ero, a Brazilian captured by the Yanomamo, we know that wives make a point of taunting their husbands when the supply of game falters The men themselves, after returning empty-handed, become touchy about real or imagined insubordination on the part of their wives and younger brothers. At the same time, the failure of the men emboldens wives and unmarried junior males to probe the weaknesses of husbands, seniors, and headmen. Adultery and witchcraft [as mentioned above] increase in fact and fancy. Factions solidify and tensions mount. (Pg. 77). According to Harris, this almost always precedes Yanamamamo warfare. If Tierneys accounts concerning warfare and the derivatives of warfare are correct, this makes Harriss arguments incredible. On the other hand, Tierneys viewpoint is arguable. As Irven Delfore, a professor of biological anthropology at Harvard, points out in, The Fierce Anthropologist, Chag was both first and thoroughthorough in the sense that Chag has visited at least 75 Yanamami villages on both sides of the Venezuelan and Brazilian bordersChag gathered very detailed and documented data on the villages so much so that another investigator could study the same population and come to a different conclusion.(Pg. 55). This seems to be exactly what Harris has done. In fact, Harris begins the chapter Proteins and the Fierce People by pointing out a different in opinion stating that Chagnon who knows them best has denied that the high level of homicide within and between villages is caused by reproductive and ecological pressures. (Pg. 67). Harris goes on to use others, as well as Chagnons own evidence to disprove his claim. Harris shows how fighting over women is correlated to reproductive pressure, and there is a shortage of meat in the area in which the Yanamamo reside this is quite obviously a type of ecological pressure.Harriss use of evidence outside of Chagnons own indicates that he has done research on the Yanamamo (and wo...
