> From: Carvalho <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: [Goanet] David vs Goliath
> The Fijians would ultimately stop using human flesh as > canapes before dinner, even without the help of > interventionist missionaries. Anthropological and ecological research has indicated that cannibalism may be a feature of small, isolated island societies, and develops almost inevitably there. Many of the Pacific islands had independently developed into cannibalistic socities, where cannibalism was not restricted to members of other tribes, but even turned inwards. (Of course, cannibalism also has a ritualistic dimension, which is why it is also found in non-isolated-island societies. So, cannibalism in such societies probably stopped not because of the alleged 'civilizing' influence of Christianity but because these societies came into contact with the larger world and no longer had an isolated island ecology. Incidentally, the pig is considered to be the closest approximation to human flesh, which is why in many of the Pacific islands human flesh is called 'long pig'. This is something that the Daniel Day Lewis character talks about in Scorcese's "Gangs of New York". -- Question everything -- Karl Marx