Cannibalism and Carnivalesque: Incorporation as Utopia in the Early Image of America

Author(s): Mario Klarer

Source: New Literary History, Vol. 30, No. 2, Cultural Inquiries (Spring, 1999), pp. 389-410
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20057543 .
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and Carnivalesque:
as
in the
Incorporation
Utopia
Early Image of America*

Cannibalism

Mario

Klarer

accounts
of discovery
of early modern
and travel
majority
reflect a peculiar
fusion of a Utopian
narratives about America
and paradise-like
idyll of the new continent with cruel cannibal

The

istic practices
a benevolent
and medieval

of the natives. This apparently paradoxical

side-by-side of
and obvious horror, which dates back to ancient
in the travelogues
of
texts, can be traced as a leitmotif

Nature

as well as in many of the eyewitness accounts of

and Vespucci,
Columbus
in eighteenth
the sixteenth century, not to mention
literary adaptations
novels. The following
and nineteenth-century
illus
analysis juxtaposes
of sixteenth-century
travel narra
trative textual and pictorial examples
to
and early modern
tives with ancient, medieval,
texts, thus attempting
an
the
for
of
cannibalism
striking interdependence
explanation
provide
in the first images of America.
and Utopian concepts
in the tradition of
is very much
rooted
The early myth of America
in
and medieval
travel
ancient
literature. Many
Utopian projections
as
such
Plato's
Atlantis
the
notion
of the
myth,
widespread
utopias,
"insulae

or

fortunatarum,"

the

mysterious

islands

in

the Atlantic

accord

the
depict a Utopian West beyond
ing to the Irish abbot St. Brendan
known world. Parallel to these utopias of the West, ancient and medieval
sources use the Far East to situate the Earthly Paradise. Marco Polo's
fantasies of
fourteenth-century
travelogue and the fictional geographic
are the most prominent
advocates of these eastward
Sir John Mandeville
to
The westbound
voyage of Columbus, which was supposed
projections.
to fuse both Utopian
it possible
lead to the East via the West made
in the early image of America.
The major
in the
traditions
gaps
new
of
the
continent
could
be
therefore
knowledge
bridged
by re
courses

to ancient

and medieval

Utopian

concepts

of the East and the

West.

This

is a revised

Carolina)
revision

version

during
from the fellows

New Literary History,

of a paper

a Rockefeller
of

at the National
Humanities
presented
in
1995-96.1
received
valuable
Fellowship

this year's

1999, 30: 389-410

class.

Center
suggestions

(North
for

390
A

NEW

in the early

central aspect among

these projections
Nature
is the notion of a benevolent

Nature

ranging
amoenus,

for human

necessary

as

an

from
and

or

mater

alma

modern

to

pastorals,

the

tradition

long

of a locus

the concept

Age,
first

has

mother

of a Golden

of

image

eagerly provides
feminized
concept of

life.1 This basically

nourishing

notions

ancient

HISTORY

which

America

everything

LITERARY

of

descriptions

America.

the new continent

Already
through images that
are reminiscent
islands
other
of this region,
of classical utopias:
"[T]he
one
can
as
are
as
is
be.
This
surrounded
fertile
too,
by harbors,
they
characterizes

Columbus

numerous,

and

safe

very

and

broad,

not

to be

with

compared

any

others

rivers flow through

that I have seen anywhere; many
large, wholesome
and distinguished
this land; . . .All these islands are most beautiful
by
various forms; one can travel through them, and they are full of trees of
the greatest variety . . . and I believe
they never lose their foliage. At any
as they usually are in the
them as green and beautiful
rate, I found
a similar topos of the
introduces
of May in Spain."2 Vespucci
month
the fertility of these islands: "The
tradition to describe
"locus amoenus"
full of
and the land fertile,
is very temperate
climate, moreover,
immense

and

forests

groves,

are

which

for

green,

always

the

never

leaves

from ours."3 The

and entirely different
fruits are countless
like a mirror
for
the
Caribbean
of
islands,
appears
example,
fertility
in
the
Phaeacians
of
the
of
the
Island
Odyssey.4 The most
Utopian
image
are introduced
is
of
how
classical
Utopian
topoi
striking example
as
a
Paradise
woman's
of
the
Columbus's
alleged Earthly
description
that makes
indirect use of the alma mater topos. Columbus
breast
fall. The

describes

the

as

Paradise

earthly

like

"prominence

this protrusion
being the highest and nearest
and at the eastern extremity
line,
equinoctial
eastern
constant

extremity,
references

the

where
to

gold,

land
that

is,

and
the

the
lack

a woman's

nipple,

the sky, situated under the

call that the
of this sea,?I
islands
of

iron,

end."5
also

Columbus's
situate

the

new

notions
of the Golden
side with ancient
Age as
and Ovid.6
in texts which make
ancient and medieval
utopias
a real manifestation
of diverse
temporal and geo
now of the Renaissance,
here
in
and
the
graphical Utopian projections
to the repulsive
cannibalistic
marks a decisive
practices
counterpoint
and
in the texts of Columbus
to the natives. Originating
attributed
a
as
serves
in
all
not
leitmotif
cannibalism
major
only
Vespucci,
irreconcil
travel narratives, but also functions as a seemingly
subsequent
to the Utopian setting of the continent.
able counterpart
of America
in the context of the discovery
Famous misconceptions
as well as the term
"Indians"
natives
the
include erroneously
calling
"cannibal," which also derives from semantic
indirectly
shortcomings
side by
continent
rendered by Hesiod
The uses of these
America
appear as

391

CANNIBALISM AND CARNIVALESQUE

I have
in the following passage: "All the people
by Columbus
expressed
of
of
fear
the
Caniba
until
time
this
encountered
up
greatly
people
. . . The Indians with me continued
to show great fear . . .
Canima
one eye and a face of a dog,
insisting that the people of Boh?o had only
and they fear being eaten. I do not believe any of this. I feel that the
to the domain of the Great Khan."7 Christo
Indians they fear belong
the name of the tribe of the "Canibe"?
who
interpreted
pher Columbus,
due to the first syllable "can"?as
subjects of the Great Khan or man
snouts (from the Latin cants?dog),
the
eaters with dog-like
provided
treatments of these "cannibals" in the texts of the
basis for subsequent
and his successors project a
sixteenth century (see figure l).8 Columbus
onto
the
of
number
of ancient
and medieval
topoi
anthropophagy
the
The
travel
continent.
early
narratives?especially
newly-discovered
the
exotic
motif
of
curiosa
of
Amerigo Vespucci?employ
ethnographic
man-eaters
and expand
it as a popular feature. As early as the sixteenth
or
the older
the term "cannibal"
century,
replaced
"androphage"
an
thus
from
The
ethnographic
changed
neologism
"anthropophage."
term for man-eater,
term into a general
and
technical
geographical
new
a
serves
as
toto
its
and
for
the
continent
pars pro
simultaneously
native

Fig.
John

inhabitants.

