Thursday, November 16, 2000
By GREGORY J. RUMMO
Special to The Record
When one thinks of an anthropologist, visions of tents, sweat-soaked khakis, and well-worn notebooks come to mind.
Integrity also comes to mind. These scientists, who make their living by studying primarily pre-industrial peoples and their cultures, are supposed to follow a code of ethics similar to "The Prime Directive," made famous by the science fiction TV show "Star Trek." Like the crew of the Starship Enterprise, anthropologists are forbidden from interfering with the subject civilization in any way that would artificially accelerate its development or markedly change its culture.
But a recent USA Today story about a book titled "Darkness in El Dorado: How Scientists and Journalists Devastated the Amazon" (W.W. Norton & Co.) raises serious charges against anthropologists who studied the Yanomami Indians in the Amazon rain forest of Brazil and Venezuela during the 1960s.
The most serious charge stems from a series of measles vaccinations given to the Yanomami by a team of anthropologists. These vaccinations allegedly caused an epidemic that killed hundreds of Indians. The book offers evidence that the Yanomami deliberately were used as guinea pigs in a macabre and cruel experiment.
The book, written by Patrick Tierney, also alleges that French anthropologist Jacques Lizot sexually exploited Yanomami boys and girls. (Lizot says any sexual relationships he had in the Amazon were consensual and involved only adults.) Furthermore, Tierney charges that Napoleon Chagnon, an anthropologist with the University of California-Santa Barbara, mischaracterized the Yanomami as warlike, that he staged fights, and that he altered data to support his theory.
If true, these accusations are shocking, especially for a profession that prides itself on the ability to study cultures unobtrusively. But is this sort of research possible, or merely an intellectual ideal? I believe that no one -- not even an "objective" scientist -- can interpose himself into a group without causing some change. And to complicate the matter further, in many cases, the people being studied want change. They desperately hunger for the freedom to determine their own destinies rather than follow what an ivory-tower academic with a laptop thinks is best.
Much like anthropologists, missionaries go and live with various peoples. But missionaries are motivated by love instead of by a scientific quest for knowledge, best described as "publish or perish."
In 1998, I spent a week with 450 Maquiritare and Sanema Indians who live in the tiny village of Chajurana in the Venezuelan rain forest. A 90-minute flight in a Cessna 206 from Puerto Ayacucho on the Venezuela-Colombia border took me to a machete-manicured airstrip that is a mere 500 meters long. The remoteness of the location is hard to comprehend. There are no roads here. Without the Cessna, the trip would take two weeks by canoe along dangerous rivers filled with crocodiles, piranhas, and anacondas.
During my stay, I lived with the Clint Vernoy family in their thatched-roof hut. The Vernoys are Baptist missionaries and invited guests in this part of the world. They have earned the right to live among the Maquiritare. Consequently, they are able to minister to their Indian neighbors in a variety of ways -- by providing medicine, food, and other sundries, which the Maquiritare use for bartering.
The Vernoys' presence also provides a reason for Mission Aviation Fellowship to land its two single-engine Cessnas on the village's airstrip on a regular basis. These planes bring supplies to the Vernoys and provide a window to the outside world for the Indians in Chajurana. Most importantly, the Vernoys provide a Gospel witness among their Indian hosts.
I asked Clint what the Indians say to those who would accuse him of interfering in their culture.
"The secular anthropologists want the Indians to stay the way they are," he told me. "But the Indians themselves have often told me that they do not want others telling them how to live and that they must not change or become modern. The Maquiritare want to experience progress. They want to be able to determine their own destiny."
The Vernoys would be the first to admit they are living among the Maquiritare to effect a change in their culture, an honesty that is lacking among their academic counterparts.
"The secular anthropologists come here and try to tell the Indians how to live. Then they get on a plane and go home to the comforts of Western civilization. We are gaining the right to be heard because we live among them," Clint said.
This approach is certainly a far cry from the actions described in "Darkness in El Dorado," and is a refreshing change in a world where the weak are still exploited by the powerful in most Third World countries.
Is there any area within a kilometre of your home where you would be afraid to walk alone at night?
| Yes | No | |
| Venezuela | 84% | 16% |
| South Africa | 80% | 19% |
| Bolivia | 71% | 29% |
| Kenya | 69% | 31% |
| Ivory Coast | 65% | 35% |
| Brazil | 64% | 35% |
| Peru | 61% | 36% |
| Chile | 61% | 38% |
| Argentina | 56% | 43% |
| Nigeria | 51% | 46% |
| Mexico | 50% | 48% |
| Ethiopia | 50% | 50% |
| Uganda | 49% | 48% |
| Ghana | 47% | 51% |
| Senegal | 47% | 52% |
| Palestinian Ter. | 44% | 49% |
| Poland | 43% | 54% |
| Bulgaria | 42% | 54% |
| Pakistan | 40% | 57% |
| Morocco | 40% | 58% |
| Italy | 37% | 62% |
| Slovakia | 36% | 64% |
| Turkey | 36% | 60% |
| Japan | 36% | 61% |
| Czech Republic | 35% | 65% |
| Tanzania | 35% | 65% |
| Lebanon | 32% | 66% |
| Mali | 31% | 69% |
| South Korea | 30% | 66% |
| United States | 30% | 69% |
| Britain | 30% | 70% |
| Malaysia | 29% | 69% |
| France | 29% | 71% |
| Russia | 27% | 70% |
| Canada | 25% | 73% |
| Sweden | 25% | 74% |
| Spain | 24% | 74% |
| Israel | 24% | 70% |
| Bangladesh | 23% | 77% |
| Germany | 23% | 76% |
| Kuwait | 21% | 75% |
| China | 21% | 77% |
| Ukraine | 20% | 77% |
| Indonesia | 19% | 79% |
| India | 19% | 80% |
| Egypt | 16% | 82% |
| Jordan | 8% | 89% |
Source: Pew Global Attitudes Project
Methodology: Interviews with 45,239 adults in 46 countries and the Palestinian Territories, conducted from Apr. 9 to May 23, 2007. Margins of error range from 2 per cent to 4 per cent.
