Cameron, L., Erkal, N., Gangadharan, L., Meng, X. (2013). Little e.docx

Cameron, L., Erkal, N., Gangadharan, L., Meng, X. (2013).
Little emperors: Behavioral impacts of China's one-child
policy. Science, 339, 953-957. doi: 10.3886/ICPSR34521.v1.
This article investigated the effect of China’s one-child policy
on different behaviors, comparing behavioral trends in people
who were born in the years just before and just after the
implementation of the one-child policy. One of the more notable
results was that participants born under the one-child policy
scored higher in neuroticism and lower in contentiousness in
comparison with those born before the policy. The study
concluded that the observed behavioral differences between
those born just before and just after the one-child policy would
greatly magnify as time went on, due to very limited extended
family and living in a world of predominantly only children.
This article provides valuable insight into the behavioral
changes of the average person in China as a result of the one-
child policy. The authors were able to use data that was actively
generated for this article, rather than piecing together already-
existing data like many other studies on the subject, which was
very refreshing to see. This article would provide a solid
resource to use as it presents a very data-based approach to this
aspect of the one-child policy.
Huang, W., Lei, X., Zhao, Y. (2016). One-child policy and the
rise of man-made twins. Review of Economics and Statistics,
98(3), 467-476. doi: 10.1162/REST_a_00567
The authors of this study examined the correlation between
China’s one-child policy and China’s sharp increase of reported
twin births. The authors found that although China’s fertility
rate was already decreasing before the advent of the policy, the
number of reported twins had increased by one third in the last
30 years, sharply rising in 1979 when the one-child policy was
fully implemented. The data suggested that there was a strong
correlation between reported twin births and areas of China with
higher fines for having more children than allowed. One of the

key indicators used by the authors to determine fake twins was
height differences between the children. Some of the limitations
of this study included that the evidence for fake twins was
merely suggestive, as the authors could not observe instances of
fake twins directly. Additionally, the data used for the study
was the largest pool to be found on height data, but the research
was still limited by the sample size. This article is a good
starting point for researching this unintended effect of the one-
child policy and adding supplementary information, but does
not provide enough thorough research to be used as a core
resource.
Min, J., Xue, H., Wang, VHC., Li, M., Wang, Y. (2017). Are
single children likely to be more overweight or obese than those
with siblings? The influence of China's one-child policy on
childhood obesity. Preventative Medicine, 103, 8-13.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypme d.2017.07.018
The purpose of this research was to study the correlation
between China’s one-child policy and childhood obesity within
the Chinese population. The authors found that only children
were four times more likely to be overweight or obese than
children with siblings, with the likelihood of obesity trending
higher as time went on. This effect was magnified in urban
children, as compared with rural children due to factors like
physical activity and recreational screen time. Furthermore, the
authors concluded that China’s one-child policy most likely
contributed to the country’s rising childhood obesity rates, and
that any obesity intervention programs will need to take the
one-child policy into account. One of the strengths of this study
was the directness of the data, the authors focusing the data and
analysis towards the subject, however the available data was
limited. This article demonstrates one of the significant
consequences of China’s one-child policy, and is a valuable
resource towards researching these consequences on modern
Chinese society.
Nie, J. (2016). Erosion of eldercare in China: a socio-ethical
inquiry in aging, elderly suicide and the government's

responsibilities in the context of the one-child policy. Aging
International, 41(4), 350-365. doi: 10.1007/s12126-016-9261-7.
This article studied on the impact that the one-child policy has
had on eldercare within China, and how the policy has
accelerated the country's aging population without a plan or
policy in place to ease the transition. The paper focused on the
socio-ethical responsibilities of the individual and of society
towards its elder population, and also explored the topic of
elderly suicide, a result of improper or insufficient eldercare.
This article emphasized the correlation between China's one-
child policy and its radical effect on the current population
structure, which has led to an oft-forgotten aging society. The
information and analysis presented in this article supports and
greatly expands upon one of the more severe effects of the one-
child policy on Chinese society.
Song, Y. (2014). Losing an only child: The one-child policy and
elderly care in China. -Reproductive Health Matters,
22(43), 113-124. doi: 10.1016/S0968-8080(14)43755-8
The author delved deeper into the one-child policy’s effects on
China’s aging population, focusing on families who have lost
their only child. According to the article, the effects of losing
an only child upon these aging family not only includes
profound grief that is always associated with the death of a
child, but also rising fear for their futures, indebtedness, social
stigmatization, severe depression or other mental health issues
as they face their elderly years without familial support or care.
The author suggested that the only way to support these aging
families was substantial reform of both the one-child policy and
all government policies related to elderly care (this article was
published before the end of the one-child policy). This article
provides an in-depth discussion of a serious consequence of the
one-child policy, using specific cases and several different data
sources, bringing to light one of the largest issues facing
Chinese society today.

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INTRODUCTION
1
In the lower montane forests of the Eastern Highlands of Papua
New
Guinea, a population of some 14,000 slash-and-burn
horticulturalists

known as the Fore (pronounced FOR-AY! tend gardens of sweet
potato,
taro, yam, corn, and other vegetables. They also grow sugarcane
and
bananas, keep pigs, and, in the sparsely populated regions near
their south-
ern boundaries, still hunt for birds, mammals, reptiles, and
cassowaries.
Unlike the open country to the north around Kainantu or
Goroka, where
long-established grasslands prevail, this part of the Eastern
Highlands con-
sists of mixed rainforest broken by small clearings and
grasslands of no great
age. The forest includes oak, beech, Ficus, bamboo, nut-bearing
Castanop-
sis, feathery Albitzia, red-flowered hibiscus, and many other
species used
for food, medicines, and stimulants, as well as salt, fibers, and
building
materials. 1 Pandanus grows at higher altitudes. The ground is
covered with
a wealth of edible shrubs, delicate tree ferns, fungi, and
creepers. Red, white,
and salmon-colored impatiens sparkle in the shafts of sunlight
beside forest
paths, and ferns, orchids, and rhododendron grow as epiphytes
in the canopy
overhead. The forest rings with the sound of birds feeding on
tall fruit trees.
The Fore-speaking population lies in the wedge created by the
Kratke
Mountains to the north, and the Lamari and Yani Rivers to the
east and
west. Although the terrain ranges in altitude from the mountains

at 9,000
feet to southern valleys at 2,000, gardens and hamlets are
scattered across
the zone between 7,500 and 3,500 feet, where the population
has access to
Traditional Fore hamlet near the edge of
the forest. photo and legend by Dr. E. R.
Sorenson from The Edge of the Forest,
Smithsonian Institution Press, 1976.
Nona
THIS MATERIAl MAY 81
PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT 3
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Kuru Region ~
MAP 2
The Fore and Their Neighbors
SOURCE: Adapled from E. Richard Sorenson. The Edge of the
Forest
(Washington. D.C: Smithsonian Ins!. 1976), p 20 ©
SmIthsonian
both montane and lowland encironments. Hamlets typically
consist of sev-
enty to 120 people, living in twelve to twenty houses, and their
adjacent
gardens. Surrounded on three sides by populations speaking
Gimi, Keiagana,
Kanite, Kamano, Auyana, Awa and Kukukuku lalso known as
AngaJ, the
Fore are reluctantly penetrating the uninhabited region to the
south. Stories
of illness and hardship characterize their view of existence in
these frontier
communities.
The Fore represent the most southerly extension of the East
New

Guinea Highland linguistic stock,2 but they have much greater
genetic
heterogeneity than most linguistic groups in the Eastern
Highlands. The
5
c, with a remarkably flexible kinship system, do not constitute
an iso-
c,d breeding population. Genetic studies show their close
association
. ,h populations in two directions. To the northwest, they are
most closely
l1ciated with the Kamano, Gimi, and Keiagana, and to the
southeast with
. Awa, Auyana, and Tairora.3 Kukukuku populations across the
Lamari
Jky and the Yar-Pawaian groups beyond the uninhabited zone
appear to
long to different linguistic, genetic, and cultural communities.
The Fore are afflicted with a rare disease. Since record-keeping
began
1957, three years after the Australian administration established
a patrol
,L at Okapa, some 2,500 people in this region have died from
kuru, a

l:JCute degenerative disorder of the central nervous system.
Appro xi-
ctcly 80 percent of all kuru deaths have occurred among Fore-
speaking
.;lple, with the remaining 20 percent striking neighboring
populations. In
,~ ~arly years of investigation, over 200 patients died annually,
which at
'. ~l time approached I percent per annum of the affected
population.4 In
~nt years, kuru rates have steadily declined, and in 1977 only
31 persons
:J of the disease. Following several decades in which kuru was
the major
'se of death among the Fore, the disease is rapidly disappearing.
My main focus is on the 8,000 South Fore. Identified by
Australian
:anment officials in the 1950'S as a single census division
within the
:1pa Subdistrict, South Fore is separated from North by a low
mountain
~e (Wanevintil that hinders but does not preclude contact
between the
:, populations. Marriage partners, trade goods, food, refugees,
illnesses,
d ideas move between North and South, but South Fore social
life is
'lj3ed on the lands sloping southward from the mountain barrier.
There
I) dialect groups (Atigina and PamousaJ with a high frequency
of cognate

.' rds are recognizable. The two southern dialects have more in
common
::n either has with Ibusa, the dialect of the North Fore.6 It is
among the
.Jeh Fore that the incidence of kuru has been highest. Between
1957 and
;S, over 1,100 kuru deaths occurred in a South Fore population
of 8,000,
I most cases reported for 1976 and 1977 come from this region.
Since
;'11 is predominantly a disease of adult women-the childbearers,
pig
.Jers, and gardeners-its effects on Fore society have been
particularly
:mging. When the incidence of kuru reached a peak, in the
1960'S, the
.! th Fore believed their society was coming to an end. And
indeed, with
'ic high female mortality and low birth rates, in the early 1960'S
their
:nbers were truly declining. South Fore were aware that the
disease was
:::ing them hardest.
This book discusses the Fore response to kuru in the 1960'S,
when the
,demic was at its height. In Chapter 2, I trace the interest of
Western
,.'ntists in the disease, from the time they learned about it in the
early
jO'S to the present. Chapter 3 surveys Fore medical disorders,
and shows
L apart from kuru, their health status resembles that of kuru-

free popu-
:ons in the Eastern Highlands of New Guinea. Chapter 4, an
analysis
6
J~ 1
/ j'-......., V V ....... I
........ v V1ALL AREAS
....-
- ............
./1 /!
~UTHFO~
[7 V /
'"V '/ -
~V "'-
NORTH FORE
'....- ~
45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
YEAR OF BIRTH
30
en
I10
l-
«
w

