by William Dusenberry

Created on: July 11, 2008

Abuses of Anthropological Research Methodology resulting from Kenneth Good's Yanomami "study"

Since the time that Ken Good began teaching at New Jersey City University (NJCU) in 1992, I have continuously objected to his having been hired - because it was clear that the sole reason for his having been given employment at NJCU was that a major publishing house (Simon & Schuster) had published Into The Heart, the book that he "co-authored" (written in total?) about his "romance" and "marriage" of a "third-world" child (age undeterminable, marriage was supposedly at the age of first menses, so it could have been anywhere between her ages of nine and twelve; and he was about forty at that time). For Good to require his students to purchase his book, and then require them to spend an entire semester studying the details relating to this "courtship" was abhorrent to me.

Because Ken Good and I had students in common, I was obligated to answer questions in my sociology classes about this "courtship." I stated my opposition to Good's "claim to fame" (National Geographic televised a special about this "affair" on Public Television) and voiced the opinion: "that had Dr. Good "married" an American child, he would have been sent to prison."

I also pointed out: "that just because primitive societies permit middle-aged men to marry children, doesn't mean that anthropologists, who were socialized in the United States, should be permitted to engage in such an activity." I additionally voiced the opinion that it's inexcusable - and racist - that the American Anthropological Association has no formal policy against sexual involvement between its members and third-world children. The American Sociological Association has such prohibitions, and so does the American Psychological Association. And it's a good bet that all of the other professional associations - whose members engage in "participant-observation" research - also prohibit adult-child sexual involvement.

Ken Good arranged, with the NJCU Administration, for me to be censured, by the NJCU Ethics Committee, for my vocal opposition, to what I considered to be, a racist policy in regard to NJCU's tolerance of the sexual exploitation of third-world children (this apparent, or rather obvious assault on my academic freedom might be dealt with in a future article if there's any interest). NJCU had hired, promoted, and designated to be an "exemplary faculty member" an individual whose only apparent "accomplishment" was writing a book

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