1 Patrick Tierney, "The fierce anthropologist,"
New Yorker (October 9, 2000), 50-61; Tierney,
Darkness in El Dorado: How Scientists and Journalists Devastated the Amazon (New York: Norton, 2000). Copies of the manuscript of Tierney's book have circulated widely, and all quotes below are from a copy of one of those preprints. The book itself has recently appeared (11/22/00), but was not available for this article. Turner and Sponsel to Louise Lamphere, September, 2000. The text of the letter is available on several websites, including Doug Hume's (http://www.anth.uconn.edu/gradstudents/dhume/darkness.htm).
2 Long-time Chair of the Department of Human Genetics at Michigan, Neel died in February, 2000. Chagnon was a graduate student at Michigan in 1968.
3 See e.g., Neel, "The study of natural selection in primitive and civilized populations,"
Human Biology 3 (1958), 43-72.
4 Neel and Francisco Salzano, "A prospectus of genetic studies of the American Indian,"
Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology 29 (1964), 85.
5 See, e.g., Neel to Joseph H. Schubert, August 30, 1967, in which Neel states "For us, thee studies have a dual significance. They make an extremely important contribution to our knowledge of the disease pressures operating on primitive man during the long period of human evolution. However, they also tell us to what extent the diseases of civilization have already reached these Indians, with a possible modification of the primordial disease and reproductive patterns." Growing out of his experiences, Neel wrote several works on the issues of health and disease among American Indians, including Neel, "Control of disease among Amerindians in cultural transition,"
PAHO Bulletin 8, 3 (1974), 205-211.
6 Quotes from Neel to Libero Ajello, March 6, 1967, James V. Neel Papers, American Philosophical Society, and Neel, "The genetic structure of a tribal population, the Yanomama Indians,"
Annals of Human Genetics 35 (1972), 256-257. Ajello worked in the Parasitology and Mycology Setion of the Communicable Disease Center. On the importance of disease in Neel's framework, see Neel to U. Pentti Kokko, September 28, 1966. All letters cited below from the Neel Papers. Since the Papers remain unprocessed, and some rearrangement is possible in final processing, more specific citations cannot be supplied.
7 Tierney,
Darkness in El Dorado, 42. Chagnon had a student deferment during the war in Vietnam; Neel was a medical student whose service came primarily after the war.
8 Tierney,
Darkness in El Dorado, 43-45. Tierney makes no attempt to historicize the concept of "informed consent," nor does he make any meaningful effort to contextualize informed consent in anthropological praxis.
9 Tierney,
Darkness in El Dorado, 50.
10 Quotes from Tierney,
Darkness in El Dorado, 55-56, 63; "contraindicated" from interview with Francis Black, p.58. To bolster his point, Tierney cites the deaths of two (or three?) infants, though the protocol followed by Neel prescribed that infants not be vaccinated.
11 Tierney,
Darkness in El Dorado, 60, 61. Recall that Ocamo was the only Yanomami village displaying significant measles antibodies.
12 Tierney,
Darkness in El Dorado, 61.
13 Tierney,
Darkness in El Dorado, 39-40; Turner and Sponsel to Lamphere.
14 Tierney,
Darkness in El Dorado, 80.
15 Tierney,
Darkness in El Dorado, 81.
16 A number of web sites have sprung up documenting the Darkness fray, including two the University of California Santa Barbara -- the Center for Evolutionary Psychology, U.C.S.B. (http://www.psych.ucsb.edu/research/cep/) and the Department of Anthropology (http://www.anth.ucsb.edu/chagnon.html); "Anthropology in the News" at Texas A&M (http://www.tamu.edu/anthropology/news.html#Neel), and Doug Hume's site at the University of Connecticut (http://www.anth.uconn.edu/gradstudents/dhume/darkness.htm). The APS is collecting papers and responses, as well.
17 Katz's letter is available on most of the sites cited above. The few deaths associated with the use of Edmonston B were in individuals with profound illnesses.
18 1 Lindee,
Suffering Made Real (Chicago, 1994). See Lindee's review of the Neel field notes, September 21, 2000, (http://www.tamu.edu/anthropology/Lindee.html).
19 Diane Paul and John Beatty, "James Neel,
Darkness in El Dorado, and Eugenics: the missing context,"
Society for Latin American Anthropology Newsletter Double issue 17 and 18 (2000), http://www.aaanet.org/slaa/newsletter.htm. See also Daniel Kevles,
In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity (New York: Knopf, 1985).