o
LL o 0
IT:
lli 20
~
=>
Z
10
20
o
FIGURE 1
Number of Persons Dying of Kuru (since 1963) for each year of
birth from 1945.
SOURCE: Adapted from Hornabrook & Moir 1970
of South Fore kinship, indicates that Fore establish ties by
demonstrat-
ing commitment to a relationship. Kinship is as often based on
common
interest and support as it is on heredity.
In Chapters 5 and 6, I present Fore views of the cause of
disease, and
suggest that Fore beliefs are appropriate to a particular way of
life and period
of time-that is, to communities of partially intensive swidden
horticul-
turalists in the 1960'S. In the three decades since the Australian
administra-

tion at Port Moresby sent the first patrol through Fore territory,
both their
mode of existence and Fore beliefs about it have undergone
rapid change,
allowing us an opportunity to observe the ways that
philosophical systems
depend on context. A new way of life gave rise to greater
manipulation of
the environment, and to differences in rank requiring the
coercion of others
in order to maintain an elevated position. New diseases also
took their toll.
As these changes occurred, ghosts of the dead and spirits of the
forest re-
ceded, displaced by growing numbers of sorcerers.
The early 1960'S were crisis years for the Fore. They hunted for
sorcer-
ers and consulted curers IChapter 7), and finally they called
great public
7
j·..::etings (Chapter 8). There, they denounced the performance
of sorcery
,at was decimating their women and creating a wasteland.
Sorcerers were
:;id to be the agents of all that was wrong with the human
condition. They
:ere seen as the negative of all that is fine, good, and moral, as
instruments
i impoverishment and decline, and as a burden on the
community (Chapter
. Notions of sorcery, witchcraft, and pollution emerge as

ideologies of
J!ltainment, by which wielders of power attempt to degrade
their oppo-
;::l1ts, coerce social inferiors, and allocate resources. Sorcerers,
witches, and
':lluters therefore have universal attributes. They appear in
different man-
,cstations and with varying powers of retaliation in New Guinea
and
lscwhere. The direction from which they project their feared
energies is a
-lLle to an asymmetrical interchange, either between individuals
or between
_:~ions (Chapter 10).
In the search for the cause of kuru, Western science unraveled a
~ological mystery; the solution has applications for
neurological afflictions
",;It range far beyond the borders of New Guinea. The Fore
analysis of the
;nblem revealed more about victimization, and told us more
about our-
..:ives. While their medical observations were frequently
accurate, they
'ere embedded in social codes, and in messages about the nature
of exis-
_,:nce. In their statements about the cause of disease, the Fore
also consid-
;"t.:d those conditions under which a threatened society might
ultimately
,:dure.
KURU AND SORCERlJ

2
As he passed through the hamlets at Arnusi during an Australian
govern-
ment patrol in the South Fore region, Patrol Officer McArthur
made a sig-
nificant notation. "Nearing one of the dwellings," he wrote in
August 1953,
"I observed a small girl sitting down beside a fire. She was
shivering vio-
lently and her head was jerking spasmodically from side to side.
I was told
that she was a victim of sorcery and would continue thus,
shivering and
unable to eat, until death claimed her wi thin a few weeks."1
Although the
disease had been mentioned in earlier government reports,2 this
was the
first official description of kuru, a fatal neurological disorder
very common
among Fore, and present to a lesser degree among neighboring
groups, but
unknown elsewhere in the world. The discussion that follows
presents kuru
as a disease entity as perceived by Western observers, and
follows the evolu-
tion of medical thought over more than two decades. Western
scientists
now consider kuru to be a slow virus infection spread by the
ingestion of
human flesh. This view contrasts with that of the Fore, who
remain con-
vinced that the illness results from the malevolent activities of
Fore
sorcerers.

CLINICAL FEATURES OF KURU
A Fore word meaning trembling or fear, kuru is marked
primarily by
symptoms of cerebellar dysfunction-loss of balance,
incoordination
(ataxia), and tremor. An initial shivering tremor usually
progresses to com-
plete motor incapacity and death in about a year. Women, the
prime victims
8 9
,
J
N (
.--- ......
,.,'" "'
j-/. KagL; I
I' - .Ibusa I
Klanosa. /
'..... NORTH /Uwaml.
....... A"':'ande FORE 1'/
( .
,- _./'- - --.. . J"'" •Pusarasa(
--_..... -./..... - '-_ -Okapa
....... ~

' . .Yasubl
" .AmuSI Yagusa '.
Tamogavisa. A 'K· • .Okasa mora elagasa
) Igltaru. • _ Wanitabe • Kasokana
/ Kume· • .......,
..... Yagareba • '--'
(. •. Wanda
Menlilesa •. Kamila • Abomotasa
Intamatasa. Walsa ,I
, • • Takal lIesa. )
1'1 Umasa • Kelabe I
I .• Purosa • Awarosa
Ivak,. IUva'. I • • Agakamatasa
,- _.... / Onssa Mougal· I Agamusa
/ , __ / Amusa /./-.... _-!.. " ./t Kasalal SOUTH // -
( Paili. FORE ""./
I ..... /
/ /"
(
r
r
I
I _/,,~
( ~ CENSUS DIVISIONS __ .r- ... , ....., /'

............ ~/
...... I
...... ,; o 1 2 3 4 5 miles
, I , ! ! I-- .......... _/1 Scale
P3
·~8 Settlements
the disease, may withdraw from the community at the shock of
recogniz-
.~ the first symptoms-pain in the head and limbs, and a slight
unsteadi-
55 of gait. They resume their usual gardening activities a few
weeks later,
Ilggling to control their involuntary body movements until
forced by
,):;s physical incoordination to remain at home, sedentarily
awaiting
llh.
The clinical progress of kuru is remarkably uniform. It has been
di-
vided into three stages by Dr. Carleton Gajdusek, who has made
extensive
clinical studies of the disease:
The first, or ambulant, stage is usually self-diagnosed before
others in the community are aware that the patient is ill. There
is subjective [self-perceived] unsteadiness of stance and gait
and often of the voice, hands and eyes as well. Postural insta-
bility with tremor and titubation [body tremor while walking]
and ataxia of gait are the first signs. Dysarthria [slurring of

speech] starts early and speech progressively deteriorates as the
disease advances. Eye movements are ataxic.... A convergent
A woman in the primary
stage of kuru, steadied by
her husband. Note abo
normal position of her left
arm and hand.
10
strabismus [crossed eyes] often appears early in the disease and
persists. Tremors are at first no different from those of slight
hypersensitivity to cold; the patient shivers inordinately. In-
coordination affects the lower extremities before progressing to
involve the upper extremities. Patients arising to a standing
posture often stamp their feet as though angry at them. In at-
tempting to maintain balance when standing, the toes grip and
claw the ground more than usual. Very early in the disease the
inability to stand on one foot for many seconds is a helpful
diagnostic clue.... In the latter part of this first stage, the
patient usually takes a stick to walk about the village unaided
by others.
The second, or sedentary, stage is reached when the
patient can no longer walk without complete support. Tremors
and ataxia become more severe and a changing rigidity of the
Pregnant young kuru victim
goes to work in her garden
supported by stick. She was
dead a few months later, less
than a year after the first
symptoms appeared. Photo

by Dr. D. Carleton Ga;dusek.
A middle-aged kuru vic-
tim braces herself with
both arms to maintain
balance while sitting.
Photo by Dr. D. Carle-
ton Ga;dusek.
An elderly kuru victim
who can no longer walk
waits for the other
women to return from
their gardens. Despite
the heat of the sun, she
feels chilled.
12
limbs often develops, associated with widespread [repetitive
muscular spasms], or sometimes shock-like muscle jerks and
occasionally coarser [irregular, involuntary] movements, espe-
cially when the patient is thrown into an exaggerated startle
response by postural instability, or by sudden exposure to noise
or bright light. Deep tendon reflexes are usually normal. Al-
though muscle activity is poorly maintained there is no real
weakness or muscle atrophy. Emotional lability, leading to out-
bursts of pathological laughter [is] frequent, sometimes even
appearing in the first stage of the disease, and smiling and
laughter are terminated slowly.... Some patients, especially
adolescent and young adult males, become depressed, and a
rare patient develops a pathological belligerence [in response
to] disturbances by family members or others. Mental slo.wing
is apparent, but severe dementia is conspicuously absent. No

sensory changes have been noted....
The third, or terminal, stage is reached when the patient
is unable to sit up without support, and ataxia, tremor and
dysarthria become progressively more severe and incapacitat-
ing. Tendon reflexes may become exaggerated.... Some cases
show characteristic ... defects of posture and movement. Ter-
minally, urinary and faecal incontinence develop and dysphagia
[difficulty swallowing] leads to thirst and starvation and
the patient becomes mute and unresponsive. Deep ulcera-
tions [of the skin over bony prominences and] pneumonia
appear in this stage and the patient finally succumbs, usually
emaciated, but occasionally quickly enough t-o be still well
nourished.J
HEORIES OF THE ETIOLOGY OF KURU
_.t first, kuru was thought by Westem observers to be a
psychosomatic
)henomenon, "directly associated with the threat and fear of
what was
:,clieved to be a particularly malignant form of sorcery."4 A
provisional
,Iedical diagnosis of the first case sent to the Australian
govemment hospi-
.•1 at Kainantu for close observation in r955 elicited a diagnosis
of "acute
;?steria in an otherwise healthy woman."s In r957, Drs. Vincent
Zigas
:orking for the Papua New Guinea Department of Health) and
Gajdusek
(rom the United States National Institutes of Health) began an
intensive
Ludy of the disease, and Gajdusek was soon to write in a note to
the

