Cannibalism
is an action, or lifestyle, that westerners often have an incredibly hard time
observing objectively. While westerners can often understand cultural differences
in family hierarchy, religions, and marriage, cannibalism is a ritual that many
people find simply appalling. The reason for this is two fold; first, many
representations of cannibalism are often shallow in scope, and second, because psychologists
say that cannibalism is the most primitive and dominating form of violence.
First,
cannibalism is often portrayed through western lenses that fail to report the
many reasons people cannibalize. Cannibalism is a form of aggression, but that
is not its sole cause. Cannibalism is a funerary tradition as well as a sign of
love in some cultures. Many groups of cannibalism have cannibalism as a way to
honor a deceased person’s body. This is a view that is often not reported through
the media.
Some
people who cannibalize also see it as a sign of affection or love; consuming a
person means they are inside of you, and a ‘part’ of you. This is an opinion that
is really interesting and contradicts much of western thought. The Abrahamic
faiths would never encourage this because it negates their doctrine about the
soul’s ascent to heaven.
A last reason is survival- while many anthologists
report this cause, viewing it objectively is difficult. Many Europeans argue
that they would never eat their own child or wife- they fail to empathize with
the survivalist mental state famine encourages, and they forget how differing
social structures would permit this. In a society where certain members may
have no ‘dignity’ or value, it is acceptable to eat them for sustained. While
this opinion is ‘hard’ to identify with, and many would say is flat out evil or
wrong, an anthropologist must realize that cannibalism has many reasons, and in
certain cultures is seen as an acceptable or even a good thing.
Furthermore,
psychologists say that cannibalism, when done as an act of aggression, is the
most violent way to dominate a person. While many say that rape is a way to
dominate a person first and sexual second, cannibalism is on another level of
aggression. There is no way to overpower and subjugate a person more than
murdering them and consuming them (sad I know). This is why many horrific mass
murders have cannibalized their victims; many psychologists say that cannibalism
is a ‘last resort’ to dominate when other forms of violence lose their initial satisfaction.
What
does this have to do with the Korowai people? They eat people, and are famous
for it. Why? This Smithsonian article articulates the reasoning in its complete
thought.
“After we eat a dinner of river fish
and rice, Boas joins me in a hut and sits cross-legged on the thatched floor,
his dark eyes reflecting the gleam from my flashlight, our only source of
light. Using Kembaren as translator, he explains why the Korowai kill and eat
their fellow tribesmen. It's because of the khakhua, which comes disguised as a
relative or friend of a person he wants to kill. "The khakhua eats the
victim's insides while he sleeps," Boas explains, "replacing them
with fireplace ash so the victim does not know he's being eaten. The khakhua
finally kills the person by shooting a magical arrow into his heart." When
a clan member dies, his or her male relatives and friends seize and kill the
khakhua. "Usually, the [dying] victim whispers to his relatives the name
of the man he knows is the khakhua," Boas says. "He may be from the
same or another treehouse." I ask Boas whether the Korowai eat people for
any other reason or eat the bodies of enemies they've killed in battle.
"Of course not," he replies, giving me a funny look. "We don't
eat humans, we only eat khakhua."The killing and eating of khakhua has
reportedly declined among tribespeople in and near the settlements. Rupert
Stasch, an anthropologist at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, who has lived
among the Korowai for 16 months and studied their culture, writes in the
journal Oceania that Korowai say they have "given up" killing witches
partly because they were growing ambivalent about the practice and partly in
reaction to several incidents with police. In one in the early '90s, Stasch
writes, a Yaniruma man killed his sister's husband for being a khakhua. The
police arrested the killer, an accomplice and a village head. "The police
rolled them around in barrels, made them stand overnight in a leech-infested
pond, and forced them to eat tobacco, chili peppers, animal feces, and unripe
papaya," he writes. Word of such treatment, combined with Korowais' own
ambivalence, prompted some to limit witch-killing even in places where police
do not venture. Still, the eating of khakhua persists, according to my guide,
Kembaren. "Many khakhua are murdered and eaten each year," he says,
citing information he says he has gained from talking to Korowai who still live
in treehouses.”
Clearly, the
beliefs they have about the Kembaren lead them to accept and promote this
practice. The anthropological lesson here is simple; the reasons for rituals
like cannibalism are diverse.
