Cannibals

Mason - Example of old framewk, not being able go beyond own frame reference?

de Acosta, exposure to Indies, same and not same as had heard - knowledge acquired system of resemblances - what told and heard

Lestringant - Cannibalism for what as opp to food?

Vengeance - sensory pleasure secondary

Boucher - Evidence to suggest not all positive towards 'cannibals'?

Villegaignon negative impression of Brazilians

Arens' critique of Staden?

No basis fact. Could not speak lang and did not live amongst them long enough observe cannibalism ceremony, if even existed. Since Staden believed Tupinamba inferior and animal like, assumed likely be cannibals Part rationale for conquest

Lestringant - Links to contemporary debates, cannibalism? Lery

'At the beginning of Histoire d'un voyage, Lery tells us that the words of Christ at the Last Supper cannot be taken literally, but must be understood figuratively. When Jesus said, 'This is my body, this is my blood', he meant the disciples to understand that 'This signifies my body, my blood .. .'12 Therefore, the bread a.nd wine undergo no metamorphosis, as the Catholics maintain: these 'God-eaters' are the victims of a sensual illusion, and are guilty of idolatry.' Pp 71 o Xt using a trope - transferring meaning from thing signified = body, blood, to thing signifying-bread and wine Catholic V Protestant/Calvinists

Mason- Possible reason as to why descriptions Holy Land outnumbered New World in 16th C?

'too new and different to be assimilated Inadequacy of old framewk explain new material = semantic difficulties

Moore - Colombus, evidence slavery agenda? Letter King and Queen Spain?

, 1494, Columbus wrote: "...these (are) cannibals, a people very savage and suitable for the purpose, and well made and of very good intelligence. We believe that they, having abandoned that inhumanity, will be better than any other slaves Sought send hundreds supposed cannibals for slave trade

Mason - Shift according to Foucault, epistemological break?

- Acc to Foucault, following century (17th C) 'epistemological break' as infinite play of resemblances comes be replaced stress on possibility absolute knowledge identity and diff in wks Descartes and Bacon o Act of comparison replaced breaking down things into elements to est a series

Ruth - Does this mean Montaigne believes cannibalism be inherently good?

No. However, considers cannibalism morally superior Eur practices war

Greenblatt - When was Eur landfall of Caribbean?

1492

Duffy and Metcalf - The Return of Hans Staden? Context?

1555 Brazil. One of most pop travel bks 16th C German sdr and explorer

Lestringant - What does he turn the cannibal into?

A universal symbol accounts glaring moral and social evils either side of Atlantic, horrors recent history

Roth - Montaigne, which practices does he speak of?

After describing the cannibals' war practices and how they kill, roast and eat their prisoners, Montaigne states that although it seems to him appropriate to be horrified by these practices, it is wrong to be so and at the same time blind to the even more horrible practices of the Europeans, in particular of the Portuguese. These "civilized" Europeans torture a man by putting him on the rack and roasting him alive, then feeding him to dogs and swine. Cannibals are at least kinder in that they wait until a man is dead before roasting and eating him'

Roth - Statements about cannibalism are often....

Are often civilisational statements

Langer - When did Montaigne start writing essays?

Around 1571

Roth - Conceptual instability of New Man as a concept?

At times new Adam, others sub human, at times free man, others natural slave

Guild - What did reformers do in the 16th C, attacks on RC?

Attacked RC theophagy as being cannibal feast, perception Lery carried to Brazil, transposed this to cannibals' rituals

Jean de Lery - why is he writing this account?

Because sick of what Xns doing Xns - should know better than cannibals

Greenblatt - What was the rhetorical task of Xn imperialism? 2 things

Bring together commodity conversion and spiritual conversion

Boucher - Who created the myth of cannibalism?

Christopher Columbus created myth of 'Carib Cannibalism'

Staden- was he humble>

Claimed be, not mbr rel order like Calv minister Lery either

Roth - Who 1st used New World term cannibal?

Colombus

Martel - What was the backdrop against which Staden, Thevet, Lery etc encountered Tupinambas?

Competing empires and Xnities

Travel literature - discovery or not?

Construction of people in light own knowledge, own context, Xn framewk interpretation

Boucher -Jesuit Jose de Acosta, evidence hierarchy of race/cannibals?

Costa placedm Tupinambas lowest class barbarian, primitive peoples only forced conversion and civ exorcise savagery Contrast to beliefs about Sp excesses in New World and contention that civilised Amerindians like Aztecs and Incas had capacity for Xnisation, held pessimistic views less developed peoples no direct knowledge

Montaigne - Unique? What does he criticise?