,! thropologist Ronald Bemdt:
We cannot yet claim any clues to its pathogenesis, and
infectious and toxic factors which might be responsible for its
etiology have thus far eluded us. However-and most unfortu-
nately for us-all the guidance is pointing toward the vast
group of chronic-progressive-heredo-familial degenerations of
the central nervous system.... We have recently had the assis-
tance and advice of Dr. Sinclair, Director of Psychiatry from
the Royal Melbourne Hospital, and he agrees with our current
opinion that fatal kuru ... cannot by any stretch of the imagi-
nation be identified with hysteria, psychoses or any known ...
psychologically-induced illnesses ... the evidence for direct
central nervous system damage is far too great in the strabis-
mus, and pictures ... of advanced neurological disease shown
by the advanced cases.6
Later the same year, 1957, Gajdusek and Zigas published their
first
medical assessment. They emphasized the high incidence of
kuru in cer-
tain families and hamlets, its localization to the Fore and
adjacent peoples
with whom they intermarried, and its predilection for children
and adult
women. 7
The boundaries of the kuru region as defined by these
investigators in
1957 have changed little since that time, although the region of
high inci-
dence has gradually been contracting.8 The kuru region
comprises most of
the Okapa Subdistrict of the Eastern Highlands District, a
population of

over 40,000, belonging to nine language groups and
representing about one-
fifth of the population of the Eastern Highlands District. The
Lamari River
to the southeast and a large expanse of uninhabited country to
the south-
west sharply separate the southernmost Fore villages, which are
regularly
afflicted with kuru, from the Kukukuku and Yar populations,
who have
never experienced the disease. Elsewhere, the boundaries of
kuru incidence
are not sharply defined. To the east, Awa and Auyana peoples
rarely contract
kuru. North of Fore, kuru has occurred in Usurufa villages and
in the adjoin-
ing part of Kamano. Some Yate and Yagaria peoples to the
northwest have
been affected, and to the west kuru is found in those parts of
Kanite,
Keiagana, and Gimi which border Fore territory.
Because kuru seemed to run in families and was localized to a
small
interrelated population, a genetic basis for the disease was
suspected. In the
late 1950'S, it was proposed that kuru was a hereditary disorder,
determined
by a single autosomal gene that was dominant in females but
recessive in
males. 9 The implications of such a hypothesis were somber. By
the mid-
195 0 'S, Highland men had been encouraged to participate as
migrant labor-
ers under the provisions of the Highlands Labour Scheme,
administered

from Goroka. Each worker signed a two-year contract. Although
the gov-
ernment employed some of these men on public works, the
majority were
under contract to private copra, cocoa, and rubber plantations in
coastal and
island regions of Papua New Guinea, where labor w:lS scarce.
The laborers
received food, clothing, lodging, transport, and medical
attention. Half their
low wages was deferred and paid in a lump sum at the
termination of the
contract. Government officials and kuru investigators debated
whether it
would now be possible to erect an invisible fence aroWld the
Fore, to pre-
14 15
vent their participation in the Highlands Labour Scheme, and to
discourage
the exodus of the affected population from the region. Only if
such a plan
were found feasible and morally acceptable, it was said, could
other peo-
ples be protected against the lethal kuru gene. In the meantime,
Fore
would continue to transmit the disease one to the other until
their tragic
extinction.
The investigation of kuru in the 1950'S was hampered by a lack
of
information about Fore kinship. As we shall see in Chapter 4,

many of the
supposedly related kuru victims were not closely related
biologically, but
were kin in an improvised, non-biological sense. An analysis of
the Fore
kinship system does not support a purely genetic interpretation
of the dis-
ease. Moreover, as John Mathews, a physician whose study of
kuru began in
1963, noted:
This purely genetic model, if true, implied that kuru must
have been of remote evolutionary origin and that it ought to
have been in epidemiological equilibrium. It was soon apparent
that kuru was too common and too fatal to be a purely genetic
disorder unless the hypothetical kuru gene was maintained at
high frequency by a mechanism of balanced polymorphism.
There was no evidence to support the latter suggestion. to
In other words, an inevitably fatal genetic disorder could not
reach the
incidence kuru then had among the South Fore without soon
killing off the
host population, unless the gene for kuru in some other way
conferred a
selective survival advantage.
Anthropological evidence gathered in 1962 by Robert Glasse
and my-
self from dozens of Fore informants indicated that kuru had
spread slowly
through Fore villages within living memory, and that its
progress through
Fore territory followed a specific, traceable route. Entering
from a Keiagana
village to their northwest around 1920, the disease, according to

Fore tes-
timony, proceeded down their eastern border, and then swung
westward
into central South Fore. From this point, it turned again to the
north and
also continued to move south. Its appearance in the extreme
south was thus
relatively late, and many people gave persuasive accounts of
their first en-
counter with the disease.
Owata lnot his real namel of Wanitabe was about 55 years of
age when
he described his experience with kuru:
When I was a young boy, I didn't know anything about kuru. I
was initiated [at 9 or 10 years] and I still hadn't seen kuru. It
wasn't until I was married that I first saw it. That was true of
many places around here. I visited Purosa and Aga Yagusa, and
it wasn't there. I heard rumors of it at Kasokaso before it came
to Wanitabe. My mother died of kuru at Wanitabe. I was mar-
ried then, but it was before I had any children. She wasn't the
first to die of it here; a few other women died of it before her.
When I heard it arrived at Kamila, I went to Kamila to
look at it. Men asked at first, /lIs it sickness or what? 1111
Then
they said that men worked it [Le., caused it by sorcery]. We
fought against Kamila after this. We were angry with them be-
cause all the women were dying of kuru. We asked them where
we would get wives from if this continued.... Then some men
of Wanitabe purchased it [Le., paid for knowledge of the
sorcery
technique] from Kamila, and now we get it here too. Now it
has spread everywhere. In the past, we fought only with bow

and arrow. Then kuru came and killed the women one by one. I
can't see of course, since I am blind, but I hear others talking
about it, and they say it kills everyone now.
This places the arrival of kuru at Kamila in the late 1920S, and
at
Wanitabe by about 1930. The first cases at Purosa, six miles
south of
Wanitabe, are also associated with a sorcery purchase from
Kamila at about
the same time, in the early 1930'S. A week after the death from
kuru of a
twenty-year-old Purosa youth in 1962, his mother llnatal, his
mother's
mother IAsa'inal, and her husband ITano) speak of the first
appearance of the
disease at Purosa:
Asa'ina (grandmother): Kuru came to Purosa only recently. I
had carried all my children and my hair was white before
it came here.
Question: Was Inata married?
Inata (mother): Yes, I had given birth to all my five chil-
dren.... my first child, a son, was about ten years old.
Inata (in response to question): We were afraid when we first
saw kuru. We asked the men what kind of sickness it
was, and they told us it was kuru.... When it first ar-
rived, only one woman would get it, then a little later,
another. Now, since the tetegina [red people, that is,
"whites"] have arrived, plenty of people get the disease.
Question: Can you remember the names of the first people

here to get kuru?
Tano (husband of Asa'ina, interjecting): These two can't re-
member. I can. The first woman to get it here was Agiso.
She lived in a house on this hill. We were free of it in the
past. Then we heard rumors of this trembling thing, this
kuru, at Kasokana. From Kasokana it came to Wanikanto
where four women got it. Still we didn't have it, we had
only heard of it. Then the men of Kamila had four
women who died of it, and still we had only heard of it.
Then Agiso, who was a Kamila woman, came here to live
and she wasn't here long before she died of it. She left her
16
17
The site of the first case of kuru in the region is a
UWAMI, maner of controversy between the peoples involved
(KEIAGANA)-- -- - -- -'-.,
KAGA AWANDE "
1941 (NORTH FORE)
PAIGATASA '-'
1942 ...........
"-- MIARASA "-
~41

YASUBI
1940

KEIAGASA
/1940
AMORA )
/'" 1933 '--
KANIGATASA, WANIKANTO
1935 - KUME '- I 1927
1934 WANITABEMENTILE~ ·1~ 1934 KAMILA
')940:;:>1'. WAISA / 1927 ~ASOKANA
1930 1922
U~9~A _ TAKAI . ILESA
1937 ~ PUROSA 1946 ~
./ 1933 AWAROSA
IVAKI ~ ~ 1940
1936 "'- AGAKAMATASA
1938
MAP 4

Epidemiological Map of Kuru
SOURCE: Adapted from J.D. Mathews 1971, Page 134.
(unpublished thesis)
husband at Kamila and came to marry a man here at
Purosa. She was a young woman when she died, about
eighteen or twenty years old [her age is conveyed by
comparing her to another girl now living]. The next to die
of it was a woman called Alakanto ... and we saw that it
had come to us and we wondered who had purchased it
and brought it here.... I was married with one child, a
18
daughter called Tabelo who was about five years old [in-
dicating a child of similar age in the group] when Agiso
died.... This was a child of my first wife. I married
Asa'ina later.
From scores of such accounts there emerges a broad chronology
of the
spread of kuru, with its arrival in some northwestern and
southeastern areas
convincingly dated as late as the 1940'S.
Fore accounts had a ring of epidemiological accuracy. They
noted the
initial incidence of kuru among women, and describe its
subsequent shift to
children of both sexes and to adult men. They also indicated
uncertainty in
the diagnosis of early cases. At Umasa, the first case occurred
in a woman
who had arrived recently from the North Fore. A young widow,
she had been

inherited in marriage by her husband's age-mate, and people at
Umasa were
puzzled by her illness. Noting that her tremor resembled the
swaying of the
casuarina tree, they supposed that she had a shaking disorder
called cassow-
ary disease, by the further analogue that cassowary quills
resemble waving
casuarina fronds. They fed the victim pork and casuarina bark, a
homeopathic treatment that gave little relief. When the woman's
brothers
came to visit her, they, having already seen the disease, told the
people of
Umasa what it was.
Many people first called the disease negi nagi, a Fore term
meaning
silly or foolish person, because women afflicted with the
ailment laughed
immoderately. In those early days, our informants said, they
joked and took
sexual levities with the sick women as they do with those who
manifest
temporary mental derangement or bizarre behavior. When it
became appar-
ent that the victims were uniformly dying, they were forced to
conclude
that the matter was more serious than they had thought, and that
sorcerers
were at work. Early medical reports also emphasized the
sufferers' emo-
tional lability, leading to the unfortunate characterization of
kuru in the
Australian press as "the laughing death." Only a minority of the
patients
examined in the 1960'S were said to smile or laugh

inappropriately; it is
possible that the clinical features of the disease have
changed.12
CANNIBALISM
In 1962 and 1963, Robert Glasse and I presented evidence
gathered in two
extended stays among the Fore that kuru had spread through the
Fore popu-
lation in recent times, and that its high incidence in the early
1960'S was
related to the cannibal consumption of deceased kuru victims.
We also
provided evidence that for the South Fore, the depletion of
women was a
recent phenomenon. 1J Our cannibalism hypothesis seemed to
fit the
epidemiological evidence. The first Australian government
patrols in the
late 1940'S reported cannibalism throughout the entire kuru
region. By
19
T )5 I, the Berndts, living on the North Fore borders, noted that
government
'ntcrvention had put a stop to cannibalism in that area, although
it was still
'I ;Icticed surreptitiously farther afield. The South Fore
confirmed the
:'.cmdt's observation. One elderly man from Wanitabe said in
1962 that the

