Historians have claimed that the practice of humans eating other humans has been around for the last five hundred thousand years, yet only recently was a name conjured up for the behavior. The origin of the word cannibalism came from the Spanish word Carib or Cañibales, which was the name of the warlike West Indian tribe whose members ate human flesh. Many accounts of horrific human cannibalism have been reported all around the world throughout time; there are even some passages in the bible that tell cases of anthropophagy. For instance, “I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh” (Cannibalism 1). There are several terms which fall under the category of cannibalism: exocannibalism, endocannibalism, emergency cannibalism, and criminal cannibalism. In many cultures, ex

A common problem in relations with others is the differences between societies and their social structure. For instance, Westerners have always abhorred many behaviors (like cannibalism) that were unlike their mainstream, “acceptable” norms. At one point in time, Sigmund Freud proclaimed of the three great-prohibited acts: “homicide, incest, and cannibalism, the first two were still alive yet cannibalism was almost completely eradicated” (Rawson 1). On the other hand, Beth Conklin stated, “We assume that cannibalism is always an aggressive, barbaric and degrading act…but it can have positive meanings and motives that are not that far from our own experience” (Conklin 68). I understand the actions of certain cultures who practice this ritual. For instance, I recently stayed with a Chinese family for a month this summer learning their culture and following their social norms. In the end, I discovered an appeal for different foods I would never dream of eating, eel especially. From this valuable experience with my friend’s culture, I believe that as long as a society does not harm or interact, it should be allowed to continue its customs and lifestyle. “By stepping outside our own cultural framework to try to understand this from the Wari’ point of view, however, we can see some of the realities of social life, especially the ways of caring and coping, that unite us all as human beings” (Salisbury).

The Western world has always viewed less advanced societies as beastly savages because of their different beliefs and social customs such as anthropophagy. “Cannibalism marks the distance between the civilized and the savage, between the colonizers and the colonized, between “us” and “them” (Conklin 68). In order to reduce the differences between the two cultures, Europeans thought it was their duty to end such rituals as cannibalism and to force Christianity into the lives of the savages. One such group that was affected by the contact of the outside world was the Wari’ Indians of Brazil, who up until the 1960s practiced cannibalism. During the 1950s, after hearing reports of cannibalism from several missionaries, the Brazilian government Indian agency enforced their control over most of the Wari’ population. While most outsiders wanted to Christianize the Wari’, others were eager to make use of the rubber, Brazilian nuts, cassiterite, and other marketable capital in the large territories that were under the tribe’s control. Soon, greedy rubber barons hired gunmen to attack Wari’ villages to drive them off their land. As a result, the Wari’ retaliated with bow-and-arrow attacks on Brazilians near the edges of their territory, thus escalating the tension between the Brazilian government and the Wari’. Over the next couple of years, both the government and the missionaries thought it was their mission to pacify the Wari’ and to end cannibalism. Although some outsiders used representations of cannibalism for monetary gain, others displayed empathy and a desire to understand the Wari’ culture (Conklin 68).

At the beginning of the exploration era, a diverse collection of tribes located in the tropical lowlands of South America and the farthest regions of Australia practiced cannibalism in one form or another. Since Western society was disgusted by this “primitive” behavior, it provided a ploy to attack and conquer. Most tribes, like the Tupinamba (an ethnic group in Brazil), would invade other tribes due to a disagreement concerning land rights and then feast on their enemy’s corpses if they were victorious. R

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