Noble Savages: My Life Among Two Dangerous Tribes -- The Yanomamo and the Anthropologists, Chagnon Napoleon A.

When Napoleon Chagnon arrived in Venezuelas Amazon region in 1964 to study the Yanomam Indians, he expected to find Rousseaus noble savage. Instead he found a shockingly violent society. He spent years living among the Yanomam , observing their often tyrannical headmen, learning to survive under primitive and dangerous conditions. When he published his observations, a firestorm of controversy swept through anthropology departments. Chagnon was vilified by other anthropologists, condemned by his professional association (which subsequently rescinded its reprimand), and ultimately forced to give up his fieldwork. Throughout his ordeal, he never wavered in his defense of science. In 2012 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.