terms & themes

Craig White's Literature Courses

Terms / Themes

Cannibal,

Cannibalism

Anthropology provides two categories of Cannibalism:

ritual cannibalism--sharing or transfer of power by drinking blood of enemy, chief, etc.
survival cannibalism--the raft of the Medusa, Seige of Leningrad, various famines, Uruguayan rugby team airplane crash in Andes 1972--Alive!

There is little to no evidence that humans ever regularly practice cannibalism for nutrition or sustenance.

Cannibalism is one of few absolute taboos (e.g., incest, child molestation) surviving in popular culture.

Cannibalism may be seen as dehumanizing to perpetrator and victim.

Victims dread disintegration of body, total domination by enemy

Cannibals are dehumanized in turn--sign of barbarity

Grossly put, ingestion by self of other (or vice versa) violates self-other boundaries

Online Etymology Dictionary

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=cannibal

1553, from Sp.
			canibal "a savage, cannibal," from
			Caniba, Christopher Columbus' rendition 
			of the Caribs' name for themselves, Galibi 
			"brave men." The natives were believed to be anthropophagites. 
			Columbus, seeking evidence that he was in Asia, thought the name 
			meant the natives were subjects of the Great 
			Khan. Shakespeare's Caliban (in 
			"The Tempest") is a version of this word, with 
			-n- and -l- interchanged, found 
			in Hakluyt's "Voyages" (1599). . . .

Zombie fiction & film as recent manifestation of cannibalism-fear.