Wari Cannibalism Chapter Summaries
Consuming grief: Compassionate cannibalism in an Amazonian society
By Beth A. Conklin, University of Texas Press, Austin, 2001. 285 pages.
Nothing seems quite so controversial and exotic in anthropology than the topic cannibalism. In the book consuming grief, Conklin studies the indigenous Amazonian group Wari’s mortuary cannibalism before the 1960’s contact. The book itself is a big contribution to anthropology’s perception of cannibalism as it is revealing a culture that uses cannibalism as a form of respect rather than dominance and leaves us pondering about what’s acceptable human behaviour.
Conklin has created an emphatic and nuanced portrait of the Wari’s culture from her two extensive interviews from the timeframe 1988 to 1992. In it she reconstructs many aspects of the Wari’s culture as death, society and grievance interwoven with the culture abundance that came with the ‘contact’ of the outside world. From being socially and cultural isolated from the outside world, the Wari found that endo cannibalism was a form of expressing love and community. Conklin amplifies here that these practices were deeply embedded in the social relations and culture of the Wari, and so they were deeply disturbed by the contact in the 1960’s that ended their funerary cannibalism. She continues that while exo cannibalism also …show more content…
were practiced (eating enemies), the focus lies on endo cannibalism (eating a deceased friend or family) mostly because those practices have never been well documented of.
While Conklin visits the Wari nearly two decenniums after the last practice of cannibalism, the author has no doubt that they have happened. The interviewees disclosure is consistent with their rituals and evidence from several eyewitnesses. The reasons of why the Wari were so determined to consume their loved one’s deceased body’s is more difficult to comprehend. The process is explained as a process of destruction and an act to “achieve some degree of detachment and tranquillity” (p. 96). In doing so they were eradicating the remaining ties between the living and the dead and respecting both the family and the deceased one. This eradicates fellow scholars view of the Wari’s cannibalism as way of gain protein (p. 92) and contradicts many anthropologies views of cannibalism as only a counterblow to scare enemies. This piece of research is substantive ethnographic contribution to anthropology that evokes deep profound questions.
The study continues with Conklin describing every process of a death in the community from dismembering the bodies, roasting body-parts and whom eats them.
Conklin amplifies here that the practices were often due for a couple of days to make the corpse unappetising and reinforce the cultural meaning of consuming. Here Conklin also addresses the emotionally contradictory challenges that follow of watching a loved one be dismembered and eaten. That Wari answers with conventional truisms as ‘We were sad’ as to a deep explanation of their emotions leaves me with the perceptions that a truthful testimony would contradict the whole meaning of their
culture.
The controversy that arises from approaches primitive
However, the book’s left some serious questions unattended. For instance, their society is being addressed as egalitarian but there’s several examples that are showing gender division. The men were the main participants in both consuming meat and attending certain parties which makes
Were the Wari’s concerned with hierarchy between men and women (no, egalitarian)? It can also be discussed whether the research can be seen as trustworthy as the reconstruction of the memories are over 20-year-old. All the interviews are based on the Wari’s interpretations and none of Conklin observations. This provides me at least with doubt of the authenticity of the material as recollecting memories only one year ago can be troubling.
By Beth A. Conklin, University of Texas Press, Austin, 2001. 285 pages.
Nothing seems quite so controversial and exotic in anthropology than the topic cannibalism. In the book consuming grief, Conklin studies the indigenous Amazonian group Wari’s mortuary cannibalism before the 1960’s contact. The book itself is a big contribution to anthropology’s perception of cannibalism as it is revealing a culture that uses cannibalism as a form of respect rather than dominance and leaves us pondering about what’s acceptable human behaviour.
Conklin has created an emphatic and nuanced portrait of the Wari’s culture from her two extensive interviews from the timeframe 1988 to 1992. In it she reconstructs many aspects of the Wari’s culture as death, society and grievance interwoven with the culture abundance that came with the ‘contact’ of the outside world. From being socially and cultural isolated from the outside world, the Wari found that endo cannibalism was a form of expressing love and community. Conklin amplifies here that these practices were deeply embedded in the social relations and culture of the Wari, and so they were deeply disturbed by the contact in the 1960’s that ended their funerary cannibalism. She continues that while exo cannibalism also …show more content…
were practiced (eating enemies), the focus lies on endo cannibalism (eating a deceased friend or family) mostly because those practices have never been well documented of.
While Conklin visits the Wari nearly two decenniums after the last practice of cannibalism, the author has no doubt that they have happened. The interviewees disclosure is consistent with their rituals and evidence from several eyewitnesses. The reasons of why the Wari were so determined to consume their loved one’s deceased body’s is more difficult to comprehend. The process is explained as a process of destruction and an act to “achieve some degree of detachment and tranquillity” (p. 96). In doing so they were eradicating the remaining ties between the living and the dead and respecting both the family and the deceased one. This eradicates fellow scholars view of the Wari’s cannibalism as way of gain protein (p. 92) and contradicts many anthropologies views of cannibalism as only a counterblow to scare enemies. This piece of research is substantive ethnographic contribution to anthropology that evokes deep profound questions.
The study continues with Conklin describing every process of a death in the community from dismembering the bodies, roasting body-parts and whom eats them.
Conklin amplifies here that the practices were often due for a couple of days to make the corpse unappetising and reinforce the cultural meaning of consuming. Here Conklin also addresses the emotionally contradictory challenges that follow of watching a loved one be dismembered and eaten. That Wari answers with conventional truisms as ‘We were sad’ as to a deep explanation of their emotions leaves me with the perceptions that a truthful testimony would contradict the whole meaning of their
culture.
The controversy that arises from approaches primitive
However, the book’s left some serious questions unattended. For instance, their society is being addressed as egalitarian but there’s several examples that are showing gender division. The men were the main participants in both consuming meat and attending certain parties which makes
Were the Wari’s concerned with hierarchy between men and women (no, egalitarian)? It can also be discussed whether the research can be seen as trustworthy as the reconstruction of the memories are over 20-year-old. All the interviews are based on the Wari’s interpretations and none of Conklin observations. This provides me at least with doubt of the authenticity of the material as recollecting memories only one year ago can be troubling.