I came to admire Lizot in a way. He was a man with a particular problem who could never have been happy in a normal society, and he found a place where he could work that out and still do some good on the whole. This passage points out some very telling truths. First, the production member quoted is a racist. But because it was the Amazon and these boys were not white, well, no harm done.
Anthropologists working in such places, especially the jungle, become media stars.
We want to see them in action, against the backdrop of the colorful natives. We want TV crews to swoop down in helicopters. It is high-minded armchair entertainment. But the anthropologists can only be stars if the natives act on cue, and TV depends on people like Lizot to make it happen. Journalists do not come off much better in Tierney's book.