VANCOUVER – Washington State University Vancouver will host a lecture by Dr. Napoleon Chagnon of the University of California Santa Barbara, on “Yanomamo Warre, War, and the Struggle for Security,” at 4 p.m., Nov. 2 in the Student Services building, Room 110.
The free event is open to the public and sponsored by River Cities Anthropological Society and the Associated Students of WSU Vancouver.
Napoleon Chagnon is a Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, recognized primarily for his research and films on the Yanomamo peoples in the Amazon Basin. He began studying them in 1964.
In 1988, a gold rush in the Yanomamo area brought many people into contact with the tribes, leading to diseases their immune systems could not handle.
The problem continues today, and Chagnon has set up the Yanomamo Survival Fund. He collects data he hopes will lead to the development of new health care for the Yanomamo people.
Currently studying more remote villages he discovered between 1990 and 1992, Chagnon is interested in their cultural differences and similarities with the other Yanomamo. The most notable differences are in the intensity of the warfare. Chagnon has published numerous articles and books on the Yanomamo, warfare and peoples of South America.
