Divine hunger : cannibalism as a cultural system / Peggy Reeves Sanday.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sanday, Peggy Reeves

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cannibalism--Cross-cultural studies.

Cannibalism.

Cross-cultural studies.

Physical Description:

xvi, 266 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge [Cambridgeshire] ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1986.

Summary:

The practice of cannibalism is in certain cultures rejected as evil, while in others it plays a central part in the ritual order. Anthropologists have offered various explanations for the existence of cannibalism, none of which, Peggy Sanday claims, is adequate. In this book she presents a new approach to understanding the phenomenon. Through a detailed examination of ritual cannibalism in selected tribal societies, and a comparison of those cases with others in which the practice is absent, she shows that cannibalism is closely linked to people's orientation to the world, and that it serves as a concrete device for distinguishing the "cultural self" from the "natural other."

Combining perspectives drawn from the work of Ricoeur, Freud, Hegel, and Jung and from symbolic anthropology, Sanday argues that ritual cannibalism is intimately connected both with the constructs by which the origin and continuity of life are understood and assured from one generation to the next and with the way in which that understanding is used to control the vital forces considered necessary for the reproduction of society. She reveals that the presence or absence of cannibalism in a culture derives from basic human attitudes toward life and death, combined with the realities of the material world.

As well as making an original contribution to the understanding of a significant human practice, Sanday also develops a theoretical argument of wider relevance to anthropological analysis in general. The book will appeal to anthropologists, psychologists, sociologists, and other readers interested in the function and meaning of cannibalism.

Contents:

1 Cannibalism cross-culturally 3

2 Analytic framework 27

The symbols that give rise to a cannibalistic consciousness

3 The mysteries of the body: Hua and Gimi mortuary cannibalism 59

4 The androgynous first being: Bimin-Kuskusmin cannibalism 83

5 Cannibal monsters and animal friends 102

The mythical chartering and transformation of cannibal practice

6 The faces of the soul's desires: Iroquoian torture and cannibalism in the seventeenth century 125

7 Raw women and cooked men: Fijian cannibalism in the nineteenth century 151

8 Precious eagle-cactus fruit: Aztec human sacrifice 169

9 The transformation and end of cannibal practice 196

10 Conclusion: Other symbols and ritual modalities 214.

Notes:

Includes index.

Bibliography: pages 254-259.

ISBN:

052132226X

0521311144

OCLC:

12662835