1. Cannibals
Carter

with

Brown

dogs'

Library.

snouts

in Lorenz

Fries,

UslegungDer

Carthen,

Stra?bourg,

1525.

392

NEW

LITERARY

HISTORY

account of his second voyage, some

In a short passage from Vespucci's
in the image of America
elements
of the above-mentioned
contradictory
in
detailed
in a very graphic manner.
coincide
description
Vespucci's
with
or
cannibalism
combines
this example
unconsciously
consciously
interwoven with the
that is, Nature,
notions of femininity,
subliminally
new

continent:

The

man

young

and

around

and

advanced
touched

and

mingled
stroked
him,

the women;

among

they all stood

at him. At
this

him,
wondering
greatly
a
she reached
came down
the hill carrying
a woman
from
big club. When
point
blow
such a heavy
was
man
she struck him
the young
the place where
standing,
rest of the women
dead. The
fell to the ground
that he immediately
from behind
. . .There
the
him by the feet up the mountain
him and dragged
at once
seized
now
in
were
him
our
before
killed
the
had
who
women,
eyes,
cutting
youth
at a
fire.
us the
them
(AV138-39)9
large
roasting
pieces,
showing
pieces,

of the
is a good
of these cruel practices
example
depiction
after having gently
nature of the image of America.
Shortly
paradoxical
and
the young sailor, the female Indians murder,
dismember,
touched
for a majority
devour him. The structure of the passage is paradigmatic
in early travel narratives. A benevolent,
of cannibalism
of concepts
as
the alma mater tradition suddenly turns
from
familiar
feminine
setting
into a cannibalistic monster
(see figure 2). The notion of a tempting but
ex
is increasingly
is a very popular motif which
Amazon
devouring
of the travel narratives.10 In many of these
in the iconography
panded
as a voluptuous
is rendered
America
temptress and/or
allegorizations,
of dismembered
monster
before the background
an Amazon-like
(mostiy
of
are
in
the
often
which
human
bodies,
process
being
prepared
male)
The

for

consumption.

of a Utopian Nature with

combination
contradictory
apparently
texts. It
an invention of early modern
means
no
is
by
anthropophagy
sources.
in ancient and medieval
tradition
stems from a long-standing
in the
of cannibalistic
classical example
famous
The most
practices
of the Island of
context of a "travel narrative" is the description
Utopian
in Book IX of the Odyssey. The fact that Columbus
the Cyclopes
depicts
as "men with one eye . . .who eat men"
cannibals
(L 4 Nov. 1492)
served as a model
the theory that the one-eyed Cyclopes
corroborates
Isle of
in both the Homeric
for his man-eaters.11
enough,
Interestingly
of an
the descriptions
the Cyclopes as well as the narratives on America,
an abundance
of food coincide with anthropophagy,
idyllic Nature with
as in this passage from the Odyssey:
This

Thence
Cyclopes,

we

sailed

an overweening

on,

at heart,
grieved
lawless
and
folk,

and
who,

we

came

trusting

to
in the

the

land

immortal

of

the
gods,

CANNIBALISM AND CARNIVALESQUE 393

Fig. 2. This woodcut

Indians. It juxtaposes

from

as one of
is regarded
mother with cannibalistic

1505

a nursing

the earliest

of Brazilian
depictions
Staatsbibliothek

images. Bayerische

M?nchen.

plant nothing with their hands nor plough; but all these things spring up for
them
rich

without

assemblies
of

sowing
of wine,

clusters
for

lofty mountains

council

or

wheat,

ploughing,
the
and

have
in hollow

they,

rain
nor

caves,

of

and

barley,

Zeus

appointed
and each

one

his wives, and they reck nothing one of another.

and

gives
laws, but

vines,

them

which

increase.

they dwell
to his
is lawgiver

on

bear

the

Neither
the peaks
and

children

(TO IX, 105-15)

As in passages from the early accounts of America,

the idyllic description
to remain in a pre
of Nature as a benevolent
the
giver permits
Cyclopes
state
of
them at once he
cannibalism.12
"Two
of
agrarian
being including
to
seized
the
earth
like
and the brain
and
dashed
[Polyphem]
puppies,
flowed forth upon the ground and wetted
the earth. Then he cut them
limb from limb and made ready his supper, and ate them as a mountain
the entrails, and the flesh, and the
lion, leaving naught?ate
The
of pre-agrarian,
bones"
IX,
288-93).
(TO
marrowy
concept
cannibalism
is
interwoven
with
ancient
theo
precivilization
intricately
ries of cultural evolution. The Neolithic
that is, the transition
revolution,
as a
to peasant, was generally
of man from hunter-gatherer
explained
nurtured

substitution
of anthropophagy
end in antiquity but continues

for agriculture.
This concept does
in various forms in cultural history.

not

394
For

NEW

example,

passage

about

man-eaters

in

John

LITERARY

HISTORY

Mandeville's

four

a Utopian idyll with

teenth-century
travelogue,
a
accounts of
to
for
model
be
sixteenth-century
appears
anthropophagy,
Indians: "From this country men go through the
cannibalistic American
isles and different
Great Sea Ocean
countries, which
by way of many
to relate. At last, after fifty-two days' journey, men
would be tedious
In that land it is
come to a large country called Lamory
[Sumatra].
men
women
to go completely
for
and
custom
there
is
the
extremely hot;
to show themselves as God made
them
naked and they are not ashamed
. . . for
. . . for
Eve
Adam
and
naked
made
that
God
nothing
they say
the traditional
is ugly" (7T 127). After establishing
natural
topoi of
some
on the island, Mandeville
introduces
conditions
paradisiacal
as
communal
such
of
classical
motifs
property
(including
utopias
as well as an abundance
women
of gold, silver, and other
and children),
to cannibalism
ends with a reference
natural resources. The description
to
there
children
"Merchants
this
sell, and the
among
bring
people:
are
Those
that
the
them.
country buy
they eat; those
plump
people of
and eat them.
are
kill
and
then
not
and
that
fatten,
plump they feed up
in
sweetest
world"
the
is
best
and
flesh
it
the
And they say
(TT127).
are
of how these concepts of anthropophagy
An illustrative example
Old
This
the
Andreas.15
is
for religious purposes
anonymous
adapted
text in the Vercelli Book (tenth century), which goes back to an
English
ancient Latin or Greek
source, shows a number of the features of the
these topoi are present
text mentioned
before.14 Although
cannibalistic
a
are
form.
in
in Andreas they
Again the setting
highly stylized
employed
which

fantastic

is that

of

travel

narrative;

again

combines

a nonbarbarian

with

is confronted

a
As in
cannibalistic
people; again the plot is situated in Utopian setting.
and
cannibalism
condemns
Andreas
most
other
texts,
superficially
to
While
the
in
this phenomenon
setting.
Utopian
opposition
places
many

texts

on

cannibalism

introduce

the

Utopian

element

as

descrip

the
of a Golden
Nature
tive Cockayne-idyll
Age,
the
themselves
manifest
in Andreas
through
indirectly
Utopian features
of the
The text starts with a description
Christian hope of redemption.
as a
sent
his
Matthew
had
where God
island Mermedonia
disciple
no
was
in
bread
the
"There
to
the Androphagoi:
place to
missionary
the
land
a
to
water
but
nor
drink of
feed men,
they
throughout
enjoy,
feasted on the blood and flesh, on the bodies of men, of those who came
with

a benevolent

from afar. Such was their custom, that when they lacked meat they made
Such
food of all the strangers who sought that island from elsewhere.
was the savage nature of the people."15 God sends his disciple Andreas,
saves the
whose cruel martyr's death at the hands of the Androphagoi
feature of this text is the fusion of
Matthew. An interesting
condemned

CANNIBALISM

AND

CARNIVALESQUE

395

of salva
with the Christian doctrine
notions of anthropophagy
a
use
form
of
of
cannibalistic
makes
also
which
tion,
incorporation.
as the eating of the
Already with the fall of Adam and Eve incorporation
as a central motif
later taken up in the
fruit functions
forbidden
ancient

and anthropophagy
with new valences.
Eucharist,
Utopia
although
an integral
as
irreconcilable
coincide
constituting
principles
apparently
as a
serves
thus
the
Other
of
part of the Eucharist.
Incorporation
or
a
of
for
the restitution
utopia.
unity
prelapsarian
prerequisite
the
Andreas executes
of America,
of early accounts
Like a number
an
in
indirect
and anthropophagy
of Christian
communion
equation
The Christian
and encoded manner.
concept of salvation superficially
as uncivilized
both
cannibalistic
opposes
atrocity, although
primitivism
to analogous
structures of incorpora
function
according
phenomena
the unity of subject
tion. While
cannibals devour strangers to reestablish
for a
eat the "body" of Jesus as a guarantor
and object, Christians
or
oneness
accounts
and
the
Andreas
their
God.
with
early
Utopian unity
in
of America
thus work with a Utopian hope which is deeply entrenched
itself in more or less stylized
cultural tradition and manifests
Western
of the Other.
forms of incorporation
texts and the modern
travel narratives
Most of the ancient-medieval
to Utopian
set cannibalism
the territories
in opposition
of
imagery
a
as
of
described by employing
savagery.
sign
primordial
anthropophagy
in his famous essay "Des Cannibales"
Michel de Montaigne
(1580) was
the first to analyze these two apparently
contradictory
images of utopia
as interdependent
He bases the new
mechanisms.
and cannibalism
in the ancient
tradition of Utopian
continent
thought like the Platonic
These
geographical
projections.16
are
in
"Des
Cannibales"
followed
Utopian extrapolations
geographical
of ancient
into a Utopian past of a
temporal reprojections
by examples
"I
continent:
also links with the American
Golden Age, which Montaigne
think that what we have seen of these people
[Indians] with our own
eyes surpasses not only the pictures with which poets have illustrated the
to draw mankind
in the state of
age, and all their attempts
golden

Atlantis

myth

and

other

westward

as well"
but the ideas and the very aspirations of philosophers
happiness,
the
The
of
America's
of
(110).
idyllic fertility
following
description
is reminiscent
of Homer's
in the
Nature
Utopian island of the Phaiacians
or
the
Diodorus's
of
Sun
Christo
Island,
Jambulian
Odyssey,
depiction
"For the
islands in the Caribbean:
newly discovered
pher Columbus's
rest, they live in a land with a very pleasant and temperate
climate, and
as my witnesses
inform me, a sick person
is a rare sight;
consequently,
and they assure me that they never saw anyone palsied or blear-eyed,
of fish and
toothless or bent with age . . .They have a great abundance

396

LITERARY

NEW

HISTORY

(110). Like most of the ancient and medieval

descriptive
is characterized
Montaigne's
image of America
by a benevolent
and a lack of law as well as civilized achievements:17
meat"

This
no

is a nation,

I should

of

knowledge

letters,
no

political
inheritance,

superior,
no divisions

but
any kinship
or wine.
of corn
and

slander,

no
habit

in which
say to Plato,
of numbers,
science
of

service,

of property,
common
ties, no

the
The

title

poverty,

kind

leisurely
occupations,
no
clothes,
agriculture,
treason,
lying,
How
heard.
far

would he find the republic that he [Plato] imagined:

of the gods.' (110)

of

commerce,

of magistrate
no
contracts,

only

very words
denoting
never
have
been

forgiveness

no
or

riches

is no

there

utopias,
Nature

greed,
such

of
no

no
respect
no metals,
no

deceit,
from

or

for
use
envy,

perfection

'men fresh from the hands

can be explained
as a general
Montaigne's
long list of various "things"
nor
lack of difference. Neither
clothes,
letters,
property,
figures,
kinship,
a total unity, disturb
this prelapsarian
wholeness.
which
could oppose
of
continues
in his enumerations
by stressing conventions
Montaigne
the

native

Americans

that

bear

to ancient

likeness

a commu

of

notions

to Utopian
and children which
is generally
introduced
is also
This
ties.18
visions in order to do away with differentiating
family
a very common
accounts
it
here
is
of
in
America;
topos
early
employed
to emphasize
of the inhabitants
of the New
the symbiotic wholeness
which Montaigne
World. The absence of separating difference,
depicts
on various levels, is epitomized
It
of cannibalism.
in his interpretation
division of subject
"difference"?the
marks the abolition of the ultimate
nism

of women

from

object,

that

just like Andreas

they
comprehend
based
the world

is,

interior

exterior.

from

in the apocryphal
on

incorporation
total
unity.

gospel?want

as a necessary
The

savages

noble

Montaigne's

do

savages?

to be devoured,
consequence
eat
not

of
their

since

a view

of

prisoners

to beg the victorious party to

but give them the opportunity
immediately
to die as a
uses an Indian condemned
feed on them. Montaigne
a ballad which
the
this
for
desire
for
expresses
Utopian
mouthpiece
in which he tauntingly
"I have a ballad made by one prisoner
wholeness:
invites his captors to come boldly forward, every one of them, and dine
off him, for they will then be eating their own fathers and grandfathers,
to his body. These
have served as food and nourishment
muscles,'
he says, 'this flesh, and these veins are yours, poor fools that you are!

who

limbs is still in
of your ancestors'
you not see that the substance
them? Taste them carefully, and you will find the flavour is that of your
own flesh'" (117; see figure 3).19
to
essay, like a number of early travel narratives, belongs
Montaigne's
an age of drastic changes
of men with animate and
in the interaction

Can

CANNIBALISM AND CARNIVALESQUE 397

of a proud prisoner
before his execution
twice,
speaking
Fig. 3. De Bry uses this engraving
as an illustration
for Hans Staden's
and Jean de L?ry's accounts.
Both texts most probably
for the History
of Art and the
Americae Tertia Pars, The Getty Center
influenced
Montaigne.
Humanities.

in Western
Nature. The year 1600 marks a turning point
can be described
terms as a
science
in
of
which
simplistic
philosophy
an
of
Nature
with an
of
process
concept
replacing
organic-holistic
as an
considers Nature
view of the world.20 Holism
overall mechanistic
inanimate

a living creature
as a self
very much
resembling
as
a
notion
is
Nature
in
connoted
this
Implicit
organicist
like a nourishing mother,
she provides everything men
in ancient, medieval,
and early
need. Most of the descriptive
utopias
texts are part of this tradition. The lack of agriculture
and a
modern
a
are
of
feminine
of
natural
abundance
gifts
signs
deep
general
structure manifesting
itself in notions of an alma mater or Mother Earth.
of
The younger mechanistic
concept explains Nature as a conglomerate
whole,
organic
contained
unit.
feminine:
being

supposedly
a masculine
organization

elements which achieve form and structure through

Nature
is primarily
chaotic,
lacking any kind of
spirit.
the structuring male principle. These contradictory
without

feminine

398

NEW

LITERARY

HISTORY

of science
in the early modern
the philosophy
positions within
period
are not only present
in scientific discourses
but also dominate
literary
utopias ofthat age.21 Francis Bacon's Nova Atlantis (1627) and Tommaso
these two opposing
Civitas Solis (1602) represent
tradi
Campanella's
tions in an overt way. In Civitas Solis, all human
actions are part of a
cosmic

Stellar configurations,
wholeness.
seasons, and the plan of the
a holistic worldview
as one of
into which man is integrated

city mirror
many

members.

can

combine

In

Francis

Bacon's

technocratic

vision,

male

scientists

in almost
limitless variety. Thus
the male
spirit
Nature
benefit
of
mankind.
for
the
opposes Nature,
exploiting
refers to these two traditions by equating
the
subliminally
Montaigne
of

culture

matter

with

the discoverers

mechanism

and

the
by describing
terms:
in holistic-organicist
concept of Nature found with the Cannibals
are wild in the same as we say that fruits are
"These people
[cannibals]
them by herself and in her ordinary
wild, when nature has produced
in fact, it is those that we have artificially modified,
and
way; whereas,
the common

from

removed

the

former,

true,

most

that we ought

order,
and

useful,

natural

virtues

to call wild.
and

In the
are

properties

in the latter we have bastardized

alive and vigorous;
them, and adapted
them only to the gratification
of our corrupt
taste" (109). Montaigne
seems

to

Francis

foreshadow

Bacon's

mechanist

concepts

refer

when

in European
science of imitating nature's
ring to the "modern" practice
"With all our efforts we cannot imitate the nest of the
living creatures:
its beauty, or the suitability of its form,
very smallest bird, its structure,
nor even the web of the lowly spider" (109). The cannibals of America,
"are still governed
however,
by
by natural laws and very little corrupted
our own" (109). While Montaigne,
of an
and with him the proponents
organic
whole,

of
concept
the
advocates

Nature,

argue
new
the

of

for

man's

mechanistic

integration
worldview

into
aim

cosmic
at

the

or as Francis Bacon puts it: "The end of our

of Nature,
subjugation
is the knowledge
of things; and
of causes, and secret motions
foundation
to
of all
the effecting
of the bounds of human empire,
the enlarging
of
interpretation
natural-theological
things possible."22 Montaigne's
a
a
for
his
in which
human being offers
transatlantic
cannibalism,
body
is definitely
the cosmic whole,
the most obvious
two
in the
and anthropophagy
of the
convergence
poles of utopia
context of the Christian doctrine
of salvation.23 Most travel accounts of
reflect this religious-ritual
the sixteenth
compo
century
subliminally
it with utter disgust or in obvious conflict
nent, but superficially present
"Communion"

with
A

with

the Christian

of love for others.

ethic

of

striking example
salvation and cannibalism

the

interdependence
is the 1557 account

in
belief
of Christian
of the German Hans

AND

CANNIBALISM

399

CARNIVALESQUE

entitled
The True History and Description
of a Land of the Wild,
Grim
Situated
in
the
New World America.2* Like most
Naked,
Man-Eaters,
authors of sixteenth-century
accounts of America,
Staden juxtaposes
the
with Christians, who are deeply rooted in their faith.
"grim man-eaters"
Staden

In continuous
variation he comments
recourse
to Christian doctrines.
The

on the deeds

of the cannibals with

to Andreas are
similarities
striking,
his fellow Christians who are about

especially when Hans Staden soothes

to be devoured
by the cannibals with Christian hope of salvation. "They
asked me whether
they will also be eaten; and I said that they have to
to the will of the
leave that decision
heavenly Father and his dear son
for our sins" (94). In his detailed
Jesus Christ, who was crucified
Staden
situates
the rituals
around
the
clearly
revolving
of
the
in
Christians
the
of
Con
devouring
vicinity
liturgical practice.
a woman
cepts of fertility and death are intertwined when, for example,
of the victorious
to a prisoner
tribe attending
even has sexual inter
course with him. "If she conceives
a child from him,
they raise it until it
is grown, then slay and eat it" (138). The prisoner, who is
to
subjected
various ritual practices
all reflecting
sexual and fertility symbolism,
is
a
with
killed
club.25
take
"crush
ultimately
egg shells,
phallus-like
They
them to powder and cover the club with it" (139). After a woman has

depictions

drawn something
into the powder of the egg shells the club is subject to
a
ritual.
The club is then stuck between
the legs of the
night-long
the
sexual
connotation
the
of
ritual action:
executor?again
stressing
"The chief of the hut takes the club and sticks it once between his
legs.
an honor among them" (143). The
This is considered
following detailed
of the killing, preparation,
and eating of the prisoner
is
description
in
its
full
it
serve
as
since
will
later
in
the
quoted
length
major example
of

discussion

the

connection

images of cannibalism

between

in the early

Renaissance

folk-culture

Then he hits the prisoner on the back of his head,

making
and

immediately
scratch
off his

wood

to make
his

When

the women
skin, make
sure that

skin

him
nothing

is

take

the

completely
goes
a man

and

image of America:

dead

man

white,
to waste.

and
and

the brain gush out;

him

drag
seal his

anus

across

the
a

with

piece

fire,
of

takes him,
cuts off his
the knees
off,
scraped
legs above
to the
close
women
Then
four
take
the
four
and
body.
pieces
run around
the huts
Then
the
back
with
the
screaming
joyously.
separate
they
buttocks
from
the front.
That
women
them.
The
the
among
they share
keep
entrails.
boil
and with
a thin
the broth
called
them,
They
they make
pulp,
as well

as

ming?u,
meat
of

the arms

which
the head.

the children
they and
The
children
devour

from the head that is edible. When

home

taking

with

them

what

is their

lap up. They

the brain,

eat
the

the

entrails

tongue

and

everything has been distributed,

share.

(146;

see

figures

4 and

as well
anything

as

the
else

they return
5).

