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Among the Cannibals

Adventures on the Trail of Man's Darkest Ritual

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1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

It's the stuff of nightmares, the dark inspiration for literature and film. But astonishingly, cannibalism does exist, and in Among the Cannibals travel writer Paul Raffaele journeys to the far corners of the globe to discover participants in this mysterious and disturbing practice. From an obscure New Guinea river village, where Raffaele went in search of one of the last practicing cannibal cultures on Earth; to India, where the Aghori sect still ritualistically eat their dead; to North America, where evidence exists that the Aztecs ate sacrificed victims; to Tonga, where the descendants of fierce warriors still remember how their predecessors preyed upon their foes; and to Uganda, where the unfortunate victims of the Lord's Resistance Army struggle to reenter a society from which they have been violently torn, Raffaele brings this baffling cultural ritual to light in a combination of Indiana Jones-type adventure and gonzo journalism.

Illustrated with photographs Raffaele took during his travels, Among the Cannibals is a gripping look at some of the more unsavory aspects of human civilization, guaranteed to satisfy every reader's morbid curiosity.

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      June 2, 2008
      Australian Raffaele's quest for cannibals sent him around the world from the New Guinea highlands to the streets of Mexico City. Along the way he encountered necrophiliac Indian holy men, the brutalized child-victims of Uganda's civil war, and the iron-pumping king of Tonga. Raeffele's primary goal is to explore exactly what leads different cultures to violate one of humanity's greatest taboos. Yet Raffaele (a Smithsonian feature writer) is not above taking detours and his itinerary includes lessons in Tantric practices, drinking bouts with Tongan transvestites, and a tour of a Frida Kahlo exhibition. Raffaele is a competent adventure writer and has no problem asking questions along the lines of: "Have you eaten human flesh?" Unfortunately, he displays a less-than nuanced perspective, leading him to statements such as: "He is a mass killer whose humanity seems to have been almost entirely sucked out of him."' The fact that a number of the cultures he investigates haven't engaged in cannibalism in centuries makes his quest often seem misguided. Raffaele also needlessly tries to force the drama by phrasing his issues in the most lurid terms imaginable. What could have been a serious investigation of the most extreme varieties of human experience becomes a kind of cannibal farce.

    • Library Journal

      May 15, 2008
      Those seeking tales of serial killers à la Hannibal Lecter will be disappointed in these books, as both authors favor in-depth examinations of cannibalism across a wide variety of cultures. Likewise, both discredit the conclusions of William Arens's "The Man-Eating Myth", instead asserting that cannibalism has been a very real human practice around the globe. Travis-Henikoff (coauthor, "Star Food Revisited"), a scholar of paleoanthropology, covers the phenomenon's many raisons d'être, from survival to politically motivated terror. Her perspective as a gastronomist helps to situate cannibalism within a wide range of global culinary practices from the Amazon to the American Southwest to Polynesia. Some sections, e.g., those on archaeological dating and on the Inquisition, could have been shorter, but the book's range is impressive.

      Raffaele ("Smithsonian" magazine) focuses on cannibalism in a few particular regions: New Guinea, the Ganges basin, Tonga, and Uganda. He meets with cannibals, the locals who condemn them, and descendents of other known cannibals. His beautiful descriptions of life among these cultures show that cannibalism is a local belief that, unlike the rapidly changing landscape, is still going strong in some places. Unlike Travis-Henikoff, Raffaele maintains that cannibalism not related to survival is an "evil" act, yet his portraits of cannibals show their essential humanity. Both books are highly recommended for public libraries; endnotes and a bibliography additionally recommend Travis-Henikoff.Dan Harms, SUNY at Cortland

      Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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