Kenneth Good is an anthropologist most noted for his work among the Yanomami and his account of his experiences with them: Into the Heart: One Man’s Pursuit of Love and Knowledge Among the Yanomami. While researching and living with the group in Venezuela, Good married a Yanomami woman named Yarima, who emigrated to the United States with Good when he returned home. Their three children were raised in the United States, but Yarima, finding adapting to life in the United States too difficult, returned to her village when the children were young. Good is currently associate professor at New Jersey City University. He appeared in the film Secrets of the Tribe, which documented his work with the Yanomami.
Personal life
Good studied anthropology at the Pennsylvania State University. His graduate study was principally under William T. Sanders, a Mesoamericanist, and Marvin Harris. Some other members of his PhD committee were Charles Wagley, the acclaimed South Americanist and Robert Carneiro, a now-retired curator of the American Museum of Natural History. After several years in Venezuela, he returned to Pennsylvania State to join the field project of Napoleon Chagnon and began his field study of the Yanomami tribe in 1975. He developed good relations with the tribe and learned the Yanomami language. In 1978, while he was doing fieldwork for the Max Planck Institute of Munich, Good was offered a wife named Yarima by her brother, the headman of the village. He accepted her in accordance with local customs. In keeping with community wishes, he was betrothed to his future wife when she was about 9 years old. They began living near each other and consummated the marriage when she was about 14, as is typical in Yanomami culture. However, the Yanomami people do not record individuals' ages beyond two years, making her exact age difficult to determine; Good himself estimated these ages to be closer to 12-13 and 15-16, respectively. The two lived in the tribal communal house, with Good traveling back and forth to Caracas for one year. Later, Yarima followed Good to the United States where she lived for several years in Gainesville while he completed his Ph.D. before deciding to return to her tribe. The two have two sons and a daughter, all of whom grew up in the United States. His daughter Vanessa was born in her mother's village. In 2011, one of their sons, David, returned to the jungle to visit his mother and later started a non-profit named The Good Project, dedicated to helping support the future of the Yanomami people. Good and Yarima have three children and five grandchildren.