,:xhortations of the first patrol (1947) were disregarded. "We
hid and ate
"cople still. Then the luluais [government-appointed
localleaders]and tul-
,~11s [their appointed assistants] tried to stop us, but we hid
from them, too.
'Je only stopped when the big road came through from Okapa to
Purosa
I l) 55]." Thus, in the South Fore, the area with the highest
incidence of
.uru, cannibalism had continued later than in the North.
When a body was considered for human consumption, none of it
was
:iscarded except the bitter gall bladder. In the deceased's old
sugarcane
~:nden, maternal kin dismembered the corpse with a bamboo
knife and
:wne axe. They first removed hands and feet; then cut open the
arms and
,~gs to strip out the muscles. Opening the chest and belly, they
avoided
~;pturing the gall bladder, whose bitter contents would ruin the
meat. After
:vering the head, they fractured the skull to remove the brain.
Meat, vis-
,era, and brain were all eaten. Marrow was sucked from cracked
bones, and
'1metimes the pulverized bones themselves were cooked and
eaten with
~! cen vegetables. In North Fore, but not in the South, the
corpse was buried
If several days, then exhumed and eaten when the flesh had
"ripened" and

he maggots could be cooked as a separate delicacy.14
Thus, little was wasted, but not all bodies were eaten. Fore did
not eat
lcople who died of dysentery or leprosy, or who had had yaws.
Kuru victims,
:!Owever, were viewed favorably, the layer of fat on those who
died rapidly
:i~ightening the resemblance of human flesh to pork, the most
favored pro-
.:.:in. Nor were all body parts eaten by everyone. For instance,
the buttocks
It Fore men were reserved for their wives, while female
maternal cousins
{cccived the arms and legs. Most significantly, not all Fore
were cannibals.
Although cannibalism by males occurred more frequently in the
North,
,()uth Fore men rarely ate human flesh, and those who did
(usually old men)
',::li.d they avoided eating the bodies of women. Young children
residing apart
; rom the men in small houses with their mothers, ate what their
mothers
':lVe them. Initiated boys moved at about the age of ten to the
communal
;(luse shared by the adult men of the hamlet, thus abandoning
the lower-
:!::lSS world of immaturity, femininity and cannibalism. As will
be discussed
: II greater detail in Chapter 10, men in this protein-scarce
society claimed
[:1': preferred form of protein (wild boar, domestic pigs),

whereas women
,upplemented their lesser allotment of pork with small game,
insects, frogs,
'nd dead humans. Women who assisted a mother in childbirth
ate the
,y!acenta. Both cannibalism and kuru were thus largely limited
to adult
",,'omen, to children of both sexes, and to a few old men,
matching again the
:pidemiology of kuru in the early 1960'S.
As mentioned earlier, body parts were not randomly distributed.
The
Young girl holds up rat she caught and
will cook with the bagged vegetables at
her feet.
corpse was due those who received pigs and valuables by rights
of kinship
and friendship with the deceased (primarily maternal kin), and
the gift 'had
to be reciprocated. Pig and human were considered equivalent.
The death of
a breeding sow in 1962 evoked the following speech of
mourning: "This was
a human being, not a pig. One old woman among us has died."
Pig and
human were dismembered and allocated in similar fashion.
Among South
Fore, a man's brain could be eaten by his sister, and in the
North, by his
sister as well as his son's wife and maternal aunts and uncles. A
woman's
brain, perhaps the most significant body matter in transmission
of the dis-

ease, was said to be given to her son's wife or her brother's
wife.
Ethnographic accounts of the consumption of the first kuru
victim in
a certain location also describe cases four to eight years later
among those
who had eaten the victim. IS Moreover, the average risk of kuru
in wives of
kuru victims' brothers was three to four times as great as that in
a control
group of women who were not related either genetically or by
marriage to
kuru victims. Furthermore, the risk of kuru in females related to
kuru
victims by marriage only (4 I percent) was almost as high as the
risk in
females genetically related to kuru victims (5 I percent), 16
This conforms to
the stated regulation that brothers' wives receive the victim's
brain, and the
20
21
lpportunity of these women to participate in kuru cannibalism
along with
Lhe victim's mother, sisters, and daughters. The distribution of
human flesh
~!r consumption thus crossed genetic lines much as the
distribution of
!~uru did.
THE ADOPTION OF CANNIBALISM

Fore had not been cannibals for long. Within the zone of
cannibal peoples to
the east and south of Goroka, they may have been among the
last to include
human flesh in their diet. Cannibalism was adopted by the
Kamano and
;~eiagana-Kanite before it became customary among Fore.
North Fore say
they were imitating these northern neighbors when they became
cannibals
around the tum of the century, while among South Fore,
cannibalism began
as recently as fifty or sixty years ago, or about a decade before
the appear-
:mce of kuru there. Old people in the South Fore, whose
memory of the
matter appears unclouded, describe their attraction to human
flesh. There
was no thought of acquiring the power or personality of the
deceased. Nor is
it correct to speak of ritual cannibalism, although many medical
and jour-
nalistic accounts do so.17 While the finger and jaw bones of
some relatives
were retained for supernatural communication, Fore attitudes
toward the
hodies they consumed revolved around their fertilizing, rather
than their
moral, effect. Dead bodies buried in gardens encouraged the
growth of
crops. In a similar manner human flesh, like pig meat, helps
some humans
regenerate. The flesh of the deceased was thought particularly
suitable for
invalids.

As a Wanitabe man born about 1890 said: "The Ibusas [North
Fore]
were visiting the Kamano and saw them stealing and eating
good men. They
heard it was sweet to taste, and tried it themselves. I was about
ten years old
when we heard these stories." North of Fore, then, aggressive
exocan-
nibalism, or the eating of dead enemies, appears to have been
the prevailing
practice. Among South Fore, however, it was usual to eat kin or
people of
one's own residential group after they had died
(endocannibalism).
A variable enthusiasm for human flesh runs from Goroka
through the
Fore area, coming to an abrupt halt in the southeast, where the
Awa, in
contrast to their Fore neighbors, were not cannibals at all. This
is a gradient
that matches an environmental shift from grassland groups for
whom hunt-
ing plays but a small part in the diet18 to the Fore, who have
not yet denuded
their land of forest and for whom until recently wild game was
readily
available. By 1962, traditional gifts of wild protein between
matrilateral kin
were rare in the South Fore; possum and cassowary were being
replaced by
chicken and canned fish purchased at the local trade store. The
last wild
boar injury in Wanitabe occurred around 1940, and by 1970
South Fore

groups who had supplied feathers for the northward trade began
to buy them
from the forest-dwelling Kukukuku further south. A less
agricultural recent
A hamlet and ad;oining gardens recently
carved out of the forest. Grass and scrub are
overtaking the older, abandoned site above.
Photo and legend by Dr. E. R. Sorenson from
The Edge of the Forest, Smithsonian Institu-
tion Press, 1976.
23
22
";lSt is portrayed in Fore stories of men and their humanoid
dogs encounter-
~lg possum, birds, snakes, and flying foxes. Fore also have an
elaborate
:uological classsification system, which represents a relict of
vanishing
:llnting habits. 19
Population increases in the region and the conversion to the
sweet
;Jil(ato as a dietary staple thus appear to have lead to the
progressive re-
:Iloval of forest and animal life, to cultivation methods
involving more
~omplete tillage of the soil, and to the keeping of domestic pig
herds, which
~()mpensate for the loss of wild protein. As the forests protein
sources be-
::ame depleted, Fore men met their needs by claiming prior

right in pork,
.':hile women adopted human flesh as their supplemental habus,
a Melane-
:;ian pidgin term meaning "meat" or "small game." Fore still
refer to the
human corpse and the stillborn infant as "the true habus of
women." Men
.tt Awarosa, who insisted that cannibalism was a female habit,
argued that
LEFT One stage in slash-and-bum
agriculture: felled trees are drying
before the garden is set afire.
BELOW A mixed garden of sweet
potato, surgarcane, and beans.
in this southeastern Fore region there was "plenty of habus in
the forest for
men." They noted, in addition, that "if we men ate people, we
would fall ill
with respiratory disorders and our flesh would waste away," a
rationale they
also gave for their initial rejection of chicken/lmore will be said
about these
attitudes in relation to pollution in Chapter 10). Traditional
male curers
guarded their powers and are said never to have practiced
cannibalism.
The case of the non-cannibal, grass-dwelling Awa does not
weaken the
supposition that human flesh is ingested as a relevant source of
dietary
protein. 20 Fore at Awarosa report the neighboring Awa as
saying they have

never been cannibals. "We have no forests of our own," they
reportedly told
the Fore, "so we give you Our sisters in marriage, and in
exchange we eat
your habus." The Awa SOurces of protein were pigs given them
as brideprice,
and subsequent gifts of wild protein received as birth payments
each time
their sisters gave birth to children. Ronald Berndt also takes
seriously Fore
statements on the value of human flesh. Noting that in the
1950'S pigs were
not plentiful, he records a story in which Fore first taste human
flesh. "This
is sweet," they said. "What is the matter with us, are we mad?
Here is good
food and we have neglected to eat it."21
Epidemiological evidence reported in the mid-1960'S indicated
that
the age and sex distribution of kuru was changing. Young
children were less
often affected, and the disorder was mOre often seen in
adolescents and
young adult men and women, as well as in older women.
Moreover, the
overall incidence fell in all areas except the Gimi.22 A purely
genetic expla-
nation of kuru no longer seemed plausible.
KURU AS A SLOW VIRUS
After the first clinical descriptions of kuru were published, this
unusual
disorder attracted considerable international attention. In
England, W J.

Hadlow, working on scrapie, a degenerative disease of the
central nervous
system in sheep, pointed to the remarkable similarities in the
clinical and
pathological features of kuru and scrapie. Moreover, the disease
of sheep
was transmissible by inoculation.23 Unlike most infectious
disorders, which
have a relatively short incubation period, scrapie did not
become manifest
until many years after inoculation. Stimulated by the parallel
with scrapie,
Gajdusek and his coworkers at the National Institutes of Health
in
Bethesda, Maryland, injected the brains of chimpanzees with
brain material
from Fore patients who had died of kuru, and in 1966 they
reported that
after incubation periods of up to fifty months, the chimpanzees
had de-
veloped a clinical syndrome astonishingly akin to human
kuru.24 Kuru, like
scrapie, thus appeared to be a viral disease of extraordinarily
long incuba-
tion, a "slow virus infection."
This finding lent support to our idea that the disease had
reached
epidemic proportions among the Fore as a result of the eating of
dead kuru
25
iictims. That hypothesis had also assumed that kuru would not

strike those
:,om after the abandonment of cannibalism, which in South Fore
occurred
:s a result of government and missionary intervention in the
middle to late
I9S0'S.25 The prediction now appears substantiated by the
virtual disappear-
:nce of kuru among children, and by the earlier decline in
childhood cases
,1110ng North Fore, where government influence suppressed
cannibalism
'cars earlier than in the South or in the Gimi, where childhood
kuru occur-
cd until 1970.26 The Gimi, even more remote from government
influence
:han South Fore, continued as cannibals for longer.
Epidemiological data gathered between 1970 and 1977
strengthen the
.iypothesis that kuru is a disease transmitted by cannibalism and
caused by
) slow virus with an extremely long period of incubation. There
has been a
,:ontinued decline in the annual incidence of the disease,
particularly in
ll'males. The greater decline of new cases in females can be
explained by the
[Jct that those who ate human flesh as adults were
predominantly women,
and they have already died of kuru. They leave behind an
increasing major-
i ty of new cases resulting from childhood ingestion of the
virus, a condi tion
:or which both sexes were equally at risk since cannibal flesh
was consumed

:qually by male and female children. With the passage of time,
the sex ratio
,)j new kuru victims should thus approach pari ty. This has
already occurred
in North Fore, where government influence eliminated
cannibalism earlier,
:md a similar trend is now appearing in the South.27 Moreover,
while there
'Ncre two twelve-year-old patients With kuru in 1970, the
youngest current
~ase in May 1978 was more than 20 years old. Thus both
childhood and
,dolescent cases have disappeared completely. The only Fore
and Gimi cur-
ently coming down With kuru are those who participated in
cannibal meals
"rior to 1955.
Recent data also allow us to delineate the behavior of the virus
more
:nccisely. Since the youngest victim is now twenty-five, while
the youngest
l<ltients ever seen have been four years of age,28 the virus may
be estimated
.() have a minimum incubation period of roughly two years
[from the first
.ligestion of solid meat) and a potential maximum of at least
twenty-three
·cars. This upward limit may be raised as data are gathered in
the next few
.'Cars, but the pattern already known depicts an extraordinary
infectious
lilness in which symptoms may appear decades after the causal
event.