400

NEW

Fig. 4.Woodcut

Hans

from Staden's

Staden's

medical

printed

account

fusing

is not

discourse

text of 1557. Herzog

culinary
representative

only

August

LITERARY

Bibliothek

preparation
of numerous

and

HISTORY

Wolfenb?ttel.

anatomical
other

travel

a topos of grotesque
reflects
in the
literature
The
of
in
revival
the
modern
travel
sixteenth
cannibalism
century.
narratives has its counterpart
in the folk culture and literature of the late
Middle Ages and early Renaissance.
The most striking example of this
fusion of Utopian and cannibalistic
in carnival
imagery can be found
of
in
the
time.
These
motives
carnal
literature
and
practices
travelogues
coincide
of the Carnival in Europe,
temporarily with the strengthening
which sees itself as a inversion of current hierarchical
order of European
narratives

social
The

but

also

reality.
carnivalesque

traits

of

Rabelais's

Gargantua

and

Pantagruel,

as

CANNIBALISM AND CARNIVALESQUE 401

Fig. 5. Engraving
for
Center

Getty

in Theodor

de Bry's Americae

the History

of Art

and

Tertia Pars based

on Staden's

woodcut.

The

the Humanities.

to early
formal parallels
show obvious
discussed
Bakhtin,
by Mikhail
features
structural
of the
which
travel
literature,
incorporated
into the descriptions
of the New World.26 Both phenom
carnivalesque
ena?the
European Carnival and the imagery of the new continent?are
characterized
by Utopian features which turn current conditions
upside
this Utopian inversion as follows: "we find an
down. E. R. Leach describes
extreme
the participants
form of revelry in which
play-act at being
men
as
act
what
the
of
women, women
are;
they really
opposite
precisely
as men, Kings as beggars,
servants as masters,
In
acolytes as Bishops.
life is played
in reverse, with all
such situations of true orgy, normal
manners
and
of sins such as incest, adultery,
transvestitism,
sacrilege,
treated as the order of the day."27 Leach's characterization
l?se-majest?
state of affairs could also serve as a
of the carnival as an upside-down
in the early travel narra
summary of the protoethnographic
depictions
are full of these carnivalesque
of European
inversions
tives. They
men in the
women or feminizations
of
of
Masculinizations
perspectives.
all
contexts
and
role
above
of Amazon
reversals,
grotesque
myths,

402
corporeality
of America

NEW

LITERARY

HISTORY

are central motives

and anthropophagy
in the early image
to elements
that largely correspond
of the Carnival
(see

figure 6).
Mikhail Bakhtin tries to find a common denominator
for carnivalesque
Renaissance
culture when using the cosmic human body as the center
(RW 365). In his focus
"uniting all the varied patterns of the universe"
on the human body, Bakhtin draws a direct link between
carnivalesque
folk culture and Utopian hope as reflected
in concepts
of the Golden
Age, the ancient Saturnalia cult, and Christian visions of salvation: "Even
tradition
more, certain carnival forms parody the Church's cult_The
of the Saturnalias
remained
unbroken
and alive in the medieval
this universal renewal and was vividly felt as an
carnival, which expressed
from
the
usual
official
The "carne vale" or
escape
way of life" (?W7-8).
"farewell meat," despite
its superficial negation
of the consumption
of
as
leads
into
the
Last
the
"cannibalistic"
meat, ultimately
Supper
part of

de Bry's illustration
of Staden's
account,
Fig. 6. Theodor
costumes
and masks,
is very reminiscent
of carnivalesque
for the History
of Art and the Humanities.
Getty Center

which,
images.

through
Americae

on
its emphasis
Tertia Pars, The

CANNIBALISM

AND

403

CARNIVALESQUE

the Christian
ritual. The cannibalistic
in Christian
tradi
deep-structure
tion is thus indirectly reflected
in the carnival of early modern
times.
can hardly be overlooked.
to the New World
The analogy
America
even
more
than
the
"the
of a
becomes,
Carnival,
European
potentiality
of
the
of
carnival
truth"
the
(RW4S). While
friendly world,
golden age,
a temporary,
Carnival
represents
European
though cyclical, enclave of
in the course of the year, its basic elements
are
to
new
the
transferred
continent. Grotesque
motifs, which
permanently
are part of the ritual renewal of the old world
in the carnival, are
onto America.
Bakhtin coins the term "grotesque
realistically projected
realism"
in the European
carnival,
(RW 21) for these basic features
which characterize
both the structure of grotesque
physical disfiguring
in the early image of America.
and the cannibalisitic
elements
In other
of a continually
the concepts
world
from
derived
words,
regenerating
onto
folk rites are transported
the newly-discovered
thus
continent,
an
America
of
these
making
expression
subliminally
regenerative
deep
of the carnival:
structures, or as Bakhtin
put it in his characterization
Utopian

"People

conditions

were,

so

to

reborn

speak,

for

new,

human

purely

relations.

or
only a fruit of imagination
abstract
The
ideal
and
the
thought;
experienced.
Utopian
in this carnival experience,
realistic merged
unique of its kind" (jRWIO).
What Bakhtin
the carnival characterizes
to an even
says here about
the
of
in
America
the
sixteenth
greater degree
conceptions
century. The
across the Atlantic materialized
as the
New World
carnivalesque?a
world whose main
features
include
the Utopian
inversion
of social,
and
all
in
reflected
structures,
political,
personal
indirectly
anthropoph
from premodern
agy. A number of examples
periods already illustrated
the interrelation
of carnal motifs with Utopian
topoi. This is especially
true of the works of Rabelais, which are
with
roughly contemporaneous
These

truly human

relations
they were

were

not

of the travel narratives and also treat the motif of incorporation

or
a
in
are
texts
similar
Rabelais's
to
full
of
references
very
way.
introjection
dismembered
human bodies,
and their diction
the
reflects
indirectly
as well as the butcher's
craft: "He beat out the
language of anatomy
brains of some, broke the arms and legs of others, disjointed
the neck
demolished
the
slit
the
the eyes,
blackened
noses,
bones,
kidneys,
smashed
the jaws, knocked
the teeth down the throats, shattered
the

many

shoulder-blades,
cracked

the

crushed
fore-arms

of

the
yet

shins,
others.

dislocated
. . . Others

the
he

thigh-bones,
smote

so

and
fiercely

their bowels gush out. Others he struck

through the navel that he made
on the ballocks
and pierced
their bum-gut."28 Rabelais
not only de
scribes dismemberment
and bodily mutilation
in culinary metaphors,
but also depicts
the preparation
of food and eating in such a way that
an
in
almost
context:
cannibalistic
"So they made
their
they appear

