Chagnon has a lot of haters, and most of what pisses them off is what makes this so much fun to read. The book reads at times like a 19th Century explorer story, but better I think, because Chagnon is an anthropologist and not some agent of the Empire. Some folks hate that, one writer in Al Jazeera said something about Chagnon being a bearded man's man. Well, yeah, but more Hemingway than James Bond. He is in there alone, just trying to figure it out, but it did remind me at times of books (I have also enjoyed) where some British dude is keeping a diary of how many people in the expedition have died -- Stanley and Livingstone type stuff. Chagnon's book is way more fun, because the Yanomamö get the drop on him so often... playing tricks on him that had me laughing out loud.
Another thing haters say about Chagnon is that he makes the Yanamamö seem like they are in a constant state of warfare and ready to kill each other over nothing. I didn't feel that way. Compared with the USA, where police kill an unarmed person every day and where every day some nutter kills or injures 4 or more people... compared with that the Yanamamö are noble savages. It must be said that the women appear to be slaves and are frequently beaten and raped. The haters say that Chagnon is offering colonials an excuse to "civilize" the Yanamomö by painting them as pretty awful. I am not in a position to judge just how awful the Yanamamö are, but I sympathize with what might be called a misanthropist streak in the anthropologist. I also thought it interesting how the Yanamomö's misogyny seems to fit with the story in [b:The Creation of Patriarchy|499353|The Creation of Patriarchy|Gerda Lerner|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347629739s/499353.jpg|487482] . Women are captured in raids... Chagnon argues time and again that capturing women is one of the main reasons for Yanamomö warfare, and that the most prolific killers have the most children.
You know how in the TV show Breaking Bad, they introduce bad guys who are more evil than the evil protagonist so that you end up sympathizing with a cold blooded murderer? I don't think Chagnon was calculating like that when he brings the gold miners and the missionaries into the story, but the same effect happens. It's like, the Yanamomö are these chilled out hammock weavers, snorting hallucinogens in their forest when these westerners come with shotguns and measles and ruin the party. It's like, I'd vote for Kaobawä if he was running against Trump. That the Yanamomö don't live in some anarchist paradise Acardia doesn't mean that we should go in there and "improve" them.
To summarize: a real eyebrow-raising page-turner that had me laughing, disgusted and frequently saying "different!" in an awed whisper. Plan to read more of anthropology's greatest hits.