Conklin Cannibalism

"Thus Are Our Bodies, Thus Was Our Custom": Mortuary Cannibalism in an Amazonian Society Author(s): Beth A.
Conklin Reviewed work(s): Source: American Ethnologist, Vol. 22, No. 1 (Feb., 1995), pp. 75-101 Published by: Wiley on behalf of the American Anthropological Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/646047 . Accessed: 18/01/2013 20:07
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"thus are our bodies, thus was our custom": mortuarycannibalism in an Amazoniansociety
BETH A. CONKLIN-Vanderbilt University
The Wari'1 (Pakaa Nova) are an indigenous population of about 1,500 people who live in the western Brazilian rain forest, in the state of Rondonia near the Bolivian border. Until the 1960s, they disposed of nearly all their dead by consuming substantial amounts of corpses' body substances. All Wari' elders living today took part in or witnessed mortuarycannibalism, and their recollections offer an opportunity to view cannibalism from the perspectives of those who participated in it. This article explores the question of why cannibalism was the preferred means for disposing of the dead, emphasizing indigenous interpretations of the logic and meanings of cannibalism. From a cross-cultural perspective, Wari' customs appear unusual in several respects. In most other societies, mortuary cannibalism involved the consumption of only small amounts of a corpse's body substances, which typically were ingested by a dead person's consanguineal kin.2 Among the Wari', however, the dead person's affines ideally consumed all of the roasted flesh, brains, heart, liver, and-sometimes-the ground bones. Cannibalism was the preferred treatment for all Wari' corpses, except in a few circumstances in which bodies were cremated. The Wari' practiced both exocannibalism (the eating of enemies and social outsiders) and endocannibalism (the eating of members of one's own group) but considered the two forms of anthropophagy to have little in common. The eating of enemies, which will not be examined in detail here,3 involved overt expressions of hostility: enemy body parts were abused and treated disrespectfully, and the freshly roasted flesh was eaten off the bone ak karawa, "like animal meat" (see Vilaca 1992:47-130). In contrast, the very different customs of mortuary cannibalism expressed honor and respect for the dead. This article focuses on how mortuary cannibalism fit into Wari' experiences of grief and mourning. My approach traces themes emphasized by contemporary Wari' in reflecting on their past participation in cannibalistic funerals. The question "Why did you eat the dead?" tended to draw a limited range of responses. The most common reply was "Je'kwerexi'" "Thus was
This article examines the cultural logic of mortuary cannibalism practiced, until the 1960s, by the Wari' (Pakaa Nova) of western Brazil. Wari' practices are inadequately explained by the materialist,psychogenic, and symbolic interpretations prominent in recent cannibalism theories. This analysis emphasizes indigenous understandings of the relation of cannibalism to experiences of mourning. Concepts of the human body's social significance made its destruction important to the working out of grief and the attenuation of memories of the dead. In a social process of mourning concerned with transformingmourners' images of the dead, cannibalism appeared as a key element that affirmed ideas of human-animal regeneration and reciprocity expressed in Wari' myth, cosmology, and eschatology. [cannibalism, body concepts, ritual,death and mourning, Amazonian Indians]
American Ethnologist 22(1):75-101.
Copyright ? 1995, American Anthropological
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This shouldbe takenseriously; manyWari',cannibalism simply ourcustom."4 statement for was the norm;for reasonsI discuss in this article,it was consideredto be the most respectful way to treata humanbody. Beyondthis,when olderpeople reflected deeper,personalmotives, on frommemories to theytendedto linkcannibalism a processof achievingemotionaldetachment of the dead: "Whenwe ate the body,we did not think longingly[koromikat] aboutthe dead and much."Numerousmiddle-aged elderlypeople-of bothsexes and in variousvillages-independentlyofferedthe explanationthatcannibalismalteredmemoriesand the emotionsof were bemusedand at griefin ways that helped themdeal with the loss of a loved one. Elders times ratherirritated anthropologists' obsession with the eatingof bodies,for they by singular rites cannotbe understood insistedthatcannibalism apartfromthe entirecomplexof mortuary relations betweenthe living behaviors aimedatreshaping emotionalandspiritual andmourning and the dead. To understandcannibalism'srole in mourning,I propose to show that Wari' practices the reflected conceptsof widespread two saliencein lowlandSouthAmerica: ideaof the human socialrelationships social identity, ideasabout and and as a locusof physically constituted body These concepts merged in a yearlong series of traditional human-nonhuman reciprocity. of mourningritesthatfocused on actualand symbolictransformations a dead person'sbody, was a powerfulelement in a social process of from human to animal form. Cannibalism around images of ancestors' regenerationas animals with ongoing, mourningstructured relations theirlivingrelatives. to life-supporting Wari'testimoniesconcerningthe affectivedimensionsof cannibalismare unusualin the fromthe viewpoint for literature, we have few detailedaccountsof cannibalism ethnographic Most peoples who formerlypracticed it no longer do so, leaving few of its practitioners. because able or willingto speakto personal individuals Perhaps experiencesof people-eating. of this, anthropological analysesof cannibalismhave tended to focus mostlyon the level of This as Cannibalism praxisis poorlyunderstood. societalsystemsof meaningand symbolism. a in cannibalism: is particularly althoughit is, bydefinition, cultural striking the case of mortuary death,we know littleabouthow the sociallyconstituted responseto a fellow groupmember's livedexperiences cannibalism relateto emotionsand fit into individuals' symbolsof mortuary death.Wari'recollectionsofferinsightsintoone people's of coming to termswith a relative's experiences. shortshrift. has cannibalism receivedrather Inthe anthropology anthropophagy, of mortuary are literatures dominatedby accountsof the exocanniand The ethnographic ethnohistorical and describedin moredepth, balismof enemies, which has been reportedmore frequently, withthis predominant focus on enemy-eatConcomitant cannibalism. thanendo- or mortuary as have tended to interpret theoriesof cannibalism anthropophagy a fundaing, universalist from Freud(1981[1913])to Sagan(1974) have mentallyantisocialact. Psychogenictheorists as viewed all formsof people-eating an expressionof individuals' egocentric,oral-aggressive theoriesalso haveemphasizedthemesof antisociality. impulses.Recentsocial anthropological Lewis (1986:63-77) subsumedendo- and exocannibalismalike under a model in which consumption and ingestion reflect oral and genital aggression,and agonistic desires for otheras cannibalism a universalsymbolof barbarism, dominance.Arens(1979) interpreted ness, and inhumanity. cannibalismdata have a special place in cannibalismstudies,for the meanings Mortuary fromthe motivesforeating associatedwithconsumingone's fellowstendto be quitedifferent cannibalismsystemspresentthe greatestpotentialchallengeto interpretaenemies. Mortuary and and act as tionsof cannibalism an antisocial of aggression domination, the fewethnographic dimensions. cannibalismhave tendedto highlightits socially integrative studiesof mortuary as cannibalism Analysesof severalMelanesiansystemshave examinedthe role of mortuary part of the assemblageof culturalsymbols and ritualswhereby social groupsdefined and
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themselvesaftera death (Gillison1983; Lindenbaum reconstituted 1979; Meigs 1984; Poole (1986) cross-cultural 1983). Sanday's analysisemphasizedthe semanticcomplexityof anthropophagyand showed thatcannibalismmaysymbolizenot only evil and chaos but also social of cosmic forces. orderandthe regeneration life-giving theoriesof mortuary cannibalism haveconsidered set Recent general only a limited of cultural data motivations, however,and havefocusedexclusivelyon ethnographic froma singleregion, Melanesia.The diverseMelanesianendocannibalism systemsexpresseda varietyof cultural buttheytendedto shareintwo mainideas:the assumption cannibalism that primarily meanings, benefitsthose who consume human substance;and the notionof an economy of biosocial servesas a meansof acquiring vitalenergies, substanceinwhich cannibalism bodysubstances, or personalattributes containedin the dead person'scorpseand of transferring them to those who eat it. These concepts have been widely assumedto characterize endocannibalism all of systems.Inthe two mostrecentanthropological syntheses cannibalism theory,Sandaystated andregenerates that"[e]ndocannibalism socialforcesthatarebelievedto be physically recycles in constituted bodilysubstances bones"(1986:7)andLewisasserted "theritual or that consumpof tion of parts the humanbody enablesthe consumerto acquiresomethingof the body'svital energy"(1986:73).Neitherinterpretation appliesto the Wari'case. bothendo- and exocannibalism were widely practicedin lowlandSouthAmerica Although well into the 20th century(Dole 1974; Metraux1947:22-25), the Amazonianliterature has received little attention in recent North Americanand Britishdiscourse on cannibalism, it interest and Some although hasbeen of longstanding amongBrazilian French anthropologists. Amazonian endocannibalism reflectedconcepts similar the Melanesian to theme of recycling dead people's energies or attributes (see, for example, Acosta Saignes 1961:161-162; Dole 1974:307; Erikson 1986:198; Reichel-Dolmatoff 1971:138-139), but many SouthAmerican differentideas, often involvingnotionsof alteringrelationsbetween systemsexpressedquite denied that body and spiritor between the livingand the dead. Wari'informants universally their consumptionof either kin or enemies had anythingto do with recycling substance, or attributes, energiesfromthe dead to those who ate them.5They consistentlyrepresented not cannibalism as a boon forthe eatersof humanfleshbutas a serviceforthose who did not eat:the deceased and theirclose kin. Wari'mortuary customs reflectcomplex social and symbolicsystemsaboutwhich a great deal morecan be said than is possible in this article.I referinterested readersto the worksof otheranthropologists have studiedWari'society (Mason1977; Von Graeve1972, 1989) who and the puzzle of Wari' anthropophagy (Meireles1986; Vilaca 1989, 1992). Meireleshas examinedthe role of cannibalismin definingself-other relationsin the construction Wari' of and of of relations. personhood emphasizedthe symbolism fireas mediator human-nonhuman of with Vilacapresented symbolic-structuralist interpretations bothexo- andendocannibalism, to Her specialattention affinalrelations,festivals,and originmythsrelatedto anthropophagy. has focusedon Wari'conceptionsof the social universeas structured aroundopposianalysis tionsand reciprocal and betweenthe exchangesbetweenpredators prey.Symbolic oppositions of wari'("we,people")and karawa("animals") recurin Wari'ideologyand rituals categories at multiplelevels:humansvs. animals,Wari'vs. non-Wari', vs. consanguines affines,the living vs. the dead. Vilaca (1992:291) has emphasized that mortuary cannibalismsymbolically associatedthe dead personwith the categoryof preyand identified livingWari'with the the of predators. category Vilaca'sand Meireles's cannibalismin Myanalysis complements interpretations situating by relationto three other dimensionsof Wari'experience:social processesof mourning,body of transformations animals.To examine into concepts,andthe regenerative imagery ancestors' the social, symbolic,and ritualsystems,I firstdescribethe ethnographic relationships among contextandmortuary and discusswhy the Wari'case does notfitthe majormaterialist rites and
