Social Constraints Of Cannibalism In The Island Of New Guinea

For the majority of our lives we are aware of the social constraints that bound us to what we can do. We are aware while placed in a civilized society to what is deemed wrong and to what is acceptable within society. However this is not the case for all. Tribes for example that are isolated in small off the grid islands are an exception to the general social constraint. These tribes have developed their own social guidelines and have followed them throughout their existence. One of these social bounds drawn differently for example is that of cannibalism, to civilized men and most of the general public are aware that eating other humans is a horrible practice. However people that are raised in a culture in which cannibalism is so common within …show more content…
In this second largest island second only to Greenland it is known that the natives of the Korowai tribe still eat human flesh to this day. The natives do it without the thought that they are consuming their friends but rather they consume it with their best intentions, however horribly it may sound. As explained in one of the interviews conducted by Paul Raffaele a man who traveled deep into the forests of new guinea, when he asked the tribesman on why they ate humans they replied with “We don't eat humans, we only eat khakhua.” The Korowai people eat the human flesh with the intentions of revenge towards the khakhua, evil witch demons who ate their fellow tribesman. The khakhua is said to eat the insides of its victim and take the appearance of its prey. Korowai people as a means of revenge ritually cook the khakhua or the body however one wants to see it and consume it limb to limb. Cannibalism has been embedded into their brains as a socially acceptable demon witch hunt, within their tribe. Each year within the Korowai men, women and even children are persecuted and accused of being a khakhua. The Korowai culture does not however allow children to attend the ceremonial banquet of human …show more content…
In 1492 in one of his expeditions, Christopher Columbus landed on an island and set some men on the island for a day, when he returned he came back to his men with women who were running away from their enslavers who were said to eat men. This tale of cannibal caribs soon began to grow they were stained as cannibals for the remainder of their existence. As to why they ate people Reay Tannahill in Flesh And Blood a history of the cannibal complex explains that “...the Caribs cannibal habits were a product, not of greed, but of the need to express triumph or vengeance...” The caribs only ate their enemies as to prove their dominance over the other men, and possibly to create fear amongst the island of their power. Columbus took the general concept of the islanders eating human flesh and formed the misconception that the Caribs ate anyone, instead of understanding that it was a war ritual within the tribe that the caribs practice. However if it were still a misconception of on to why the Caribs ate people the same taboo still appears they ate people because of their culture deemed it necessary to prove their