As reported in The Guardian (link here).
Here’s an excerpt:
A series about an Amazonian tribe that aired on the BBC has been accused of “faking” scenes and mistranslating interviews to negatively portray the tribe as “sex-obsessed, mean savages”, according to accusations made by two eminent experts.
The show, called Mark & Olly: Living with the Machigenga, was shown on BBC Knowledge in South Africa in June and July last year and by the Travel Channel in the US in 2009, and made by Paddington-based Cicada Productions.
The six-part series followed travellers Mark Anstice and Olly Steeds journeying to live in the remote Matisgenka Indian village in the Amazon rainforest over a period of several months.
However, the show has been called “staged, false, fabricated and distorted” by Dr Glenn Shepard, an anthropologist who has worked with the tribe for 25 years and speaks their language fluently, and Ron Snell, who grew up with the tribe as the son of US missionaries and also speaks their language.
Dr. Shepard published an article on the Mark & Olly show’s portrayal of the Matsigenka in Anthropology News. An extended version of his article is available on his blog, Notes From the Ethnoground, here.
Turtle Talk 