Criticises superiority complex of West

Lestringant - Lery, refers to 1573 Fr town Sancerre?

Dead child eaten siege. Rejects excuse = necessity, inspired by Satan Forbidden fruit analogy

Pagden - Importance of fact 16th C, Aristotelian framework knowledge still predominant in 16th C?

Deference/idolisation of Ancients Examination of Men's Wits', treatise on human psychology and aptitudes by Spanish doctor Juan Huarte (1575) Acquaintance w/ classical world Hippocrates and Galen, ignores findings of compatriots in New World of America V. typical o Evidence of 16th C treatises manners and morals suggests w/ occasional exception like Montaigne, most authors believed Xn and classical traditions enough enable them explore mysteries human behaviour w/out recourse to new worlds overseas

Thevet, idea of being able 'tame'/change cannibals?

Describes Brazilians living like irrational beasts, just as nature produced them Idea Xns replace this more civil and humane fashion of life

Brandon - Mixed pic of cannibals, Jesuit missionary father Nobrega in Brazil, letters 1552 and 1553

Describes bloody wars vengeance and execution captives, cannibalism However, then talks about ownership goods in common, lack interest amassing riches, generosity and kindness all Xns visited houses Fertile to received holy faith - imperial/proslytising, paternalistic

Marco Polo's account?

Description of monsters - authoritative text

Langer - What did Montaigne remark about 2nd half 16th C?

Disturbed and sick state

Conley - Montaigne - subjectivity quote?

Each man calls barbarism whatever not own practice. Seems no other test truth and reason than example and patterns of opinions and customs country we live in.

Boucher - evidence of shift/change way categorise/perceive 'cannibals'?

Earlier Golden Age idealisation of primitive Amerindians (never of Caribs) swept aside in favour hierarchcial models cultural evo, assigned Tupinambas and Caribs bottom level

Duffy and Metcalf - The Tupinamba practiced exocannibalism? What?

Eating of those from outside their group, enemies cap warfare

Greenblatt - Can we speak of a Eur practice of representation?

Eur not necessariliy thing then - note Diff national cultures, rel faiths of voyagers, differences shaped perceptions and representations Calvinist Jean de Lery polemically compares the cannibalism of the savage Brazilian people known as Ouetaca with the Catholicism of the French expedition's leader, Nicolas Durand de Villegagnon, who 'wanted to eat the flesh of Jesus Christ raw.,8

Villegagnon - However, what did he find?

Even brute beast Am kept promises and did not steal one another, charitable and fair

Montaigne - Everyone gives title of barbarism to...

Everything not in use in own country

Roth - What is the root of cultural arrogance and colonisation etc?

Failure understand differences results intolerance

Montaigne - Cannibals as Golden Age?

Far from barbarous, not far remote from original simplicity Purity of people, laments over loss this W Surpasses pictures poets adorned Golden Age No traffic, no literacy, no science of numbers, no pol superiority, no contracts, no use of service, riches or poverty What is natural what is right

Roth - Montaigne's reactions to native's own perspectives, Indians in Eur conversation King Charles 9th? Two things, Ruler and conditions?

First, they thought it odd that strong, tall, well-armed men should willingly submit to obeying a child, instead of choosing someone of their own rank to command them (French ed., 253; English ed., 288). Second, the Indians were puzzled that some Europeans had everything in terms of money, comfort, possessions, and food while the rest were destitute, gaunt with hunger, and forced to live as beggars. They wondered, therefore, why the poor and the destitute did not revolt against the upper classes, seize them by the throat or set fire to their homes

Roth - What was cannibalism generally associated with?

Generally associated w/ primitive peoples

Boucher - Famed poet Pierre Ronsard's depiction of Tupinambas, Golden?

Golden Age men, despite their cannibalism. Eur men only corrupt the,, therefore should leave them tranquility

Moore - Proclamation of Isabella I of Castile, 1503? 'Being hardened in their bad habits of idolatry and cannibalism...

I hereby give license and permission... to capture them...' Conversion

Lorenz Fries Physician from Strasberg- Images - appropriation, representing cannibals as something familiar?

Image of chapter 'on cannibals' depicted as dog headed humans, chopping up humans like butcher Eur

Boucher - Intellectual tenor of late 16th and early 17th C?

Increasing pessimism human nature, puritanism in rel and authoritarianism in politics Unfertile ground for favourable images of savages

Roth - Irony of Indian's assessment?

It is ironic that the Indian should have perceived and "advised" what that civilized European, Karl Marx, would perceive and suggest 250 years later. Perhaps the effects of civilization were as shocking to the Indians as cannibalism was to the European'

Acc to Kilgour, the definition of the other as cannibal does what?

