Consuming Grief: Compassionate Cannibalism in an Amazonian Society

by Beth A. Conklin

Book Overview

Mourning the death of loved ones and recovering from their loss are universal human experiences, yet the grieving process is as different between cultures as it is among individuals. As late as the 1960s, the Wari' Indians of the western Amazonian rainforest ate the roasted flesh of their dead as an expression of compassion for the deceased and for his or her close relatives. By removing and transforming the corpse, which embodied ties between...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0292712367
• ISBN13: 9780292712362
• Release Date: July 2001
• Publisher: University of Texas Press
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

a superb discussion of a difficult topic

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.

A Grand Text and Appropriate for Our Age

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.