Among the Cannibals : Adventures on the Trail of Man's Darkest Ritual

It's the stuff of nightmares, the dark inspiration for literature and film. But astonishingly, cannibalism does exist, and in Among the Cannibals travel writer Paul Raffaele journeys to the far corners of the globe to discover participants in this mysterious and disturbing practice. From an obscure New Guinea river village, where Raffaele went in search of one of the last practicing cannibal cultures on Earth; to India, where the Aghori sect still ritualistically eat their dead; to North America, where evidence exists that the Aztecs ate sacrificed victims; to Tonga, where the descendants of fierce warriors still remember how their predecessors preyed upon their foes; and to Uganda, where the unfortunate victims of the Lord's Resistance Army struggle to reenter a society from which they have been violently torn, Raffaele brings this baffling cultural ritual to light in a combination of Indiana Jones-type adventure and gonzo journalism. Illustrated with photographs Raffaele took during his travels, Among the Cannibals is a gripping look at some of the more unsavory aspects of human civilization, guaranteed to satisfy every reader's morbid curiosity. Publishers Weekly Australian Raffaele's quest for cannibals sent him around the world from the New Guinea highlands to the streets of Mexico City. Along the way he encountered necrophiliac Indian holy men, the brutalized child-victims of Uganda's civil war, and the iron-pumping king of Tonga. Raeffele's primary goal is to explore exactly what leads different cultures to violate one of humanity's greatest taboos. Yet Raffaele (a Smithsonian feature writer) is not above taking detours and his itinerary includes lessons in Tantric practices, drinking bouts with Tongan transvestites, and a tour of a Frida Kahlo exhibition. Raffaele is a competent adventure writer and has no problem asking questions along the lines of: Have you eaten human flesh? Unfortunately, he displays a less-than nuanced perspective, leading him to statements such as: He is a mass killer whose humanity seems to have been almost entirely sucked out of him.' The fact that a number of the cultures he investigates haven't engaged in cannibalism in centuries makes his quest often seem misguided. Raffaele also needlessly tries to force the drama by phrasing his issues in the most lurid terms imaginable. What could have been a serious investigation of the most extreme varieties of human experience becomes a kind of cannibal farce. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. "It's the stuff of nightmares, the dark inspiration for literature and film. But astonishingly, cannibalism does exist, and in Among the Cannibals travel writer Paul Raffaele journeys to the far corners of the globe to discover participants in this mysterious and disturbing practice. From an obscure New Guinea river village, where Raffaele went in search of one of the last practicing cannibal cultures on Earth; to India, where the Aghori sect still ritualistically eat their dead; to North America, where evidence exists that the Aztecs ate sacrificed victims; to Tonga, where the descendants of fierce warriors still remember how their predecessors preyed upon their foes; and to Uganda, where the unfortunate victims of the Lord's Resistance Army struggle to reenter a society from which they have been violently torn, Raffaele brings this baffling cultural ritual to light in a combination of Indiana Jones-type adventure and gonzo journalism." "Illustrated with photographs Raffaele took during his travels, Among the Cannibals is a look at some of the more unsavory aspects of human civilization, guaranteed to satisfy every reader's morbid curiosity."--Jacket HarperCollins Title Page 3 Dedication Page 4 Contents 5 Preface 7 Sleeping with Cannibals: The Korowai of New Guinea 13 Chapter One 15 Chapter Two 25 Chapter Three 31 Chapter Four 40 Chapter Five 49 Chapter Six 61 Saintly Cannibals of the Ganges 71 Chapter Seven 73 Chapter Eight 86 Chapter Nine 95 Chapter Ten 109 Chapter Eleven 120 Tonga’s Warrior Cannibals 131 Chapter Twelve 133 Chapter Thirteen 147 Chapter Fourteen 160 Chapter Fifteen 170 Suffer the Little Children: Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army 179 Chapter Sixteen 181 Chapter Seventeen 196 Chapter Eighteen 212 Chapter Nineteen 220 La Muerte es Grande: Cannibalism and the Barbaric Aesthetes 235 Chapter Twenty 237 Chapter Twenty-One 247 Chapter Twenty-Two 255 Epilogue 265 Index 269 About the Author 285 Credits 286 Copyright Notice 287 About the Publisher 288 ISBN-13:,9780061357886