Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History(34)
Like the many priests, missionaries, colonial officers, and others who considered cannibalism antithetical to what it means to be human, scholars who insist that all accounts must be false seem to assume that cannibalism is by definition a terrible act. They appear blind to the possibility that people different from themselves might have other ways of being human, other understandings of the body, or other ways of coping with death that might make cannibalism seem like a good thing to do.
In other words, just because we consider cannibalism an ultimate taboo, why should the members of other cultural groups necessarily feel the same way?
I asked Arens about Conklin’s statement.
“I think it’s nonsense,” he replied.
“But couldn’t there be a group of isolated people who grew up without the influences that lead Westerners to believe that cannibalism is a bad thing?”
Arens threw me a dismissive wave. “I don’t think that any group of people grow up isolated or innocent of what’s going on around them, and I don’t believe that one group does something that’s not pretty pervasive among the species.”
He continued. “But if you see people eating each other, then you have to accept that they do it. And although I’d be disappointed to have to accept that, I would accept it!”
Yeah right, I thought, retaliating with a respectful but dismissive wave of my own. I found it hard to fathom that a man who had pretty much made a career of rejecting the concept of ritual cannibalism might be converted so quickly.
“Honestly, I’d accept it,” Arens assured me. “My problem is that no one ever sees it. Therefore, the pattern [of observed behavior] is not eating people, but assuming people eat people and never actually seeing it. The example of the Wari’, that’s a problem because no one has seen the Wari’ practicing cannibalism. So how about the Bongo Bongo? No one’s ever seen the Bongo Bongo do it, either. So you end up going around the world discussing something that no one’s ever seen.”
Anthropologist Jerome Whitfield has been working on ritual cannibalism and its pathological consequences for several decades, principally in Papua New Guinea. I’d been corresponding with Whitfield and related to him my conversation with Arens. He responded via email. “Endocannibalism has been practiced and witnessed by thousands of indigenous people throughout the world. How come a white ethnocentric anthropologist, who has never spoken to these people, or been in their country, can say what they do or why they do something?”
Whitfield went on. “Interestingly, there have been public apologies in Fiji, Vanuatu, and Papua New Guinea by citizens of these countries for the killing and exocannibalism of missionaries. Are they making it up like the Wari’?” To Whitfield, it sounded like Arens believes there is “a huge conspiracy with massive resources that wants to mislead the world into thinking that endocannibalism was an established practice.” And as for a reliance on witnesses other than themselves, Whitfield wrote that, “All anthropologists rely on informants to explain what is happening, even if they witness the event themselves.”
So did ritual cannibalism ever take place? Most anthropologists who’ve investigated the topic seem to think so. But is there any evidence beyond the ethnohistorical accounts and, if so, does it still take place today? As I would learn, to millions of people, the answer is apparently yes.
11: Cannibalism and the Bible
I had to eat a piece of Jesus once in a movie.
— John Lurie (personal communication), costar of Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ
There is another form of ritual cannibalism whose origins are fascinating and whose details may strike many readers as being uncomfortably close to home.
Descriptions of cannibalism in the Bible fall into two distinct categories. In the Old Testament, the behavior was undertaken by the starving inhabitants of the besieged cities of Jerusalem and Samaria. There’s no physical evidence that these events actually occurred (although that doesn’t mean that they didn’t), but since we’ll be covering the topic of survival cannibalism in an upcoming chapter, we won’t be stopping here.
The second type of cannibalism is found in the New Testament and relates to the literal or symbolic consumption of Jesus Christ’s body and blood during the celebration of the Eucharist—the Christian commemoration of the Last Supper. Considering the paramount importance this ceremony has for all Christians, and in light of differing belief systems that exist throughout Christianity, it’s no surprise that there are disagreements concerning the interpretation of the Eucharist. One aspect shared by the vast majority of Christians, however, is a lack of awareness that this particular form of ritual cannibalism led to the torture and death of thousands of innocent people.
The following are two of the most famous passages from the New Testament.
Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had said the blessing he broke it and gave it to the disciples. “Take it and eat,” he said, “this is my body.” Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he handed it to them saying, “Drink from this, all of you, for this is my blood, the blood of the covenant, poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
— Matthew 26:26–28
Jesus replied to them: In all truth I tell you, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life, and I shall raise that person up on the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in that person.