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elsewhere. I then examine social and psychogenicmodels proposedto explain cannibalism psychologicaldimensionsof Wari'body concepts to show why the corpse'sdestructionby cannibalismor cremationwas considered essential. Finally,I explore Wari' ideas about human-animal relationsthat suggest an answerto the questionof why the Wari' preferred rather thancremation. cannibalism ethnographic context The Wari' speak a language in the Chapakuran languagefamily isolate. They entered with Brazilian relations nationalsocietybetween1956 and 1969, when the former permanent nationalIndianagency, the S.P.I. (Servi;o de Protecaoaos indios), sponsoreda series of The Wari'autonomy. Wari'now residein eight major expeditionsthatterminated pacification in indigenousreservesalong tributaries the Mamoreand MadeiraRiversin the of villages of to Rondonia. Prior thecontacttheyhadno canoesand inhabited municipality Guajara-Mirim, interfluvial (terrafirme)areasof the rainforest,away fromthe largerrivers.Today, as in the hunting,fishing,and foraging.Maize is farming, past,subsistencedependson slash-and-burn and huntingis the mostsociallyvaluedfood-getting the principal activity. staplecrop, were comprisedof aboutthirty Precontact people livingin severalnuclear villagestypically Wari'communities administered FUNAI are (FundaCao by familyhouseholds.Contemporary Nacionaldo Indio),the BraziliangovernmentIndianagency, whose policies of population settlementpatternsand social have disruptedtraditional concentrationand sedentarization sites Today'svillages,of 80-400 people,are locatedat nontraditional nearmajor organization. to rivers roadsaccessibleto transportation town. or are and Wari'society is staunchly by egalitarian, social relations characterized a highdegree and is thereareno "chiefs," no formalpositionsof political of flexibility. Leadership ephemeral; as above the householdlevel. Mason(1977) categorizedWari'kinshipterminology authority thereareno a Crow/Omaha-type kindreds; system.Wari'kingroupsareego-centeredbilateral basedon age gradesor ceremonialactivities.Precontact segregation lineages,and no internal kin was flexible,with couples free to live neareitherspouse's bilateral residence postmarital customs for brideservice.Of centralimportance understanding afterinitialmatrilocal mortuary is the role of affinityas the strongestorganizingprinciplein Wari'society. Alliancesamong in are familiesrelatedby marriage6 important food sharing,mutualaid, funeralduties and, in but the past,were one basisforwar alliances.Wari'society is by no meansconflict-free, most decisionmakingis consensual,and the generaltenorof social relations emphasizesmutuality and reciprocity amongkin,affines,and allies. basedsubgroups Wari'were dividedintonamed,territorially (OroNao', Oro Theprecontact social units that Oro At, Oro Mon, Oro Waram,and OroWaram-Xijein) were the largest Eo', were committedto peacefulcoexisA members identified. subgroup's with which individuals and emergencies.Amicablerelations tence and cooperationin warfare amongthe villagesin called were affirmed maintained festivalexchanges,includingcelebrations and a subgroup by allianceexchangesrepresented and that huroroin tamara aremodelsforthe human-nonhuman in mortuary cannibalism. area were establishedin the Rio Dois Irmaos the After firstpeacefulcontactswith outsiders witnessedseveralanthropoand New Tribesmissionaries in 1956, government (S.P.I.) agents phagousfunerals.Mostof the Wari'populationenteredcontact in 1961-62. News of Wari' cannibalismbecame public knowledgein early 1962, when an S.P.I.agent sold his funerary eyewitness account to a Sao Paulo newspaper(Folhade Sao Paulo 1962). In response,a contactsite,wheretheyphotographed to competingpapersentjournalists the RioNegro-Ocaia at and dismemberment roasting a child'sfuneral(de Carvalho 1962). Brazilian anthropologists to and and S.P.I.officialsconvincedthe papernotto publishthese photographs attempted use
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the ensuing publicityto call public attentionto the tragicsituationof the recentlycontacted Wari'(Cruzeiro 1962:123-125). teamsintroduced Contactwiththe pacification devastating epidemicsof measles,influenza, and tuberculosis, othercosmopolitandiseases.Withintwo or threeyearsof contact,approxiill, mately 60 percentof the precontactpopulationwas dead. Chronically psychologically becameextremely and traumatized, unableto huntor plantcrops,the survivors dependenton and governmentagents manipulated this outsidersfor food and medical care. Missionaries to by dependencyto putan end to cannibalism threatening withholdfood and medicinesfrom those who continuedto eat the dead. They insistedthatcorpses be buriedinstead.At each of this the threemajorcontactsites,Wari'intiallyresisted forcedchangeto burial. traditional Thedeadlyepidemics,however,createdanotherreasonto abandoncannibalism: illness concepts could not explain the unfamiliarmaladies, and so people listened when told them that the new diseases were spreadby eating infectedcorpses. Wari' missionaries of deaths),but, beganburyingpeople who died of illness(thegreatmajority earlypostcontact to for a while, they continuedto cannibalizethose whose deaths were attributed accidents, sorcery,and other nondiseasecauses. Familiescarriedcorpses into the forest,to be roasted at failed,and bythe end eyes. However,theseefforts deceptionultimately awayfromoutsiders' hadabandonedcannibalism of 1962 orearly1963, nearly (The everyone altogether. exception was a groupof aboutthirtyOro Mon who lived autonomouslyuntil 1969.) Today,all Wari' follow Westerncustomsof burying corpses in cemeteriesin the forest.7 No anthropologist witnessedWari'anthropophagy, manydata presentedhere are has and based on retrospective reconstructions. primary sources are the testimoniesof numerous My in older Wari'who say thatthey participated or observedmortuary cannibalism.Duringtwo of medicalanthropological field work in 1985-87, I interviewed 198 familiesin the all years communities SantoAndr6, of and RioNegro-Ocaia percentof the (85 Ribeirao, Lage,Tanajura, totalWari'population). Interviews with adultsof both sexes, aimed at collectinggenealogies and mortality and morbidity histories,often led to discussionsof personalexperienceswith I relatives' deathsandfunerals. observedaspectsof contemporary behavior, mourning including ritualwailingand the handlingof a corpse, but no one died in a villagewhere I was present, or and I attendedno burials completefunerals. SantoAndre,a community 190 people, was of residence,and Idiscussedissuestreatedin thisarticlewithallthe eldersand many my principal and came fromseveralkey middle-agedpeople there.The mostdetailed information insights informants: three men and two women between ages 60 and 75, two men in their50s, and a manandwomanintheirearly40s. MostSantoAndreresidents descendants the precontact are of areapopulation, thisarticledescribesthisgroup's RioDois Irmaos and whichdiffered practices, only in minordetailsfromotherWari'communities. The Wari' do not conform to Arens' (1979) assertionsthat alleged cannibals seldom a and acknowledgeeating anyone and that cannibalismis primarily symbolof inhumanity barbarism and Wari'anthropophagy projected uponenemies, neighbors, uncivilized"others." is not merelyallegedby outsiders; Wari'themselvesfreelyaffirm it practicing in the past,even I outsiders consideritbarbaric.foundno one who deniedthatcorpses thoughtheyareawarethat were cannibalized;numerouselders spoke openly of eating humanflesh. Indecustomarily funeralswere internallyconsistentand correspondedto pendent descriptionsof particular New Tribesmissionaries S.P.I.agentswho observedcannibalismin the early and reportsby reasonablestandards the documentation past events not for of postcontactperiod. By any witnessedby an ethnographer, there is no questionthatthe Wari'ate theirdead. traditional funerals Today,as in the past,funerals generallytake place in the house of a seniorkinsmanof the deceased.8The household'ssleepingplatform raisedfloor)is removedto permitmourners (or
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underthe palm-thatch Two looselydefinedgroupshaveprescribed to crowdtogether roof. roles The at funerals. firstis the iri'nari9("true and kin,"or close sanguines the spouse).Wari'define in consanguinity termsof sharedblood andclassifyspousesas consanguines virtueof sexual by of transfers body fluidsthatcreatesharedblood. Betweenspouses,it is said, "thereis only one to body"(xikape' na kwere).Linked the deceased by sharedbody substance,the iri'nariare Fromthe time of biologicaldeathuntilthe body is disposedof, they the principalmourners. remainnearest corpse, holdingit in theirarmsand crying. the Thesecond groupof mourners, paxi ("those nari who are like kinbut are not trulyrelated"), mostproperly consistsof the dead person'sown affinesandaffinesof the deceased'sclose kin, the but the term is extendedto includeall non-consanguines attending funeral.Close affines are responsiblefor the work of funerals:female affines preparemaize chicha (a sweet, and maize pamonha(dense,unleavenedbread) feed visitors,and male to unfermented drink) the dead person'sbrothers-in-law sons-in-law) or serveas messengers affines summon(ideally, to the funeral.They prepareand dispose of the corpse and funeralapparatus and ing people mourners. lookout forthe welfareof emotionallydistraught In Intraditional the funerals, iri'narisat together,apartfromothermourners. contemporary divisionis lessmarked, close kinremain but nearestthe the funerals, spatial corpse.Allmourners close togetheraroundthe body, leaningon each other'sshouldersand wailing. Death press wails are of several types, includingwordless crying,the singing of kinshipterms for the in deceased,anda morestructured keeningcalledakapijim("to to speak"), which mourners cry recountmemoriesof the deceased, singingof sharedexperiencesand the person'slife history, 1986; Seeger deeds, and kindnesses.(On Amazonianrituallament,see Briggs1992; Graham the end, everyonejoins in 1987; Urban1988, 1991.) From momentof deathuntilthe funeral's mantra collectivegriefreverberating of a ceaseless,high-pitched keeningthatsends a haunting forest. off the surrounding in actions affirmed funeral Thedeadperson'shumanity socialconnectionsarerepeatedly and directedat the corpse itself,which is the constantfocus of attention. Corpsesare never leftto kin cradle the lie alone.From momentof deathuntilthe body is disposedof, grieving constantly the corpse in theirarms,huggingit, pressingtheirown bodies againstit. Desirefor physical therewas a funeral contactcan be so intensethat,accordingto severalSantoAndreresidents, kin a few yearsagowherethe corpsewas in dangerof beingpulledapart distraught struggling by that enforcedorderby mandating only one personat to embraceit. Finally,a seniorkinsman a time could holdthe body. with the dead person's Numerousfuneral actions express mourners'self-identification physicalstate and desiresto join the deceased in death. Any loss of consciousness,such as fainting,is considereda formof death. Inone commonfuneralpractice,close relatives"die" (mi'pin)by lyingone on top of the other,in stacksof threeor fourpeople withthe corpse on pressof bodies, he or she is pulled out of the top. When someone faintsfromthe suffocating againand again.Ina 1986 funeral, pile and someoneelse joins the pile, in a processrepeated the people piled intothe homemadecoffin,embracing corpseon top. the Intraditional funerals,the male affine helpersconstructed ritualfirewoodbundle and withfeathers paintedwith and decorated thesewere madeof roofbeams, rack.Ideally, roasting red annatto(urucd,Bixa orellana).A beam was takenfromeach house in the dead person's village, leavingthe thatched roofs sagging in visible expressionof death's violation of the firewood undecorated for were less elaborate; Funerals infants regular, integrity. community's were completed,the helperslitthe fire,spreadclean matson the was used.Whenpreparations the organswere ground,and dismembered body, using a new bamboo arrowtip. Internal removedfirst, and the heart and liver were wrapped in leaves to be roasted. Body parts consideredinedible, includingthe hair, nails, genitals, intestines,and other entrails,were cut The burned. helpersthen severedthe head, removedthe brains, the limbsat the joints,and
