The survival skills of Helena Valero - by Tove K
One of the most important anthropologists of the 20th century was a dirt-poor mestizo woman called Helena Valero. After having read the one and only book in English about her, I'm convinced of that. Her insights into a primitive society is worth more than that of the vast majority of anthropologists, for one simple reason: Helena was there for real, as a member of those societies. She didn't only study stone age life. She lived it. For two decades, she lived among the Yanomamö horticulturalists of the Amazonas, after having been kidnapped at the age of 11, in 1937.
When Helena managed to escape the Yanomamö after 19 years 1 with her four half-Yanomamö sons, she was cast into poverty. South America in 1956 was not rich and no one wanted to give Helena any favorable treatment: She had to fend for herself like all other single mothers.
That was, I believe, one of the worst mistakes of the history of anthropology. Helena Valero should have been swiftly employed as an expert at the most prestigious universities and be made to answer questions, teach language and comment on anthropological findings, every working day from 9 to 5 for the rest of her life. Because she knew what almost no anthropologist knows: How to make it in primitive society as a woman.
