportunity to learn the in's and out's of their culture.
The Fierce People is an article based on Napoleon Chagnon's ( a University of Michigan professors) attempt to adapt to a Southern Venezuelan Indian tribe the Yąnomamö’s. Chagnon’s experience was very interesting, but yet stressful for him. His biggest struggle was trying to convert to the Indians way of life. He spent 19 long months trying to understand …show more content…

Positive being on how special family, sharing and strength meant to their wellbeing, and negatives being hygiene, drug usage, and violence going on in their tribes. We came to the conclusion though they were a uncivilized society in American terms, they oddly shared a lot of the same morals and values we acknowledge in American culture.
1. Changon didn’t develop an appreciation for the Yąnomamö way of life because it was a struggle for him to put all his beliefs and culture to the side, in efforts to understand a whole new environment especially one that is so different from American culture. He wasn’t accepting of their culture, so during that process he went through culture shock. Also many times the Indians lied and stole from him so that cause he to feel that they were untrustworthy. To sum it up he was very ethnocentric, instead of being receptive to the Yąnomamös.
2. Chagnon was stingy and didn't want to accept food from others because, his food was his only connection to his culture at home. Also he felt like the Indians were dirty, thus their food was unclean. Additionally the Indians were very greedy. If he shared with them they would want more and wouldn’t stop till they what they wanted, which resulted in them stealing for

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