Habitual cannibalism, permitted or in some cases enjoined by custom, has been met with in a large number of savage tribes and, as a religious or magical rite, among several peoples of culture. It is, or has been, particularly prevalent in the South Sea Islands, Australia, Central Africa, and South and Central America. But it has also been found among various North American Indians, in certain tribes of the Malay Archipelago, and among a few peoples on the Asiatic continent. And it is proved to have occurred in many parts of Europe.[1]
[1] For the prevalence and extenson of cannibalism, see Andree, Die Anthropophagie, p. 1 sqq.; Bergemann, Die Verbreitung der Anthropophagie, p. 5 sqq.; Steinmetz, Endokannibalismus, p. 2 sqq.; Schneider, Die Naturvölker, i. 121 sqq.; Letourneau, L’évolution de la morale, p. 82 sqq.; Ritson, Abstinence from Animal Food, p. 125 sqq.; Hartland, Legend of Perseus, ii. 279 sqq.; Schaafhausen, ‘Die Menschenfresserei und das Menschenopfer,’ in Archiv f. Anthropologie, iv. 248 sqq.; Henkenius, ‘Verbreitung der Anthropophagie,’ in Deutsche Rundschau f. Geographie u. Statistik, xv. 348 sqq.; de Nadaillac, ‘L’Anthropophagie et les sacrifices humains,’ in Revue des Deux Mondes, lxvi. 406 sqq.; Idem, in Bulletins de la Soc. d’Anthrop. de Paris, 1888, p. 27 sqq.; Dorman, Origin of Primitive Superstitions, p. 145 sqq. (American aborigines); Koch, ‘Die Anthropophagie der südamerikanischen Indianer,’ in Internationales Archiv f. Ethnographie, xii. 84 sqq.; Preuss, Die Begräbnisarten der Amerikaner und Nordostasiaten, p. 217 sqq.; Vos, ‘Die Verbreitung der Anthropophagie auf dem asiatischen Festlande,’ in Intern. Archiv f. Ethnogr. iii. 69 sqq.; de Groot, Religious System of China, (vol. iv. book) ii. 363 sqq.; Hübbe-Schleiden, Ethiopien, p. 209 sqq.; Matiegka, ‘Anthropophagie in der prähistorischen Ansiedlung bei Knovize und in der prähistorischen Zeit überhaupt,’ in Mittheil. d. Anthrop. Gesellsch. in Wien, xxvi. 129 sqq.; Wood-Martin, Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland, ii. 286 sqq.
Sometimes the whole body is eaten, with the exception of the bones, sometimes only a part of it, as the liver or the heart. Frequently the victim is an enemy or a member of a foreign tribe, but he may also be a relative or fellow tribesman. Among various savages exo- and endo-anthropophagy prevail simultaneously; but many cannibals restrict themselves to eating strangers, slain enemies, or captives taken in war, whereas others eat their own people in preference to strangers, or are exclusively endo-anthropophagous. Thus the Birhors of the Central Provinces of India are said to eat their aged relatives, but to abhor any other form of cannibalism;[2] and in certain Australian tribes it is not the dead bodies of slain enemies that are eaten, but the bodies of friends, the former being left where they fell.[3] Sometimes people feed on the corpses of such kinsmen as have happened to die, sometimes they kill and eat their old folks, sometimes parents eat their children, sometimes criminals are eaten by the other members of their own community. The Australian Dieyerie have a fixed order in which they partake of their dead relatives:—“The mother eats of her children. The children eat of their mother. Brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law eat of each other. Uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces, grandchildren, grandfathers, and grandmothers eat of each other. But the father does not eat of his offspring, or the offspring of the sire.”[4] Among some peoples cannibalism is an exclusively masculine custom, the women being forbidden to eat human flesh, except perhaps in quite exceptional circumstances.[5]
[2] Dalton, Ethnology of Bengal, p. 220 sq.
[3] Palmer, ‘Some Australian Tribes,’ in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xiii. 283; Fraser, Aborigines of New South Wales, p. 56; Howitt, Native Tribes of South-East Australia, p. 753 (Queensland aborigines). Dawson, Australian Aborigines, p. 67 (tribes of Western Victoria).
[4] Gason, ‘Dieyerie Tribe,’ in Woods, Native Tribes of South Australia, p. 274.
[5] Coquilhat, Sur le Haut-Congo, p. 274 (Bangala). Torday and Joyce, ‘Ethnography of the Ba-Mbala,’ in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xxxv. 403 sq. Iidem, ‘Ethnography of the Ba-Huana,’ ibid. xxxvi. 279. Reade, Savage Africa, p. 158 (West Equatorial Africans). Thomson, Story of New Zealand, i. 145; Best, ‘Art of War, as conducted by the Maori,’ in Jour. Polynesian Soc. xi. 71 (some of the Maoris). von Langsdorf, op. cit. i. 134 (Nukahivans). Erskine, Cruise among the Islands of Western Pacific, p. 260 (Fijians). Spencer and Gillen, Northern Tribes of Central Australia, p. 548. With reference to the natives of Australia Mr. Curr says (The Australian Race, i. 77) that “human flesh seems to have been entirely forbidden to females”; but this certainly does not hold true of all the Australian tribes.
The practice of cannibalism may be traced to many different sources. It often springs from scarcity or lack of animal food.[6] In the South Sea Islands, according to Ellis, “the cravings of nature, and the pangs of famine, often led to this unnatural crime.”[7] The Nukahivans, who were in the habit of eating their enemies slain in battle, also killed and ate their wives and children in times of scarcity, but not unless forced to it by the utmost necessity.[8] Hunger has been represented as the motive for cannibalism in some North and West Australian tribes, parents sometimes consuming even their own children when food is scarce.[9] The Indians north of Lake Superior often resorted to the eating of human flesh when hard pressed by their enemies or during a famine.[10] Among the Hudson Bay Eskimo “instances are reported where, in times of great scarcity, families have been driven to cannibalism after eating their dogs and the clothing and other articles made of skins.”[11]
[6] Bergemann, op. cit. p. 48. de Nadaillac, in Bull. Soc. d’Anthr. 1888, p. 27 sqq. Idem, in Revue des Deux Mondes, lxvi. 428 sq. Steinmetz, Endokannibalismus, p. 25 sqq. Lippert, Kulturgeschichte der Menschheit, ii. 281 sqq. Henkenius, loc. cit. p. 348 sq. Letourneau, L’évolution de la Morale, p. 97. Matiegka, loc. cit. p. 136. Hübbe-Schleiden, Ethiopien, p. 216 sq. Rochas, La Nouvelle Calédonie, p. 304 sq.
[7] Ellis, Polynesian Researches, i. 359.