Acquired Tastes: World Cannibalism  

The Iroquois and Algonquians fought mourning wars to heal loss. Mourning wars were fought for captives. Those captured in mourning wars replaced the deceased in a community. A ceremony of violence and humiliation initated captives. Captives were "caressed" with clubs and  fire brands, had their finger nails torn out, were forced to dance. A community tortured its captives to assuage the grief of the bereaved and to assert the community's dominance over its foes. Captives were adopted by bereaved families. Initiation was over when captives sufficiently pleased their adoptive families. An initated captive was welcomed into the community as if they were the person they replaced.  

Likewise, a community initated captives by eating them. When adoption did not ease a mourner's grief, the captives were executed. Captives were adopted and addressed as "uncle" or "nephew," were given a death feast, were saluted and allowed to recite their war honors. There was still a ceremony of violence that ended with scalping, hot sand, and execution by knife or hatchet. The captives were skinned, cooked in kettles, and consumed into the community. 

 

19th century historian Francis Parkman's France and England in North America: The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century describes Iroquoian culture. Parkman describes an Iroquoian attack on an Algonquian hunting party in 1641 and the Iriquois' treatment of Algonquian captives: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Iroquois and Algonquians had practical and religious reasons for what they did to their captives. It was dishonorable for a captive to show pain. Torture avenged an agrieved community. But torture was also a way to test the strength and honor of potential adoptees. Captives were deemed weak when they responded to their torture. Torture was not an act, but a ceremony observed with religious solemnity. Even when captives were executed, a ceremony of violence announced their passing into the afterlife.

 

Cannibalism had a spiritual context. The northeastern indigenous believed in a war, sun, and fire god named Aireskoi. Aireskoi required human sacrifices to be eaten. According to one Jesuit account, captives were cooked over bonfires until sunise when Aireskoi could look upon the ceremony. Aireskoi worship explains why firebrands were used in ceremonies of violence. The northeastern indigenous were animistic. Animate and inanimate things had spiritual energies that could be consumed. Animistic beliefs explain the high standard of brutality in ceremonies of violence. A captive who endured a ceremony of violence with strength and fortitude could convey those qualities to his captors when served at feast. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Indigenous animism relates to the spiritual purpose of mourning wars. Captives replenished a community's physical numbers. But to assauge mourners' grief, captives also replenished the spirit of the lost. A captive could be spared and adopted by a family. But a captive could also be executed and adopted by cannibalism. Indigenous culture allowed for both kinds of adoption to mean the same thing. Whether captives were taken in alive or dead, they were consumed physically, and by extension spiritually, into the community. 

 

To be sure, there was Wendigo Psychosis and The Good Twin. Wendigo was a demon that possessed indigenes to crave human flesh. Anthropologists study the phenomenon as Wendigo Psychosis, a severe mental disorder. The Good Twin was a god in the Iroquoian creation story. When mystics predicted famine, they envisioned The Good Twin holding an ear of corn and a human leg. Wendigo Psychosis and The Good Twin suggest that bioecological factors motivated cannibalism. Still, there is no recorded instance of the Iroquois or Algonquian people eating members of their own community. ​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cannibalism may well have been a prehistoric practice that predates mourning wars.

Cannibal rituals originated with the Iroquois. Indeed, "Mohawk" in the Algonquin tongue means "flesh-eater." The Iroquois were able to spread their culture along the many rivers that extend from Lake Ontario. In fact, many of the northeastern indigenous descend from the Iroquois. Mourning wars only developed from northeastern indigenous infighting.

 

The Iroquois and the Algonquian people used torture and cannibalism to maintain balance. Torture and cannibalism made enemies into community members. Torture was more of a physical induction, cannibalism a regulation of the supernatural.  Torture and cannibalism allowed a community to vent its grief. That no community appeared to eat its own emphasizes the importance of captives to community replenishment. Though bioecological or nutritional factors might explain some instances of cannibalism among the northeastern indigenous, they do not dismiss the greater contexts in which cannibalism occured.