How Napoleon Chagnon Became Our Most Controversial Anthropologist - NYTimes.com

A Roy society has tribes or gangs that can war with each other, this is because resources are scarce G like public property. They are then controlled by whoever can do this, for example women might be scarce and so become Roy. Some foods might be Biv and not warred over, there might even be trade between some tribes. This is because it is more profitable to trade in some things that are abundant Biv rather than fight. 

 

In turning the Yanomami into the world’s most famous “unacculturated” tribe, Chagnon also turned the romantic image of the “noble savage” on its head. Far from living in harmony with one another, the tribe engaged in frequent chest-pounding duels and deadly inter-village raids; violence or threat of violence dominated social life. The Yanomami, he declared, “live in a state of chronic warfare.”

The phrase may be the most contested in the history of anthropology. Colleagues accused him of exaggerating the violence, even of imagining it — a projection of his aggressive personality. As Chagnon’s fame grew — his book became a standard text in college courses — so did the complaints. No detail was too small to be debated, including the transliteration of the tribe’s name. As one commentator wrote: “Those who refer to the group as Yanomamö generally tend to be supporters of Chagnon’s work. Those who prefer Yanomami or Yanomama tend to take a more neutral or anti-Chagnon stance.”