Re: Man-eating myth?
Bruce D. Scott (bds@ipp-garching.mpg.de)
19 May 1995 11:24:09 GMT
Thomas B Gross (tbg@world.std.com) wrote:
[...]
: A number of years ago I read a book called "The Man-eathing Myth"
: by an anthropologist who basically said that he could find no
: evidence that any culture had ever sanctioned cannibalism.
[...]
I've perused that on the shelves -- late 1980s or so.
That the edible remains of many of the Aztec sacrificees found their way to
the markets and were later consumed is documented by chroniclers who were
there and saw it with their eyes. Look for earliest-possible translations
of Sahagun. The accounts are considered "shocking" by the mores of the
present Western culture, and perhaps for that reason people look for
arguments against their actual occurrence.
Much of the disagreement I read about (Sahlins vs Harris, for example)
focusses on the reasons for it, not on whether or not it took place.
--
Mach's gut!
Bruce Scott The deadliest bullshit is
Max-Planck-Institut fuer Plasmaphysik odorless and transparent
bds@ipp-garching.mpg.de -- W Gibson
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