[107] Markham, ‘List of the Tribes in the Valley of the Amazon,’ in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xxiv. 253.
The cannibalism of modern savages has often been represented as the survival of an ancient practice which was once universal in the human race.[108] The advocates of this theory, however, have not generally made any serious attempts to prove it. I have in another place put the question how ethnographical facts can give us information regarding the early history of mankind, and my answer was:—We have first to find out the causes of the social phenomena; we may then from the prevalence of the causes infer the prevalence of the phenomena themselves, if the former must be assumed to have operated without being checked by other causes.[109] This seems a very obvious method; but, so far as I know, Dr. Steinmetz is the only one who has strictly applied it to the question of cannibalism. He has arrived at the conclusion that primitive man most probably was in the habit of eating the bodies of his dead kinsmen as also of slain enemies. His argument is briefly as follows:—The chief impulse of primitive man was his desire for food. He fed not only on fruits and vegetables, but on flesh. His taste for animal food was not limited by any sufficient esthetic horror of human corpses. Nor was he kept back from eating them by fear of exposing himself to the revenge of the disembodied soul of his victim, nor by any fantastic sympathy for the dead body. Consequently, he was an habitual cannibal.[110] If I cannot accept Dr. Steinmetz’s conclusion it is certainly not because I find fault with his method, but because I consider his chief premise exceedingly doubtful.
[108] Andree, op. cit. p. 98 sq. Lippert, Kulturgeschichte der Menschheit, ii. 279. Schurtz, Speiseverbote, p. 25. Réville, Hibbert Lectures on the Religions of Mexico and Peru, p. 87. Johnston, in Fortnightly Review, N.S. xlv. 28. M. Letourneau (L’évolution de la morale, p. 76) calls cannibalism “le péché originel de toutes les races humaines.”
[109] Westermarck, History of Human Marriage, p. 3 sq.
[110] Steinmetz, Endokannibalismus, p. 34 sqq.
It is quite likely that early man preferred cannibalism to death from starvation, and that he occasionally practised it from the same motive as has induced many shipwrecked men even among civilised peoples to have recourse to the bodies of their comrades in order to save their lives. But we are here concerned with habitual cannibalism only. Although I consider it highly probable that man was originally in the main frugivorous, there can be no doubt that he has from very early times fed largely on animal food. We may further take for granted that he has habitually eaten the flesh of whatever animals he could get for which he had a taste and from the eating of which no superstitious or sentimental motive held him back. But that he at first had no aversion to human flesh seems to me a very precarious assumption.
A large number of savage tribes have never been known to be addicted to cannibalism, but are, on the contrary, said to feel the greatest dislike of it. In times of scarcity the Eskimo will eat their clothing sooner than touch human flesh. The Fuegians have been reported to devour their old women in cases of extreme distress;[111] but Mr. Bridges, who has spent most part of his life among them, emphatically affirms that cannibalism is unknown amongst the natives of Cape Horn and that they abhor it.[112] Concerning the natives of South Andaman Mr. Man observes:—“Not a trace could be discovered of the existence of such a practice in their midst, even in far-off times…. They express the greatest horror of the custom, and indignantly deny that it ever held a place among their institutions.”[113] We meet with similar statements with reference to many African tribes. The editor of Livingstone’s ‘Last Journals’ says that it was common on the River Shiré to hear Manganja and Ajawa people speak of tribes far away to the north who eat human bodies, and that on every occasion the fact was related with the utmost abhorrence and disgust.[114] Amongst the Dinka the accounts of the cannibalism of the Niam-Niam excites as much horror as amongst ourselves.[115] The Bakongo “shudder with repugnance at the mere mention of eating human flesh.”[116] Among the Bayaka, in the Congo Free State, “cannibalism is never found, and is regarded as something quite abhorrent.”[117] No intermarriage takes place between the Fans and their non-cannibal neighbours, as “their peculiar practices are held in too great abhorrence.”[118] According to Burton, cannibalism “is execrated by the Efiks of Old Calabar, who punish any attempts of the kind with extreme severity.”[119] Even amongst the South Sea Islanders there are tribes which have been known to view cannibalism with great repugnance.[120]
[111] Darwin, Journal of Researches, p. 214. King and Fitzroy, Voyages of the “Adventure” and “Beagle,” ii. 183, 189.
[112] Bridges, ‘Manners and Customs of the Firelanders,’ in A Voice for South America, xiii. 207. Idem, quoted by Hyades and Deniker, Mission scientifique du Cap Horn, vii. 259.
[113] Man, ‘Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands,’ in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xii. 113.