Eating and Being Eaten: Cannibalism as Food for Thought

Description

This innovative book is an open invitation to a rich and copious meal of imagination, senses and desires. It argues that cannibalism is practised by all and sundry. In love or in hate, fear or fascination, purposefulness or indifference, individuals, cultures and societies are actively cannibalising and being cannibalised. The underlying message of: ‘Own up to your own cannibalism!’ is convincingly argued and richly substantiated. The book brilliantly and controversially puts cannibalism at the heart of the self-assured biomedicine, globalising consumerism and voyeuristic social media. It unveils a vast number of prejudices, blind spots and shameful othering. It calls on the reader to consider a morality and an ethics that are carefully negotiated with required sensibility and sensitivity to the fact that no one and no people have the monopoly of cannibalisation and of creative improvisation in the game of cannibalism. The productive, transformative and (re)inventive understanding of cannibalism argued in the book should bring to the fore one of the most vital aspects of what it means to be human in a dynamic world of myriad interconnections and enchantments. To nourish and cherish such a productive form of cannibalism requires not only a compassionate generosity to let in and accommodate the stranger knocking at the door, but also, and more importantly, a deliberate effort to reach in, identify, contemplate, understand, embrace and become intimate with the stranger within us, individuals and societies alike. Cover Title page Copyright page About the Authors Contents Foreword Chapter 1 - Introduction: Cannibalism as Food for Thought Introduction There is more meat to cannibalism than meets the eye Compassionate Cannibalism Being Human as Eating and Being Eaten Humans and Animals as Two Sides of the Same Cannibal Feast Cannibalism in Camouflage Contributions to this Volume: an Overview Conclusion Endnotes References Chapter 2 - The Violence of Translating People into Cannibals: The Man-Eating Anthropologists The violence of translating people into cannibals Anthropology, cannibalism and colonial violence The problematic notion of cannibalism The ethnography of cannibalism: representing the other Ethnography and the violence of making a text from data Cannibalism: beyond the modern world and towards a new anthropology Endnotes References Chapter 3 - Incorporated or Cannibalised by Posthuman Others? Sanctions and Witchcraft in Contemporary Zimbabwe Introduction The Capture and Cannibalisation of Zimbabwe: on the Imperial Leviathan Luring and Incorporating ‘Delicious’ Africa in a Cannibalistic World: Zimbabwe and Sanctions Conclusion References Chapter 4 - ‘The Body of Christ? Amen’: Christianity and the Cannibalisation of the Bamenda Grassfielders (Cameroon) Introduction Eating up Traditional Rulers: the Projection and Delegitimisation Argument Ex-soldiers or ‘Fernando Po Repartees’ and the Licence to Consume Grassfielders The Ex-servicemen and Cannibalism Consuming and being Consumed: ‘Love’ and ‘Sex’ in the Church Compounds Domestication of Western Christianity by the Bamenda Grassfielders Conclusion Endnotes References Chapter 5 - Researching Cannibalising Obligations in Post-apartheid South Africa Introduction Background on Black Middle Class in South Africa Cannibalising Black Middle Class Cannibalising Obligations Media on Cannibalising Black Tax Citizenship and Cannibalism Cannibalising Systemic Obligations Conclusion Endnotes References Chapter 6 - Lehu la gago le ya mphidisha. ‘Your death nourishes me’ The investment of ‘life’ The saga of human ashes Conclusion Endnotes References Chapter 7 - Rainbow Nation of the Flesh The Kitchen Appetisers Main Course Dessert Gluttony In Lieu of a Conclusion: After Dinner Mint, Coffee & Brandy References Chapter 8 - My African Heart: The Obscure Gourmandise of an Enlightened Man Introduction The Pale Tale of Extraction The Path of the Dying Heart Conclusion Endnotes References Chapter 9 - Consumerisation of cannibalism in contemporary Japanese society Introduction Exploiting the suicidal Fantasising reality and realising the fantasy Fetish to rawness Consumerisation of cannibalism Concluding remarks Endnotes References INDEX Back cover