Quote Originally Posted by Ludicus View Post
"Cannibalism" is a western invention, tout court.
That's nonsense, the etymology might be to blame on Western European conquerors, but the concept is something else entirely. A cannibal is someone (or something) who eats his conspecifics. "Anthropophagy" (which frankly sounds like a euphemism) means "people-eating". Two very different concepts, as our planet isn't just inhabited by a single species. A polar bear can be anthropophagous too, but that doesn't make him a cannibal. And vice versa.


On a side note, cannibalism wasn't an exclusive to the so-called primitive peoples. In fact, Jean de Léry ( c.1534 -c 1613), in NAVIGATIONS IN BRASILIAM, QVAE ET AMERICA DICITVR ( Histoire d'un voyage faict la terre du Bresil) - full book here in Portuguese- - Viagem a terra do Brasil completo,
wrote about the events in Lyon and Auxerre in 1572 ( in English, reproduced in the book "The Great ocean of Knowledge, the Influence of Travel Literature on the Work of John Locke", Ann Talbot, chapter 5 " Cannibalism and Absolutism", page 96.
Léry recounts the story how in Lyon the Catholic mobs stripped the fat of their victims and sold it to the highest bidder, while at Auxerre they grilled and ate a human heart. For Lery, the mobs that massacred the Huguenots were worse than the Tupinamba because they "killed kinsmen, neighbours' and compatriots", while in Brazil they killed only the enemies - and says " One need not go beyond one's own country , nor as far as America to see such monstrous and prodigious things"
I think those are not the best examples, as they are products of violent excesses during pogroms, i.e. not ritualistic or dietary. Maybe a better example would be the (also Early Modern) practice of consuming blood or other body parts of executed criminals for superstitious reasons in some areas in Europe. On the whole though, it seems that cannibalistic tendencies have receded in European cultures compared to prehistoric times, and more so than among the American and African cultures encountered by European explorers and colonizers later on. Obviously, if you're colonizing someone, any perceived flaw in the locally native culture will serve as an excuse, however hypocritical it may be to use it.