404

NEW

LITERARY

HISTORY

their turnspit, and at the fire in which the knights were burning
prisoner
set
to roast" (GP 252). In another episode
their
in Turkey,
venison
they
to
over
is
with
be
the
"The
covered
lard
roasted
fire:
Panurge
rascally
Turks had put me on a spit, all larded like a rabbit" (GP 214).
account
Even
of
the most
detailed
of the cannibalistic
practices
refers to this very passage about the cannibalistic
Brazilian man-eaters
Turks by Rabelais. Jean de L?ry's Histoire d'un voyage fait en la terre du
from
its overt distancing
Br?sil, auterment dite Am?rique is?despite
same
in
much
rooted
the
and
grotesque
Rabelais?very
carnivalesque
that the cannibals
tradition.29 L?ry argues
of the New World
always
on grids over the fire.
roast
dismember
their victims before
them
they
text abounds
this negation
in imagery
of Rabelais,
L?ry's
Despite
is
in
used
and
reminiscent
of the culinary
that
language
Gargantua
are
at
for
like
the
the
Pantagruel,
example,
"being fattened
prisoners
pigs
come forward with hot water
trough" (HV 122) and "[The cannibals]
that they have ready, and scald and rub the dead body to remove
its
outer skin, and blanch
it the way our cooks over here do when
they
(HV126).
prepare a suckling pig for roasting"
as a
Like Staden, L?ry also introduces
the motif of woman
tempting
and devouring monster, when relating the tribe's practice of giving the
to

prisoners

own

their

women:

woman

the

"[A]fter

has

or

some

made

tears over her dead

another
and shed a few feigned
lamentation,
to
eat
she will, if she can, be the first
of him" (HV 125-26).
husband,
account of the
in travel narratives,
Many passages
including Vespucci's
as
as
well
Amazons
cannibalistic
above)
L?ry's devouring
(quoted
into Bakhtin's
of the carnival: "Earth is
women, fit perfectly
explanation
an element
swallows up (the grave, the womb)
and at the
that devours,
same

time

an

means

here

Degradation
as an element

of birth,

element

that

of

and

up

to concern
also means
degrade
body, the life of the belly and
relates

to acts

of

and

defecation

maternal

(the
to earth,

down

coming

swallows

renascence

gives

birth

at

the
the

same

oneself with the lower

the reproductive
organs;
copulation,

conception,

. . .

breasts).

contact

with
time.

earth
...

To

stratum

of the
it therefore

pregnancy,

and

from Hans Staden about the cannibals

birth" (RW 21). The passage
that
in full above contains
all the same elements
which was quoted
includes in his characterization
of the carnivalesque.
Bakhtin
Regenera
and birth is directly linked with incorporation.
tion through conception
to the sealing of the anus "to make
Even Staden's peculiar
reference
sure that nothing
in
(146) fits into the overall concept
goes to waste"
as an integral part of the pan-corporal
excrement
is regarded
universe, or as Bakhtin puts it, "Dung and urine lend a bodily character

which

to matter,

terror

to

the world,

to

the

cosmic

into a gay carnival monster"

elements

...

(RW 335;

see figure

It transforms

7).

cosmic

In these

405

CANNIBALISM AND CARNIVALESQUE

and regeneration
manifest
discourses,
quasi-historical
incorporation
in a form Bakhtin
themselves
labels as "grotesque
realism," which
transfers all latent ritual-theological
tradition of
aspects of the European
cults onto a material
level by grounding
them in the New World.
trace a common
One can therefore
denominator
traditional
among
in classical myths, medieval
texts,
concepts of anthropophagy
religious
and carnivalesque
literature of the
grotesque
early travel narratives,
and the philosophical
notions
of holism of Montaigne,
Renaissance,
the
always linking Utopian hope with motives of incorporation
regarding
human body. All the various manifestations
of the cannibalistic,
despite
their rather divergent
share a Utopian
appearances,
longing for unity
or as Bakhtin
summarizes
this latent
through sublation of difference,
wish

for completeness:

These

traits

transgresses
body
is enriched
and

are most
here
grows

in the act of eating;

revealed
the
concretely
limits:
it swallows,
rends
the world
devours,
apart,
the world's
encounter
The
the
of man
with
expense.

fully
its own
at

and

account
Staden's
Fig. 7. This engraving
by de Bry which
accompanies
women
cannibal
the dead body. Americae Tertia Pars, The Getty
prepare
of Art and the Humanities.
History

shows

how

the

Center

for

the

406

NEW

which

world,

the most

of
Here

man

. . Man's
.
triumphs
between

HISTORY

is one
mouth,
biting,
chewing
rending,
of human
and imagery.
objects
thought
tastes
the world,
it into his
it part of himself.
body, makes
encounter
with
the world
in the act of
is
he
eating
joyful,
triumphant;
over
the world,
devours
it without
devoured
himself.
The
limits
being
takes

ancient,

man

and

inside
place
and most

the open,

important
introduces

are

the world

attack

for

(RW 281)

advantage.

and cannibalism
by recourse to Bakhtin's
is both fashionable
and at the same time

reasons.

various

to man's

erased,

To explain the fusion of utopia

notion of the "carnivalesque"
under

LITERARY

Bakhtin's

entire

of

reading

the

carnival

and Rabelais
in particular
in general
have been severely criticized
for
not being sufficiently grounded
in textual and historical evidence. Dietz
for example,
attacks Bakhtin's
R?diger Moser,
by accusing
approach
him of Utopian projections:
turn his
did he [Bakhtin]
"Much more
to the west, since he thought to be able to find there?in
attention
the
so
new
which
he
missed
in
carnival?two
the
all
things,
progressive
.. . and the liberation of the
socialist society: The freedom of the people
pressure

on

resting

of

many

them."30

The

structure

is

not

to

be

in both cases, the Utopian descriptions

of America
overlooked:
and
Bakhtin's Utopian delineation
of the carnival, a westward projection
tries
to ground a Utopian wholeness
in a spatial manner. Bakhtin's procedure
of extrapolating
his Utopian
in the medieval West
thus
carnivalesque
Renaissance
discursive
into the territories

parallels
motives

in a

materialize

This Utopian
Other,

which

spatial

that also inscribe carnivalesque

practices
to make
in the west
notions
Utopian

manner.

urge for a restitution

Bakhtin

calls

the

of a lost unity with

"most

ancient

. . .

the world

objects

of

or the
human

theories of
thought" (RW2SI), also serves as the basis for psychoanalytic
movements
All
in
the
twentieth
the
theoretical
century
identity.
major
on binary oppositions
or difference:
their arguments
signifier
ground
in structural
in linguistics,
the raw and the cooked
and signified
as
are only a
as
in
and
well
object
subject
psychoanalysis
anthropology,
one
of basic dichotomies
which?if
few of the numerous manifestations
to go that far?ultimately
between
"boil down" to the opposition
that is, edible and inedible.31 The constitution
of the
inside and outside,
or
to
is
in
Freudian
linked
theory
directly
incorporation
Oedipal
subject
to
itself
tries
into
"The
introject
original
pleasure-ego
introjection:
that is bad. From its
that is good and to reject everything
everything
to the ego, and what is external
point of view, what is bad, what is alien
can thus be
to
The
identical."32
are,
dichotomy
subject-object
begin with,
to
of
the
inedible.
The pre
edible
and
the opposition
traced back

wants

lapsarian?or

in this

case

pre-oedipal?wholeness

of man,

which

was

lost

AND

CANNIBALISM

407

CARNIVALESQUE

is consequently
ritually restored through
through eating and not-eating
or introjection.
various forms of incorporation
between utopia and
This also sheds light on the causal relationship
from
the earliest
ancient
theories
cannibalism
of cultural
ranging
to the grotesque-realistic
and theological
evolution
material
discourses,
ization in the image of America
the
through
propagated
early travel
and historiography,
link cannibalistic
narratives.
which
Rites, myths,
with Utopian spaces, reflect this subliminal
human drive
incorporation
oneness
an
for a restitution of primordial
of the
through
incorporation
two
Other. In the early modern
of
these
contradic
America,
very
image
tory concepts?the
utopia of the Golden Age or terrestrial Paradise and
to fuse and materialize
anthropophagy?seem
through a realistic and
material
projection
New World.

