Book review of Consuming Grief: Compassionate Cannibalism in an Amazonian Society. Beth A. Conklin. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001. xxxi + 285 pp., appendices, notes, references, index. ISBN 0-292-071232-4

Welch, James R

English

Trinity University

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of LowlandSouth AmericaISSN: 2572-3626 (online)Volume 1Issue 1 Special Issue: Politics and Religion inAmazoniaArticle 14June 2003Consuming Grief: Compassionate Cannibalism inan Amazonian SocietyJames R. WelchTulane UniversityFollow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/tipitiPart of the Anthropology CommonsThis Reviews is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ Trinity. It has been accepted for inclusion in Tipití: Journal of theSociety for the Anthropology of Lowland South America by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ Trinity. For more information, please contactjcostanz@trinity.edu.Recommended CitationWelch, James R. (2003). "Consuming Grief: Compassionate Cannibalism in an Amazonian Society," Tipití: Journal of the Society for theAnthropology of Lowland South America: Vol. 1: Iss. 1, Article 14.Available at: http://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/tipiti/vol1/iss1/14136 Tipitíthe New Tribes Mission’s internal documents to present a damning picture ofits violent methods, particularly with recently contacted peoples such as theZo’é.Claudia Menezes, Silvia Caiuby Novaes and Aloísio Cabalzar describeSalesians’ tactics among the Xavante, Bororo and Tukano, as well as someindigenous artifices to retain their previous cultures.  There are also studies ofoperations by Jesuits, Franciscans, and regular Catholic clergy competing withProtestants for the souls of the Karipuna in northern Amapá.These fascinating essays can tackle only a few of the missionary endeavoursthroughout Brazil during the past half-century.  The book is reasonablyobjective, avoiding the sometimes sanctimonious and self-congratulatory styleof the missionaries themselves, or the invective of their opponents such asNorman Lewis.  It is essential reading because it breaks new ground inexamining this influence that is so important to the indigenous peoples ofBrazil.Consuming Grief: Compassionate Cannibalism in an Amazonian Society.Beth A. Conklin.  Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001.  xxxi + 285 pp.,appendices, notes, references, index.  $50.00 (cloth), $22.95 (paper).  ISBN0-292-071232-4, ISBN 0-292-071236-7.  [utexas.edu/utpress]JAMES R. WELCHTulane UniversityBeth Conklin turns the traditional academic debate regardinganthropophagy on its head in this highly readable and theoreticallysophisticated book.  The idea that certain societies practiced cannibalism inrecent history, and in some places may continue to do so, is an uncomfortableand frequently challenged fact.  Consequently, much of the debate involvingcannibalism addresses whether or not it ever existed as an acceptable socialbehavior, or assumes that it could only have arisen as a consequence of a strongfunctional imperative.  In contrast, Conklin avoids sensationalism andovergeneralization in her intimate and detailed cultural relativist account offunerary cannibalism among the Wari’ of the Brazilian Amazon, who practicedcannibalism into the 1960s.  In Consuming Grief, she addresses traditionalacademic concerns regarding the social motivations for cannibalism from theethnographically informed position that in the case of the Wari’, cannibalismmakes sense.  She rigorously demonstrates that Wari’ cannibalism was a1Published by Digital Commons @ Trinity, 2003Book Reviews 137compassionate act that served to distance the dead from the living and to helpthe living emotionally cope with loss.In Part I, Conklin places Wari’ cannibalism in perspective by discussingrelevant aspects of contemporary Wari’ society and sketching their pre- andpostcontact histories.  She also sets the stage by confronting her own researchas being no exception to the rule that firsthand observations of cannibalism byanthropologists are practically nonexistent.  In Part II, Conklin describes howWari’ remember and explain their funerary practices (both contemporary andhistorical) and relates them to prominent academic explanations of cannibalism.Of particular note, she distinguishes funerary cannibalism, or endocannibalism,from exocannibalism, highlighting how Wari’ perceive the primary significanceof the former to have been its role in the management of grief.  Conklinsubstantiates her acceptance of this thesis in Part III by exploring Wari’ notionsof kinship, personhood and humanity in relation to the body, and by relatingthem to the various roles people played in funerals.  Finally, in Part IV, Conklinproposes that Wari’ favored funerary cannibalism over other forms of corpsedisposal because it tangibly engaged Wari’ identity with respect to the afterlifeand thereby symbolically facilitated the transformative process of death.A potential criticism of Consuming Grief is that it relies substantially onmemory ethnography, which is susceptible to the imperfections of humanrecollection.  Although this limitation causes her to leave some questionsunanswered, Conklin convincingly demonstrates that memory ethnographycan be an effective means to investigate undocumented aspects of culturalhistory.  Through both internal and external analysis, Conklin meticulouslyverifies her data, thereby providing a strong challenge to the prevalentassumption that most (if not all) ethnographic accounts of cannibalism arefalse.  Indeed, the personal detail with which she investigates Wari’ perspectivesof the topic exposes the ethnocentrism inherent in this assumption.  Throughits rigor, Conklin’s study escapes such epistemological eddies, and goes on toreveal in a moving fashion how Wari’ cannibalism was an expression of commonhuman emotions and values.Conklin’s truly personal writing style lends a very human voice toanthropological theory.  By staying close to her data and to her field experience,she guides the reader through many of the complex themes involved inAmazonian kinship and cosmology without appearing overly abstract.Similarly, she addresses potentially morbid topics with a tone of concretehumanity that renders them understandable and inoffensive.  In addition, shetakes Wari’ explanations seriously, evaluating their theoretical potential byexploring the conceptual framework which motivates them.  In sum, Conklinmakes important connections between individuals, society and anthropology.As a result, her book is ideal in showing how theory speaks to real humanexperience—both lived and remembered.2Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South Americahttp://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/tipiti/vol1/iss1/14

Consuming Grief: Compassionate Cannibalism in an Amazonian Society

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Consuming Grief: Compassionate Cannibalism in an Amazonian Society

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