Skip to Main Content

Cannibal Talk: The Man-Eating Myth and Human Sacrifice in the South Seas

Online ISBN:
9780520938311
Print ISBN:
9780520243071
Publisher:
University of California Press
Book

Cannibal Talk: The Man-Eating Myth and Human Sacrifice in the South Seas

Gananath Obeyesekere
Gananath Obeyesekere
Find on
Published:
6 June 2005
Online ISBN:
9780520938311
Print ISBN:
9780520243071
Publisher:
University of California Press

Abstract

In this re-examination of the notion of cannibalism, the author offers the argument that cannibalism is mostly “cannibal talk,” a discourse on the Other engaged in by both indigenous peoples and colonial intruders which results in sometimes funny and sometimes deadly cultural misunderstandings. Turning to Polynesian societies in the early periods of European contact and colonization, the author deconstructs Western eyewitness accounts, carefully examining their origins and treating them as a species of fiction writing and seamen's yarns. He argues that cannibalism is less a social or cultural fact than a mythic representation of European writing that reflects much more the realities of European societies and their fascination with the practice of cannibalism. And while very limited forms of cannibalism might have occurred in Polynesian societies, they were largely in connection with human sacrifice and carried out by a select community in well-defined sacramental rituals. This book considers how the colonial intrusion produced a complex self-fulfilling prophecy whereby the fantasy of cannibalism became a reality, as natives on occasion began to eat both Europeans and their own enemies in acts of “conspicuous anthropophagy.”

Contents
Close
This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

Close

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

View Article Abstract & Purchase Options

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

Close