20 Neel's description of the epidemic is to be found in Neel, W.R. Centerwall, N. Chagnon, and H.L. Casey, "Notes on the effects of measles and measles vaccine in a virgin-soil population of South American Indians,"
American Journal of Epidemiology 91(1970), 418-429; Neel, "Lessons from a 'primitive' people," Science 170 (1970), 815-822; and Neel,
Physician to the Gene Pool, 161-165. See also Willard R. Centerwall, "A Recent experience with measles in a 'virgin-soil' population,"
Biomedical Challenges Presented by the American Indian, [preprint in Neel Papers].
21 Neel to Casey, April 15, 1968. Approximately 20% of the persons tested in Ocamo displayed measles antibodies.
22 One member of Neel's team was a former missionary turned academic linguist, Ernesto Migliazza), see Neel to Francisco Salzano, April 18, 1968.
23 Neel to Neill Hawkins, October 31, 1966. In his letters to the Brazilian missionaries, Neill Hawkins (September 19, 1966) and Macon Hare (September 20, 1966), Neel provided a general description of his intentions in the field, his concern for the "immediate and future health problems" of Indians, and he discussed the issuance of "trade goods": "I would say that it has been our custom after we have completed the work-up of each family to make its members a suitable present. Here I would repeat, as mentioned above, that we would rely on the advice of those in the field concerning what is appropriate to the present situation. We know by experience that we must do something to enlist the cooperation of the Indian, but, on the other hand, do not wish to upset whatever 'economy' you have been attempting to establish." Vernon Bartlett, Treasurer of the New Tribes Mission, appreciated Neel's desire to fit into the existing economy, fearing that the lavishment of presents would "make it difficult to reestablish a fair set of values afterwards": Vernon L. Bartlett to Neel, October 14, 1966.
24 Hawkins to Neel, January 28, 1967. Hawkins had seen two puzzling epidemic outbreaks of what he believed to be malaria. Neel to Neill Hawkins, March 10, 1967; Neel to Mr. and Mrs. Keith Wardlaw, March 13, 1967. Neel specifically discussed immunization for smallpox, tuberculosis, and measles. The limiting factor, as he noted, was cost. Neel had already made inquiries with pharmaceutical companies and suggested that the Venezuelan government might supply smallpox vaccine and that the religious organizations might cover the lesser costs of the BCG vaccine for tuberculosis. Measles vaccine was more expensive, however at a minimum, he suggested that "although it is desirable that an entire village be vaccinated, I believe that if half a village could be reached, it would ensure that even when measles struck, it would not have the devastating effects which we so commonly associate with this disease."
25 Neill Hawkins to Neel, April 7, 1967.
26 Neel to Daniel Shaylor, September 19, 1967. The packing list of supplies brought to the field in 1968 suggests they did, indeed, pack a quantity of medicines.
27 Neel to Robert A. Hingson, September 15, 1967. Hingson, a physician, was founder of Brother's Brother, an organization that was then providing immunization to Costa Rican Indians. Neel requested enough vaccine against measles, smallpox, pertussis and tuberculosis to cover 600-700 Indians, plus supplies.
28 Neel to Robert Shaylor, November 21, 1967. Wardlaw's daughter: Neel to Layrisse, December 11, 1967.
29 Robert G. Shaylor to Neel, November 28, 1967; Neel to Layrisse, December 11, 1967; Martins daSilva (of PAHO) to Fernando Ottati (of Cyanamid International), December 19, 1967; R.R. Widman (American Cyanamid) to Neel, December 19, 1967; Neel to Layrisse, December 21, 1967; Neel to Marcel Roche, April 22, 1968. Gamma globulin was supplied by the Michigan Department of Health in April. Although documentary evidence of official Venezuelan government approval is not conclusive for December 1967-January, 1968, Neel wrote to Martins daSilva of PAHO to request "
separate papers" (his emphasis) for the shipment of 1000 doses each of measles vaccine and gamma globulin (Neel to daSilva, December 27, 1967), and the Neel Papers include a bill of lading for goods shipped to Venezuela that clearly denotes vaccine. More circumstantially, on April 19, 1968, Marcel Roche of IVIC telegraphed Neel, "Donation acceptable our government," with reference to a shipment of additional vaccine requested by Chagnon. Most tellingly, Roche informed Neel that when the vaccine from the U.S. was delayed in arriving, the Venezuelan Ministry of Health loaned vaccine from its own stock (see Roche to Neel, April 23, 1968, May 6, 1968). On balance, it appears that no attempt was made to evade Venezuelan authority - though there was frustration with the bureaucracy (imagine!). On the origin of the measles, see Mrs Joe Dawson, "Measles among the Indians," [published work of uncertain provenance in Neel folder marked "Measles," but probably published by the New Tribes Mission], which states that measles had been brought to Tamatama by sick Makiritari Indians before January 13. Whether her account is fully accurate, it is consistent with the bulk of the evidence and suggests strongly that measles had appeared in Yanomamiland prior to Neel's arrival. Evidently, an epidemic of whooping cough struck Brazilian Yanomami near the Surucucu mission station during the summer of 1968: Rod Lewis to Neel, October 3, 1968. Neel's succinct summary of the epidemic to Carleton Gajdusek reads: "The field work of Jan.-March of this year was complicated by an epidemic of measles in virgin soil. We knew from the antibody studies which CDC is doing this was indeed virgin soil, and I had talked Parke Davis and Lederle out of 2,000 doses of vaccine. We had intended to vaccinate towards the end of our field work as a humanitarian gesture really unrelated to the research program, but faced with an epidemic, had to modify out plans drastically. The experience has had a powerful influence on my thinking concerning the controversial question of the alleged greater sensitivity of a primitive people to our diseases of civilization." (Neel to D. Carleton Gajdusek, April 10, 1968).
