Tierney does not explain in detail what his relationship with the Salesian missionaries was, but it seems likely, judging from the situation in southern Venezuela, that they supplied him with interpreters and contacts for his travels among the Yanomamo. One wonders whether they might not also have supplied some coaching to Tierney. It is also significant that Tierney thanks Professors Terence Turner and Leslie Sponsel for comments and encouragement in his acknowledgements. It appears that much of what has been used to attack Chagnon began with the Salesian missionaries. Some anthropologists have another reason for attacking Chagnon's ethnography Yanomamo.
Many anthropologists still believe in some version of the noble savage myth.
Some people attack the messenger because they dislike the message. Another source of antagonism toward Chagnon is his use of neo-Darwinian or sociobiological theory. In several studies, Chagnon has tested hypotheses derived from the theory of evolutionary and found that various aspects of Yanomamo behavior conform to evolutionary expectations. There is a strong bias among many anthropologists against the idea that human behavior is shaped by past evolution, and this aspect of Chagnon's research often angers anthropologists with this bias. While it would be legitimate and constructive for people to offer alternative non-evolutionary interpretation of Chagnon's research and to design research to test these alternatives, some anthropologists prefer ad hominem attacks instead.