History of a Voyage to the Land of Brazil

Léry, John de. History of a Voyage to the Land of Brazil. University of California Press, 1990. Print.

The Ceremonies for Killing and Eating Prisoners

Summary:

            The French author Léry writes about the accounts of cannibalism he has witness in various tribes around the world from his perspective. It seems to be a common practice in some cultures to kill and eat captured prisoners of war. But this is not done quite as simply as killing them after capturing and then eating them. If the captured prisoner was a male, he would be given the best food, and adorned in gifts as if he was royalty, and often be given a woman to care for all his needs. If he possessed other valuable skills such as hunting, then he would put those skills to work for the tribe as well. In short, the tribe that had captured him makes him feel like he is a very special guest and only gets the very best treatment. After a night of celebration for said “guest”, who has tired himself out by drinking and dancing for many hours, he is then bound by ropes and prepared to die. Instead of begging for his life, he does quite the opposite, boasting his achievements of capturing, killing, and eating many of the fellow tribesmen of the tribe that now holds him captive. After taking what little vengeance is offered to him by throwing rocks and dirt into the crowd that surrounded him, he is struck on the head with a blunt ceremonial “sword” and shortly after falls to the ground dead. Many other things were discussed such as how the flesh was cooked, who enjoyed eating it, and how they included children in a rite of passage sort of ritual.

Analysis:

The author explains in an decent amount of detail what and how these tribes carry out their ritualistic consumption of other humans. He then goes on to compare how these tribes that we view to be so vicious may seem mild-mannered in comparison to some of the acts in other areas of the world. Although he regretted to mention it, having taken place in his own homeland, Léry tells of the bloody tragedy that occurred in Lyon, France which involved the killing and eating of humans as well. This differed however because the savages of the previously mentioned tribes killed and ate their enemies, but this massacre in France involved the brutal killing of their own kinsmen, whose innards such as hearts and livers were then publicly sold to the highest bidder. The chapter ends with a poem which in short boasts the events of this massacre as overshadowing even the most horrible deeds of other rulers such as pharaohs.