Title: Divine hunger
First published: 1986
Description: The practice of cannibalism is in certain cultures rejected as evil, while in others it plays a central part in the ritual order. Anthropologists have offered various explanations for the existence of cannibalism, none of which, Peggy Sanday claims, is adequate. In this book she presents a new approach to understanding the phenomenon. Through a detailed examination of ritual cannibalism in selected tribal societies, and a comparison of those cases with others in which the practice is absent, she shows that cannibalism is closely linked to people's orientation to the world, and that it serves as a concrete device for distinguishing the "cultural self" from the "natural other."
Subjects: Cannibalism, Cross-cultural studies, History, Ethnology, Cross-Cultural Comparison
LC classification: GN409 .S25 1986