While the means by which the disease was transmitted thus
seems
,'[arified, kuru continues to provoke scientific curiosity. Recent
research has
:fJcused on the pathogenesis of slow virus infections, on
documenting of
:,;w epidemiological trends, and on attempts to establish the
kuru virus in
-issue culture. 29
The pathogenic agent responsible for the disease has recently
been
:~,olated and transmitted to spider, capuchin, squirrel, rhesus,
woolly, and
,narmoset monkeys, as well as to chimpanzees, yet the virus
itself has
roved elusive. It seems to elicit in its host none of the usual
immune
responses. Kuru does not produce detectable antibodies. Nor has
the virus
been depicted under the electron microscope. As the first
chronic or sub-
acute degenerative disease of humans proven to be a slow virus
infection,
however, kuru has stimulated the search fo~ virus infections in
other sub-
acute and chronic human diseases, particularly of the nervous
system. Mul-
tiple sclerosis is the most common central nervous system
disorder believed
(though in this case not yet proven) to be caused by a slow virus
infection.311

The evidence for other neurological diseases is more
conclusive. For exam-
ple, it now appears that Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, one of the
presenile
dementias (mental deterioration at a relatively young age) that
occur spo-
radically and in familial patterns in humans throughout the
world, is also
transmissible to chimpanzees and monkeys, and is caused by a
virus with
properties much like those of the kuru virus.31 Moreover, the
incidence of
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease among Jews of North African and
Middle Eastern
origin in Israel is thirty times the rate for Jews of European
origin. Since
only the former customarily eat the eyeballs and brains of
sheep, scrapie-
infected sheep tissue has been suggested as the source of
infection.32
Two other rare disorders of the central nervous system-subacute
sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) and progressive
multifocalleukoenceph-
alopathy (PML)-have been shown to be due to slow virus
infection. 33
The kuru model may also apply to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis,
Al-
zheimer's disease, and other presenile or senile dementias. 34
Thus, as research proceeds, the concept of a related group of
diseases
of viral etiology has emerged. These are all virally transmitted
diseases of
the brain, infections that do not provoke the typical
inflammatory response,

caused by viruses with very unconventional properties. The
kuru agent
remains stable on storage at 70°e. for many years and after
freeze-drying. It
is not totally inactivated when subjected to a temperature of
85°e. for thirty
minutes. 35 Fore cooking methods therefore did not destroy the
kuru virus.
After the brain of a dead person was removed from the skull,
the tissue was
squeezed to a pulp and steamed in bamboo cylinders at
temperatures that
would not completely inactivate the virus, since in high
altitudes water
boils at 90-95 0 No serological tests for the virus have been
found. There is •
no evidence of an immune response, and no antibodies have
been detected.
Nor is there evidence of an antigen related to any of the more
than fifty
known virus antigens. 36 Yet the kuru-scrapie agents persist in
laboratory
cultures of infected brain tissue, and they are readily
transmissible in
extremely low dilutions by intravenous, intramuscular, or
subcutaneous
injection, and from tissues other than brain (pooled liver,
kidney, spleen,
and lymph nodes).37
Kuru has not yet been transmitted to animals via the
gastrointestinal
tract. Gajdusek therefore has suggested that a likely route of
infection from
contaminated brain was through the skin, entering either
through cuts and

sores or upon being rubbed by unwashed hands into the nose or
eyes.38
26 27
Research continues on the question of susceptibility to the
agent, and
on refining our know ledge of its properties. Kuru is already an
established
l.1ndmark in neurology and virology. In neurology, it is the
first human
degenerative disease shown to be caused by a virus. In virology,
it is the first
;1Uman disease shown to be caused by a novel kind of viral
agent. 39 The
implications of the discovery of the slow virus etiology of kuru
for the
understanding of other diseases have only begun to be explored.
The Fore
experience will be remembered for decades to come as
investigators use the
kuru model in their search for the cause of disease in other
populations of
the world.
:ORE SORCERY
,(1 this day, Fore universally believe that kuru is caused by
malicious sor-
·.:rcrs in their midst. Early observers of the Fore population
were struck not
-'lily by the concern of the people with this strange and
dramatic disease,
.Jut by their more general focus on sorcery. In the report of

August 1953
;uoted at the beginning of this chapter, Patrol Officer McArthur
wrote: "In
'-] i s area, I regard sorcery as a powerful foe .... Its results are
serious. Even
nce the last patrol in December 1952, it has caused one tribal
fight and two
" <;crtions of ground [evacuations of hamlets] .... There are ... a
large
t:mber of sorcerers."
Fore have a powerful reputation as sorcerers among other
populations
J the reginn.~o As far away as Kainantu and Hcnganofi, forty
miles and two
i three days' walk from Wanitabe, people believe that methods
and ingre-
imts can be obtained from Fore,41 while their immediate
neighbors view
,ile with considerable anxiety. Gimi have a particular fear of
sorcery
i);mating from their eastern neighbors,~2 and Kamano confide
that they
"ke special care not to throwaway scraps of food (which can be
used
:Jinst them in sorcery bundles I while parties of Fore are
visiting. Keiagana
!ll1it to a similar caution about providing Fore with potential
sorcery
:nerials, and when traveling in Fore territory they deposit sweet
potato
!cl sugarcane skins in their string bags, to discard on the return
home.
;llth Fore at Ilesa, by contrast, pay no heed to their food scraps
or feces

!lile visiting the Awa, but resume Vigilance as soon as they
return to home
ri tory. Not only do neighboring peoples fear Fore, but Fore fear
one
'Ither.
Patrol Officer Colman's 1955 report describes South Fore
hamlets
;ricaded behind wooden constructions and impenetrable
canegrass.
:uss the entrance corridor to the hamlet lies a small gate. "When
all the
":ple are inside after dark," he writes, "this gate is closed and
generally a
'try is posted. These precautions stop intending sorcerers from
entering
.: hamlet.... Some of the men's houses have an additional
encircling
;ckade for the same reason." Commenting on sanitation and
hygiene, he
28
adds: liThe fault in most native areas is a shallow latrine," but
Fore anxiety
to keep excreta from potential sorcerers results in the
construction by South
Fore of " a latrine hole that seems bottomless."43
In recent years the Fore reputation for sorcery has become
widespread.
New Guinea and Australian newspapers carry occasional
accounts of
sorcery-related deaths in the Okapa region,44 and in 1973 the

government's
Law Department inquired into allegations of fifty to sixty
sorcery-linked
deaths a year at Okapa said to be caused by professional killers
who were
being paid up to five hundred dollars for murder "contracts."4S
The distribution of kuru lends credence to the belief that Fore
sorcery
is vastly more powerful than that of their neighbors. While kuru
is present
Barricaded hamlet en-
trance. Photo and legend
by Dr. E. R. Sorenson
from The Edge of the
Forest, Smithsonian Institu-
tion Press, 1976.
29
: n surrounding populations (as mentioned earlier, 20 percent of
kuru deaths
.::lch year occur among other peoples), the prevalence of the
disease is mark-
:dly higher among Fore, particularly South Fore. In 1964 it was
estimated
,llat Gimi males had only one chance in twenty-five of dying
from kuru,
_':hile the risk for South Fore males exceeded one in five. For
females, the
tllain victims of the disease, the difference was even greater.
Eighty-four
:'~rcent of Gimi women had a chance of surviving the

reproductive period
:":ithout a fatal attack of kuru, but fewer than one in ten South
Fore women
:l1ight do so. The average life expectancy for South Fore
women born in the
mid- 1 960's was estimated at little over twenty years.
46 That the South Fore
were engaged in dangerous sorcery seemed incontestable.
OTHER
MEDICAL DISORDERS
3
Apart from kuru, the diseases suffered by Fore are similar to
those found in
many other Highland peoples. Some of these populations show
striking
fluctuations in size from year to year, as do the Fore, which
points to infec-
tious disease as a major determinant of mortali ty among
Highlanders.
During the late 1930'S and early 1940'S, a number of epidemics
swept
southward through the Fore region-mumps, measles, whooping
cough,
and dysentery. Many people died, but the new diseases were not
regarded by
Fore as new forms of sorcery, although the loss of certain
important men lay
behind later sorcery accusations between some local groups.
The simul-

taneous incapacitation of large numbers of people is what Fore
recall most
vividly about these epidemics. Disorganization of labor was at
times so
great that normal agricultural activities were halted, and the
ripening com
and cucumbers are said to have rotted while people lay
recovering in their
houses. Aware that the dysentery epidemic of 1943 had swept
down upon
thein like a great wind from the north, South Fore at Purosa
responded by
refusing visitors access to their hamlets, and by persuading
fellow residents
to remain at home until the epidemic had passed. With clinical
perception,
Fore noted that the second wave of some diseases, sUfh as
mumps, was less
serious than the first. In 1959 and 1962, however, influenza
epidemics
caused many deaths, especially among children under the age of
five.
Discounting kuru, the commonest problems afflicting Fore at
present
are upper-respiratory infections, bronchitis, pneumonia,
diarrhea, gastroen-
teritis, and complications of childbirth. Meningitis and tetanus
also occur,
as does anemia in association with hookworm, closely spaced
pregnancies,
30 31

