Response to the Yanomamo

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What struck me the most was the relationship the anthropologists had with the Yanomamo.  Anthropologists just merely “did their jobs.”  They weren’t humane in regards to the situations the Yanomamo are being forced to suffer.  Ethically speaking, these Anthropologists were too unbiased.  Perhaps it isn’t part of an Anthropologists job description to get involved with a local issue but it is humane.  I believe it is a moral responsibility for a person to interfere in such issues whether they’ve been given the authority or not.  The Yanomamo are a people that live within the borders of Venezuela and Brazil.  The Yanomamo are becoming less and less populous due to the industrialization that is occurring on their land.  Gold miners have come from to and fro to take advantage of the vast resources of gold in the Yanomamo area.  While doing this, the miners have diminished the land and by doing so, have been indirectly responsible for the deaths of many Yanomamo.  The Yanomamo story is eerily similar to the story of the Native Americans.  When colonists from different regions such as England, Spain, and France colonized the New World-what is today the United States, they brought with them a myriad of diseases that began to infect and kill the Native Americans.  Also, colonists brought with them a wave of industrialization that also proved to be defective towards the Native Americans.  These travesties are currently being repeated in the land of the Yanomamo.  The Yanomamo are being exposed to diseases and starving due to the industrializing of the miners.  The story of the Yanomamo is indeed a sad one and I believe that Anthropologists have the access to intervene and provide an answer to the problems the Yanomamo face.  Anthropologists should take problem-oriented research to a whole new extreme.