Survival staff and committee members have made many visits to the Yanomami since the 1960s and several of them have lived with them, learnt their language, and conducted their own research in situ for periods of years at a time. The Yanomami are in fact a generally peaceable people who have suffered enormous violence at the hands of outsiders. For years, invading gold miners have been attacking and murdering Yanomami - one group of miners recently lost their appeal against a conviction for genocide after a massacre in a Indian village. It is incontrovertible that the image Chagnon invented of the Yanomami has done them a great deal of damage over the last 30 years. There is no doubt that the Yanomami would be in a better position today if Chagnon had chosen to work elsewhere.
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It stands for their right to decide their own future and helps them protect their lives, lands and human rights.