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NOTICE
THIS MATERIAL MAY Bi
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LAW (mLE 17 U.S. CODE)
1 . Cannibalism cross-culturally
In recent years ... cultural anthropologists have ... begun to
give the topic [cannibalism] serious analytic attention. This de-
velopment stems partly from the discovery of new facts and
partly from the realization that cannibalism - like incest,
aggres-
sion, the nuclear family, and other phenomena of universal hu-
man import - is a promising ground on which to exercise certain
tpeoretical programs. 1
Anthropological debate on the subject of cannibalism has
revolved
around three theoretical programs, each of which provides a dis-
tinctly different lens for viewing the details of cannibalism.
Psy-
chogenic hypotheses explain cannibalism in terms of the
satisfac-
tion of certain psychosexual' needs. The materialist hypothesis

presents a utilitarian, adaptive model- people adapt to hunger or
protein deficiency by eating one another. The third approach
fol-
lows a hermeneutical path rather than a hypothetico-deductive
model in conceptualizing cannibal practice as part of the
broader
cultural logic of life, death, and reproduction.
In this chapter I show that cannibalism is not a unitary phenom-
enon but varies with respect to both cultural meaning and
cultural
content. Cannibalism is never just about eating but is primarily
a
medium for nongustatory messages - messages having to do
with
the maintenance, regeneration, and, in some cases, the
foundation
of the cultural order. In statistical terms, cannibalism can be
tied
to hunger, but hunger is not necessarily tied to cannibalism (see
discussion of Table 5 in this chapter). The job of analysis, I
sug-
gest, requires a synthetic approach, one that examines how
mate-
rial and psychogenic forces are encompassed by cultural
systems.
We must look, as Geertz says, at how generic potentialities
(and, I
3
Introduction

would add, concerns stemming from material realities) are
focused
in specific performances. 2
The complexity of cannibal practice cross-culturally
The discussion that follows is based on an examination of the
sample of 156 societies I employed in an earlier study of female
power and male dominance. This group otTers scholars a repre-
sentative sample of the world's known and best-described soci-
eties. The time period for the sample societies ranges from 1750
B. C. (Babylonians) to the late 1960s. These societies are
distrib-
uted relatively evenly among the six major regions of the world
as
defined by cross-cultural anthropologists. Additionally, the
soci-
eties represented vary in level of political complexity and type.
of
subsistence technology. 3 ~~
Of the 156 societies examined, 109 yielded information that I
deemed sufficient ~nough to judge whether cannibalism could
be
classified as present or absent. One-third (34 percent) of this
sample yielded information indicating the presence of cannibal-
ism. Descriptions of cannibalism come from several types of
sources: interviews with people who have observed
cannibalistic
practices in their own society; eyewitness accounts left by
mission-
aries; tribal traditions; and accounts of travelers. Reports of
can-
nibalism are unevenly distributed in various cultural areas of
the

world. Most come from North America and the PacifIc Islands,
with reports from Africa and South America being next in the
order of frequency. Only two cases have been reported in the
Circum-Mediterranean area and no cases have been reported for
the whole of East Eurasia (see Table 1).
The descriptions of cannibalism can be classified according to
three general categories: (1) ritual cannibalism is practiced, that
is,
human flesh is regularly consumed in ritual settings; (2) ritual
can-
nibalism is not reported but institutionalized cannibalism is
men-
tioned in other contexts (i.e., reports of famine, reports of past
practice, legend, or hearsay); (3) ritual cannibalism is not
reported,
but fantasized incidents of cannibalism are feared and take the
form
of belief in cannibal sorcerers or witches.
A variety of themes appear in reports of cannibalism. The role
of hunger is frequently mentioned, and most people believe that
cannibalism may occur during times of extreme hunger and fa-
4
Cannibalism cross-culturally
Table 1. Geographical distribution of reports ofcannibalism
Cannibalism
Present Absent Row totals

Geographical area No. % No. % No. %
Sub-Saharan Africa
CirClIl1l-
Mcditcrrallcall
East Eurasia
Insular Pacific
North Al1lcriCl
South and Ccntral
America
Column totals
7
2
a
11
11
6
37 (34%)
47
IS
a
52
4R
43
8

11
23
10
12
8
72 (66%)
53
85
100
48
52
57
15
13
23
21
23
14
109 (100%)
100
100
100
100
l()()

100
mine. However, hunger cannibalism is generally treated as
revolt-
ing and reprehensible, the ultimate antisocial act, in some cases
punishable by death. Tuzin provides an excellent descri ption of
this attitude in his discussion of the Arapesh response to
Japanese
hunger cannibalism as the ultimate unthinkable act, one that im-
plied a deranged, anguished- abandonment of humanity.4 Tuzin
also mentions, however, that other groups in New Guinea
treated
hunger cannibalism as commonplace. 5
The food value of human flesh is referred to in many reports
from the Pacific. It is not clear, however, whether such reports
are
the authors' fantasy or actual fact. Quoting from a nineteenth-
century account, Sahlins notes that Fijian chiefs of the last
century
did not regard the human victim "in the shape of food," since
cannibalism was "a custom intimately connected with the whole
fabric of their society." Nevertheless these chiefs told the
Europe-
ans "that they indulged in eating (human flesh) because their
coun-
try furnished nothing but pork, being destitute of beef and all
other kinds of meat."6 Reports from the Pacific commonly
equate
human with animal flesh. The Orokaiva gave as their reason for
consuming human flesh their "desire for good food." All victims
acquired in an intertribal raid were consumed. Human corpses
were handled as if they were animals slain in the hunt. Corpses
of
grown men were tied by their hands and feet to a pole and
carried

face downward. Slain children were slung over the warrior's
shoul-
5
Introduction Cannibalism cross-culturally
der in the manner of a hunter carrying a dead wallaby, with each
hand of the body tied to each foot. 7 Lindenbaum reports that
the
Fore equated pigs and humans and applied the Melanesian
pigdin
term for meat and small game to the human flesh consumed by
women. 8 Despite the reputed equation of human flesh with
meat
in some cases, the actual consumption in these cases has
cultural
connotations beyond gustatory considerations. For example,
among the Orokaiva the primary reason for acquiring cannibal
victims in intertribal raids was to compensate for the spirit of
an
Orokaiva man killed in such a raid. Fore concepts revolved
around
the notion that human meat, like pig flesh, helps some humans
regenerate.
In many reports, the events associated with cannibalism refer
not to hunger but to the physical control of chaos. For example,
the victim is cast ~s the living metaphor for animality, chaos,
and
the powers of darkness - all those~ things people feel must be
tamed, destroyed, or assimilated in the interest of an orderly
social
life. Cannibalism is then associated with a destructive power
that

must be propitiated or destroyed, and the act of propitiation or
destruction is directly tied to social survival. The power is vari-
ously located. It may be within animals or enemies, or may be
harbored as a basic instinct in humans. When projected onto
ene-
mies, cannibalism and torture become the means by which pow-
erful threats to social life are dissipated. To revenge the loss of
one's
own, the victim taken in warfare is tortured and reduced to food
in the ultimate act of domination. At the same time, by
consuming
enemy flesh one assimilates the animus of another group's
hostile
power into one's own.
Other reports tie cannibalism to a basic human instinct that
must be controlled for the sake of internal social survival. In
these
cases cannibalism provides an idiom for deranged and antisocial
behavior. For example, in their most secret and supefl1Jturally
powerful ritual society, the Bella Coola performed a Cannibal
Dance in which they enacted their view of human nature. The
Bella Coola believed that during the per.formance of this ritual
the
cannibal dancer became possessed by an animal force that
caused
the dancer to want to bite people and filled him or her with an
insatiable desire for human flesh. 9 This force was controlled in
the
dancer with ropes, bathing, and a droning kind of singing. 10
The
close connection between the cannibal dancer and the Bella
Coola
gods adds a supernatural dimension to the Bella Coola
perception

of the cannibal instinct of humans. In staging the cannibal
ritual,
the Bella Coola found ~ way to channel powerful forces into so-
ciety and to order those forces for social purposes.
Human sacrifice with its associated cannibalism was the means
by which the Aztec gained access to the animating forces of the
universe. For the Aztec "the flowing of blood [was] eq uivalent
to
the motion of the world." "Human sacrifice," Sahlins says, "was
... a cosmological necessity in the Aztec scheme, a condition of
the continuation of the world." II The Aztec feared that when
the
gods became hungry their destructive powers would be
unleashed
against humanity. To keep the mystical forces of the universe in
balance and to uphold social equilibrium, the Aztec fed their
gods
human flesh. By the act of consecration the sacrificial victims
were
incarnated as gods. Through eating the victim's flesh, men
entered
into communion with their gods, and divine power was imparted
to men.
Exocannibalism (the cannibalism of enemies, slaves, or victims
captured in warfare), characterizes the majority of cases. In the
few
instances of endocannibalism (the cannibalism of relatives)
human
flesh is a physical channel for communicating social value and
pro-
creative fertility from one generation to the next among a group
of humans tied to one ano'ther by virtue of sharing certain sub-
stances with common ancestors. Endocannibalism recycles and
re-

generates social forces that are believed to be physically
constituted
in bodily substances or bones at the same time that it binds the
living to the dead in perpetuity.
These sketchy descriptions illustrate the diversity in the cultural
content of cannibal practice. More recent ethnographic descrip-
tions of cannibalism reach the same conclusion. Even within
the same society, cannibalism may be diversely constituted, as
Poole's description of Bimin-Kuskusmin cannibalism illustrates.
For Bimin-Kuskusmin,
the idea of cannibalism implicates a complex amalgam of
practice and
belief, history and myth, and matter-of-fact assertion or
elaborate meta-
phor. The subject enters into crass sexual insults, ribald jokes,
and re-
vered sacred oratory. It is displayed in the plight of famine, the
anguish
of mourning, and the desperation of insanity. It marks aspects
of the
social life-cycle from the impulses of the unborn to the ravages
of the
ancestors. It is projected outward as a feature of the ethnic
landscape and
6 7

Cannibalism cross-culturallyIntroduction
inward as an idiom of dreams, possession states, and other
personal fan-
tasy formations. In different contexts it may be seen as an
inhuman,
ghoulish nightmare or as a sacred, moral duty. But always it is
encom-
passed by the order of ritual and the tenor of ambivalence. The
Bimin-
Kuskusmin have no single term for "cannibalism," for the ideas
that are
implicated are constructed for particular purposes of discourse
that em-
phasize different dimensions of the phenomenon.
12
The complexity of cannibalism as a cultural practice means that
to reduce it to a dichotomous variable robs it of all cultural con-
tent.13 Nevertheless I proceed with this exercise as a means for
determining whether the kinds of exogenous forces posited by
material and psychogenic hypotheses are statistically associated
with the practice of consuming human flesh. In doing so I do
not
intend to suggest £hat culture must conform to material ~con-
straints, but rather, as Sahlins states, ::that it does so according
to
a definite symbolic scheme which is never the only one
possible." 14
Thus, if hunger is a material force to be reckoned with in
societies
practicing cannibalism, as Table 5 suggests, I argue that we

must
look at the effects of hunger and ask how these effects are
culturally
constituted. The fact that hunger is just as likely to be present
in
societies that do not practice cannibalism demonstrates
Sahlins's
point that more than one symbolic order may constitute the
effects
of a given material force. Thus, hunger is encompassed by a
cul-
tural order that includes cannibal practice in some cases and by
some other symbolic scheme, which mayor may not include a
physical referent to eating, in others.
The information presented in Tables 1-5 is based solely on re-
ports of cannibalism falling in the category of institutionalized
can-
nibalism. Reports of cannibalism as fantasy, as a past event, or
as
a periodic occurrence during times of famine are not included.
The
reason for limiting the cases to the purported regular
consumption
of human flesh derives from the stipulations on the data posed
by
the materialist hypothesis. Since the main causal variable
posited
by the materialist explanation is the ongo-ing satisfaction of
hunger
or protein deficiency, obviously the data must reflect actual as
op-
posed to fantasized or infrequent consumption of human flesh.
(In
subsequent chapters, this restriction on the data will not apply
and