The Jungle Hut - a work in progress!
Jewel and friends in front of our house.
Clint and Josh walking over to the Sanema village on the log bridge.
Visiting with my friends.
Ye'kwana Man and Baby Jesica.
Doing the laundry in the Padamo River at Toki.
Trying to do school work with an audience. 
Taking a blood sample to check for malaria...again.
Entertaining friends.
Baby Jayde in our unfinished house.
Lovely faces!
Josue and Wendi -Church deacon
Bertico - Cacique (chief)
Petra -First Christian convert in village
Pre school class
Freddie - my neighbor
Marta and Yassir Arafat ( I kid you not!)
School lunch break
Camilo
Petra. My angel!
A Product of Missions!
by missionary David Divakar
Our story begins in British-India in the year 1890. A Hindu guru (teacher), in the small town of Sandoor in Southern India, sat under a Banyan tree teaching his disciples as he did every afternoon. This guru was a “Janghama” who came from a high cast and was greatly respected among other gurus. His name was Bassaiah. In a society where the human feet are considered unholy and therefore never allowed to touch another person’s feet, Bassaiah’s disciples would wash his feet. They would then drink that water as holy water because they worshipped him as a god and considered his feet holy. One day, Bassaiah was reading from the “Kodaykal Vachanayagollu,” which is one of the religious books in Hinduism. As he read and explained each verse from this book to his disciples, he came across a passage that said, “All religions will ultimately be done away with, but a religion started by a carpenter will survive.” For the first time in his life, he was at a loss for words because he had no explanation for this passage as he did not know the meaning himself. He thought Hinduism was the greatest religion in the world. For this reason he was a priest in that religion, but now his own book told him otherwise. Carpenters were not considered of much affluence because they were of a lower cast. The words from this book troubled him because he did not understand them.
In another part of the world, a missionary with the London Missionary Society said good-bye to friends and relatives as he and his family boarded a ship for India. India was a world away for a man and his family to leave their comfortable lives in England and go to a hot desert climate. However, their hearts burned with a desire to tell the masses of India about Jesus. The Lord in His mighty way brought this missionary to Sandoor and burdened him to preach the gospel. The missionary poured out his heart to the people. He preached the gospel of Jesus Christ without fear or compromise. The Indian people around him were interested in what this Englishman had to say because it was something they had never heard before. However, they were very reluctant to accept what he had to say because it was too bizarre for them to believe. Their religion expected them to do a lot of work in pleasing their various gods before they could even hope of having a chance to get to heaven. However, this man was preaching about a God who did all the work for mankind and the only thing man had to do was to believe. Day after day the missionary preached faithfully, but no one turned to Christ.
One day Bassaiah happened to be listening to the missionary. While the missionary was preaching, he alluded to the fact that Jesus Christ was a carpenter by trade before he entered his three years of public ministry. Suddenly Bassaiah realized that what he read in his book and what the missionary was talking about were probably one and the same. The missionary saw the old guru and knew that he was the most important person in that town. Out of respect for his position in society, the missionary invited Bassaiah to the place where he was staying. The guru accepted the invitation very reluctantly because he was considered a holy man in his society. Any association with a non-Hindu would be unacceptable. Nevertheless, Bassaiah went with the missionary. The missionary presented the gospel to the old guru. The old guru was awestruck by the fact that God cared enough for him that he would take upon himself the form of man and die on the cross to save him from his sins. This was the first time the old guru realized that the God who created the universe cared enough to love him and shed His blood for a sinner like him. This concept of God loving man was so new and yet so wonderful! The old guru bowed his head and asked Jesus to come into his heart and save him from eternal condemnation.
When Bassaiah’s disciples heard that their guru had become a Christian, they threatened to kill him and his family. With his family and all the luggage they could carry, Bassaiah left the town. They left behind their home and many acres of land. They never looked back. The townspeople made the missionary leave town that very day. He did so with a very sad heart. The missionary had labored so earnestly, yet there was only one soul that came to know Christ as personal Savior. Although he was happy for that one soul, he left Sandoor a disappointed man.
What the missionary never knew was that Bassaiah’s son would later pastor a church for forty-five years and that he would have a son who would retire from the police department and become an evangelist. Also, he could not have known that the evangelist would have a son who is Edwin Divakar, BIMI missionary in India, and that his son would be me, David Divakar. I am the fourth generation after Bassaiah Divakar to be privileged to be called to serve our Lord in the land of India. I praise the Lord for that missionary from the London Missionary Society. No one alive, today, knows his name or whatever became of him or his family. However, their legacy will live on until Jesus comes back. On that glorious day when I bow my knee to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, if I get a chance I want to say, “Thank you, Lord, for sending that missionary, and thank you, missionary, for being willing to go where the Lord led you.”