Justifies oppression, extermination and cultural cannibalism - imperialism

Duffy and Metcalf - Problem w/ traveller's tales?

Known exaggerate and embellish stories eg Travels of John Mandeville 1475, said be written someone never went anywhere

Roth - Who was a notable champion of Indian rights in Spain?

Las Casas - criticised own ctrymen cruelty, remained Xn

Moore - Idea of soul saving?

Salvation of souls achieved forcible enslavement bodies

Greenblatt - Inability to perceive what?

Likeness and difference at same time

Boucher - What does Montaigne praise the 'cannibals' for? Living according to...

Living acc laws of nature

Moore - Impact of this sanction?

Made possible Sp colonisers label indigenous people 'cannibals' and enslave them.

Boucher - Columbus' initial description of 'cannibals'?

Men w/ one eye, others w/ dog's noses - classical and medieval notions anthropophagi

Montaigne - Trusting sources?

Montaigne - Frenchman lived Brazil 10-12 yrs, simple man, more likely be truthful than clever man, clever man more likely interpret and embellish, cannot help alter history a little

Roth - How does Montaigne flip the Other narrative?

Montaigne adopts perspective Indian and imagines Eur as true Other, foreigner violating and penetrating Indian world Subjectiviy

Main points The Travels of Sir Mandeville, 1370?

Most likely fictional o Monk from England, travelled world o Stories about monsters, witches, mermaids o Pilgrimage towards Jerusalem, what he encounters o Cyclopes: giants, each w/ single eye in middle of forehead o Sciapodes/monopods: mythological human creatures w/ single, large foot extending from led centred in middle of bodies o Blemmyes: species of headless men o Cynocephalus: dog-headed species of men o Anthropophagus/ma-eater s: a mythical race of cannibals of man eaters, described dfirst by Greek historian Herodotus (84-425BC) in his Histories (Herodotus considered father of History) o Mythologization of races, fantastical descriptions

Roth - New Adam?

Naked, simple, natural, untouched original sin

Greenblatt - 'Horror' version of cannibalism?

Native practice, does not fall into category familiar European vices, not part Eur repertory moral disasters such as extreme cruelty or lust, or blasphemy... unmitigated horror, marker absolute difference

Roth - Montaigne criticises attempts improve nature?

Nature = standard and cannot be improved upon, closer man nature, less corrupt Civ unnatural

Greenblatt - What can we be certain about Eur rep of New World?

Only certainty is these accounts tell us about Eur practice representation

What does Lerry refute about representation of cannibalism, cutting up?

Painted Brazilian savages roasting human flesh on spit, as we cook mutton legs etc Falsely display meat like butchers in France

Greenblatt - According to medieval concepts of natural law, uninhabited territories become the....

Possession of the first to discover them

Duffy and Metcalf - Impact of this in shaping perceptions?

Shaped Eur stereotypes wild, man eating savages, fuelling pop fantasies, justify sense Eur superiority

Duffy and Metcalf - Influence of Said's Orientalism? 1979

Since this, scholars understood travel accounts reveal as much about traveler's homeland as about places visited

Mason - Great debate - wilful or unwilful misunderstanding??????

Sometimes wilful, serve interest of observer acquiring colonies

Martel - Evidence fear of other/ideas of degeneration even in 16th C?

Staden refused food from savages, rather starve for fear physical transformation into savagery by food and climate Americas Rel controversy Eucharist and its assoc w/ cannibalism

Lestringant - Lery's comparison w/ Europe?

Still worse crimes committed everyday Cases of cannibalism in Wars of Religion - Lery does not explicitly refer this Usury 1st comparison- The first parallel that occurs to him between the anthropophagy of the Old and New Worlds is usury: 'usurers suck the blood and marrow of 'many widows, orphans and other poor people, whose throats it would be better to cut once and for all, than to make them linger in misery' - and thus effectively eat them alive - Anti S? Cannibalism amongst Xns, Protestant communities, w/in

Boucher - What accounts for odd French sympathy towards idolatrous and 'cannibalistic' people = disfigured?

Strength of humanism in France - study of classical antiquity, Proponents of humanism believed that a body of learning, humanistic studies (studia humanitatis), consisting of the study and imitation of the classical culture of ancient Rome and Greece, would produce a cultural rebirth after what they saw as the decadent and "barbarous" learning of the Middle Ages Studies of classics = examples primitivism in Greek and Roman letters Eco ad military imperatives of French-Tupinamba rship, need 2 understand Tupinamba customs Discontentw/ contemp soc - love of savage life

Roth - Montaigne stripped what from Eur?