the discussion will include the fear of cannibalism, whether or
not
cannibalism is thought to be actually practiced. Additionally, in
these chapters I will not be concerned with whether the
consump-
8
tion of human flesh actually takes place, because my focus will
be
on interpreting the rituals in which human flesh is purportedly
consumed.) .
The requirement that the data reflect actual instances of canni-
balism brings to mind Arens's charge that since "no one has
ever
observed this purported cultural universal," we must be
skeptical
about its actual existence. 15 A search of the literature
convinces me
that Arens overstates his case. Although he is correct in
asserting
that the attribution of cannibalism is sometimes a projection of
moral superiority, he is incorrect in arguing that cannibalism
has
never existed. Contrary to his assertion that no one has ever ob-
served cannibalism, reliable eyewitness reports do exist. In re-
sponse to Arens, Sahlins excerpts some of the nineteenth-
century
eyewitness reports from the journals of Pacific travelers. 16
Addi-
tionally, eyewitness reports presented in The Jesuit Relations
con-
tradict Arens's assertion that "[ t]he collected documents of the
Jesuit missionaries, often referred to as the source for Iroquois
cru-

elty and cannibalism, do not contain an eyewitness description
of
the latter deed." 17
One of the most compelling eyewitness reports I have encoun-
tered was penned in 1879 by a native of the Cook Islands who
was
among the first Polynesian missionaries. Upon learning to write
from European missionaries, he kept a log of his travels and
wrote
many letters, some of which described the consumption of
human
flesh. One particularly lurid but descriptive example comes
from
a report of a war that broke out in New Caledonia soon after his
arrival there as a missionary.
I followed and watched the battle and saw women taking part in
it. They
did so in order to carry off the dead. When people were killed,
the men
tossed the bodies back and the women fetched and carried them.
They
chopped the bodies up and divided them.... When the battle was
over,
they all returned home together, the women in front and the men
behind.
The womenfolk carried the flesh on their backs; the coconut-
leaf baskets
were full up and the blood oozed over their backs and trickled
down their
legs. It was a horrible sight to behold. When they reached their
homes
the earth ovens were lit at each house and they ate the slain.
Great was
their delight, for they were eating well that day. This was the

nature of
the food. The fat was yellow and the flesh was dark. It was
difficult to
separate the flesh from the fat. It was rather like the flesh of
sheep.
I looked particularly at our household's share; the flesh was
dark like
9
r .
Introduction
sea-cucumber, the fat was yellow like beef fat, and it smelt like
cooked
birds, like pigeon or chicken. The share of the chief was the
right hand
and the right foot. Part of the chief's portion was brought for
me, as for
the priest, but I returned it. The people were unable to eat it all;
the legs
and the arms only were consumed, the body itself was left. That
was the
way of cannibalism in New Caledonia. 18
More recent eyewitness evidence is reported by Poole, who wit-
nessed acts of 13imin-Kuskusmin mortuary cannibalism ;U1<.1
by
Tuzin, who describes eyewitness evidence given him by
Arapesh
informants. 19

The f:lct th:lt Arens overst:ltes his C:lse should not be taken to
mean that the thirty-seven cases of cannibalism reported in
Table
1 represent undisputed examples of actual cannibalism. The eth-
nographies upon which I relied are the best available for use in
cross-cultural research based on a standard sample. The data on
cannibalism, however, are uneven, ranging from lengthy
descrip-
tions of ritual cannibalism reconstructed from informants' recol-
lections of the past to a few sentences describing the
consumption
of the hearts of enemies. Keeping in mind the problematic
n:lture
of the data, the reader is cautioned to look for suggestive trends
in
the tables rather than irrefutable demonstrations of
relationships.
Saga 11 's psyclzogellic hypotheses
I begin by considering the hypotheses in Sagan's study of canni-
balism that can be examined within a cross-cultural framework.
These are not the only dimensions to Sagan's argument. For ex-
ample, he builds a good case for the role of emotional
ambivalence
in cannibal practice, an argument I shall return to in Chapter 2,
where I suggest that, although Sagan's contribution is important
and useful, it is limited by his particular reading of Freud.
Sagan contends that cannibalism "is the elementary form of in-
stitutionalized aggression."20 Employing the Freudian
frustration-
aggression hypothesis and the idea that "bral incorporation is
the
elementary psychological response to anger and frustration,

Sagan
hypothesizes that cannibalism is characteristic of a primitive
stage
of social development. "The undeveloped imagination of the
can-
nibal," he says, will deal with frustration through oral
aggression,
because the cannibal "is compelled to take the urge for oral
incor-
poration literally. He eats the person who, by dying, has aban-
doned him."21 Or, he eats the enemy whose very existence may
deny him strength in order to incorporate that strength into his
own body. When it occurs in more advanced social systems,
Sagan
suggests that cannibalism is a regressive response to social
disin-
tegration, for in these cases, he says, "it is inevitable that the
sat-
isfaction of aggressive needs sinks to a more primitive level."
This
happcned in Nazi Germany, "a society in a statc of psychotic
breakdown." The civilizing forces broke down under the strain
Germany experienced before the Nazis took power. Although
not
true cannibalism, Sagan says, the destruction of millions of
people,
the lamp shades of human skin, and similar practices
concentrated
on the body, exemplify the reversion to primitive aggression. 22
Citing the work of the Whitings, Sagan hypothesizes that ex-
tended nursing, a long period of sleeping with the mother, and
father absence yield children who are overly dependent on their

mothers and hence more prone to frustration and oral
aggression.
The adult male who carries this unconscious dependence upon
infantile and childhood supports and who is also expected to be
masculine and brave will need to display his masculinity and his
independence of feminine support: "He will eat people, he will
kill
people, he will make war, he wjll enslave others, and he will
dom-
inate and degrade women."23
Sagan's discussion suggests that as the elementary form of insti-
tutionalized aggression, cannibalism will occur among the
simpler
societies, in advanced societies faced with a disintegrating
social
identity, and in societies in which infant dependence upon the
mother is prolonged. We can frame these suggestions in terms
of
several variables and correlate them with reports of the presence
or absence of cannibalism, admitting, however, that this
exercise
does not do justice to Sagan's more complex ideas.
The first variable measures the level of political complexity.
Twenty-five of the thirty-seven societies with reported
cannibal-
ism are politically homogeneous, meaning that the highest level
of
jural authority is the local community. Thus, cannibalism is
more
likely to be present in politically homogeneous than heteroge-
neous societies (see Table 2). However, this information does
not
support Sagan's hypothesis that cannibalism is a primitive form
of

aggression because of the fact that more than half (56 percent)
of
1110
Introduction
Table 2. Relationship between level ofpolitical
sovereignty and cannibalism
Cannibalism
Present Absent Row totals
Levels of political
sovereignty No. % No. % No. %
Nothing above local
community 25 44 32 56 57 100
One jural level above
community 4 23 13 77 17 100
Two jural levels
above community 4 44 5 56 9 100
Three or more jural
levels above
community
Column totals
~ 4
37 (34%)

15 22
72 {66%)
85 26
109 (100%)
• 100
the simpler societies do not practice cannibalism. The most that
can be said from the information presented in Table 2 is that
can-
nibalism is more likely to be found in the simpler societies.
From Sagan's discussion of maternal dependency and oral
aggression, it is reasonable to assume that cannibalism is
associated
with such factors as a lengthy postpartum taboo against sexual
intercourse and male aggression, including aggression against
women. However, these variables are not associated with the
cross-cultural incidence of cannibalism in simple societies.
There
is no statistically significant relationship between the length of
the
postpartum sex taboo, the variable usually employed as an indi-
cator of maternal dependency, and the occurrence of
cannibalism
in politically homogeneous societies. Neither is there any
relation-
ship between the number of indicators of male aggression and
the
incidence of cannibalism in these societies (see Tables 3 and 4).
However, in politically heterogeneous societies (with at least
one
jural level above the local community), a significant association
between the length of the postpartum sex- taboo and

cannibalism
emerges. In Sagan's terms, this means that maternal dependency
is related to oral aggression (as measured by the presence of
can-
nibalism) in more complex societies. It is also true that in more
complex societies there is a significant relationship between
male
aggression against women and cannibalism (see Tables 3 and 4).
12
Table 3. Relationship between length ofpostpartum sex taboo
and
cannibalism in politically homogeneous and heterogeneous
societies
Cannibalism
Length of postpartum
sex taboo
Present
No. %
Absent
No. %
Row
total
Politically homogeneous societies
Up to 6 Months
From 6 Months to

12 63 16 67 28
more than 2 years
Column totals
7
19
37
100
8
24
33
100
15
43
Politically heterogeneous societies
Up to 6 months
From 6 months to
3 30 22 73 25
more than 2 years
Column totals
7
10
70
100

8
30
27
100
15
40
Note: For politically homogeneous societies phi = .04, not
significant. For po-
litically heterogeneous societies phi = .39, P = .007. No
information for
twenty-six societies.
Elsewhere I have shown that male aggression against women is
significantly associated with food stress. I argue that male
aggres-
sion is a reaction to stress as' males seek to dominate
controlling
material forces by dominating the bodies of women and female
reproductive functions. However, I qualify this conclusion by
showing that male aggression against women is more likely to
be
a solution to stress in societies displaying a symbolic
orientation
to the male creative principle. Thus, adaptation to stress does
not
always include the subjugation of women and I argue for the ne-
cessity of examining cultural factors that may shape a people's
re-
action to stress. 24 The same comments apply to the results dis-
played in Tables 3 and 4. Although male aggression and
maternal
dependency are related w the presence of cannibalism in
politically

heterogeneous societies, it is clear from these tables that both of
these variables may occur in the absence of cannibalism,
suggest-
ing that we must look beyond the behaviors measured by these
variables in order to comprehend the incidence of cannibalism.
A similar argument is called for when examining Table 5, which
13
Introduction
Relationship between male aggression and cannibalism inTable
4.
politically homogeneous and heterogeneous societies
Cannibalism
AbsentPresent Row
Male aggression % total
% No.No.scale'
Politically homogeneous societies I
I0-3 indicators of 42 187 32 11male aggression
4 or 5 indicators of 58 3015 68 15male aggression 100 4822 100
26Column totals
Politically heterogeneous s~cieties
.
0-3 indicators of .' 68 172 25 15male aggression
4 or 5 indicators of

