Reviews
"A thorough demographic profile of an indigenous population that, against all odds, managed to grow from an initial baseline population of 11 to a current 108. The book is an important contribution to our understanding of population dynamics in general and Yanomami in particular. To understand how and why other Yanomami subgroups have recovered, Early and Peter's demographic research is certainly an inspiration. " American Anthropologist
--American Anthropologist
"This press is rapidly taking the lead as the publisher of important revisionist monographs on Brazilian indigenous populations. The authors utilize demographic sampling techniques that are quite different from those of traditional Yanomami studies to arrive at conclusions about the population dynamics of this group. Their argument is clear, incisive, and consequently convincing. Highly recommended for graduate students and faculty." -Choice
--Choice
" One of the most important recent contributions to the Yanomami Literature. Provides another crucial example that demographic data can provide the best objective measure of the alleged assistance provided by agencies and programs that receive funds. If Yanomami populations closely oriented to mission stations show higher survival than those at FUNAI posts, no amount of political propaganda can deflect the truth that missionaries are doing a better job than government agents at ensuring Yanomami survival. Such observations should be critical to all NGOs who get involved with indigenous human rights issues. " - Journal of Anthropological Research
--Journal of Anthropological Research
"An important contribution to the literature. This is a fascinating and important, if occasionally forbidding, piece of work." - H- Net Reviews
--H-Florida
"Provides welcome and valuable material. Fieldworker and ex-missionary John Peters provides highly detailed accounts of the population structure over several decades in the area he knows best. And demographer John Early helps him make the best analytical use of the field data. The books ends by considering the anthropology of the Yanomami language group as a whole revisiting the issues that have become familiar form writings of Chagnon, Harris and to others, about the meaning of war and aggression in this simple distinguishing, for instance, between 'factions' and 'lineages' -an approach that seems to make sense of some of the puzzles posed in the writing of others." Population and Development Review
--Population and Development Review
"The importance of The Xilixana Yanomami of the Amazon is not in its historical surveys. It is in the very detailed demographic studies of the eight Xilixana villages. . . . . This is the first time that demography has been applied to Amazon Indians in such detail or has revealed so much about them and their reactions to contact. I was fascinated by the authors' transformation of arid-looking tables of population figures into a very human account of a tribe struggling to come to terms with alien forces that threaten its society. It is a splendid, fresh approach to the study of these people."
--Cambridge Journals Latin American Studies