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rack.Youngchildren's were wrappedin leaves on bodyparts placedthe bodyparts the roasting in the mannerusedto roastsmallfish and softfoods. event in a funeral the moment was Severaleldersrecalledthatthe mostemotionallydifficult As when the corpsewas takenfromits relatives'armsto be dismembered. the body was cut, expressionsof griefreacheda feveredpitch.Up to this moment,funeral wailingand hysterical activitieshad been dominatedby mourners' expressionsof physicaland affectiveattachments a of to the dead person'sbody. Dismemberment represented radicalalteration the corpseand mourners'relationsto it, a graphic severing of the attachmentsrepresentedin the body. not that provokedthe most Accordingto these elders, it was dismemberment, cannibalism, the dissonance.Once the corpsehadbeen cut, eatingitwas considered most intenseemotional for possibletreatment, reasonsdiscussedbelow. respectful of The dead person'sclose consanguines(iri'nari)did not eat the corpse. Consumption a becauseeatinga close relative(with close consanguineor spouse'sflesh is strongly prohibited, whom one shared body substance)would be tantamountto eating one's own flesh, or It autocannibalism. is believedto be fatal.10 for the and were responsible consuming corpse;theyare Thenaripaxi,affines othernon-kin, to sometimesreferred as ko kao' ("thosewho ate").In a married person'sfuneral,those who consumedthe body typicallyincludedthe dead person'sspouse'ssiblings,spouse's parents, siblings,and the deceased'schildren'sspouses,as well as these individuals' spouse'sparents' own close consanguines.Unmarried people typicallywere eaten by their siblings'spouses, close kin.Thus, theirparents' siblings' spouses,andtheseindividuals' siblings' spouses'siblings, members the familiesfromwhich theirbilateral of Wari'cannibalized consanguineshadtaken coincidedwith restrictions Meireles (1986) notedthatcannibalism generally marriage partners. incestprohibitions. was Adultmen were obliged to eat theirclose Cannibalism a primary obligationof affinity. the Womenwere notrequired refusal do so wouldhave insulted dead person's to affines; family. in of to participate cannibalismbut did so at theirown discretion."Distinctions generation, male and female adultsand adolescentsconsumed or gender were largelyirrelevant: age, almostidentically. corpsesof all agesandbothsexes. Men'sand women'scorpsesweretreated commenced in the late afternoonand eating usuallybegan at dusk. The Roasting usually dead person'sclosest kin divided the well-roastedbrains,heart,and liver into small pieces, placedthe pieces on clean mats,and called the othersto begineating.The affines(naripaxi) to reluctance eat; did notdescendgreedilyuponthe fleshbuthungback,cryingandexpressing did only afterrepeatedinsistenceby the dead person'sclose kin(iri'nari) theyacceptthe flesh. The iri' narithen preparedthe other body partsby removingthe flesh from the bones and these on a matalongwith pieces of roasted dividingit intosmallpieces. Theyusuallyarranged in maizebread(pamonha); somefunerals, theyplacedthe fleshin a conicalclay potandhanded pieces to the eaters,cradlingthe pot in their laps in the affectionateposition used to hold contrast the aggressive, to someone's head in reposeor duringillness.Inmarked disrespectful treatment enemies'flesh in exocannibalism, of funeraleatersdid nottouchthe fleshwith their hands but held it delicatelyon thin splinterslike cocktail toothpicks.They ate very slowly, alternately cryingand eating.Thereappearsto have been no special significanceattachedto who ate which portions. ingestingparticular body parts,and no pattern determining The ideal was to consume all of the flesh, heart,liver,and brains;in practice,the amount that actuallyeaten dependedon the degree of the corpse'sdecay. It is consideredimperative untilall important relatives corpsesnot be disposedof (by cannibalism,cremation,or burial) have arrived the funeral,seen the body, and participated the wailingeulogies. The length in at of time beforea bodywas roasted variedaccording the deadperson's to traditionally age, status, and social ties: the older and more socially prominent deceased, the longerthe delay in the
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most adults roasting.Beforethe contact,when villageswere scatteredover a wide territory, were not roasteduntiltwo or threedaysafterdeath,when decay was well-advanced. to Itwas consideredimportant consume as much flesh as possible.When, however,flesh was too putridto stomach-as it usuallywas in the case of adult corpses-the eatersforced themselvesto swallow smallpieces fromvariousbody parts,then crematedthe rest.The ideal and for was of totalconsumption realizedmainlyin funerals infants youngchildren who, having few social ties of theirown, were roastedwithina day or so of theirdeathsandeaten entirely. Completeconsumptionalso appearsto have occurredfor some terminallyill elderswhose relativesgatheredand commencedwailing long before biological death. In most adult and thaneaten. was burnedrather adolescentfunerals, however,mostof the fleshprobably flesh was of Consumption the corpse continueduntildawn, at which time any remaining of cremated.Treatment bones varied.Sometimesthey were groundinto meal, mixed with area,the bones were honey, and consumed. Inothercases, especially in the Rio Dois Irmaos fire rack,andfuneral burned,pulverized,and buried.Inall cases, the clay pots, mats,roasting The wereburned,poundedto dust,andburiedin situby the maleaffinehelpers. helpers remains then sweptthe earthto eradicateall tracesof the funeraland replacedthe householdsleeping over the spot wherethe asheswere buried. platform the question of human flesh as food whatdid it Wari'mortuary Before cannibalism, is usefulto clarify examiningwhatmotivated cannibalism not. The idea thatinstitutionalized by may be motivated needsfordietaryprotein was proposedby Harner (1977)to explainAztec humansacrificeand has been elaborated by Harris (1977, 1985:199-234). Wari'practicesinvolvedthe ingestionof significant quantitites of flesh and ground bones, and the adultswho consumed them would have gained some nutrients, notablyproteinand calcium.Two factorsneverthelessmilitateagainsta materialist of interpretation the Wari'system. food there is no reasonto assumethatthe precontactpopulationsufferedsignificant First, with low populationdensityand abundant Wari'controlleda largeterritory game, shortages. assertthathungerwas infrequent, then, as now, fish, and Brazilnutresources.Elders although contactsobservedno signs at therewere dayswithoutmeatorfish.Missionaries present the first Wari'did not sufferproteinshortages that and of malnutrition, the assumption the precontact is consistentwith biomedicalstudiesof similargroups.Althoughprotein-scarcity hypotheses the cultural were hotlydebatedinAmazonian ecology fromthe late1960s through early1980s, nativeAmaundisturbed have neverdocumentedproteindeficiency in relatively researchers similarto the precontactWari'.On the contrary, zonian populationslivingin circumstances and studieshave foundadequateor morethanadequateproteinintake(Berlin Markell 1977; and Hames 1979; Dufour1983; Milton1984). My own data on householddiets in Chagnon assessmentsfrom four communities, indicate that two communities,and anthropometric even withthe depletionof gameandfishnear Wari'dietsaregenerally adequate, contemporary moresedentary villages. today'slarger, motivationsfor Wari' cannibalismis that much A second argumentagainst nutritional than eaten, with no attemptto preserveit for later edible flesh was burnedrather potentially consumption.Even in cannibalizingenemies, Wari' did not maximize proteinacquisition: warriorsusuallytook only the head and limbs, discardingthe fleshy trunk.Clearly,social in took precedenceover biologicalfunctionalism shapingWari'practices. considerations the question of hostility as of Interpretations cannibalism an act of hostilityare a staple of Westernpsychoanalytic theory(see Freud1981 [1913];Sagan1974), and the fact thatWari'ate theiraffinesraisesthe
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Wari' questionof whethercannibalism expressedor mediatedaffinaltensions.LikeFreudians, recognizethateatingcan express hostility,as it did in the aggressiveconsumptionof enemy flesh.Myinformants, the customsexpressed however,universally rejected notionthatmortuary any formof overt, covert, or displaced hostility.They insistedthat hostilityhas no place at individuals bad termswith the deceased are barredfromattending, reportedly on as funerals; happeneda few years ago when a man was orderedaway on the groundsthat "youdid not love him, it is not good thatyou come here."Inaddition, Wari'emphasizedthatfuneral"table manners" affinalcannibalism differentiated fromacts of eatingthatdid expressaggressharply sion.As discussedbelow, eatinghas multiplecultural connotations can expressrespectfor and thatwhich is eaten. Sagan (1974:28) has dismissed the possibilityof cannibalismas an act of respect or thatsuch ideas are a mere facade for covert ambivacompassionfor the deceased, asserting and the lence, hostility, sadisticurgesrootedin resentments against deadforhavingabandoned the living.'2It is difficultto assess, retrospectively, questionof whetherWari' mortuary the cannibalism or but and expressedaggression hostility, Wari'practices discourseon cannibalism offerlittlesupport thisinterpretation. for Affinal tensionsappearno greater amongthe precontact Wari' thanin manynoncannibalistic societies.Wari'express expectations inherent few of affinal conflict;ideally,and to a largeextent in practice,they treataffinityas a matterof amityand beneficialreciprocity. are or mutually Today,as inthe past,mostmarriages arranged approved the familiesinvolved,who are carefulto establishand perpetuate only to familieswith ties by whomthey enjoy positiverelations. Affines each otherby consanguineal terms(Vilaca call kin meatand fishfrequently, offeraid in emergencies.When conflicts and 1989:41-45), exchange for amongaffinesarise,thereareculturalmechanisms dealingwiththem, includingritual fights and (mixita) discussionsbetween familyheads. affinity and exchange Vilacahasemphasizedthe importance mortuary of cannibalism a marker Wari'affines' as of relations one another:"Thefuneralrite... reveals,throughthe oppositionbetween those to who eat together [comensais]and those who do not [nao-comensais], oppositioncogthe In nates/affines. the interiorof Wari' society, cannibalismconstructsand identifiesaffinity" (1992:293). Vilaca(1992:293)also observedthatWari'affinalcannibalismreflecteda recurrent theme in SouthAmericanmythology,identifiedby Levi-Strauss The Rawand the Cooked(1969): in the characterization affines(the"takers" women)as realorpotential of of cannibalprey.Besides the Wari',the Yanomamialso practiceaffinalcannibalism,consumingtheir affines'ground bones (Albert1985). Sixteenth-century exocannibalisminvolvedanotherkindof Tupinamba affinalcannibalism: warcaptivewas married a Tupinamba a to woman (making him an affine to herkin)beforebeingkilledand eaten (Staden 1928[1557]).Inthe cosmologyof the Arawete of centralBrazil(who burytheirdead),cannibalism seen as a transformative is mechanism for affinalties between humansand divinities: when Arawetedie, the gods consumethe creating humanspirits(makingthem into beings like themselves),then rejuvenateand marrythem de de has that (Viveiros Castro1992).Viveiros Castro observed amongtheArawete, Tupinamba, and cannibalism "linksaffinesor transforms affinesthose into Yanomami, PakaaNova (Wari'),
whom it links" (1992:259).13
Wari'affinal cannibalism modelof exchangesof cookedmeat mightsuggesta L6vi-Straussian (humanflesh)for "raw" (Levi-Strauss 1969). As in (virgin,fecund)women given in marriage for and manysocieties,eatingis a Wari'metaphor sexualintercourse, thereareobviousparallels betweenaffinal and of exchangesof humanfleshinfunerals the frequentexchanges meat(which men give to female affines)and fish (whichwomen give to male affines)that markaffinityin
mortuarycannibalism
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cannibalismresonateswith perspective,Wari' mortuary everyday life. Froma structuralist but with exchangesof meatand marriage partners, Wari'do notsee itthatway. Everyone whom I raisedthisissuerejected equation cannibalism an of withexchangesof sexualpartners food; or Sexualand reproductive some foundthe suggestioninsulting. imageryhas littleplace in Wari' in rites in contrast itsprominence manyothersocieties'mortuary to mortuary practices, marked ideas endocannibalism (BlochandParry 1982), and in Melanesian practiceslinkedto elaborate about male and female body substances Gillison1983; Poole 1983). (see in was notthe Wari'funerals Froman emic pointof view, whatwas important cannibalistic exchange of substance(humanflesh)but the exchange of services.Disposalof the body is a out a obligationof affinity, serviceperformed of respectforthe dead personand his or primary who atethe corpse,Wari'eldersinvariably herfamily.Whenaskedwhy itwastheaffines replied thatthe affinesate it because somebodyhadto eat it, and the dead person'sconsanguines (iri' to nari)could not do so (becauseof the prohibition againsteatingthe fleshof someone related that In a of oneselfbyshared biologicalsubstance). addition, number peopleasserted one simply does not feel like eating anythingwhen grievingintensely.Eating,particularly meat-eating, Symbolicoppositionsbetween sadnessand oral expresses happinessand social integration. adultseat littleduringclose kin's singing,shouting)are numerous: activity(eating,drinking, and illnesses,consume nothingat theirfunerals, eat littlewhile mourning. Peopleconsidered funeral. to it irrational suggesteatingfleshat a close relative's definitivelyprecludedcannibalismby consanBy Wari' logic, these culturalassumptions The taskthus fell to affines,who were the only clearlydefinedsocial groupthat had guines. close social ties to the dead person'sfamilybut did not share their intimatebiologicaland of Affinal cannibalism a matter pragmatism. was affectiveties to the deceased.14 and of servicesare centralin marking, Itwas also a matter politics.Mortuary strengthening, drawextended familiestogetheras does no affinalties aftera death. Funerals reconstituting occasion (asidefrommixitafights)when affines otherevent, and they are the mostprominent act as discrete groups in complementary opposition to one another.In fulfillingmortuary affirm ofthecorpse,Wari'familieslinkedby marriage continuing including disposal obligations, member. of the that commitments transcend lifetime any individual view of the disposalof corpses(whether burial, Ifone acceptsthisindigenous cannibalism, by this to as or cremation) a servicerendered the familyof the deceased, assigning taskto affines In unusualcross-culturally. nativeAmazoniansocieties, affines does not appearparticularly in Canela(W. dutiesamongthe Cashinahua and burial otherfuneral (Kensinger, press), perform in 1974:281).Amongthe Mundurucu Crocker, press),and Shavante (Murphy (Maybury-Lewis of (Kracke 1960:72) and Kagwahiv 1978:13),these tasksfall to members the oppositemoiety, the group from which the dead person's moiety takes marriagepartners.Wari' mortuary the tasksto affinesand reflected associations of fit cannibalism this pattern delegating mortuary societies'mythsand foundin otherlowlandSouthAmerican and betweenaffinity cannibalism cosmologies. But this does not explain why Wari' actually ate their affines,whereas other is peopleswith similarconceptualsystemsdid not. Inthisarticle,the questionto be addressed for treatment human was notwhy the Wari'ate theiraffines,butwhy cannibalism the preferred corpses. eating as an act of respect theme in Wari'discussionsof Pleasingthe dead by consumingtheirbodies is a recurrent the cannibalism: dead wantedto be eaten,or at leastcremated,and nct to havedone mortuary into the either would have given offense. Fordying individuals, idea of being incorporated of moreappealthanthe alternative had bodies apparently considerably fellow tribesmembers' (FFZ) who, on her being left to rot in the groundalone.15One man told of his great-aunt