7 32 136 75male aggression 3022 1008 100Column totals
Note: For politically homogeneous societies phi = .11, not
significant. For polit-
ically heterogeneous societies phi = .39, P = .02. No
information for thirty-
one societies .
•A Guttman scale formed by five indicators: (1) men's houses,
(2) machismo, (3)
interpersonal violence, (4) rape, (5) raiding other groups for
wives. See Sanday
(1981, Appendix F) for details.
indicates a signifIcant relationship between cannibalism and
food
stress. Most (29, or 91 percent) of the societies for which there
are
reports of cannibalism experience occasional hunger or famine
or
protein defIciency. Although hunger is intimately associated
with
the practice of cannibalism, we cannot conclude that hunger
con-
stitutes cannibal practice. As Table 5 demonstrates, many
societies
(43, or 60 percent) that experience food stress show no evidence
of cannibalism; thus, here again, we must look to culture to
under
stand the constitution of cannibal practice.
The data are inconclusive with respect to Sagan's psychogenic
hypotheses. Sagan's claims are reductionist and, like the
materialist

approach, ignore the symbols mediating the experience of oral
frustration and the act of oral aggression in cannibalism.
Sagan's
stress on cannibalism and male aggression as a reaction to oral
frustration (as measured by maternal dependency and food
stress)
14
Table 5. Relationship between food stress and cannibalism in
politically homogeneous and heterogeneous societies
Cannibalism
Present Absent
Row
Food stress No. % No. % total
Politically homogeneous societies
Food is constant 2 9 9 31 11
Occasional hunger or
famine or protein
deficiency
Column totals
19
21
91
100
20

29
69
100
39
50
Politically heterogeneous societies
Food is constant 1 9 16 41 17
Occasional hunger or
famine or protein
defICiency
Column totals
10
11
91
100
23
39
59
100
33
50
Note: For politically homogeneous societies phi = .26, p = .03.
For politically
heterogeneous societies phi = .28, p = .02. No information for
nine societies.

is relevant, as the results shown in Tables 3-5 illustrate.
However,
I argue that we must examine the underlying ontological struc-
tures that render maternal dependency, food stress, and
associated
acts of male aggression relevant to the practice of cannibalism
in
some cases and not in others since, as Tables 3-5 also indicate,
these factors are just as likely to be present in the absence of
can-
nibalism. In Chapter 2, I present the analytic framework that
incorporates these considerations. In the remaining part of this
chapter I examine the materialist hypothesis, Sahlins's
culturalist
response, and several other approaches that are useful for
compre-
hending the social and cultural context of cannibal practice.
The materialist approach of Michael Harner and Marvin Harris
The materialist hypotheses proposed by Harris and Harner to
ex-
plain the scale of Aztec human sacrifice focus on hunger and
pro-
tein deficiency. Harner claims that ecological and demographic
15
I Introduction Cannibalism cross-culturallyfacts explain the
scale of Aztec human sacrifice. In the Aztec case Harner sees it
is not known what amount of fatty acids is required by the
an extreme development, under conditions of environmental
circum-
scription, very high population pressure, and an emphasis on

maize ag-
riculture, of a cultural pattern that grew out of a Circum-
Caribbean and
Mesoamerican ecological area characterized by substantial
wildgamc
degradation and the lack of a domesticated herbivore....
IntensifIcation
of horticultural practices was possible and occurred widely; but
for the
necessary satisfaction of essentIal protein requirements,
cannibalism was
the only possible solution.... From the perspective of cultural
ecology
and pOpUI:Hioll pressure theory, it is possible to llndcrst:ll1d
:ll1d respect
the Aztec emphasis on human sacrifice as the natural alld
ration:J! re-
sponse to the material conditions of their existence. 25
Citing an unpublished estimate by a leading authority on. the
demography of Central Mexico arourl.d the time of the
Conquest,
Harner says that 1 percent of the total population, or 250,000,
were
sacrificed per year in Central Mexico in the fifteenth century.
As
to what was done with the bodies, Harner relies on accounts
writ-
ten by conquistadores such as Bernal Diaz and Cortes and on
the
post-Conquest description penned by Sahagun. :2(,
Some reports refer to eJting humJn flesh in a nonsacritlcial con-
text. Cortes writes that one of his 111en leading a punitive
e:pedi-
tion came across "loads of maize and roasted children which

they
[Aztec soldiers 1 had brought as provisions and which they left
be-
hind them when they discovered the Spaniards coming." c7
Simi-
larly, Sahagun mentions that Aztec merchants discovered
traveling
in enemy territory were killed and served "up with chili sauce."
According to Duran, the flesh of the cIptive caten after sacrifice
was not part of the rite itself but "was considered [to be]
'leftovers'
and was returned to the captor as a reward for having fed the
dei ty." 28
Such rewards were important because captors were recruited
from the ranks of commoners who rarely ate meat or poultry.
They got their protein from a "floating lOubstance" on the
surface
of lakes, from amaranth, and from the regular diet of maize and
beans. Famines were common and every year people faced the
threat of shortage. A prolonged famine in 1450, for example,
forced the rulers of the Three-City League to distribute the
surplus
grain that had been stored for ten years. 29
The scarcity of fats caused another dietary problem. Although
In
human body, fats <Ire thought to provide a longer-lasting
energy
SOurce and aSSure the utilization of the essential amino acids
for
tissue building. In this connection, Harner notes that the Aztecs
kept prisoners in wooden cages prior to their sacrifice and ma'y
sometimes have fattened them there. 30

In contrast to the commoners, the nobility and the merchant
class fed on a rich diet of protein in the form of wild game.
Human
flesh, too, was reserved for "illustrious and noble people."
Thus,
during good times human flesh may not have been nutritionally
essential for the nobility. Harner suggests, however, that the
Con-
sumption of human flesh probably fluctuated and made its
greatest
contribution to the diet when protein resources were at their
low-
est ebb. The privilege of eating human flesh provided good
insur-
ance against hunger during times of famine, when the nobility
as
well as the commoners could suffer significantly. 31
Commoners could partake of human flesh and wild game by
taking captives single-handedly in battle. Upon capturing a total
of three war prisoners, commoners received the gustatory privi-
leges of the nobility and were raised to the position of "master
of
the youths." They also became eligible to host a cannibal feast
for
their blood relatives and dine at Moctezuma's palace on
imported
wild game. These were the rewards in an economy of scarce
meat.
By rewarding successful warriors in this manner, the Aztec
rulers
11l0tiv:1ted the poor to participate in offensive military
operations.
They pumped up an aggressive war machine with the promise of
meat. "[U]nderlying the competitive success of that machine,"

Harner says, "were the ecological extremities of the Valley of
Mex-ico. ".12
Marvin Harris describes preconquest political necessities in the
Valley of Mexico along with several other examples to demon-
strate a more general relationship in human society "between
ma-
terial and spiritual well-being and the cost/benefits ... for
increas-
ing production and controlling population growth."3J In the
case
of the Aztecs, their material well-being was threatened by Occa-
sional periods of famine caused by depletion of the Mesoamer-
ican ecosystem after centuries of intensification and population
growth. Their spiritual well-being depended on sacrifice and
can-
nibalism. The severe depletion of animal protein reSOurces in
the
Valley of Mexico, he claims,
17
I Introduction Cannibalism cross-culturallymade it uniquely
difficult for the Aztec ruling class to prohibit the con-
sumption of human flesh and to refrain from using it as a
reward for transmission was the notion of regeneration and
reproduction.
loyalty and bravery on the battlefield. It was of greater
advantage to the

ruling class to sacrifice, redistribute, and eat prisoners of war
than to use
them as serfs or slaves. Cannibalism therefore remained for the
Aztecs an
irresistible sacrament, and their state-sponsored ecclesiastical
system
tipped over to favor an increase rather than a decrease in the
ritual butch-
<:ring o( c.lptivcs :1I1d the redistrihution of hUlllan tlcsh.'4
Sahlins's culturalist rejoinder to Hams and Harner
Sahlins sees the "Western business mentality" at the heart of
Har-
ris's view of Aztec cannibalism. In Harris's utilitarian view,
every-
thing in the social superstructure is governed by its economic
func-
tion so that the me;nings other peop)e give to their lives are
nothing more than the material rationalizations we give to our
own. "Once we characterize meaningful human practices in
these
ideological terms," Sahlins says, "we shall have to give up all
an-
thropology, because in the translation everything cultural has
been
allowed to escape."35
The cultural content Harris ignores is the stupendous system of
Aztec sacrifice. Sahlins approaches this content head on: He
does
not attempt to dodge its complexities. Staying close to his
subject
matter, he illuminates the logic of sacrifice and shows how
canni-
balism fits within this logic. Aztec cannibalism can only be

under-
stood within the broader system of Aztec sacrifice for by itsel f
cannibalism did not exist for the Aztec. It is true that hum:m
Acsh
was consumed, but neither was it ordinary human flesh nor was
it
eaten in an ordinary meal. Cannibalism as a cultural category
among the Aztec was invented by anthropologists. For the
Aztec,
the consumption of human flesh was part of a sacrament
bringing
humans into communion with the gods. The Aztec focused not
on the consumption of flesh but on the sacred character of the
event. 36 _
Sahlins points out that the logic of Aztec sacrifice is not unique.
It is found in many other societies and conforms to Hubert's and
Mauss's classic explanation of the nature and function of human
sacrifice. Aztec sacrifice brought the sacrificer, "sacrifier," and
the
victim into union with the divine. The consumption of the con-
secrated victim transmitted divine power to man. Underlying
this
18
The gods were renewed through the offering, and the sacrifier
(the
one who has provided the victim but not necessarily the one
who
sacrifices it) gained divine power by giving up his claim to the
victim. The entire process began with mutual adoption between
Aztec victim and sacrifier. When the warrior took a prisoner, he
declared: "He is as my beloved son." The captive replied: "He is
as
my beloved f.1ther."J7 Thus, the victim offered up by the Aztec

sacrifier was his own child.
The reproductive imagery is manifest in the parallelism drawn
between the mother and the warrior. The warrior's job was to
nourish the Sun with the blood of adopted captives borne by the
warrior to the sacrificial altar. The mother in childbirth was lik-
ened to the warrior engaged in battle. If she died, she shared the
warriors' fate and went to the House of the Sun. When the
mother
bore a child, the midwife shouted war cries, "which meant that
the woman ... had taken a captive."38 Thus, male and female
alike
Contributed to the physical reproduction of the Aztec universe.
Giving their children to the gods was a cosmological necessity:
It was a condition for the continuation of the world. Without
proper nourishment the gods could not work on behalf of hu-
mans. The gods depended on sacrifice for energy. Without it the
Sun would not come up, the sky would fall down, and the
universe
would return to its original state of chaos. The gods depended
on
humans and humans depended On the gods. The steepness of the
Aztec pyramid steps paralleled the course of the sun from dark
to
light and back to dark. As the victim climbed the steps, he or
she
was the Sun climbing to its midday zenith. Rolled down the
west-
ern steps of the temple, the victim, like the sun, was going to
his
or her grave. The Sustenance given to the gods in the offering
and

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