of stylized Utopian

rituals

onto

of incorporation

Universit?t

the

Innsbruck

NOTES
1

On

the gender-specific
see Mario Klarer,
aspect of the early image of America
Utopian
and Arcadia:
on the Early
The
Impact of Ancient
Utopian
Thought
Image of
1-17.
America,"
Journal
of American Studies, 27.1 (1993),
2 Christoforo
tr. Frank E. Robbins
Colombo,
Inventis,
(Ann
Ep?stola de Insulis Nuper
"Woman

Arbor,
1966), pp. 9-10.
3 Amerigo
Account
Vespucci,
Introductio
Wieser
4

byMartin

(1507)

of the First Voyage, in Martin Waldseem?ller,

and the English Translation
ofJoseph Fischer
cited in text as AV.
1966), p. 112; hereafter

Cosmographiae
and Franz von

Waldseem?ller

(Ann Arbor,

in the Odyssey
on the island
describes
conditions
comparable
and
grow trees, tall and luxuriant,
pears and pomegranates
with their bright
olives. Of these the fruit
fruit, and sweet figs, and luxuriant
apple-trees
not nor fails in winter
or in summer,
but lasts throughout
the year; and ever does
perishes
as it blows, quicken
to life some fruits, and
the west wind,
ripen others; pear upon pear
waxes
ripe, apple upon apple, cluster upon cluster, and fig upon fig. . . .There
again, by
the last row of the vines, grow trim garden
beds of every sort, blooming
the year through,
are two springs." Homer,
and therein
The Odyssey, tr. A. T.
2 vols.
(1919; rpt.
Murray,
in text as TO with book and line
hereafter
cited
Mass.,
1960), VII, 114-32;
Cambridge,
number.
of

The

analogous
the Phaiacians:

passage
"Therein

Four Voyages to theNew World: Letters and Selected Documents,

tr.
Columbus,
Christopher
ed. R. H. Major
Mass.,
(Gloucester,
1978), p. 130.
6
"There are also remarkable
kinds of birds, many
pines, vast fields and meadows,
many
kinds of honey,
and many kinds of metals,
iron." Colombo,
except
Ep?stola de Insulis Nuper
Inventis, p. 10.
and

The Log of Christopher Columbus,

tr. Robert H.
cited in text as L with date. For further

hereafter
Nov.

1492; 23 Nov.
1492;
so-called
"Cynoc?phales"

11 Dec.
(people

Fuson
references

(Camden,
1992),
to the Canibe

26 Nov.

1492;
the Log, 4
talks about the

also
1492; 17 Dec. 1492. John Mandeville
with dog's heads),
who practise
cannibalism.

see

"Men and

408
women

of that isle have

heads

... If
like dogs
they capture
tr. C.W.R.D.
Moseley

NEW LITERARY HISTORY

any man

(The Travels of Sir John Mandeville,

hereafter
cited in text as 7T).

in battle,

[Harmondsworth,

they eat him"

p. 134;

1983],

texts considered
As early as 1520 Spanish
from the Latin
concluded
that it was derived

in the Caribbees:
Literature

The

and Power

Constitution

in the Seventeenth

of the word
and
the etymology
"Cannibale"
see Peter Hulme,
"Hurricanes
canis?"dog";
of English
in 1642:
of the Discourse
Colonialism,"
Century: Proceedings
of theEssex Conference on the Society

Peter Hulme,
ed. Francis
Barker,
John Coombes,
Jennifer
Jay Bernstein,
of Literature,
Colonial
Stratton
and Jon
Stone,
1981),
(Colchester,
p. 67; see also Peter Hulme,
1492-1797
Encounters: Europe and theNative Caribbean,
1986), p. 22, and Frank
(London,
toJules
The Discovery and Representation
Cannibals:
of the Cannibal from Columus
Lestringant,
and Los Angeles,
Morris
Verne, tr. Rosemary
1997), pp. 15-22.
(Berkeley
of four young male
is preceded
this passage
9
by an account
enough,
Interestingly
natives who had been castrated
tribe: "In the canoe which
they
by a hostile
neighboring
to the same tribe, but had
four youths, who did not belong
had abandoned,
there were
in another
land. These
youths
captured
a fact which
caused us no little astonishment"

been

had

p. 122).
Voyage, inWaldseem?ller,
10 See, above all, the numerous
illustrations
The New Golden Land: European
Honour,
Hugh

recently
(Amerigo

on

female

Images

had

their virile

Vespucci,

parts removed,
Account
of the Second

allegorizations

of America from

of America
the Discoveries

in
to the

(New York, 1975), pp. 84-117.

of the earth
account
first circumnavigation
of Magellan's
(1519-1522)
by his
. . called Canibali,
who eat
also speaks of "men, as tall as a giant.
scribe Antonio
Pigafetta
s
flesh"
human
(Antonio
of the First Circumnaviga
Pigafetta, Maggellan
Voyage: A Narrative
and London,
vol. 1 [New Haven
1969], p. 45).
tion, tr. R. A. Skelton,
and
is it [island] held, nor with ploughed
"Neither with flocks
12
lands, but unsown

Present
11

Time

The

unfilled"

(The Odyssey IX, 123).

The Vercelli Book, ed. George
1932).
(London,
Philip Krapp
tr.
14 See Sources and Analogues
of Old English Poetry: The Major Latin Texts in Translation,
and Daniel
G. Calder
Michael
1976), pp. 14-34.
(Cambridge,
J. B. Allen
15 Anglo Saxon Poetry, ed. R. K Gordon
(New York,
1970), p. 181.
a story told by Solon,
and learnt by him from the priests of Sais in
16
"Plato interpolates
a great
the Deluge,
island called
to the effect
that there was,
long ago before
Egypt,
. . . The
some would
connect
this
with which
from antiquity
other
Atlantis
testimony
... He there relates
after
that certain Carthaginians,
is in Aristotle
[America]
discovery
a very long time through
out into the Atlantic
the Straits of Gibraltar
Sea, finally
sailing for
and watered
a large fertile
with woods
discovered
island, well covered
by broad,
deep
13

See

rivers"
hereafter

(Michel
cited

de Montaigne,
in text).

Essays,

tr. J. M. Cohen

[Harmondsworth,

1958],

pp.

106-7;

one finds
of texts that could be labeled Utopian,
the few medieval
examples
in his The Former Age, but also
the
of a Golden
vision
Age
retrospective
of the
into many national
literatures
Land ofCokaygne, which was incorporated
anonymous
of a
visions
The Isle of Ladies. These medieval
Middle
time, and the anonymous
English
core of both classical
formed
the
central
that
draw
the
terrestrial
upon
topoi
paradise
and
such as communal
modern
fertility of the land, health,
property,
supernatural
utopia,
im
mittelalterlicher
und
antiker
See
Mario
life.
Klarer,
Utopievorstellungen
"Topoi
long
160
42.2
The Isle of Ladies," Germanisch-Romanische
(1992),
Monatsschrift
mittelenglischen
17 Among
Chaucer's

77.
18

"If of

are called

the same
children,

call one
age they generally
and the old men are fathers

those who are younger

brothers;
to all the rest. They leave to their heirs the

another

CANNIBALISM AND CARNIVALESQUE 409

undivided
plain

one

to be held
of their property,
possession
on her creatures
nature
bestows
which

Essays, p. 114).
(Montaigne,
of 1578
19 Jean de L?ry's account
served as a direct
it almost certainly

in common,
when

with

she brings

no other
them

tide
into

than

the

the world"

to Montaigne's

essay that
the
Especially
depiction
to have served as a model
for the Montaigne
of the prisoner
savage who recites a
appears
. . .will be clubbed
to death
in all his feathered
is by no
ballad:
"Even he who
regalia,
on the contrary,
means
about
and drinking,
he will be one of the
downcast;
leaping
. . . [W]ithout
even though both his arms
ones there.
his offering
merriest
any resistance,
as a
are left free, he will be walked
for a little while
and displayed
the village,
through
. . . [W]ith an incredible
he will boast of his past feats of
and assurance,
audacity
trophy.
. . . T have eaten
to those who hold him bound
and to
your father,'
prowess,
saying
a
T have struck down and boucan?your
brothers'"
another,
(Jean de L?ry, History of Voyage
cited in text
to the Land of Brazil, tr. Janet Whatley
1990], pp. 122-23; hereafter
[Berkeley,
shows

source

such obvious

parallels
for "Les Cannibales."

as//V).
In her
20

book The Death

(San
of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution
in the modern
has highlighted
these two traditions
1980), Carolyn Merchant
structures.
their inherent
of science by stressing
gender
philosophy
versus mechanisches
in der Renaissanceutopie"
Weltbild
See the chapter
21
"Organisches

Francisco,

und Utopischer Diskurs

im anglo
in my book, Frau und Utopie: Feministische
Literaturtheorie
amerikanischen Roman
1993), pp. 28-40.
(Darmstadt,
and New Atlantis
The Advancement
Francis Bacon,
22
(London,
1969), p. 288.
of Learning
under
the headings
The project of Nova Atlantis can be subsumed
"imitation,"
"manipula
term is certainly
since here science
that of "imitation,"
tion," and "creation." The central
in an artificial
In Nova Atlantis
aims at simulating
natural
situation.
processes
laboratory
. . thunder,
. . . snow, hail, rain,.
as well as all
scientists
try to imitate "meteors
lightnings,"
are
imitated as well. In the so-called
(289). Sensual perceptions
perfectly
for
scientists
invent,
(293)
(295) and "perspective-houses"
(294),
"perfume-"
... all manner
of false apparition,
for the purpose
of the "deceit of the senses
instance,
is always put on the
the emphasis
and illusions"
(296). In all the enumerations
impostures
. . . imitation of the
are to be understood
as "artificial
of these processes,
which
artificiality
natural
sources"
(289).
kinds

of creatures

"sound-"

in the Catholic
cannibalism
with
links American
transubstantiation
L?ry
to an even greater
than Montaigne.
When
of the eucharistie
speaking
degree
and obtained
from God Thy Father
that Thy
says: "Thou hast willed
L?ry's priest

23 Jean
Eucharist

de

host,
to believers,
who by their eating of Thy flesh and blood, Thou has made
justice be ascribed
one with Thee
and transformed
into Thee,
nourished
their
by Thy flesh and substance,
true bread,
to live eternally"
(L?ry, History
of a Voyage to the Land of Brazil, p. 40). L?ry
the Catholics
with the cannibalistic
not only
compares
Quetacas:
"[T]hey wanted
directly
to eat the flesh of Jesus Christ grossly rather than spiritually,
but what was worse,
like the
to chew and swallow
I have already spoken,
savages named
Quetaca, of whom
they wanted
it raw" (41). Although
the Calvinist L?ry condemns
it as an example
anthropophagy,
using
a traditional
his descriptions
for Catholic
also follow
heresy,
deep
organic-holistic
as a restitution
oneness.
which
of universal
For a more
structure,
incorporation
regards
see the
on L?ry
treatment
of this Calvinist
in
detailed
view on cannibalism
chapter
Cannibals,
pp. 68-80.
Lestringant,
see the facsimile
text of 1557,
German
edition:
24
For the original
Hans
Staden,
und Beschreibung
eines Landes der wilden nackten grimmigen Menschenfresser,
Wahrhaftige Historia
in der neuen Welt Amerika gelegen, ed. G?nter
E.Th.
cited in text in my translation.
hereafter

1978);

Bezzenberger

(Kassel

and Wilhelmsh?he,

NEW LITERARY HISTORY

410
25

Staden

26

Mikhail

hereafter

even

includes

a woodcut

Rabelais
Bakhtin,
cited in text as RW.

27

Edmund

28

Fran?ois

Ronald
Rabelais,

and His

Leach, Rethinking
The Histories

illustration
World,

of

this club

tr. H?l?ne

Anthropology

in this printed

Iswolsky

(London,
1962),
and Pantagruel,

p. 6.
tr. J. M.

of Gargantua
hereafter
cited in text as GP.
1955), pp. 99-100;
... have
I shall here refute the error of those who
represented

(Harmondsworth,
29
"However,

edition.

(Bloomington,

1984);

Cohen

and painted
legs and other
about Panurge
to theLand of Brazil,

the Brazilian
human
flesh on a spit, as we cook mutton
savages roasting
. . . Since
are
meat.
truer than the tales of Rabelais
not
these
things
escaping
pp.
30

from

the spit larded

and half-cooked"

(L?ry, History

of

Voyage

126-27).

"Lachkultur
des Mittelalters?
Michael
Bachtin
und die Folgen
Moser,
Dietz-R?diger
84.1 (1990),
seiner Theorie,"
91-92.
Euphorion
to Cannibalism:
From Communion
An Anatomy
See also Maggie
31
ofMetaphors
of
Kilgour,
(Princeton,
1990), pp. 3-19.
Incorporations
in General Psychoanalytical
32
Freud,
(New
Sigmund
Theory, ed. Philip Reiff
"Negotiation,"

York,

1963),

pp.

214-15.