Customer Reviews

Consuming Grief: Compassionate Cannibalism in an Amazonian Society

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I looked into this book a source for a term paper I was writing on Ritual Cannibalism, but then chose to buy if as my summer reading material. The book is very well written and easy to understand, which make it ideal for professionals, students, and lay-people alike. Coklin does a great job letting the reader into the mind of Wari' peoples; the testemonials are engaging and thought-provoking. I must warn that if you are looking for material that is critical of cannibalism, or argues that it does not exist, this isn't it. "Consuming Grief" makes cannibalism seem rational, and makes you feel sad that these peoples customs and culture were forced away. Coklin is biased in the sense that she is an anthropologist, in that I mean she does not pass any judgement on the peoples she is studying.

This is an excellent book which thoroughly and sensitively covers a topic that is difficult for someone raised in U.S. culture to talk about. I am an anthropologist so I have the edge in terms of cultural relativism, but I think that anyone interested in the reality of this topic (rather than the sensationalist approach) would find this book compelling. I highly recommend it for personal or course use.

This book is one of the best, I own on the subject matter. Very well done and extreemely detailed. I bought a second copy and gave it away as a Christmas gift this year, at my company Christmas party. It was a great success. Everyone wanted it. I'm glad Matt got to keep it.

I must say that very few texts on this subject are as well done as Conklin's. I highly recomend it to anyone interested in "Compassionate Cannibalism" through history.

This book is one of the best, I own on the subject matter. Very well done and extreemely detailed. I bought a second copy and gave it away as a Christmas gift this year, at my company Christmas party. It was a great success. Everyone wanted it. I'm glad Matt got to keep it.

I must say that very few texts on this subject are as well done as Conklin's. I highly recomend it to anyone interested in "Compassionate Cannibalism" through history.

I have used this book three years running in my Introduction to Cultural Anthropology course and inevitability students are taken with the book. In order to move away from large and generalizing textbooks, I have struggled to find engaging and more recently written ethnographies that introduce students to an array of concepts and questions normally covered in an introductory course. Consuming Grief fits the bill in several ways.

Conklin inserts herself into the book just enough to avoid seeming like an omniscient author whose argument and data was somehow miraculously discovered. She discusses her reasons for focusing on the subject matter and provides enough discussion of methods and context that students relate to her journey as much as to the lives of the Wari' about whom she so sensitively writes. Conklin is also candid about how her relationship to the subject of cross-cultural notions of grief changed over time and when her brother passed away, leaving her questioning American society's response to illness and death. Such inclusions are nicely integrated into the text so that the focus remains on the Wari', however, they do provide some insight to students as to how long-term research and one's relationship to the people in the field are complex and infrequently find expression in academic discourse. Consequently, this books is a good introduction to fieldwork, ethics in the field, and of course cultural relativism given its subject matter and Conklin's own brief discussion of European medical practices that can be considered cannibalism in their own right.

Kin relations and reciprocity are central to the practices of funerary cannibalism and also to the belief the Wari' possess in relation to the lives of ancestors as they become peccaries who offer themselves up for prey for those still living. Thus, the book provides excellent illustrations of or starting points for discussions on kinship systems, reciprocity, the body and its place in constituting social relationships, religion and worldview, as well as culture change.

In sum, the book is deftly written and engaging as well as can serve multiple purposes for the instructor in an introductory course. My experience has been that students are initially captivated or repulsed by the subject matter only to become quickly moved and invested in the lives and worldview of the Wari'.

The book is not so much about eating humans, as about the most compassionate way to dispose of corpses. The book makes a clear case that funerary cannibalism has to be viewed in the light of native theories of the body, death and kin/affine relationships. Through careful ethnography, the book undermines attempts to explain cannibalism as a nutritional practice, which was held by leading North American anthropologists not too long ago. It also challenges psychological theories, which miss the point that funerary cannibalism among the Wari' was not performed willingly by the eaters. It was a highly distasteful practice, leading people to vomit, purely performed as an act of compassion towards the kin of the deceased who could not bear to let the body rot or be devoured by wild animals. The book is exceptionally valuable as it is possibly one of the few book-length ethnographies available in English to detail such practices, based on eyewitness accounts of informants who had seen or participated in these funerary events before they were suppressed by outsiders a few decades ago.

I found Dr. Conklin's discoveries totally unexpected in covering an aspect of this practice that is gentle, respectful, and reverent. Our stereotypes of malevolence or extreme desperation are shattered by this insightful work. It is based on her immersive fieldwork in the remote Amazon jungle that gives verity and authority to this important study. It is well worth the read and should challenge any simplistic conception of homophagy.