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thaneat at herfuneral) deathbed,summonedhimand hisfather (normally expectedto cryrather and asked them, as a favor,to join in consumingher body. In contrastto Westernviews of and eatingas an act of objectification dominationof the thingconsumed,eatingcan express of respectand sympathyin Wari'culture,especially in contrastto the alternative burial.The is considered"dirty" polluting.Adultswho take pride in theirbodies do not sit in and ground the dirt,ritual objects mustnot touch the earth,and people avoid spillingfood on the ground. Thesevalues influenceattitudes towardsburialin the earth,which informants oftendescribed as notonly dirty,butalso "wet" "cold."Respectful and for treatment humanremainsis dryand the burial beneathhouseholdsleepingplatforms, was warm; onlytraditional spaceforrespectful wheresmallfiresburned almostconstantly, keepingthe earthwarmas well as dry.Thisis where in funeral asheswere interred the pastandwhereplacentaeand miscarried fetusescontinueto be buried.Beforethe contact,burialin the forestexpresseddishonorand normally occurredin or only one context:if a woman sufferedmultiplestillbirths neonataldeaths,her familymight requesta male affineto buryher dead infantin an anthillor in wet earthbeside a streamto treatment. discourageherfuturebabiesfromdying and risking similarly unpleasant Incontrast the disrespectmanifestin burial,eatingcan be a sympathetic as shown in to act, thisstoryaboutthe MaizeSpirit told (Jaminain Mapak) by a SantoAndreman.Thestoryexplains why one shouldnot leave maize lyingon the ground:
Long ago, a man was walking to his field carrying a basket of maize seeds to plant. A maize kernel fell to the ground on the path. The man did not see it and went on. The maize seed began to cry like a child. Another man came along and found it crying on the ground. He picked it up and ate it. In doing so, he saved it, showing that he felt sympathy [xiram pal for it. The man who ate the seed planted his field and it yielded great quantities of maize. The man who had left the seed on the ground planted his field, but nothing grew.
Thisparabledemonstrates Wari' ideasthatabandoninga spirit-being lie on the forestfloor to

connotes disrespect, whereas eating it expresses respect. Eating can be an act of compassion
thatpleasesthe thingconsumedso that it bestowsabundanceon the eater. Similar ideasabouteatingas an expressionof respectforthe eaten areevidentin food taboos associatedwithjami karawa, animalswhose spiritshave humanform(see Conklin1989:336neverdie, and when a hunterkillsa jami karawa 350). Spirits animal,its spiritassumesa new animalbody. However,animalspirits cannotcompletetheirtransitions new physicalbodies to as long as portionsof theirformer bodies remain. avoid provoking To wrath,one must spirits' Animalspiritsare offendedby the killingand disrespectful quicklyroastand eat jami karawa. treatment theirbodies, not by the eatingof theirflesh.On the contrary, of eatingdemonstrates to of uneatenbody partson or in the respect,especially in contrast the alternative abandoning ground. Several funeral customsexpressedthesevaluesof honoring dead by preventing the theirbody substances frombeinglostto theearth.Whencorpseswerecut, a close kinsman thedeceased of sometimeslay face down, supporting corpseon his backduringthe butchering, thatits the so fluidswould spillonto his own body rather thanontothe ground.Similarly, eldersrecalledthat youngchildren'scorpses had much fat thatdrippedas they roasted;to preventit fromfalling intothe fire,a child'sgrievingparentsand grandparents would catch the fat in a clay pot and smearitovertheirown headsand bodiesas theycried.Mortuary cannibalism expressedsimilar forthe dead by savingtheirbody substances fromabandonment the earthand, to compassion them intoa livingperson'sbody. instead,incorporating Inthe earlypostcontact One period,manyWari'foundthe forcedchangeto burialrepulsive. SantoAndremantold of his father's which occurredsoon afteroutsiders put an end had death, to cannibalism.Unhappywith the prospectof being buried,the dying man requestedthat,as an approximation traditional of and practices,his corpsebe dismembered the pieces placed in a largeceramiccooking pot to be buriedby his affines.Eventoday, burialcontinuesto be a sourceof covertdissatisfaction among some elders,who stillview burialas a less lovingway
85
to treata humanbody than cannibalism cremation.They considerthe body's persistence or for to and problematic close kin,whose attachments the dead requireattenuation transformation. attachments to the socially constructed body Wari'view the humanbodyas a primary nexusof kinship,personhood, social relations. and is in constituted sharedbody substance(especiallyblood)that is Kinship definedas physically createdby parental contributions conceptionandgestationand augmented interpersonal to by each majorchange in social status(atfemale mature, exchangesof body fluids.As individuals puberty,male initiation,marriage,childbirth,enemy killings, and shamanic initiation)is believedto involvecorresponding another changesin bloodandflesh inducedby incorporating individual's body substances(Conklin1989:177-239). As in numerousother lowlandSouth Americansocieties, ideas about the physical bases of social relatednessreflectheightened as recognitionof individuals' interdependence social actors (see J. Crocker1977; da Matta attachments are 1980). Interpersonal 1979:105;Melatti1979:65-68;Seegeret al. 1979; Turner conceived as sharedphysicalsubstancethat linksindividualbody-selvesin an organicunity the of transcending boundaries discretephysicalforms. Not only are kinshipand social status physicallyconstituted,but many cognitive and emotional processes are conceptualizedas organic changes in the heartand blood, and behavioris considered be rootedin the body(see Kensinger to 1991 on similar conceptsamong in the Cashinahua). is reflected the termkwerexi'which means"body" "flesh" also This but or A and "personality." stockWari'responseto the ethnographer's means"custom," "habit," plea to know"Whydo you do that?" a shrugand the phrase"Je' is "Thus ourcustom," is kwerexi'," or, translatedliterally,"Thusare our bodies (or flesh)."Wari'consider spiritsto have few personalityqualities, and they account for individualbehavioraldifferencesmostly with referenceto differencesin body substance,not differencesin mindor spirit.Peoples' habits, eccentricities,and personality quirksareexplainedwith "Hisflesh is likethat"(Je'kwerekun) but or "That's way her body is" (Je'kwerekem). the The phrase is not merelymetaphorical reflectsideas of the physicalbody as a majorlocus of personalidentity. tend to assumethat,with death, the loss of spiritor consciousnesstakes away Westerners mostof a person'simportant body qualitiesand leaves behindan empty,almostmeaningless, shell. In contrast,Wari' corpses are potent embodimentsof identity,social relations,and bonds. Body transformations were a primarysymbolic focus in traditional interpersonal relations between the dead andthe living. rites mortuary thataimedto restructure detachment and destruction a aboutandremembering dead isconsidered desirable the detachmentfrom Gradual thinking social goal, for prolongedsadness(tomixaxa) is believed to endangerindividualhealthand The negativepsycho-emotional process of grievingis describedwith the verb productivity. and which refersto the negativeexperience of nostalgia:missing,remembering, koromikat, Wari' lover,or friend). thinkinglonginglyabouta lostor distantobject (usuallya kinsperson, Because to sourcesof knowledgeandstimuli memory. as emphasizevisionandhearing primary the sightof material they consideritessentialto destroyor transform objectsevokes memories, of all tangiblereminders the dead. Theyburna dead person'shouse and personalpossessions and burn,discard,or give away cropsplantedby the deceased. Less-easily destroyedmodern possessions, such as kettles, machetes, and shotguns, usually are given to nonrelatives. Neighborsoften change theirhouses'appearanceby alteringdoorwaysand paths,and close
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kincuttheirhair.Peopletraditionally have avoidedusingdead people'snamesor kinreferents, they have recentlyrelaxedname avoidances. althoughin speakingto outsiders The cultural rationalefor these practices reflectstwo concerns: banishingghosts, and stimulithatevoke memoriesof the dead.16 Vilaaahas noted: removing
of to According the Wari',the destruction fireof all reminders the deceased is, in the firstplace, a by thatbelongedto the deceased or that protection againstthe sadnessthat is felt upon seeingsomething was touched,usedor madeby him;but it is also a way to avoidthe comingof the ghost. [1992:228] These dual concerns are consistent with the two primaryobjectives identified in cross-cultural analyses of death rites: to remove the deceased from the world of the living to the symbolic world of the dead, and to facilitate survivors' acceptance of the death and the consequent alteration of social life without the dead person (Bloch and Parry 1982:4). With regard to separating the dead from the living, the destruction of material traces is believed to lessen the tendency of ghosts (jima) to return to earth. Jima generally do not cause illness, but they do frighten people, and, in the days following a death, the jima of the recently deceased may try to carrykin away for companionship in death. Destroying possessions and altering appearances
to confusejima so that, unable to find their formerhomes and companions,they return the otherworldof the dead. Some people also suggestedthat the smoke surrounding roasting duringtheirown funerals. corpsesobscuredand confusedthe vision of jimawho returned Banishing spirits,or liberating spiritsfromtheirphysicalbodies, has been cited as a motive
for cannibalism in some other lowland South American societies (Albert 1985; Clastres 1974:316; Dole 1974:306; Ramos 1990:196; Zerries 1960). Meireles asserted that the expla-
nation for Wari' cannibalismwas "based in the idea that the dead person'ssoul must be
banished, at the risk of afflicting the living" (Meireles 1986:427). Vilaca (1992:233, 243, 262) has interpreted roasting as a dissociative mechanism required for spirits' liberation from their bodies and full transition to the afterlife.17This idea is clear in Wari' food taboos that require
quick consumptionof certaingame animalsto liberatethe animal spiritsfromtheir bodies to (Conklin 1989:345-346;Vilaca1992:70),butitappears be of limitedrelevanceinexplaining
cannibalism. None of my informants spontaneously suggested that eating the dead liberated spirits or prevented their return. Rather, when asked if it had that effect, some agreed that it might. Others insisted that cannibalism had nothing to do with banishing spirits. As evidence, they cited the fact, which no one disputed, that the ghosts (jima) of people who are buried today do not returnto wander the earth any more frequently than those who were cannibalized or
cremated.