Stripped civ Eur feeling cultural superiority based on ethnocentrism Everyone calls barbarism what not accustomed to Anything assoc w/ nature good, anything detracts = bad

Guild - Montaigne - How dies the symbolic practice of cannibalism liken it to Eur?

Symbolic practices humanise cannibals. Vengeance assimilates practice w/ honour code European warrior culture

Greenblatts - Aztecs - pros?

Tech and org skills Eur recog and admire

Greenblatt - What does he admit about positive accounts?

Tempting take most admiring Eur descriptions 'Indians' as if transparent truths and reserve epistemological suspicion for most hostile accounts, but can't do this. Must scrutinise both

Roth - de Angleria, Italian chronicler of Council of Indies Sevilla, Spain - evidence conceive of it/accounts coloured own biases and context?

Those boys whom [the cannibals] capture they castrate, just as we do chickens or pigs we wish to raise fatter and more tender for food; when the boys have grown larger and fatter, [the cannibals ] eat them; but those who are already of a mature, age when they fall into their hands they kill and cut up. They feast upon the intestines and extremities fresh, but the other members they salt, as we do with pork hams, and save for another time

Jean de Lery, History of a Voyage to the Land of Brazil (1578)? - Understanding selves?

To those who will read these horrible things, exercised ritually between the barbarous nations of the land of Brazil, can come somewhat closer to understanding such dangers among us ourselves.'

Greenblatt - What did Europeans do in the face of the unknown?

Used their conventional intellectual and organisational structures, fashioned over centuries mediated contact w/ other cultures - impeded clear grasp radical otherness American lands and peoples

Langer - Main events/upheavals Montaigne referring to?

Wars of Religion (1562-98) - intermittent fighting accept or reject Prot War between Hugenots and Catholics No. pol and rel changes Politics - Rel conflict enabled critique and defence monarchy

Greenblatt - What is he wary of w/ travel lit?

Wary of taking anything Eur wrote or drew on as accurate and reliable account New World lands and peoples

Lestringant - Lery, with Calvinist viewpoint, how do actions Tupinamba become comprehensible, if not acceptable?

When prisoners are sacrificed in the Indian villages of Brazil, the same thing happens as in the churches of the new, Reformed religion: when the faithful are gathered around the Holy Table and the bread and the cup pass from hand to hand, the blood is not blood, but a sign; the flesh is not food, but a metonymy for food. Thereby, the anthropophagy of the Tupinambas becomes, if not acceptable, at least comprehensible. Just as the Calvinist Eucharist signifies, but does not repeat, Christ's gift to the believer, so Tupinamba cannibalism expresses extreme vengeance Idea of a higher ideal

Duffy and Metcalf - Debate around cannibalistic acts Staden depicts?

Whether or not accurate descriptions local customs, or projection Eur fears about transubstantiation

Greenblatt - What does he argue is central figure in initial Eur response to New World?

Wonder, emo and intellectual experience in presence radical difference

Villegagnon - So different, masks...?

Wrote letter Calvin, natives so diff from us every respect, as if fallen among beasts wearing human faces

Langer - Montaigne's own personal experiences?

o Montaigne's political functions as magistrate, mayor of Bordeaux for two successive terms (1581-5), and administrator of his domain,3 and his involvement in mediation attempts between the warring factions and in diplomatic missions at the highest level,4 exposed him both to the local consequences of conflict and to the issues relevant to the direction of the ship of state.

Mason - What is ethnography?

recording of ethnos, whether in writing or in other forms recording, form of translation and reduction

Guild - Montaigne- custom to eat fathers ancient times?

testament piety and true affection - lodge fathers in themselves, giving them a form of life, regenerating them and transmuting them into living flesh - digesting them and being nourished by them To them, allowing parents corruption earth, food beasts and worms

Ruth - What is Montaigne's final step?

• 'Montaigne's final step in this pattern of thought is the following: cannibalism, since it is associated with the wild, natural, primitive, simple, alive, vigorous and uncorrupted man of the New World, cannot be evil'

Lestringant - Lery, distinction between good and bad cannibals?

• 'The Ouetacas are considered as homophagous vampires: they eat their own kind for food. Incapable cooking meat o Speak incomprehensible lang o Unlike other Indians, wear hair long and down to buttocks o Refuse trade w/ neighbours o Won't barter w/ voyagers from Eur o Hunt stags and deer, eat prey raw The Tupinambas cook their meat: they are taking vengeance' pp69o

Roth -Vespucci, around 1500? Idealised?

• Vespucci - cannibals have no law, no king to obey, no boundaries between kingdoms and provinces, no faith, no knowledge immortality soul, no greed, live wholly according to nature