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The researchers, led by geneticist James Neel and anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon, meant the samples for use for biomedical analysis, however they took the blood with out the knowledgeable consent of the Yanomami.
This unparalleled violation of scientific ethics sparked a fierce worldwide debate between geneticists, anthropologists and Yanomami Indians which has lasted over forty years.
Davi Kopenawa, Yanomami shaman and spokesman, mentioned that the scientists didn’t specify how the blood can be used.
He acknowledged, ‘No one imagined that the blood can be stored of their freezers… We had been all very unhappy after we realized that our blood and blood of our deceased ancestors was being preserved… Science will not be a god who is aware of what’s finest for everyone. It’s we Yanomami who know whether or not or not analysis is nice for our folks’.
The Yanomami have spent years urging that the blood be returned to them, as a result of for them the preservation of the blood of a deceased particular person is unthinkable.
When a Yanomami Indian dies, their physique is cremated and no bodily stays or possessions of the useless are stored. That is the Yanomami’s approach of departing the world and separating the world of the residing from the world of the useless.
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Might 2010 noticed a landmark turning level when it was introduced that the blood samples can be returned to the Amazon.
5 analysis facilities which had possessed the frozen Yanomami blood for many years agreed to a proposal by the Brazilian authorities for the blood to be returned to the Yanomami.
Davi Kopenawa added that the Yanomami would put the blood within the river upon its return to the Amazon: ‘We’re going to return the blood of our ancestors to the waters… as a result of our Creator, Omame, discovered his spouse, our mom, within the river’.
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