Enemy brothers-in-law. About Tupinamba cannibalism
Clastres, Hélène
Enemy brothers-in-law. About Tupinamba cannibalism - 2020.
46
This paper analyses cannibal practices among the Tupinamba Indians based on the singular status of the prisoners of war who are systematically the victims. It meticulously describes the rites by which these prisoners, integrated before being ingested, had to pass from the status of absolute enemy to that of ally. A single word in Tupi designates both relationships: tovaja. It is therefore this enemy, married within the group, thus becoming a brother-in-law, who will be eaten. He is given the sister and killed by the brother. As if this need to transform those on whom they take revenge into brothers-in-law manifests a way of representing a desired order where such relationships would not exist, which is perhaps nothing other than the ideal of the “Earth without evil,” that of the suppression of differences; in short, the ideal of an absolute conviviality.
Enemy brothers-in-law. About Tupinamba cannibalism - 2020.
46
This paper analyses cannibal practices among the Tupinamba Indians based on the singular status of the prisoners of war who are systematically the victims. It meticulously describes the rites by which these prisoners, integrated before being ingested, had to pass from the status of absolute enemy to that of ally. A single word in Tupi designates both relationships: tovaja. It is therefore this enemy, married within the group, thus becoming a brother-in-law, who will be eaten. He is given the sister and killed by the brother. As if this need to transform those on whom they take revenge into brothers-in-law manifests a way of representing a desired order where such relationships would not exist, which is perhaps nothing other than the ideal of the “Earth without evil,” that of the suppression of differences; in short, the ideal of an absolute conviviality.
Réseaux sociaux