As Vilaca (1989:378) noted, the desire to dissociate body from spirit fails to explain the preference for cannibalism over cremation, except insofar as Wari' view the acts of cooking
andeatingas implicitinthe actof making fire.18 BecauseWari'view cremation cannibalism and

as equally effective in separating spirits from their bodies and from the world of the living, the
for preference cannibalismmustbe explainedin otherterms. remembering and the body Wari'discussionsof reasonsfordestroying corpsesand possessionsemphasizedthe need to
remove reminders in order to help mourners stop dwelling on thoughts of the dead. In a cross-cultural study of grief and mourning, Rosenblatt et al. suggested that tie-breaking and "finalizing"acts (such as ghost fears, taboos on names of the dead, and destruction of personal property)facilitate survivors' transitions to new social roles: such as marriage, innumerable behaviorsappropriate the relationship to [I]na long-term relationship become associatedwith stimuli(sights,sounds,odors,textures) the environment the relationship. in of When death .. . makes it necessaryto treatthe relationship ended and to develop new patterns as of
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behavior,these stimuliinhibitthe change, because they elicit old dispositions.To facilitatechange, that or tie-breaking practices eliminate alterthese stimuliseem to be of greatvalue. [1976:67-68] Battaglia has highlighted the cultural value ascribed to acts of "forgetting as a willed transformation of memory" (1991:3) in Melanesian mortuary rites that transform materially constituted aspects of the dead person's former social identity and replace them with new images. The importance that Wari' ascribe to the destruction of reminders and processual alteration of memories and images of the dead was evident in the ritual called ton ho' ("the sweeping"), practiced today in an attenuated form (see Vilaca 1992:227-229; for parallels among the Canela, see Crockerand Crocker 1994:121). Forseveral months aftera death, senior Wari' consanguines, especially kin of the same sex as the deceased, make repeated trips to the forest to seek out al Iplaces associated with the dead person's memory: the place where a hunter made a blind to wait for deer, sites where a woman fished or felled a fruit tree, a favorite log where the dead person liked to sit. At each spot, the kinsperson cuts the vegetation in a wide circle, burns the brush, and sweeps over the burned circle. Elders said that, while doing this, they thought intensely about the dead person, recalling and honoring events of his or her life. Afterward,the burning and sweeping have definitively altered sentiments associated with each place so that "there is not much sadness there." The imperative to destroy tangible elements traditionallyextended to the corpse itself. Given the strengthof Wari' ideas about the body's social construction and the physical bases of social relatedness, it is understandable that corpses are powerful reminders.19A number of individuals commented that today, when people are buried ratherthan eaten, their thoughts returnagain and again to images of the body lying under its mound of earth. A Santo Andre fatherwho had recently buried a young son tried to explain this to me, saying: I don'tknowif you can understand becauseyou have neverhad a childdie. Butfora parent, when this, your child dies, it is a very sad thingto put his body in the earth. It is cold in the earth.We keep our and remembering child, lyingthere,cold. We remember we aresad. Inthe old dayswhenthe others ate the body,we did not thinkabout [koromikat] body much.We did not thinkaboutour child so his much,andwe were not so sad. The emotional potency of mourners' subjective attachments to the dead and their physical bodies is one of the keys to understanding Wari' cannibalism.20 In traditional funerals, mourners' dramatic manifestations of physical identification with the dead person's body were followed by a dramatic sundering of these bonds, beginning with the corpse's dismemberment. Cutting and roasting or cremating the body initiated a processual disassembling of physical objectifications of social identity and social relations. Although Wari' considered cannibalism and cremation equally effective ways of severing ties between human bodies and spirits, they considered cannibalism more effective in attenuating affective attachments. Cannibalism initiated and facilitated the construction of a new relationship between the living and the dead by evoking images of the dead person's regeneration in animal form, and human-animal reciprocity, in which endocannibalism was the mythic balance to human hunting.
predation and reciprocity

Wari' myth traces the origin of endocann ibalism to the establishment of mutual predator-prey relations between hunters and animals. A story called Pinom is a variation of a widespread Amazonian mythic theme of the origins of cooking fire (see, for example, Levi-Strauss1969; Overing 1986; Wilbert and Simoneau 1990:111-133). (Foranalysis of the Wari' Pinom myth, see Meireles 1986; Vilaca 1989, 1992.) The Wari' version tells how mortuary cannibalism originated as the consequence of the theft of fire, which originally was possessed by an avaricious old woman who ate children raw. Violating Wari' principles of egalitarian sharing,
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this cannibal-crone people temporarily herfireonly in exchangefor largepaymentsof let use firewoodand fish. Withoutfire, Wari'could not farm,could not roastand eat maize or fish on and of (mostgameanimalsdid notyet exist),and hadto subsist rawforestfruits hearts palm. two boys managedto outwitthe old woman and steal her fire.They and the other Finally, Wari'escaped by climbinga lianainto the sky, but the old woman pursuedthem. At the last came to theirrescueand cut the vine. Thecannibal-crone intoherown fell moment,a piranha firebelow, and fromher burning ocelots, and orotapan body emergedthe carnivores: jaguars, wolf or fox). InWari'cosmology,jaguars only killand not (anunidentified carnivore, probably that eat humans alsotransform but themselvesintootheranimalspirits cause illnessbycapturing Otheranimals,includingbirds,monkeys,deer, andtapir,originated andeatinghumanspirits. when the Wari'turnedinto animalsin orderto jumpfromthe sky back to earth,and some decided to remain animals. People and animals thus share a common origin. The myth Wari'ideasaboutthe balanceof human-animal opposition: gameanimalscame into highlights existence,butpeople became preyforjaguarsand animalspiritpredators. is to events in this myth'ssecond part.The Theoriginof endocannibalism attributed parallel two boys turnedinto birdsto carrythe fireto earth,but a man named Pinomkilledthem and while Pinom'sfamilyalone selfishlykeptthe fireto himself.Otherscould only watch hungrily a the was ableto cook food. Finally, shamantrickedPinom,captured cookingfire,and shared it with everyone, thereby allowing the Wari' to become a huntingand farmingsociety. Outwitted enraged,Pinomtold the Wari':"Nowyou will have to roastyourchildren!" and as This is interpreted the mythicorigin of endocannibalism, even though Pinom did not the dead, or affines' roles in it. Althoughmost Wari' are now familiarwith specify eating no Pinom'sdictum as a terrible Christian concepts of sin and retribution, one interpreted humanmisdeeds.Instead, informants endocannibalism a natural saw as balance punishmentfor of fire:the pricefor gainingfireto roast(andeat) animalswas to be to humanity's acquisition roasted(andeaten)oneself. in concept, Reciprocity relationsbetween humansand animalsis a commoncross-cultural among nativeAmericanpeoples whose survivaldepends on huntingand fishing. especially this idea as a recurrent theme in native NorthAmericanmythsabout the Sandayidentified and the is originsof cannibalism suggestedthatit reflected followinglogic:"There a reciprocal between the eater and the eaten. Justas animals are hunted,so are humans; relationship whoeverwantsto get food mustbecome food"(1986:38-39). Notionsof balanced,reciprocal, are human-animal cannibalpredation centralin Wari'cosmologyand eschatology.Mortuary ideasof a human-nonhuman ismreflected alliancepredicated reciprocal on between predation of livingpeople and the spirits animalsand ancestors. afterlife and alliance InWari'visionsof the afterlife, spiritsof the dead resideunderthe watersof deep rivers the and lakes.The ancestorsappearas they did in life, buteveryone is strong,beautiful,and free of deformity, The disease, and infirmity. ancestors'social world resemblesprecontactWari' festivalexchanges.Lifeis easy and crops society,withvillages,houses,fields, and intervillage but there is no hunting fishingbecause all animals or abundantly, all food is vegetarian; grow have humanformsunderwater. In this underworld, Wari' ancestors are allied and intermarried the with a neighboring indigenous groupcalled "Water Spirits" (jamikom).TheWaterSpirits appearhuman,butthey are not Wari'ancestorsand have never lived on earthas ordinarypeople. Rather, they are forcesthatcontrolhumandeath,animalfertility, destructive and storms.Theirleaderis primal a giantwith hugegenitalianamedTowiraTowira(towira means"testicle"), resembles who the masters animalsand othermythicfigurescommon in lowlandSouthAmerican of cosmologies
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1971:80-86; Zerries1954). TowiraTowirais masterof (see, for example, Reichel-Dolmatoff all the entireunderworld; its inhabitants, includingWari'ancestors,arecalled jami kom. Wari'believe thatwhen ancestralspirits emergefromthe water,they assumethe bodies of In pecan), a wild, pig-likeanimalthatroamsin largeherds.21 white-lippedpeccaries(Tayassu is everydayspeech, jami mijak,"white-lipped peccaryspirit," one of the mostcommon ways of referring the dead.Thenonancestral to WaterSpirits Towira's also (Towira tribe) can become white-lipped peccariesbutmorecommonlyappearas fish,especiallyas massesof small,easily in killedfishthatappearunpredictably the floodedforest'sshallowwaters. The Wari'cosmologicalsystemreflectsa typicallyAmazonianview of cycles of reciprocal transformation exchangebetween humansand animals(see, forexample,Pollock 1992, and in press;Reichel-Dolmatoff 1971). What is unusualaboutthe Wari'case is that it linksthese in of realcannibalism, framed termsof symbolicandpsychological ideasto an elaborate system not examinedin the mortuary cannibalismliterature. rationales previously At the core of Wari'spiritual concernsis the idea of an alliancebetweenWari'society and the Water Spirits(comprisedof both Wari' ancestors and TowiraTowira'stribe). This is and envisionedas a cyclic festivalexchange identicalto the earthlyhuroroin tamarafestivals that affirmand reproduceamicable relationsamong Wari'villages.These alliance-marking of rituals structured are arounddramatizations antagonistic oppositionsbetweena hostvillage fromanother Huroroin andvisitors culminateinthe hosts'symbolickillingof male community. visitorsby inducingan unconsciousstatecalled itamthat is explicitlyequatedwith death by or The with a warm predation(hunting warfare).22 hosts revivethe visitorsfromthis "death" Revivalof the slain "prey" this waterbath,symbolof birthand rebirth. distinguishes "killing" In or to (in by itamfrommerehunting warfare. a processparallel shamanicinitiation which an the animalspiritkillsand revivesthe initiate), huroroin festival'ssymbolickillingand revival theiropposition create a bond betweenthe killerand the killed,such thatthe two transcend the in are and become allies. Rolereversals inherent festivalexchanges: first party's visitor/prey who becomethe visitor/prey host/killers usuallylatersponsora festivalat whichthe firstparty's are "killed." withthe WaterSpirits conceived in identicalterms,as festivalexchanges are Wari'relations and societiesalternatein the rolesof predators in which the terrestrial underwater (hosts)and "We'll reducibleto an eminentlyegalitarian proposition: enactinga reciprocity prey(visitors), fulfilltheirside of this arrangement let you kill us if you let us killyou." The WaterSpirits by songs,dance, andallow Wari' peccariesandfishthatsingtamara visitingearthas white-lipped at Wari'reciprocate the momentof biologicaldeath,when humanspirits to killandeat them.23 This occurs when a dying person'sspirit allow themselvesto be killedby the WaterSpirits. thatis alwaysin and party journeysto the underworld becomes a guestat the huroroin (jami-) Towiraand his wife, offermaize beer.Ifthe spiritaccepts, it there.The hosts,Towira progress on entersitamand "dies" underwater; earth,the person'sphysicalbody dies. As in terrestrial it. Towira Towiralaterbathesthe spiritand resuscitates He then paintsit with alliancefestivals, the blackgenipapodye (Genipaamericana), marking dead person'snew identityas a Water Spirit.24 Humansprovidethe WaterSpirit Eachsociety benefitsfromthis arrangement. society with of who marry bearchildren, and new members society. Spirit enhancingthe reproduction Water animalfood. ForWari',this The Water Spiritsprovidethe living Wari'with life-sustaining of relations theircosmologybut human-nonhuman the exchangenot only reproduces primary to also promisesan enhancementof ecological resourcesimportant theirsubsistence.Whitein in lippedpeccariesandfisharethe only food animalsencountered denseconcentrations this aside fromthe scarce and easily over-hunted environment; tapir,they can yield the greatest of for of they quantities animalfood in return the leastexpenditure time and effort.Although Given is theirappearance highlyunpredictable.25 are relatively easy to killwhen encountered,
