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Cannibalism and Human Sacrifice
Paperback, 192 pages, 2007 printing
216 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1958
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About the author
Garry Hogg
112 booksGarry Hogg (1902-1976) was an English author, journalist, reviewer, broadcaster and lecturer.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 26, 2019
This book is outdated, and so there are heavy overtones of racism strewn throughout. It discusses, with horror, how horrid and backward cannibals are.
It discusses the various reasons that different peoples have chosen to eat human flesh.
Not objective in the least, doesn’t even try to be. Refers to these people as uncivilized barbarians, and serves to excite little more than loathing and disgust. At several points the author even condemns an open-minded and objective observation as not being Christian enough, or being too lenient.
The author frequently refers to Christian missionaries as courageous but, with modern information in mind, it’s important to remember that not all missionaries had a benevolent mission - some were cruel and abusive, some were quite frankly slave traders who brutalized innocent people.
The one chapter on the Kwakiutl Indians is excessive in that it only conveys absurd and arbitrary customs (after six days they did this, after four lunar months they did this, etc).
Overall it does give an interesting look at how prominent cannibalism is in our history, and there are a few good excerpts from other works, mostly from explorers who witnessed these acts or heard them second hand.
Perhaps it is difficult to relay tales of something so offensive to our modern western tastes, and perhaps enough time has passed that the author’s own biases have gone far out of style.
Overall, an attempt to breakdown and understand cannibalism that falls short of its goals.
It discusses the various reasons that different peoples have chosen to eat human flesh.
Not objective in the least, doesn’t even try to be. Refers to these people as uncivilized barbarians, and serves to excite little more than loathing and disgust. At several points the author even condemns an open-minded and objective observation as not being Christian enough, or being too lenient.
The author frequently refers to Christian missionaries as courageous but, with modern information in mind, it’s important to remember that not all missionaries had a benevolent mission - some were cruel and abusive, some were quite frankly slave traders who brutalized innocent people.
The one chapter on the Kwakiutl Indians is excessive in that it only conveys absurd and arbitrary customs (after six days they did this, after four lunar months they did this, etc).
Overall it does give an interesting look at how prominent cannibalism is in our history, and there are a few good excerpts from other works, mostly from explorers who witnessed these acts or heard them second hand.
Perhaps it is difficult to relay tales of something so offensive to our modern western tastes, and perhaps enough time has passed that the author’s own biases have gone far out of style.
Overall, an attempt to breakdown and understand cannibalism that falls short of its goals.
June 21, 2016
Looking at human beings like they are buckets of friend chicken -
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews