Jump to content

Cannibalism in Oceania

Add links
From Wikiquote
A cannibal feast on Tanna, Vanuatu, c. 1885–1889

Cannibalism in Oceania is well documented for many parts of this region, with reports ranging from the early modern period to, in a few cases, the 21st century.

Quotes

[edit]

18th century

[edit]
  • When Great Britain was first visited by the Phoenicians, the inhabitants were painted savages, much less civilized than those of Tongataboo, or Ota-heite; and it is not impossible, but that our late voyages may, in process of time, spread the blessings of civilization amongst the numerous islanders of the South Pacific Ocean, and be the means of abolishing their abominable repasts, and almost equally abominable sacrifices.
    • James Cook and James King, Voyage to the Pacific Ocean (1784)
    • Reported in Kathleen Wilson, The Island Race: Englishness, Empire and Gender in the Eighteenth Century (London: Routledge, 2003), p. xv

19th century

[edit]

Australia

[edit]
  • Cannibalism is a luxury, not an ordinary practice; but Buckley mentions a tribe called the Pallidurgbarrans, who eat human flesh whenever they get a chance, and employ human kidney fat, not as a charmed unguent for the increase of their valour, but as a sort of Dundee marmalade, viz., "an excellent substitute for butter at breakfast." These gentlemen are the colour of "light copper, their bodies having tremendously large and protruding bellies." They ate so many natives at last that war was declared, and some inglorious Pelissier drove a few hundred of them into a cave, and setting fire to the surrounding bush, suffocated them with great success.
  • I stopped to gratify my curiosity, there being a fleshy smell rising from an oven. I opened the latter, and there saw a female child half roasted. The skull had been stove in, the whole of the inside cleaned out and refilled with red hot stones. The hideous habit of murdering, and eating, the little girls is carried on far more in these jungles than in any other part of the colonies, which accounts for the female children being so scarce. One of the Mourilyan aborigines informed me that they catch the unsuspecting child by the legs and bash its head against a tree; also that a piccaninny makes quite a delicious meal – he had assisted in eating many.

Bismarck Archipelago

[edit]
  • This village (Kuras) is the place where they were cooking a man a few yards distant from the place where I was sitting on my first visit here.
  • It will give some idea of the state of these people if I give a story which was told me on April 3 in the most matter-of-fact way, as though it was something of quite ordinary occurrence. It was reported without any feeling of reprobation on the part of my informant. He said that some time ago a poor man drifted to this island in a canoe. The chief saw him outside, and went off and rescued him. He was in a very deplorable state from starvation and exposure; but the chief took him to his home, gave him food, and, some time afterwards, when he was recovered, took him to the place where the dances were usually held, and where one was being carried on at the time. As the people were dancing the poor castaway asked one of them, "Why is this dancing? Is there some pig to be eaten?" "Oh no," they replied, "there is no pig, but we are going to eat you after the dance." And they did so that same day!
    • George Brown, Pioneer-Missionary and Explorer, p. 201
  • On February 12, 1878, I heard that Torogud, the chief with whom I was very friendly, had been fighting the Kababiai people again, and that they had got five bodies, which they were going to eat next day. Previous to this I had never known of one of these cannibal feasts until it was too late to try to prevent it; but as I heard of this one soon after the people had returned, I started off early in the morning to see Torogud, and try if I could not prevail upon him to give up his bad custom.... We hurried on, and soon entered the village, evidently to the great surprise of the people. Almost the first object which we saw was the mangled body of the chief they had killed the day before, tied by the neck to a large tree in a standing position, the toes just touching the ground. This was the only body they had, as the others had been all apportioned out to the neighbouring villages of Outam.
    We sat down in the square, and I sent asking Torogud to come, which he did in a short time. I then talked to him earnestly and kindly, and begged him to bury the bodies, and not to allow any of them to be eaten.... After a little more talk, however, he told me that out of love to me as his friend ..., he would have the man buried, whether he was paid for him or not, as he was very much concerned lest I should get ill if I sat there any longer.... I was very pleased, and, as I fully believed him, we prepared to return. I first, however, went some distance on the way to Outam, where the bodies of the five women and girls were. We met a man on the way who told us that it was no use our going there, as the bodies were already on the fire; and the strong smell was positive proof to us that he was telling the truth. I therefore decided to return, as I felt that it was well to be satisfied with the success we had achieved....
    I got home very tired, but very pleased at having stopped this cannibalism.... [S]oon ..., however, one of our people came to me and said, "Did Torogud tell you that he buried that man?" To which I answered, "Yes." Then my companion gave a significant smile, and said: "Oh yes, he told you that he buried the man, and that was true; but he did not tell you that he dug him up again immediately after he had done so, and cooked him." And this I found out afterwards was actually the fact. He had kept his word to me in his own way, but had gratified his revenge and satisfied his appetite as well.
    • George Brown, Pioneer-Missionary and Explorer, pp. 208–210
  • They made no secret of their relish for human flesh. At one place of call where we were landing ..., the savages brought down quite a quantity of the flesh of a young woman whom they had just cooked. In offering parts for sale, they said that if we white men did not like to eat it possibly some of our native boatmen would enjoy it.
    • Australian government agent Douglas Rannie describing a visit to New Ireland in the 1880s
    • Douglas Rannie, My Adventures among South Sea Cannibals: An Account of the Experiences and Adventures of a Government Official among the Natives of Oceania (London: Seeley, Service, 1912), pp. 275–276

Solomon Islands and New Hebrides (Vanuatu)

[edit]
"The girls were no doubt aware that their last hour was soon to come." Photograph by Rodolphe Festetics de Tolna.
  • Mr. Gillan, the missionary at Uripiv, told me that he knew of a vendetta between two villages which had been closed, not as is usual by the payment of pigs, but by the sending of a small boy as sacrifice; and who, he concluded, was afterwards eaten.
  • Il me montra enfermées dans une maison un groupe de jeunes filles qui avaient été prises dans une autre île et qu'on avait gardées et engraissées pour la prochaine fête cannibale. Il venait d'être décidé que cette fête aurait lieu le jour même à l'occasion de notre présence à Malaita. Les jeunes filles étaient averties sans doute que leur dernière heure était prochaine.... Elles semblaient accepter la situation avec beaucoup de résignation.
    • He showed me, locked up in a house, a group of young girls who had been caught on another island and who were kept and fattened for the next cannibal feast. It had just been decided that this feast would take place the same day on the occasion of our presence in Malaita. The girls were no doubt aware that their last hour was soon to come.... They seemed to accept the situation with great resignation.
    • French count Rodolphe Festetics de Tolna, whose visit to one of the Solomon Islands in the 1890s was celebrated with a cannibal feast, according to his own account
    • Rodolphe Festetics de Tolna, Chez les cannibales: Huit ans de croisière dans l'Océan Pacifique à bord du yacht "le Tolna" (Paris: Plon-Nourrit, 1903), pp. 306–308.
    • Reported and partially translated in Christian Siefkes, Edible People: The Historical Consumption of Slaves and Foreigners and the Cannibalistic Trade in Human Flesh (New York: Berghahn, 2022), p. 243

Fiji

[edit]
  • Fiji, cannibal Fiji! Pity, O pity, cannibal Fiji!
    • Reverend James Watkin, "Pity Poor Fiji" (1838)
    • Reported in Thomas Williams and James Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, rev. ed. (Boston: Congregational Publishing Society, 1871), p. 246
  • Early on Sunday morning the cooked human flesh was carried past the Mission house in a canoe.... Truly the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.
    • Reverend David Cargill, journal entry (28 August 1839); cp. Psalm 74:20
  • This morning we witnessed a shocking spectacle. 20 dead bodies of men, women, & children were brought to Rewa as a present to Tui Dreketi from Tanoa. They were distributed among the people to be cooked and eaten.... The children amused themselves by ... mutilating the body of a little girl.... Human entrails were floating down the river in front of the mission premises, mutilated limbs, heads and trunks of the bodies of human beings have been floating about, & scenes of disgust and horror have been presented to our view in every direction.
    • Reverend David Cargill, letter to the Wesleyan Missionary Society (31 October 1839)
    • The Diaries and Correspondence of David Cargill, ed. A. J. Schütz (Canberra: ANU Press, 1977), pp. 148, 158. See also Patrick Brantlinger, Taming Cannibals: Race and the Victorians (2011), ch. 1.
  • You foreigners have salt beef to eat when you sail about; we have no beef, and therefore make use of human flesh.
  • The expression "long pig" is not a joke, not a phrase invented by Europeans, but one frequently used by the Fijians, who looked upon a corpse as ordinary butcher's meat, and call a human body puaku balava, "long pig", in contradistinction to puaka dina, or "real pig". The flesh was never eaten raw, but was either baked whole in the ovens, or cut up and stewed in the large earthen pots that they use for cooking.... If a man was to be cooked whole, they would paint and decorate his face as though he were alive, and ... the corpse ... was placed in a sitting position, and ... handed over to the cooks, who prepared it and placed it in the oven, filling the inside of the body with hot stones, so that he would be well cooked all through.
  • Sometimes even the victim was not killed, but was placed bound and alive in the oven; and their fiendish revenge, not being satisfied by the mere death of its object, tortures too horrible to describe were often inflicted – frequently a living man having to eat part of his own body before death was allowed to end his sufferings.... Women were not allowed to partake of the awful banquet, yet women were considered better for cooking than men, and the thighs and arms the best portions. So delicious was human flesh considered, that the highest praise that they could give to other food was to say, "It is as good as bakolo."
  • This subject of cannibalism has a terrible sort of fascination for me, and I have been making the skipper to-night tell me all the awful things he has seen or heard of the "old" Fijians in the many years he has been here; and although he has made me shudder with some of his ghastly tales, told in a straightforward simple manner that is very convincing, yet – queer is it not? – I have enjoyed them thoroughly.... I have no wish to appear singular when I say that I should have gloried in the rush of struggle of old Fijian times – with my hand against everybody, and everybody against me – and the fierce madness of unchecked passion and rage with which they went to battle, and the clubbing of my foes, and I am sure I should have enjoyed the eating of them afterwards.

New Zealand

[edit]
  • I  was told that they had killed a lad, were roasting him, and going to eat him.... Being arrived at the village where the people were collected, I asked to see the boy.... [T]hey directed me towards a large fire at some distance.... As I was going to this place, I passed by the bloody spot on which the head of this unhappy victim had been cut off; and, on approaching the fire, I was not a little startled at the sudden appearance of a savage-looking man, of gigantic stature, entirely naked, and armed with a large axe. I was a good deal intimidated, but mustered up as much courage as I could, and demanded to see the lad. The cook (for such was the occupation of this terrific monster) then held up the boy by his feet. He appeared to be about fourteen years of age, and was half roasted. I returned to the village, where I found a great number of natives seated in a circle, with a quantity of coomery (a sort of sweet potatoe) before them, waiting for the roasted body of the youth.
  • Fish, pork and vegetables were present in the utmost profusion, but the dish of honour was a roasted cookey or female slave, with which to inspire the warriors with courage. This was my first experience of human flesh, and as served up by the Maori cooks was very passable. When chopped up with kumeras and potatoes, it resembles a rather fatty stew.
    • Jacky Marmon, an Australian sailor who lived as a Pākehā Māori ("European Māori") for more than 50 years, on how he first ate human flesh in the early 1820s
    • Cited in Trevor Bentley, Cannibal Jack: The Life & Times of Jacky Marmon, a Pākehā-Māori (Auckland: Penguin, 2010), p. 95
  • One morning ..., Captain Duke informed me he had heard ... that in the adjoining village a female slave, named Matowe, had been put to death, and that the people were at that very time preparing her flesh for cooking. At the same time he reminded me of a circumstance which had taken place the evening before. Atoi had been paying us a visit, and, when going away, he recognised a girl whom he said was a slave that had run away from him; he immediately seized hold of her, and gave her in charge to some of his people. The girl had been employed in carrying wood for us; ... now, to my surprise and horror, I heard this poor girl was the victim they were preparing for the oven! Captain Duke and myself ... set out, taking a circuitous route towards the village; and, being well acquainted with the road, we came upon them suddenly, and found them in the midst of their abominable ceremonies.
    On a spot of rising ground, just outside the village, we saw a man preparing a native oven, which is done in the following simple manner: – A hole is made in the ground, and hot stones are put within it, and then all is covered up close. As we approached, we saw evident signs of the murder which had been perpetrated; bloody mats were strewed around, and a boy was standing by them actually laughing: he put his finger to his head, and then pointed towards a bush. I approached the bush, and there discovered a human head. My feelings of horror may be imagined as I recognized the features of the unfortunate girl I had seen forced from our village the preceding evening!
    We ran towards the fire, and there stood a man occupied in a way few would wish to see. He was preparing the four quarters of a human body for a feast; the large bones, having been taken out, were thrown aside, and the flesh being compressed, he was in the act of forcing it into the oven. While we stood transfixed by this terrible sight, a large dog, which lay before the fire, rose up, seized the bloody head, and walked off with it into the bushes; no doubt to hide it there for another meal! The man completed his task with the most perfect composure, telling us, at the same time, that the repast would not be ready for some hours! ...
    Atoi at first tried to make us believe he knew nothing about it, and that it was only a meal for his slaves; but we had ascertained it was for himself and his favourite companions. After various endeavours to conceal the fact, Atoi frankly owned that he was only waiting till the cooking was completed to partake of it....
    We enquired why and how he had murdered the poor girl. He replied, that running away from him to her own relations was her only crime.
  • One of the latest cannibal feasts of consequence was held at Ohariu, near Wellington, when 150 of the Muaupoko tribe went into the ovens. When the Maoris overcame the gentle Morioris of the Chatham Islands, not only did they keep the captives penned up like live-stock waiting to be killed and eaten, but one of the leading chiefs of the invaders ordered a meal of six children at once to be cooked to regale his friends.
  • I was shown a part of a beach on the Chatham Islands on which the bodies of eighty Moriori women were laid side by side, each with an impaling stake driven into the abdomen. It is difficult for one not accustomed to savage warfare to note how shockingly callous and heartless this desecration of the human body made the actors in these terrible scenes.
  • A Maori relating an account of an expedition said, incidentally. "On the way I was speaking to a red-haired girl who had just been caught out in the open.... As we came back, I saw the head of the red-haired girl lying in the ferns by the side of the track. Further on, we overtook one of the Waihou men carrying a back-load of the flesh, which he was taking to our camp to cook for food. The arms of the girl were round his neck, whilst the body was on his back." If one can mentally picture the scene, with the man striding along, carrying the headless, disembowelled trunk of the naked girl, enough of this kind of horror will have been evoked.

Tonga

[edit]
  • After [the dancing] the chief gave orders to his cooks to bring forward the feast: immediately they advanced two and two, each couple bearing on their shoulders a basket, in which was the body of a man barbecued like a hog. The bodies were placed before the chief, who was seated at the head of his company, on a large green. When all these victims were placed on the ground, hogs were brought in like manner; after that, baskets of yams, on each of which was a baked fowl. These being deposited in like manner, the number of dishes was counted, and announced aloud to the chief, when there appeared to be two hundred human bodies, two hundred hogs, two hundred baskets of yams, and a like number of fowls. The provisions were then divided into various portions ...; after which they were given to the care of as many principal chiefs, who shared them out to all their dependants, so that every man and woman in the island had a portion of each of these articles, whether they chose to eat them or not....
    Such, at least, was the account of Cow Mooala; and Mr. Mariner has too much reason to think it true, because he afterwards heard the same account from several of the natives of Chichia who visited Tonga.

20th century

[edit]
  • It was considered a great triumph among the Marquesans to eat the body of a dead man. They treated their captives with great cruelty. They broke their legs to prevent them from attempting to escape before being eaten, but kept them alive so that they could brood over their impending fate.
    Their arms were broken so that they could not retaliate in any way against their maltreatment. The Marquesans threw them on the ground and leaped on their chests so that their ribs were broken and pierced their lungs, so that they could not even voice their protests against the cruelty to which they were submitted. Rough poles were thrust up through the natural orifices of their bodies and slowly turned in their intestines. Finally, when the hour had come for them to be prepared for the feast, they were spitted on long poles that entered between their legs and emerged from their mouths, and dragged thus at the stern of the war canoes to the place where the feast was to be held.
    With this tribe, as with many others, the bodies of women were in great demand.
    • Anthropologist A. P. Rice in The American Antiquarian xxxii (1910)
    • Cited in William D. Rubinstein, Genocide: A History (New York: Routledge, 2014), p. 18
  • One morning very early, the news came that Nyan-ngauera had left the camp, taking a fire-stick and accompanied by her little girl. No one would follow her or help to track her. For twelve miles I followed the track unsuccessfully, but Nyan-ngauera doubled many times and gave birth to a child a mile west of my camp, where she killed and ate the baby, sharing the food with the little daughter. Later, with the help of her sons and grandsons, the spot was found, nothing to be seen there save the ashes of a fire. "The bones are under the fire", the boys told me, and digging with the digging-stick we came upon the broken skull, and one or two charred bones, which I later sent to the Adelaide Museum.
  • When the Yumu, Pindupi, Ngali, or Nambutji were hungry, they ate small children with neither ceremonial nor animistic motives. Among the southern tribes, the Matuntara, Mularatara, or Pitjentara, every second child was eaten in the belief that the strength of the first child would be doubled by such a procedure.
    • Géza Róheim, Children of the Desert: The Western Tribes of Central Australia, vol. I (New York: Harper & Row, 1976), p. 71

See also

[edit]
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Cannibalism_in_Oceania&oldid=3633809"