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Face-off. Jared Diamond is being sued for allegedly defaming Papua New Guinea tribesmen in an article in The New Yorker.

who included three researchers in PNG, claim that Diamond and The New Yorker got many important facts wrong in the original article, including the contentions that Wemp had personally organized the warfare, that Soll was his uncle, and that Mandingo had been paralyzed by an arrow. Indeed, the Stinkyjournalism.org report includes a recent photograph said to be of Mandingo standing and looking strong and healthy. The report maintains that neither Wemp, Mandingo, nor any other of several New Guineans named in The New Yorker were told about the article beforehand. It also claims that Wemp’s life is now in danger from other clans that might want to avenge Mandingo’s alleged injuries, or even from members of his own clan for portraying them as ruthless killers. Diamond stands by his story, arguing that it was based on detailed notes that he

took during a 2006 interview with Wemp as on August 19, 2009 well as earlier conversations the two men had in 2001 when Wemp served as his driver in PNG. “The complaint has no merit at all,” Diamond told Science in an interview ‘Vengeance’ Bites Back in his office at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he is a professor of geography. Diamond adds that he still con- siders Wemp’s original account to be the At Jared Diamond www.sciencemag.org most reliable source for what happened. Two tribesmen from Papua New Guinea sue the prominent biologist David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, also defends the magazine’s story: “It appears over a popular magazine article about the human thirst for retribution that The New Yorker and Jared Diamond are the subject of an unfair and, frankly, mysti- IN APRIL 2008, WELL-KNOWN BIOLOGIST In recent weeks, Diamond’s article itself fying barrage of accusations.” and author Jared Diamond penned a dra- seems to have come back with a vengeance. The affair has raised concerns among

matic story in The New Yorker magazine, a On 20 April, Diamond, 71, was sued in the anthropologists familiar with PNG, who Downloaded from violent tale of revenge and warfare in Papua Supreme Court of the State of New York for worry that The New Yorker’s “Annals of New Guinea (PNG). Titled “Vengeance is allegedly defaming both Daniel Wemp and Anthropology” banner has tarnished the Ours” and published under the banner Isum Mandingo, the alleged target of Wemp’s field’s reputation. Anthropologist Pauline “Annals of Anthropology,” the 8000-word revenge war. The lawsuit, which also names Wiessner of the University of Utah in Salt article tells the story of a clan war organized as a defendant Advance Publications Inc., the Lake City, a leading expert on tribal warfare by a young Papua New Guinean named owner of The New Yorker, demands at least in PNG, thinks Diamond was naïve if he Daniel Wemp to avenge the death of Wemp’s $10 million in damages. It follows a yearlong accepted Wemp’s stories at face value, uncle, Soll. In Diamond’s telling, the war investigation led by Rhonda Roland Shearer, because young men in PNG often exagger- started in the 1990s over a pig digging up an artist and the widow of evolutionary ate their tribal warfare exploits or make them someone’s garden, went on for 3 years, and biologist Stephen Jay Gould. Shearer directs up entirely. “I could have told him immedi- resulted in the deaths of 29 people. In the the Art Science Research Laboratory, a non- ately that it was a tall tale, an embellished end, Diamond wrote, Wemp won: His pri- profit organization based in New York City story. I hear lots of them but don’t publish mary target, a man Diamond referred to as that she and Gould founded before Gould’s them because they are not true.” “Isum,” had his spine cut by an arrow and was death in 2002. Among its activities is a jour- confined to a wheelchair. Diamond juxta- nalism ethics program and a Web site called Different worlds posed Wemp’s story with that of his own Stinkyjournalism.org, which published the Three worlds collide in this case. First is the father-in-law, a Holocaust survivor who Shearer team’s 10,000-word report, “Jared world of science, specifically anthropology, never exacted retribution for the loss of his Diamond’s Factual Collapse,” the day after which uses fieldwork and scientific method- family, to draw an overall lesson about the the lawsuit was filed. ology to study human cultures. Next is the

human need for vengeance. In the report, Shearer and her colleagues, craft of journalism, with its own set of ethics 2005 TOM JOHNSON/BLACK STAR/NEWSCOM CREDIT:

