Columbus and Other Cannibals: The Wetiko Disease of Exploitation, Imperialism, and Terrorism [Paperback]

Jack D. Forbes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 14, 1992

western imperialism & genocide, the wetiko disease

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

JACK D. FORBES was professor emeritus and former chair of Native American Studies at the University of California at Davis. Of Powhatan-Renápe, Delaware-Lenápe, and non-Indian background, he founded the organization Native American Movement in 1961, and started Native American studies programs across the country. He has lectured around the world and is the author of twelve books. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Autonomedia (November 14, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0936756705
• ISBN-13: 978-0936756707
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #947,919 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Classic, November 19, 2003

By 

"corephoenix10" (New York, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Columbus and Other Cannibals: The Wetiko Disease of Exploitation, Imperialism, and Terrorism (Paperback)

An amazing perspective on the conditions of mankind. What Forbes tells us is that there is this negative consciousness, this spiritual sickness called "The Wetiko Psychosis" that gets passed on from being to being. It's an inherited twisted perspective on life, and feeling about life.. The bestowers for the last 500 years of the Wetiko disease have come from the European culture, although he mentions that many cultures through out history have endulged in Wetiko behavior, from Egypt, to Rome, to Russia, China. He's also mentioned that the once oppressed may carry on this mentality, this lunacy to a higher degree sometimes then the original oppressors/ colonizers.
There is authenticity in this book that isnt found that often. The reader learns so much about Native American phylosophy. It stays the course with you from beginning to end. When I first read the book, I was thinking to myself "hmm I dont know, thats stretching it isnt it? Cannibalism?" But the way he describes it, and in the way he means it, now I understand. We need to take a more compassionate and loving path. A path of power now because we're running out of time. We're all enduring the effects of it today and will for years to come. He says it wont change unless we change and heal ourselves first.

31 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most important books I've read, December 11, 2002

By 

Derrick Jensen (Crescent City, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Columbus and Other Cannibals: The Wetiko Disease of Exploitation, Imperialism, and Terrorism (Paperback)

I agree with both previous reviewers that the book is an extraordinary indictment of the dominant culture. But I got something else from this book as well. I read this that Forbes is saying that one of the reasons civilization is killing the planet is because of a spiritual illness with a physical vector. If I get the flu and then cough all over you, you might then get the flu, with all of its symptoms. If I have the cannibal sickness and I cough (or somehow otherwise transfer the disease to you) you will have to consume the souls of others in order to survive. You will become a vampire. Or to putthis another way, you will become a conquistador, a pornographer, a slaver, a businessman. I read this not only as a metaphor, but as a possible description of how things really are. And he makes a very convincing case. Wonderful and important book by a very wise man.

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's about culture, not race, October 25, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Columbus and Other Cannibals: The Wetiko Disease of Exploitation, Imperialism, and Terrorism (Paperback)

The previous reviewer missed the point of this brilliant book by Dr. Jack Forbes of UC Davis. It's about how the "white culture" (really referred to by Forbes as "European culture") is predatory and planet-destructive, not how white "people" are. This book is brilliant and insightful, a clean revisiting of the history of the Americas from the point of view of indigenous peoples, and not at all racist. Highly recommended!