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this combinationof uncertainty high potentialproductivity, is not surprising Wari' and it that rituals focus on enhancingrelations with peccariesand fish. The mythicoriginof the Wari'alliancewith the WaterSpiritsis recountedin a storycalled which tells of how Wari',who used to be the WaterSpirits' Orotapan,26 prey, became their allies instead.Asallies,theygainedthe right killWaterSpirits peccariesandfish)in return to (as to forsubmitting beingkilledby them(atthe timeof biologicaldeath)andsubsequently hunted, as peccaries,by the living.Threeelementscentralto Wari'socio-ecologicalsecurity originated in this myth:the festivals intervillage of alliancethatensurepeace amongneighbors,humans' transformations peccaries(whichally the humanand the nonhuman), the to and postmortem songs thatsummonpeccariesand fishto earth. Inthe storyof Orotapan note 26), the powerto huntand eat the ancestors/Water (see Spirits (as peccariesand fish)is balancedby humans'destinyto become peccariesto be huntedand eaten. Thisis a reprise themesfromthe mythof Pinom,in which the powerto huntand eat of animalswas balancedby the imperative humansto become meatto be eaten, as corpses for consumed in endocannibalism. Whereas the Pinom story emphasizesthe primalbalance between humanand animalpredation, mythof Orotapan the concernsthe creationof cultural institutionsthat transform relations into potentiallyantagonistic,antisocial, predator-prey alliances.Thealliancefestivals' substituted cooperative, security-enhancing symbolicpredation forthe realkilling eatingof humansby animalsin a precultural Byacceptingthishuman and era. between the positionof eatersand the eaten, Wari'gained place in the universe,alternating the animalspirits' of predation. powers The powerto summontheirancestral/Water alliesto come to earthas animalsis at the Spirit core of the sacred in Wari' life. In a precontactritualthat continuestoday in at least one community,villagers gatherat night,beforecommunalhuntingor fishingexpeditions,to sing the songsfromthe Orotapan to myththatinvitethe WaterSpirits earth.Peopleavoid speaking of this music'spower;I learnedof it only because, afterthe one occasion when I heardthe spirit-summoning songs sung collectively,the peccariesappearedearlythe next morningfor the first time in severalmonths. The herdpassedjustoutsidethe village,and ninewhite-lippeds were killed-three timesas manyas on any day in the previoustwo yearsat SantoAndre.The entirecommunity ceased workto feast on this bountyof meat,a tangibleembodimentof the human-nonhuman alliance.
hunting the ancestors In contrastto Durkheimian views of death as a rupture the social fabricto be mended, in native Amazoniansystems often treat death, not as discontinuity,but as essential for the continuation social life (Viveiros Castro1992:255; see Graham1995). The Wari'case of de offersa primeexampleof deathtreated a creativemoment,a productive as contextforextending and renegotiating social ties thatregenerate cycle of human-animal the exchanges. Humandeath is necessaryto the reproduction the peccariesand fish upon which Wari' of subsistence and survivaldepend, and the perpetuationof Wari'-Water Spiritcooperation dependson the bondsof affectionthat linkthe recentlydeceased to theirlivingkin. Only the theirterrestrial and are remembered them, maintain kin recentlydead, who stillremember by active exchange relationswith the living.The spiritsof the recentlydead send or lead the or peccary herd to their living relatives'huntingterritories, send their allies, the fish. When ancestorsappearas peccaries,they approachhunterswho are theirown kin and offertheir bodiesto be shotto feed theirlivingrelatives. Beforebutchering, shamanis supposedto look a at each peccarycarcassto identifythe humanspiritinside.Today,people are lax aboutthis; sometimesshamans summonedto view peccaries,sometimestheyarenot. A peccaryspirit are
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as or who usuallyis identified being a close consanguine, occasionallyan affine,of the hunter shot it. Wari'see nothingodd about huntingtheirown relatives,as I learnedfroma conversation thattook place the day aftertwo white-lippedpeccarieswere slain. An elderly shamanwas with a youngwidowerstillsaddenedby hiswife'sdeathtwo yearsearlier. shaman The chatting mentioned he hadtalkedto the roasting that peccaries(whowere killedby the deceasedwife's lateral cousin)and thatone turnedoutto be the dead wife. "Isthatso?"responded patri parallel the young man. "Is it all right in the water?""She'sfine," the shaman replied. "Withthe peccaries, she took a peccary husbandand has a peccary baby." "That'snice," was the widower'sonly comment. while eatingfruitnearby,I nearlychoked. "Hey!" exclaimed."Doesn't I that Eavesdropping makeyou sad?Aren'tyou sad thatyourwife'scousin killedheryesterday thatyou ate her and The then replied,"No;why should I be today?" young man looked perplexedat my outburst, sad?He just killedher body;she isn'tangry.Herchildrenare eatingmeat. Itdoesn'thurther; she justwill have anotherbody. Why shouldI be sad?The ancestorsare happythatwe have meatto eat." To Wari',the idea that some of the animalsthey eat are beloved kin is neithermorbidnor of repulsive,but a naturalextension of familialfood giving, a concrete manifestation the ancestors'continuing concern for their families on earth. There are numerousstories of encounters with peccariesthatwere interpreted giftsof food sent by specificancestors. as One mantold me thatin the 1970s, when his motherwas dying,she told herfamilythatshe would send the peccariesthree days afterher death. Trueto promise,on the thirdnight,the herd thunderedinto the village, stampeding underelevated houses, sendingwomen and children while men scrambledfor their shotguns.Most deaths are not followed by such screaming immediatedrama, but all peccary killingsare potentiallyinterpretable visits from the as ancestors.Eachnew death strengthens reproduces WaterSpirits' to the worldof and the ties the living. final rites The positive imageof the ancestors'regeneration animalswas the centraltheme of the as traditional of mourning rites.Thedead person'sintegration WaterSpirit into sequence society is seen as a gradualprocess:while the spiritis adjustingto life in the underworld, earthly survivors adjustingto life without the deceased. The full realizationof these processes are was traditionally markedby a ritualhuntcalled hwet mao, meaning"thecoming out"or "the In area,it was lastobservedtwo decades ago. reappearance." the Rio Dois Irmaos is a period of attenuatedsociality.Mourners withdrawfrom most productive Mourning do activitiesand social interactions, not sing, dance, or attendparties,and spend a greatdeal of time insidetheirhouses. They farm,hunt,and fish less than usual,and, consequently,eat backto fullengagementin social life.Whensenior littlemeat.Hwetmao marked transition the kin decided that it was time for mourning end (typicallyabout a monthor two beforethe to of anniversary the death),the familydepartedfor an extended huntdeep in the forest.They killed as much game as possible and preservedit on a huge roastingrack over a smoky, that fire. It was consideredespecially important certainanimalspresentthemslow-burning selves to be killed as evidence of positiverelationsbetween the Wari'and their nonhuman allies.Anencounterwiththe white-lipped peccariescould indicatethatthe deceasedwas fully lovedones on earth,had sentthe herd into and, remembering integrated life in the afterworld to feed them. home carryinglargebasketsladen with game. At the full moon, the huntingpartyreturned entrance The mourners paintedtheirbodiesforthe firsttime since the deathand made a ritual
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intothe village, ideallyat the time of day when the deceased haddied. Then,leaningover the termsforthe dead personone lasttime. basketsheapedwith meat,they criedand sang kinship an Afterthis final,publicexpressionof sorrowand remembrance, elderannounced,"Sadness andsingingfollowed,initiating return normal the to hasended;now happiness begins." Feasting on theiracceptanceof this deathas part marked social life. Infeasting game, the ex-mourners of the cycle of human-animal exchanges.Thus,the processthatbeganwith the funeralwhere the dead person'saffinescannibalizedthe corpse concluded with consanguinesand affines togethereatingthe animalmeatprovidedby the dead and theirspiritallies. eating the dead around Viewed in the contextof the yearlongseriesof traditional ritesstructured mourning to the dead person'stransition white-lippedpeccary, the roastingand eating of the corpse of with Hertz's (1960[1907]:34,58) symbolicmarker thischange. Consistent appearsas a first, of thattransformations the corpseoftenparallel to changeshappening the dead person's insight Wari'envisionedthatat the momentwhen the cuttingof the corpsecommenced at the spirit, the This earthlyfuneral,TowiraTowirabegan to bathe and resuscitate spiritunderwater.27 madethe deceased intoa WaterSpirit who eventually to resuscitation would return earthas a and roastingevoked this mourners,the corpse's dismemberment peccary. For terrestrial human-to-animal transformation. "Whenwe madethe big fireand placedthe bodythere, it was as ifthe dead personbecame a white-lipped peccary[akkamijak na],"explaineda maleelderof SantoAndre.Switching pin he to Portuguese, emphasized,"Itappearedto be peccary [parecequeixada]." mourners As watched a beloved relative'scorpse being dismembered,roasted,and eaten, the sight must have graphically impressed upon them both the death'sfinalityand the dead person'sfuture the identityas a peccarythatwould feed the living.Dismembering bodythatis the focus of so made a dramatic aboutthe many notionsof personhoodand relatedness symbolicstatement dead person'sdivorcefromhumansociety, and imminentchange from living meat eater to animalmeatto be eaten.Cannibalism methodfordisposing appearsto have been the preferred of the dead becauseeating(as opposed to cremation)not only destroyed corpse but also the affirmed dead individual's the eventualregeneration an immortal as animal. made a symbolicstatement Cannibalism aboutthe eatersas well as the eaten. At the same time thatitevoked imagesof the dead as peccaries,numerous prior aspectsof funeralritesand mourningbehavioremphasized the humanityand social identityof the eaten, explicitly roastedand ate rejecting equationof humanfleshwith animalflesh.Thus,when mourners any humanflesh, they themselveswere cast as carnivores,identifiedwith the animal powers of predationtraced to the Pinom and Orotapanmyths. Funeraldecorationsrecalled these associations: firewoodand roastingrackswere adornedwith feathersof vulturesand scarlet macaws(Orotapan's sacredbird),and firewoodwas tied with "fire vine"(makuri xel, a liana associatedwith warfare predatory and linkedto the WaterSpirits the jaguar-canand powers nibal in the mythof Pinom. the Wari'society as a whole with the transcendent Eating dead identified powers of their the immortal WaterSpirits. Cannibalism evoked and enactedthe humanpositionin this allies, the between the positionsof meat-eater meatto be eaten. Bloch and relationship, alternation arounda (1992) has arguedthata wide varietyof religiousand politicalritualsis structured the transformation individuals of fromprey/victims hunter/killers. into quasi-universal dynamic: Thistheme,which is explicitin the originmythsof Pinomand Orotapan, the centralimage was the traditionalWari' mortuaryritual sequence. The death rites moved living underlying mourners fromthe positionof being victimsof the WaterSpirit forces of death to becoming huntersof WaterSpirits embodied as animals.At the same time, as was consistentwith the