872 15 MAY 2009 VOL 324 SCIENCE www.sciencemag.org Published by AAAS NEWSFOCUS and practices aimed at reaching the general The report says that Wemp expressed surprise the Diamond article. Among Diamond’s public. Finally, there is Papua New Guinea, a at The New Yorker article and claimed that biggest errors, Kuwimb told Hughes, were young nation still struggling to integrate many Diamond had never told him about it. his statements that the war he described had hundreds of tribes and clans into a modern (Wemp’s attorneys in New York City and begun with the “pig in the garden” episode state. For many years, Diamond, a physiologist PNG declined to make him available for an and had lasted 3 years. Kuwimb contends that by training, has worked in all three domains: interview for this story, saying that their the war was sparked by a gambling dispute He is a member of the U.S. National Academy clients preferred to tell their stories in court and lasted only a few months. of Sciences and a winner of the National and not in the press.) According to the report, Some anthropologists have their own con- Medal of Science, as well as a highly success- the following month Kigl also located Isum cerns with Diamond’s article. For starters, ful writer. In 1998, he won a Pulitzer Prize for Mandingo and took several photographs of many think that the “Annals of Anthropology” his bestseller Guns, Germs, and Steel, on the him standing and walking. banner was misleading. “The New Yorker was geographic factors that made some societies At least one other Papua New Guinean wrong to imply that Diamond was an anthro- rich and some poor. His most recent book, supports the account of Shearer’s team. pologist or that what he wrote was anthropol- Collapse, about the environmental forces that “Diamond’s article is a confused story that ogy,” says Dan Jorgensen of the University of brought some societies down, has also sold names real places and persons but mixes up Western Ontario in London, Canada, who has well. And he has regularly visited PNG for false, wrong, and defamatory allegations worked in PNG since the 1970s. Cultural nearly 50 years, although primarily to study that bring into disrepute the good name of anthropologist Alex Golub of the University the island’s birds rather than its people. the named clans and their members,” said of Hawaii, Manoa, who says The New Yorker Although Diamond’s frequent merging of Mako Kuwimb, a member of Wemp’s Handa fact checker spoke with him for about 10 min- these worlds has brought him both suc- utes while the story was being prepared, cess and some criticism, this time it may agrees. “This affects our discipline’s brand have landed him in legal trouble. When management,” he wrote on an anthropology Diamond’s article appeared in The New blog he participates in called Savage Minds. Yorker, it drew the attention of Shearer, a “It’s important for people to know that if they fierce media critic who in recent years has meet an anthropologist, they are not going to on August 19, 2009 gone after numerous reporters for alleged be written up in The New Yorker without being transgressions of journalistic ethics. (One told about it.” Savage Minds has now teamed of her most celebrated campaigns was up with Stinkyjournalism.org to produce a against journalist William Langewiesche, series of invited essays on the case. who asserted in a book that firefighters A number of researchers say that Diamond had looted blue jeans from stores in the should not have used the names of real people World Trade Center after the 9/11 attacks.) and real clans; cultural anthropologists Shearer says that after reading Diamond’s often use pseudonyms for the peo- article, which appeared in the 21 April 2008 ple they write up and follow strict www.sciencemag.org issue of The New Yorker, she immediately ethical guidelines for informed con- was “very skeptical” at the suggestion that sent when they do name people. Mandingo could have continued to live in Wiessner thinks Diamond should the remote, rugged PNG Highlands while have refrained from naming even the confined to a wheelchair and perhaps tribes involved. “That was a very big needing special medical care. She e-mailed mistake,” she says.

Diamond and The New Yorker asking if they Downloaded from had verified this and other details; Shearer Journalism versus science says that she received no response from But both Diamond and Remnick insist Diamond and that the magazine’s initial Annals of unease. Some anthropologists thought that such anthropological criticisms are reaction was to say that it stood by its story. The New Yorker banner reflected poorly on their irrelevant, because Diamond was working as a Shearer already had contacts in PNG from discipline. journalist for a popular magazine, not as an an earlier investigation during which she anthropologist writing a scholarly article. chased down rumors that a Komodo dragon clan and a PNG attorney now doing graduate Although Diamond says he did not find out was running amok in the country. (It turned work at James Cook University in Queens- about the “Annals of Anthropology” line until out to be a hoax.) She asked her contacts to land, Australia. In an e-mail to Science, shortly before publication and now regrets it, try to find Wemp. One, biologist Michael Kuwimb added that PNG Highlanders are Remnick points out that the magazine rou- Kigl of the PNG Institute of Biological accustomed to having anthropologists among tinely uses the “Annals” logo for stories not Research in Goroka, explained to Science that them, “and we know what [they] do and how written by trained experts in the field at hand. he was able to contact one of his own relatives they gather information.” Diamond, Kuwimb Says Diamond, “Everyone knows that The in Wemp’s province, who in turn managed to says, “converted a simple, casual conversa- New Yorker is not a scientific publication; it’s help locate one of Wemp’s relatives. Thus Kigl tion [with Wemp] into an article that looks journalism.” That’s why he used the names found Wemp in his Highlands village in July and sounds like an anthropological piece” but Wemp gave him, he says. “In journalism, you 2008 and tape recorded an interview with him. “never followed [anthropological] proce- do name names so that people can check out According to Shearer and the 10,000-word dures and protocols.” On 21 April of this year, what you write.” Remnick agrees: “Journalis- report, Wemp denied organizing the revenge Kuwimb sent The New Yorker’s publisher, tic practice differs from scientific practice in a warfare attributed to him in Diamond’s story. Lisa Hughes, a detailed, 30-page refutation of number of ways,” he says, “and this seems to

