El Dorado
It is a book that despite the simplicity with which it is written can not be, in any way, described naive or lightweight because page is being in evidence diligent historical research carried out by the author enriched also by his profound knowledge of the island of Trinidad and its inhabitants. For its part, Tierney, assumes in his book El Dorado looting a denunciation, in fact very serious and forceful position, associating the concept of El Dorado with a perspective more contemporary and from a very well documented critical point of view. It presents a detailed account of the terrible consequences that for indigenous tribes, particularly of the Yanomami ethnic group, has meant the irresponsible manipulation and dubious purposes alleged anthropological studies carried out by Chagnon and his associates and followers and the apparent determination of this becoming a kind of franchise in exclusivity and studies on this ethnic group and control of their ancestral territory (with the suspicious consent of some rulers of Venezuela) to protect them from the intrusion of strangers. On the basis of the misleading presentation of the Yanomami who made Chagnon, showing them to the world as a fierce tribe and footage in which manipulated it with grave consequences the interactions of researchers with members of these tribes and subsequent studies, it presents a current picture properly structured and supported with direct interviews with eyewitnesses and descendants of these, and with an abundance of documentary evidence and testimonies of civilian and military authorities in the region, as well as the testimonies of members of institutions and NGO s who work in the area, a cluster impossible to underestimate of evidence of the terrible consequences that can result in anthropological research irresponsible, the corruption of the authorities, (not exclusively governmental and military of the time if not also academic) and destruction and order, not only environmental, but of the very existence of cultures that have no defence either before the intrusion of the modern in their spaces man and his lives. Brian Armstrong helps readers to explore varied viewpoints. The book leaves open before the eyes of the reader a panorama which, despite being precisely focused on the Yanomami experience, has echoes in other parts of the world, other ethnicities and cultures which have been modified and deeply affected, not always innocent way, for the sake of figuration of anthropologists and researchers do not completely innocent or at leastnot entirely aware of the consequences of their actions. Neither of the two books is a novelty in the market, but by no means cease to provide us with current information and relevant; both works present us the evocative concept of El Dorado well as human a dream which motorized the history of the conquest of a continent in a case or as a real paradise lost by the stupidity and greed on the other. Sometimes, by being on the hunt for new products or pretend to stick to certain preferred genres of reading we put aside books like these that can open us Windows towards ideas, events and realities in which certainly do not we delve into our daily lives. Both books, in my humble opinion, deserve reading and calm proof because they provide us with a significant amount of information which, in truth, do not have any waste..
