HISTORICAL TIME-LINE

The Controversy: vital fluid

In the late 1960s, prominent American researchers collected blood samples from the Yanomami Indians for their research. In return for the blood samples, the Yanomami were given a number of valued items – such as machetes and pots. The Yanomami were promised that the blood samples would be used to gather information that would prove helpful in fighting the diseases ravaging them.

Intentions: ego vs. research protocol

Ray Hames cites a conversation he had with Napoleon Chagnon in 2001 in which Chagnon described how he requested blood samples from the Yanomami:

“For a year before Neel's arrival [the researcher who organized the blood samples] and during the collection phase he [Chagnon] told the Yanomamö [or Yanomami] in all the villages to be sampled that Neel's team wanted to examine their blood in order to determine whether there were things that indicated whether or not they had certain kinds of diseases, especially shawara (epidemic diseases) and that this knowledge would help treat them more effectively if they became ill.”

Such medical knowledge was never provided to the Yanomami nor to the governmental authorities helping the Yanomami. The anthropologist who has perhaps spent the most time working with the Yanomami, Bruce Albert, states:

" To this day, I still do not see how his [Neel's] blood sampling or research significantly helped the Yanomami in treating their epidemic diseases, as they were promised if they agreed to let their blood be drawn. . . .The Venezuelan and Brazilian Yanomami [are] dying in the same way for three decades after Neel's project."

Asumptions & Outcomes: from rain forest to laboratories

The Yanomami clearly want their relatives’ blood samples back. The prominent Yanoami Julio Wichato observes, they told us, if we “didn't give blood the guy was going to get sick, he [the Yanomami] was going to die. Those who were donating blood would live."

The promise to help the Yanomami through an analysis of their blood samples was never kept. Instead the blood samples and research have been:

• mostly used in research relating to academic subjects such as prehistoric migration patterns.
• published in academic journals and, to that degree, have advanced the careers of those working with the samples.

Yanomami claim they were never informed that the blood would be stored for decades in American laboratories. Davi Kopenawa, a widely recognized and celebrated Yanomami activist, notes:

" The American didn't help to explain . . . 'Look, this blood is going to stay many years.' He didn't say that. . . [We] thought it was to see some disease, malaria, tuberculosis, flu, or some other disease."

Broken Rituals, Breech of Faith: from rain-forest to freezer

Yanomami believe that all parts of a deceased Yanomami must be deposed of so the living can spiritually leave this world rather than be forced to remain here. Forcing the deceased to remain in this world can cause the deceased to turn on the living and bring them harm. The Yanomami activist, Kopenawa, states:

" My mother gave blood. Now my mother is dead. Her blood is over there [in the United States]. . . . Our custom is that when the Yanomami die, we destroy everything. To keep it, in a freezer, is not a good thing."

For further Yanomami statements requesting the return of their blood see: on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7608Vu-D_9U).

Penn State: happy & willing?

The Attorney General of the Brazilian State of Roraima – where most of the Brazilian Yanomami live – formally requested Pennsylvania State University to return the blood samples in their possession. It has agreed to do so in writing.

• Dr. Rodney Erickson, Provost of Pennsylvania State University, wrote on February 27, 2006, that "Similar to your understanding of the position of Dr. Joseph Fraumeni of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), we, too, are most willing to transfer the samples of Yanomami blood to appropriate representatives from Brazil and Venezuela and will work with Senor Fabretti and/or the Yanomami in each country to provide for a safe and successful transfer of these samples." (see
http://www.publicanthropology.org/Yanomami/info-Erickson&Fraumeni-letters.pdf )

However, we are now in 2010, and the samples have not been returned. There have only been prevarications and bureaucratic delays. Why have the blood samples not been returned despite the expressed good intentions?

2,102,400 minutes OR 1460 days later: the facts

One reason for the delay, as explained by Prof. Weiss at Pennsylvania State University, is that it is too dangerous to send the blood samples back. The samples may contain disease which, when opened, could be transmitted to living Yanomami. However, that assertion seems incorrect.

•The Federal University of the State of Para (UFPa) – which were given some of the blood samples from the American expedition – was able to medically transfer the blood samples back to Roraima, as requested by the Attorney General, with the proper medical cautions. There were no medical complications of the type suggested by Prof. Weiss.

Another sometimes suggested reason is that there is no formal, legal clearance from the Brazilian government.

• This fails to acknowledge that legal clearance has indeed been given by the Brazilian government at a national level. See Diário da Justiça (Nº 202, quinta-feira, 22 de outubro de 2009 ISSN 1677-70187) # 6
http://www.in.gov.br/imprensa/visualiza/index.jsp?jornal=126&pagina=7&data=22/10/2009

• Also the letter sent by the Attorney General’s Office in Roraima in 2006 to the National Cancer Institute indicated that the Attorney General’s Office in Roraima had the right to provide legal clearance at a local level.

Proper procedures have been followed, national and international jurisdictions have been clearly laid out, a speedy result is expected to be executed without further delay.

What is to be done in the face of such prevarications?

(For further details, please see www.publicanthropology.org/Yanomami/info-a.htm.)