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be one of them. Using real names is the default judgment about what was appropriate to dis- conversation between Wemp and the fact practice in journalism.” cuss.” Diamond says he did double-check checker—which was tape recorded by mutual Diamond insists that he followed good Wemp’s story with some younger members of consent—Wemp raised only relatively minor journalistic practice and that his article was his tribe, who confirmed that some of the factual objections to Diamond’s account and based on detailed notes he took of the stories people Wemp named had been involved in a asserted that the stories were basically true. In that Wemp told him. In 2001, Diamond says, tribal war. Diamond also told Science that he Diamond’s view, the case is really about scien- Wemp drove him and Australia-based heard conflicting accounts about how serious tists coming under fire for popular writing. ornithologist David Bishop around the oil Mandingo’s injuries were and that Mandingo Whether or not Diamond got the facts of fields of Highland PNG as they conducted a now may have recovered from his wounds. In Wemp’s case right, it is true that the tribes of survey of local birds. During several long regard to The New Yorker’s fact checking, PNG do practice revenge warfare, says drives, Diamond says, Wemp told them stories Remnick says that the fact checker was Wiessner, who has studied war in PNG’s Enga about the Highlands war that had supposedly unable to find Wemp before the story was Province, just north of the region where Wemp begun when a man from Mandingo’s clan, the published. After Shearer’s team found Wemp, and Mandingo live. In Enga, more than 300 Ombal, found that a pig had tribal wars have taken the lives of ruined his garden and blamed a nearly 4000 people since 1991. Handa man for the damage. The That’s one reason Wiessner, who ensuing warfare eventually killed is active in local efforts to bring Soll, whom Diamond says Wemp peace to PNG clans, is worried identified as his uncle, and it fell to about the outcome of the case if Wemp to take responsibility for it results in a large monetary organizing a war for retribution. award: She fears that the money Diamond says that he made a could eventually go to buy few notes of these conversations weapons that would make the when back in his room but did wars even more deadly. “When

nothing with the story until these wars first started, they were on August 19, 2009 another trip to PNG in May 2006. fought with bows and arrows, but By then he had begun now they have M-16s,” she says. work on a new book And although Wiessner faults about tribal societies Diamond for apparently taking and contacted Wemp to Wemp’s stories at face value, she get a more detailed also believes Wemp himself vio- account of the war lated clan ethics by telling them in Wemp had described 5 the first place. “For him to have www.sciencemag.org years earlier. Diamond Fierce advocate. Media critic Rhonda given the names of tribes and says that in 2006, he told Roland Shearer (above) charges that implicate[d] other people than Wemp explicitly that the Jared Diamond’s article included himself,” as Diamond reported, story would go into the errors about Daniel Wemp (left). “that was wrong,” she says. “He book. But he was unable should have sought approval of to find Wemp again in 2007 when he decided however, the fact checker did speak with him the clan elders beforehand.” to excerpt one of the book’s chapters for The by telephone, on 21 August 2008. Soon after- In Wiessner’s view, The New Yorker article

New Yorker; Wemp had left his job without ward, Shearer, who had kept in regular touch gave a one-sided view of tribal warfare. Downloaded from leaving contact information, Diamond says. with the magazine, scored her first victory: In Although the death toll often seems high, she In 2006, “I said to Daniel, ‘Would you be a 12 September 2008 letter to a London attor- says Highlanders are expert practitioners of willing to tell the whole story in one piece and ney, The New Yorker general counsel Lynn what anthropologists call “restorative justice”: I will take notes?’ ” Diamond says. He pulled Oberlander agreed, “as a sign of good will,” the mediation of disputes in which aggrieved out a large, red notebook and took “sentence that the magazine would remove Diamond’s parties receive compensation from those who by sentence” shorthand notes of the conversa- article from the freely accessible part of its have wronged them, thus avoiding warfare. tion, Diamond says, adding that Wemp spelled Web site, although it is still available online to “Diamond did not put it into that context,” out the names of the warriors and other indi- registered subscribers. Wiessner says. She thinks that Diamond viduals who would later be named in The New Remnick nevertheless defends the maga- should travel to PNG and engage in some Yorker piece. (Both Diamond and Shearer zine’s efforts to verify Diamond’s story. He restorative justice of his own. “Diamond has agree that Bishop was present during some of says that this particular fact checker “is one of been wonderfully respectful of PNG and has the May 2006 conversation; reached by tele- the best I have ever had the privilege of work- done so much to raise the image of the coun- phone, Bishop declined to comment.) The ing with.” And he adds that “we had Jared try in the world, until that story,” Wiessner Shearer account agrees that Diamond took Diamond’s meticulous, detailed notes from the says. “He should be taken to a village court; he notes in shorthand in a red notebook but differs 2006 interview with Daniel Wemp, … and we should apologize; he should say that he was markedly about what Wemp said. consulted with people with expertise in the told this story and he should have checked it; Diamond says that although Wemp clearly Southern Highlands, who confirmed that and in compensation, he should give some understood that he would be named in the Daniel Wemp’s description of the revenge money to each tribe, for their schools, a health book, he did not try to get permission from battle was consistent with known practice.” center, or some community project.”

Mandingo and the others: “I trusted Daniel’s Remnick also insists that in the August 2008 –MICHAEL BALTER (INSET) STINKYJOURNALISM.ORG/DANIEL WEMP CREDITS: RONALD R. SPADAFORA;

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