30 Napoleon Chagnon to Dan Shaylor, December 20, 1967. James Barker, "Vaccine saves many Guaica lives,"
Brown Gold no. 23 (October 1968), 6-8. This and related articles are among the best contemporary narrative accounts of the epidemic, written by persons on the spot, and it places the first reports of measles among the Yanomami -- in Brazil -- in September, 1967. Among other medical supplies included over 10,000 tabs of aspirin, over 1,000 tabs of malarial medication (camoprim, camoquin, chloroquin, quinine, and sulfadiazine), over 100 cartons and 1000 tabs of penicillin, 900 tabs of sulfa and 500 caps of tetracylcine. Shipping List, 1968.
31 Willard R. Centerwall to Francis L. Black, January 10, 1968.
32 Willard R. Centerwall to Whom it May Concern, January 9, 1968. Neel had previously argued that the high morality of Indians in epidemics was attributable more to "a general breakdown in community life... and attitude toward disease" than to "temperature curves and antibody responses." Neel and Salzano, "A prospectus for genetic studies of the American Indian," 95.
33 Neel field notes, February 16, 1968, 98-99. "1) Gamma-globulin is effective in modifying the clinical course of measles only before the rash appears. 2) Accordingly, give g.g. only to those Indians at Ocamo who were
not vaccinated & who are
not yet sick with measles." A few individuals clearly received neither vaccine nor gamma globulin, though the reasons are not clear. Some of these may already have been ill, may have had other health issues, may have tested immune, or may have been either pregnant, too old, or too young.
34 Neel field notes, February 16, 1968, p.102, February 18 and 19.
35 Neel field notes, February 16, 1968, p.98.
36 Neel field notes, February 25, 1968, pp.110-111. These pages are a summary of vaccinations given at various villages, the dates, and other notes.
37 Neel to Marcel Roche, April 22, 1968; William J. Oliver to Grace Winterling, June 29, 1965; other letters in folder marked "Measles vaccine."
38 See, e.g., reviewers' comments on Neel's article, "Lessons from a 'primitive' people' in the Neel Papers. See also Neel, "Social and scientific priorities in the use of genetic knowledge," from Bruce Hilton et al., eds.,
Ethical Issues in Human Genetics (NY, 1973), 353-368; Neel, "A physician looks at medicine,"
Harvey Lectures Series 56 (1960-1961), 127-150; Neel,
Physician to the Gene Pool.
39 The poverty of documentation and the inaccuracy, misinterpretation, and misrepresentation of citations in Tierney's book has been documented in numerous internet reviews of preprint versions.
40 Les Sponsel letter, September 25, 2000, available on the Anthropology in the News site, Texas A&M (http://www.tamu.edu/anthropology/Sponsel.html). Ironically, Neel spoke consistently and often of the moral responsibilities inherent in study of American Indians, lamenting America's treatment of them in the past and present tense, and the inadequate medical, economic, and educational support afforded them. A supporter of the organization, Cultural Survival, from the year of its incorporation, Neel relented from supporting criticizing the Brazilian government's actions because America's own record with Indians was "absolutely miserable," placing us "in a pitifully weak moral position" to criticize others (David Maybury-Lewis to Neel, January 7, 1980). See: Neel to David Maybury-Lewis, May 31, 1972; Neel to Maybury-Lewis, March 6, 1980; Neel and Salzano, "A prospectus of genetic studies of the American Indian;" Neel, "The American Indian in the international biological program".