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that permeatesWari'social arrangements, rites also enacted the the reciprocity egalitarian reversedynamic,marking from humans'postmortem destinyto become animals,transformed eatersintothe eaten. mourning and transformation The imageof the dead as peccariesdominatesWari'visionsof death and the afterlife. The ancestors'returnas peccariesis a powerfulnegationof death'sfinality.It promisesnot only reunionafterdeath but also contactsduringlifethrough encounterswith the herdthat arethe that have with theirdeceased kin.This is not only interactions ordinary people (nonshamans) who have just an abstractreligiousnotionbut a movingexperienceforthe many individuals with peccariesas visitsfromdead relatives. encounters interpreted Cannibalism a of affirmation this human-to-animal an transformation, represented dramatic affirmation the interdependency human mortality of of and animal fertility.Thematiclinks in betweendeath and regeneration prominent many societies' mortuary are rites(Blochand of 1982; Metcalfand Huntington 1991), and the psychologicalimportance ideas about Parry the continuity life afterdeath is widely recognized(see Lifton of 1979). The Wari'preference as forcannibalism a way to disposeof humancorpsesreflected intersection the betweenthese as concerns,cast in imagesof humanspirits'regeneration peccaries, psychological-spiritual and cultural concepts of the humanbody'ssocial meanings.As a focus of social identityand ties psycho-emotional betweenthe livingand the dead, the dead person'sbody servedas the locus for the playing out of transformations mourners'memories, images, and of primary emotionsrelatedto the deceased. Beginning with the corpse'sdismemberment, roasting,and andproceeding the memory-altering ritual ho')to the finalhunt (ton eating, through "sweeping" rites transmutation sociallyprojected of (hwetmao)andfeast,the mourning positeda processual of the dead person'sbody.The ritesaimedto move mourners fromexperiencesof loss, images embodied in images of the deceased as corpse, to acceptance of the death as part of a as cycle, embodiedin imagesof the deceased rejuvenated an animal. regenerative It is difficultto assess, retrospectively, extentto which the ritualtransformations the that on the level of the culturallyconstructed also operatedon the level of the operated person Wari'emphaseson cannibalism's individual.However,contemporary psychologicalsignifimemoriesof the detachment from all-consuming cance, as an act that facilitatedmourners' dead, and elders'expressionsof emotionaldissonanceconcerningburial,suggestthat many in experiencesof grief by meaningful personal peoplefoundthe body'sdestruction cannibalism elementin a socialprocessof mourning andmourning. eatingof the deadwas one powerful The to understood haveeasedthe experienceof comingto termswitha lovedone'sdeath.Bycasting overlaidimagesof the the dead in the imageof the animalsthey would become, cannibalism to deceasedas corpsewith new imagesof the deceasedas an animalwithongoingrelations its ties of the livingkin.Itaffirmed transmutation specifickinship betweenthe livingand the dead relationsbetween humans and animals. In into a general enhancementof life-supporting of was essence, cannibalism the dead person'sfirstoffering self as food. conclusion cannibalismcannot be reduced to a single, simple The explanationfor Wari' mortuary of for a function, it reflected complexamalgam myth, eschatology,ideasaboutthe humanbody, L6vi-Strauss's and social, psychological,and ecological concerns.Extending (1977:65)obserlevels." as of vationaboutmyth,these arebestunderstood "aninterrelation severalexplanatory As a centralsymbol in the rites of mourning,cannibalismpresenteda powerful,symbolic
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in of after condensation beliefsaboutlife'scontinuity death,affirmed the ancestors' regeneration cannibalism's as animals.Mortuary symbolicpotency derivedfrom its evocation of multiple dimensionsof the social and ecological relationsin which Wari'perceivetheirsecurityto be oppositionsmerged in what Sanday grounded.In the ritesof mourning,human-nonhuman of that (1986:226)hascalled a "ritual reconciliation" transformed unpredictable ecological and discourse on social constraintsinto a meaningfulconceptualorder. Much anthropological and as cannibalismhas tended to treatcultural-symbolic ecological interpretations mutually of exclusiveparadigms, exploredin indigenous but, terms,theWari'systemis a symbiosis social The motivations associandecological concernsthatmustbe consideredholistically. material ated with endocannibalismwere not biological needs for proteinfrom human flesh, but concerns with structuring culturalmeaningsin regardto human-animal relationsthat were essential,not justto subsistencebutto the entiresocial order. Incontrast views of anthropophagy the ultimately to as antisocialact, the act of eatingthe and reproducedthe bases of Wari'society. Endocannibalism mythically dead affirmed was linkedto the originsof cultureandthe festivalexchangesthattransform potentially antagonistic relationsinto cooperativealliances between neighboring villages,and between humansand the nonhumanforces of death and animal fertility.As mortuary rites renewed the primary relationsof the Wari'universe,so they also revitalizedrelationson the social plane spiritual withthe gathering affinesin support the deadperson'sfamily.Wari'cannibalism of of involved not the recyclingof vitalenergiesor body substances,but the renewalof vital institutions of socio-ecologicalsecurity. A Wari'elderrecalledthatshortly afterthe contact,a missionary lectured him,saying,"Eating is for animals.People are not animals,people are not meatto be eaten."InWesternthought, the revulsion cannibalism that to of between provokesis related itsapparent blurring distinctions humansand animals,in treatinghumansubstancelike animalmeat.ForWari',however,the of magicof existence lies in the commonality humanand animalidentities,in the movements betweenthe humanand nonhumanworldsembodiedin the recognition throughcannibalism in of humanparticipation both poles of the dynamicof eatingand beingeaten. notes
debt is to the peopleof SantoAndreandotherWari'communities who My Acknowledgments. primary sharedwith me theirunderstandings experiencesof deathand mourning. and Fieldresearchin Brazilin 1985-87 was carried withauthorization the CNPqand FUNAI supported fellowships out from and from by the Fulbright Commission the Inter-American and Foundation a grant-in-aid and fromThe Wenner-Gren Foundation Anthropological for Research.A CharlotteNewcombe Fellowshipsupporteddissertation and Foundation allowedme to return Brazilin the summer to of writing, fundingfromthe Wenner-Gren 1991 to check my interpretations obtainadditional and data.A Vanderbilt Research Council University smallgrant facilitated research. bibliographic Amongthe manyBrazilian colleagueswho aidedthisproject, who sponsoredmy research Ibahez-Novion, specialthanksare owed to JulioCezarMelattiand Martin underthe auspicesof the Department Anthropology the Universidade Brasilia; of at de DidimoGraciliano de Oliveira FUNAI/Guajara-Mirim, offeredlogistical of who and Vilaca,whose insights support; Aparecida andfriendship enriched studies.Forhelpfucomments earlier have on I versions thispaper,Iamgrateful of my to Debbora Brent MichaelBrown, Gertrude Thomas Berlin, Dole, Frederick Dunn,Laura Graham, Battaglia, Patricia and Schieffelin, JamesTrostle. Lyon,Lynn Gregor, Morgan,DonaldPollock,Edward 1. The finalsyllable is stressedin all Wari'words. Wari'is pronounced"wa-REE," ending in a glottal and (in (in stop.On the Wari'language,see Everett Kern press)and Everett press). 2. Mostreports endocannibalism of involveeatingonly smallbitsof flesh fromspecificbody parts(the or bones, which appearsto havebeen typicalMelanesian pattern) consumingonly the ashesof cremated the mostwidespread Amazonianpattern (see Dole 1974; Meireles1986; Zerries1960). In lowlandSouth of amountsof fellow tribesmembers' boiled or roastedflesh has been America, consumption substantial of (Clastres border 1974)and Panoanpeoplesalongthe Peru-Brazil reported amongthe Guayaki Paraguay in (Dole 1974; Kensinger, press). 3. In excludingexocannibalism fromthis discussion,I do not meanto implythatit had no relation to cannibalism. that cannibalism bothenemiesand of Vilaca(1992:289-294)hasemphasized Wari' mortuary affinesexpresseda broad"canniballogic"of reversibility the positionsof predator prey in Wari' in and
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relations to social others. Erikson(1986), Overing (1986), and Viveiros de Castro(1992) have noted that the traditional anthropological distinction between exo- and endocannibalism blurs in the face of the complex forms of cannibalism envisioned in lowland South American myths, cosmologies, and rituals. 4. All translationsof Wari' oral texts are my own, as are all translationsof writtentexts (with foreign titles). 5. The assertion that eating corpses involved no transferof biosocial substances or energies is consistent with the logic of Wari' ethnomedicine, conception theory, and shared substance concepts, in which attributes are transferred among individuals only by blood and its analogs (breast milk, semen, vaginal secretions, and perspiration),not by ingesting roasted flesh (see Conklin 1989:2 74-304). Roastingis believed to dry up or neutralize the potency of blood and other body fluids; contact with corpses is polluting, but eating well-roasted flesh was not believed to transfer any qualities from the corpse to those who ate it. Clastres reported a similar idea in Guayaki thought about endocannibalism: "On eating human flesh one does not acquire anything more, there is no positive influence" (1974:316). 6. Extensive incest prohibitions promote dispersed affinal alliances (Meireles 1986:273), and families generally intermarrywith two or more differentgroups of affines. At the same time, there is an emphasis on repeating as well as proliferating affinal ties by taking spouses from families already linked by previous marriages. 7. The Wari' traditionally practiced cremation as an alternative way to dispose of corpses whose flesh was considered dangerous to eat because it was contaminated by specific disease conditions. Corpses were cremated, not eaten, when they had pus in their lungs, or symptoms resembling liver disorders (ascites and cirrhosis). The outsiders who suppressed Wari' cannibalism, however, did not present cremation as an option, perhaps because cremation is discouraged in LatinAmerican Catholicism. 8. For more detailed discussions of funeral practices and variations, see Conklin (1989:407-417) and Vilaca (1992:208-221). Funerals for people who died in massacres and epidemics often deviated from normal patterns. When a village had been attacked, or a person killed close to home, Wari' sometimes feared that the assassin(s) would return. In such cases, they dispensed with much of the usual ceremony and quickly roasted and consumed the corpse(s). The mass death and social chaos of the contact-era epidemics broughtsimilar disruptionsof funeral practices, including painful episodes in which corpses were abandoned, and subsequently ravaged by vultures, because the survivors were too sick to cut the large amounts of firewood needed for roasting or cremation. 