Consuming Grief

Mourning the death of loved ones and recovering from their loss are universal human experiences, yet the grieving process is as different between cultures as it is among individuals. As late as the 1960s, the Wari' Indians of the western Amazonian rainforest ate the roasted flesh of their dead as an expression of compassion for the deceased and for his or her close relatives. By removing and transforming the corpse, which embodied ties between the living and the dead and was a focus of grief for the family of the deceased, Wari' death rites helped the bereaved kin accept their loss and go on with their lives. Drawing on the recollections of Wari' elders who participated in consuming the dead, this book presents one of the richest, most authoritative ethnographic accounts of funerary cannibalism ever recorded. Beth Conklin explores Wari' conceptions of person, body, and spirit, as well as indigenous understandings of memory and emotion, to explain why the Wari' felt that corpses must be destroyed and why they preferred cannibalism over cremation. Her findings challenge many commonly held beliefs about cannibalism and show why, in Wari' terms, it was considered the most honorable and compassionate way of treating the dead. Beth A. Conklin is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Religious Studies at Vanderbilt University.

ISBN 0292712367   Pages 368 ISBN13 9780292712362 (What's this?)   Volumes 1 Publisher University of Texas Press   Weight (grammes) 503 Imprint University of Texas Press   Published in Austin, TX Format Paperback   Height (mm) 246 Publication date 01 Sep 2001   Width (mm) 156 Library of Congress 00047976   Spine width (mm) 21 DEWEY 394.909811   Academic level Professional / Scholarly DEWEY edition DC21

		Acknowledgments
		About the Artist and Illustrations
		A Note on Orthography
		Introduction
Pt. I		Contexts		1
Ch. 1		Cannibal Epistemologies		3
Ch. 2		Wari' Worlds		24
Ch. 3		Cultural Collisions		47
Pt. II		Motifs and Motives		63
Ch. 4		Funerals		65
Ch. 5		Explanations of Eating		87
Pt. III		Bodily Connections		109
Ch. 6		Social Anatomy		111
Ch. 7		Embodied Identities		132
Ch. 8		Burning Sorrow		157
Pt. IV		Eat and Be Eaten		179
Ch. 9		Predator and Prey		181
Ch. 10		Hunting the Ancestors		205
Ch. 11		Transforming Grief		224
		Afterword		241
App. A		The Story of Mortuary Cannibalism's Origin		242
App. B		The Story of Hujin and Orotapan		247
		Notes		252
		References		263
		Index		277

"This is probably the most significant ethnography of cannibalism. Period... I expect this book to become a classic, an ethnography of exceptional depth and clarity by an anthropologist whose sensitivity and insight are apparent on every page." -Donald Pollock, Associate Professor of Anthropology, SUNY Buffalo

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