| Description |
xvi, 266 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm |
| Contents |
Machine derived contents note: Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Part I. Introduction: 1. Cannibalism cross-culturally -- 2. Analytic framework -- Part II. The Symbols That Give Rise to a Cannibalistic Consciousness: 3. The mysteries of the body: Hua and Gimi mortuary cannibalism -- 4. The androgynous first being: Bimin-Kuskusmin cannibalism -- 5. Cannibal monsters and animal friends -- Part III. The Mythical Chartering And Transformations of Cannibal Practice: 6. The faces of the soul's desires: Iroquoian torture and cannibalism in the seventeenth century -- 7. Raw women and cooked men: Fijian cannibalism in the nineteenth century -- 8. Precious eagle-cactus fruit: Aztec human sacrifice -- 9. The transformation and end of cannibal practice -- 10. Conclusion: other symbols and ritual modalities -- Notes -- References -- Index |
| 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." |
| Analysis |
Man Cannibalism - Anthropological perspectives |
| Notes |
Includes index |
| Bibliography |
Bibliography: pages 253-259 |
| Subject |
Cannibalism -- Cross-cultural studies.
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Cannibalism -- ethnology.
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Cannibalism -- history.
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Cross-Cultural Comparison.
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| LC no. |
85021322 |
| ISBN |
0521311144 (paperback) |
|
052132226X |
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