9. Nari is a verb meaning "to be related." The proper nominative designations for consanguines and affines, respectively, are iri'ka-nariand oro-ka-naripaxi. Inthis text, Ifollow Vilaca (1992) in using simplified verbal forms, iri' nari and nari paxi. Similarly, mixita, ton ho' and hwet mao are verbs; the nominative designations are ka-mixita-wa, ka-ton ho'-wa, and ka-hwet mao-wa. 10. This antihomeopathic idea recurs in Wari' shamanism and ethnomedicine. A shaman shares body substance with his animal spirit companion and falls violently ill if he eats that animal's flesh. Similarly, certain illnesses are attributedto ingesting substances that are similar to one's own body substance, but in a more potent, incompatible state (Conklin 1989:302-312). Corpses' flesh and body fluids, transformedby putrefaction, are considered dangerous only when ingested by their close consanguines. When eaten by affines and non-kin, roasted flesh is not believed to cause illness, although it is regardedas polluting. 11. Most women in the Rio Dois Irmaos region said that they participated in mortuarycannibalism. In the Rio Negro-Ocaia region, many women said that they did not eat human flesh because they disliked its stench. Vilaca (1992:216-21 7) cited one senior man who also claimed never to have eaten the dead. In addition, some women who usually participatedin cannibalism told of decisions not to eat a specific affine's corpse because they felt too close, emotionally, to the dead person. Men were expected to perform impassively the duty of consuming the corpse, regardless of their feelings of intimacy with the deceased or the revulsion provoked by the smell and taste of decayed flesh. 1 2. Rosaldo (1989) has called attention to the power of emotions in shaping cultural responses to death. Wari' anger over relatives' deaths generally appears to have been directed outwards, into sorcery accusations against Wari' in other communities or retaliatoryattackson Braziliansor other indigenous populations. Wari' testimonies about mortuarycannibalism give little reason to think that it expressed or vented anger or resentment, although the possibility cannot be ruled out entirely. 1 3. In a provocative discussion that is beyond the scope of this article, Albert (1985) and Overing (1986) have discussed associations between affinityand images of cannibalism among the Yanomami and Piaroa, respectively, in relation to issues of social harmony, violence, warfare, and the internal dynamics of endogamous, egalitariansocieties. Carneiroda Cunha and Viveiros de Castro(1985) have addressed related dynamics of vengeance and reciprocity in Tupinamba exocannibalism. 14. A similar rationale shaped affines' roles in euthanasia: when an elderly person suffering from a terminal illness wished to die, he or she summoned a male affine to performthe killing. Funeralswere only one of several contexts in which Wari' traditionally called upon affines to perform such services. 15. A horror of burial, and preference for being cannibalized or cremated, has been reported among Panoans (Erikson 1986:198), Yanomami (Lima Figueiredo 1939:44), Guayaki (Clastres 1974:319), and Tupinamba war captives (Viveiros de Castro 1992:289-290). 16. Efforts extinguish materialtraces of the dead are widespread in lowland South America. Especially to common are name avoidances and the destruction of dead people's houses and personal property(see, for example, Albert 1985; Gregor 1977:264; Jackson 1983:200; Kracke 1981:262; Metraux 1947). The dual rationales of discouraging ghosts from returningto their homes, and removing remindersthat cause sadness to the bereaved, are recurrentthemes. Krackecommented that among the Kagwahiv, these two different
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rationales are given "so interchangeably that it almost seems as if they are different ways of phrasing the same thing" (1988:213-214). 1 7. According to Vilaca, "Only after the body is roasted and devoured, is the jam [spirit]of the deceased bathed under the water, and [it] passes to full living in the world of the dead" (1992:247). 18. Vilaca has emphasized that "forthe Wari' culinary preparation(which is initiated with the cutting of the prey) and devouring are interrelatedand indissociable processes. The cadaver is roasted in the fire that, in its origin, is cooking fire (see the myth of Pinom). In this sense the cadaver is prepared as prey and should be ingested as such" (1992:263). 19. Viveiros de Castro (1992:213) has noted Tupi ideas of a connection between the persistence of a corpse's flesh and the persistence of memories linking the dead and the living. 20. Vilaca's Wari' informants echoed these sentiments. She cited one man's explanation: " 'If we bury, we think about where he [the deceased] walked, where he worked; we think about his skin being there in the earth still. With the fire it is good, it finishes all the body, we don't think more' " (Vilaca 1992:265). 21. White-lipped peccaries are prominent in native American myths and rituals, from Mexico south to the ArgentinianChaco (see Donkin 1985:83-94; Sowls 1984:1 85-187). They often are considered closely related to people. In The Rawandthe Cooked, Levi-Strauss (1969:84) identified peccaries as an intermediary between jaguars (the quintessential animal predators) and human beings. 22. Huroroin parties are structured around oppositions between a host community and visitors from elsewhere who sing and dance for their hosts. Male visitors stage dramatic raids on the hosts' village, destroy property, and perform parodies of sexual intercourse with host women. Hosts punish these transgressions by forcing the visitors to drink and vomit vast quantities of maize beer. With repeated vomiting, some lose consciousness and enter itam, in which they bleed from the mouth and experience involuntary muscular contractions that force the body into a rigid fetal position. When this occurs, the party's sponsor cries, "I've killed my prey!" ("Pa' pin' inain watamata!'). Submission to the physically painful "death"of itam affirms both a man's physical stamina and his trust in the allies who care for and revive him (see Conklin 1989:148-154; Vilaca 1992:186-191). 23. Metaphorsof reciprocity pervade relations to the peccaries. Just as precontact party hosts sent their guests home bearing gifts, Wari' hunters traditionally gave presents to the spirits of slain white-lipped peccaries, and occasionally do so today. Before butchering, a peccary carcass is surrounded with items such as bows and arrows, baskets, chicha, shotguns, clothing, and cigarettes. The peccary is told to carry the "images"(jami-)of these items home and tell fellow Water Spiritsthat they, too, will be given gifts when they visit the Wari'. 24. Pollock (in press) has described strikingly similar eschatological beliefs among the Kulina of Acre, Brazil. At death, Kulinaspirits journey to the underworld and receive a ritualwelcome from their ancestors who, as white-lipped peccaries, fall upon the spirit and consume it. Like Wari', Kulina believe that the ancestors returnto earth as white-lipped peccaries that are hunted by living people. Unlike Wari', the Kulina system carriesthis cycle one step further:white-lipped peccary meat becomes the souls of Kulina babies. 25. Kiltieobserved that "[w]hite-lippeds are distinctive among all the terrestrialherbivorous mammals in neotropical rain forests in being the only species that forms large herds, which may include over 100 individuals"(1980:542). Hunting white-lipped peccaries is an unpredictable business, for the herds range over huge territories, never lingering long in one place and disappearing for weeks or months at a time. However, when the herd does appear, it offers relatively easy targetsand multiple kills are common, making white-lipped peccaries the single most important terrestrialgame in the diets of the Wari' and many other native Amazonians. Fishing involves similar patterns of high potential yield with a high quotient of procurement uncertainty; in the flooded forest, dense concentrations of huge numbers of small, easilycaught fish occasionally appear, quite unpredictably, in the fluctuating waters of temporary streams and ponds. 26. In the myth called Orotapan or Hujin, Towira Towira appears as an orotapan carnivore and as a white-lipped peccary named Wem Parom, who established the original alliance. Here is a summary of key events in this myth: A man named Hujin fell into a river and was eaten by Orotapan, the Water Spirits' leader. After eating Hujin, Orotapan threw his bones in the air and made his flesh whole again so that he could devour him again. Orotapan did this over and over, until a shaman reached into the water, caught Hujin's bones and pulled him out. However, Hujin's spirit remained captive to the Water Spirits,compelled to returnevery day to their underwater realm. Orotapan changed into a white-lipped peccary named Wem Parom and challenged Hujin to a musical duel. Hujin won this contest by becoming the first human to master the art of songmaking, which the Wari' consider the highest of artistic accomplishments. By this supremely cultural act, he ceased to be the spirits' prey and gained the status of an equal capable of entering an alliance with the spirits. Wem Parom sent his son, in the form of a fish, to Hujin's village to receive gifts of food marking the establishment of amicable relations. Hujin then invited the Water Spirits to a party at his earthly village and instructed his own people to make large quantities of beer and new bows and arrows. The WaterSpiritguests came as white-lipped peccaries who sang, danced, drank all of their hosts' beer, and ran around breaking clay pots and destroying houses. Hujin and his kinsmen shot and killed the peccaries. From their bodies emerged the scarlet macaw, which is sacred to Orotapan. Hujin, who had shamanic powers, then looked at each peccary carcass, identified its spirit, and told his people whether it was a Wari' ancestor or a nonancestral Water Spirit.Itwas then that the Wari' learned of their own postmortem fate to be killed by Towira Towira and become peccaries hunted by the living.
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Forother versions and analysis of this myth, see Vila:a 1992:255-262. 27. Although the spirit was believed to be revived when its corpse was dismembered and roasted, this revival does not appear to have been contingent on the corpse's being eaten. Several individuals described scenarios in which a spirit, revived when its corpse was cut, returnedto earth and saw its own, still uneaten body roasting. Without exception, informantsasserted that Towira Towira revived all spiritsalike, regardless of whether their corpses were cannibalized, cremated, or buried. Vila:a (1992:265) has suggested that, since the change to burial, Wari' have come to see the rottingof the corpse as a kind of natural"cooking" that substitutes for the roasting at traditionalfunerals.
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submitted November 24, 1992 accepted December 29, 1992
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Conklin Cannibalism

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"Thus Are Our Bodies, Thus Was Our Custom": Mortuary Cannibalism in an Amazonian Society Author(s): Beth A.

BETH A. CONKLIN-Vanderbilt University

American Ethnologist 22(1):75-101.

Copyright ? 1995, American Anthropological

Thisparabledemonstrates Wari' ideasthatabandoninga spirit-being lie on the forestfloor to

andeatingas implicitinthe actof making fire.18 BecauseWari'view cremation cannibalism and

predation and reciprocity

submitted November 24, 1992 accepted December 29, 1992

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