The Yanomamo: Case Studies in Cultural Anthropology

The Yanomamo is an excellent introduction to Napoleon Chagnon's lifelong study of the Amazon-based Yanomamo people — and specifically his thesis that the significant amount of tribal violence among the Yanomami was caused by biological and evolutionary (rather than cultural) factors. This will be of most interest to specialists in anthropology, but Chagnon's book is well-reported with a deep knowledge of tribal relationships. (Chagnon would later be the victim of a exceptionally dishonest attack on his work by the journalist Patrick Tierney, who accused Chagnon of perpetrating serious crimes against the Yanomamo, including purposefully spreading diseases and encouraging violence.)