I see that our president is getting a good bit of grief for describing his accounts of his uncle, a flier who was shot down and never found, during WWII. He said that there were cannibals there at the time so…
Ok, so what is the straight dope?
At least as recently as the '60s, and possibly more recently than that.
One of the Rockefeller heirs was supposedly eaten by Papuan cannibals in 1961, though it’s never been confirmed.
In the 1950s the neurological disease kuru was discovered in the South Fore. The local tradition of ritual cannibalism of their dead had led to an epidemic, with approximately 2,700 deaths from 1957 to 2005.
Add to this that Biden was still in diapers when this happened and the vast number of pop culture references to cannibalism in ‘’‘exotic’‘’ lands and you have a perfect storm for a family legend to start.
Indisputably, but not in the way you were probably thinking.
Tanaka, an associate professor of political science at the University of Melbourne, said he uncovered more than 100 cases of Japanese Imperial Army soldiers eating the flesh of Australian troops, Asian laborers and indigenous people in Papua New Guinea.
'‘These documents clearly show that this cannibalism was done by a whole group of Japanese soldiers, and in some cases they were not even starving,’’ Tanaka said Tuesday.
Some, their supply lines cut off, were genuinely hungry. But in other cases, officers ordered troops to eat human flesh to give them a '‘feeling of victory,’’ Tanaka said.
Yes, notably a different president: George HW Bush was shot down and quickly picked up, but other crewmates were captured and allegedly eaten by Japanese troops. It wasn’t a desperation thing.
The Fore did not eat people who they were unrelated to and did not kill people for consumption, but cannibalism certainly isn’t known in that part of the world. I can’t find Papua New Guinea specific references, but in New Guinea and other Indonesian islands it occurred. I don’t think Biden has any evidence beyond family legend, but it’s not completely out of left field either.
In the Tanaka quotation above:
That is, in some cases they were starving. This isn’t in dispute: Japanese soldiers at the end of the supply line in the PNG mountains were starving to death.
I lived in the Fore valley in the 1960’s. I know what their diet was like. In my opinion anthropologists overstate the “ritualistic” nature of non-European societies as if it was an explanation rather than an observation. (Or understate the ritualistic nature of European societies): I would be much more accepting of ritualistic cannibalism, funerary or military, if and when I wasn’t getting enough to eat.
Who exactly would I eat? Dead relatives. When exactly would I eat them? After they were dead, before they spoiled: let’s call the meal a funeral meal.
In my opinion anthropologists overstate the “ritualistic” nature of non-European societies as if it was an explanation rather than an observation.
Its been a long running joke with me that anything western anthropologists don’t understand they automatically associate it with ritualistic/religious significance.
I looked into the “is cannibalism real?” thing years ago and found several accounts from sailors in the 1700’s and 1800’s of cannibalism in the south sea islands; Fiji, New Caledonia, New Zealand, New Guinea, etc. (An old-timer in New Caledonia told one of the missionaries that the fingers were a specail treat and reserved for the big shots in the tribe…)
There are apologists in the field of history that would have you believe all talks of cannibalism are simply colonial libel against foreign occupants of appropraited land. In a way, they have a point - because every account of cannibalism, particularly in the New WOrld, was attributed to locations that became more remote as the different parts were settled and it was apparent that it was not true.
(Although there were some ritual aspects, much like the case for disease mentioned in New Guinea - the Iroquois allegedly ate the hearts of the captured Jesuit missionaries because it was supposed to give them the same courage the priests demonstrated under torture…)
In general, it seems to have been more likely true in island settings where the opportunity for large amounts of meat were few and far between. The interior of New Guinea perhaps is a diffiernt situation. When first discovered, it was believed the interior was impenetrable jungle. It was not until aircraft flew over the central valley that it was realized it was heavily inhabited between the isolating mountain ranges. So presumably the same logic as island applies - the local large animals were hunted to serious scarcity. Like the Polynesians, the only (domesticated) meat otherwise was pigs and chickens. Why let grandma go to waste?
However, logic will tell us that cannibalism as a regular food source, rather than an occasional opportunistic event, is not a sustainable process. Humans take too long to raise (Jonahan Swift notwithstanding) and using warfare to obtain feedstock (so to speak) on a limited area of land will eventually lead to the dominant group wiping out the other.
I should also point out it was said that Captain Cook (ironic name) was boiled to baby-back-rib perfection, flesh falling off the bones, as a funeral ritual by the Hawaiians not so they could eat him. One thing I read said it was a way to quickly reduce the corpse to a skeleton to be preserved for honorable notables.
Having no muscle*, I would have thought they would be one of the least attractive body parts. Just skin and bones (and tendons).
But lots of people eat chicken wings, which to my mind have almost no meat, so anything is possible.
* arrector pili muscles are in fingers, but their job is to make the tiny amount of hair on your fingers stand up, so not much gourmet pleasure there.
Not sure what I’m missing in Dissonance’s comment, but this is the article I found that led me to question the general concept:
An even closer comparison would be chicken feet, which can be positively delicious at the right dim sum restaurant.
I think the criticism is justified – when you represent country, there are things you should not say. America should not call PNG cannibal, and Biden is point man for the USA.
On the facts: people in PNG had enough to do without searching for and collecting road-kill to eat. I assess the chance that his relative was eaten as zero.
On the politics: most of PNG regarded cannibalism as something regional, that other people did. That may or may not have been true, but either way, even in the 1960s few people in PNG would have been pleased to be labeled “cannibal”, and I have no reason to believe that feeling has changed.
It’s pretty well established that it was practiced in places like the Congo and surrounding areas. If the writings of Henry Stanley are to be believed, it was common with some of the tribes he encountered. Now, Stanley occasionally embellished his adventures, but it was almost always to make himself look good, and not to make Africans look bad.
My dad was stationed in PNG during the war. He told me he talked to a cannibal. Who am I going to believe, some stranger with a vested interest of downplaying cannibalism, or my father?
Joe Biden was repeating an old family story. It’s never been established that his uncle actually was eaten by cannibals. It’s possible that happened, although unlikely. He doesn’t make it clear in his statements that it’s merely supposition.
Anthropologist Jared Diamond , who lived for many years in New Guinea, discussed funeral rituals, cannibalism and its related disease kuru. In one of his books, he wrote a memorable sentence:
“as recently as 1961, my assistant asked for the day off so he could travel back to his home village and eat his father”.
(Sorry…I’m quoting from memory…I can’t find the cite)
In The World Until Yesterday Diamond goes into a lot of detail about the PNG interior tribes’ lifestyles as an example of how things were for thousands of years, relatively untouched by modern civilizations. I don’t recal a great deal about cannibalism being mentioned (except as ritual).
One thing that I noted, hadn’t thought about. When the tribes moved camp, the women did all the work. This is typical of nomadic life and suggests the men were lazy, I remember also reading the same about the nomadic plains Indians in North America. It seemed typical patriarchal and sexist, until he points out that what the men did do was carry weapons and be ready to fight at a moment’s notice, since the culture was very warlike. (And typically, the target was other men - their women were often spoils of war).
He goes into detail about their warlike nature, and how tamping down these lethal disputes has been a problem for the PNG government. It makes sense, when there is a limited amount of resources, and one’s neighbours are the rivals for it. It also points to another good detail - sneak attacks on villages were common. When one tribe attacks and kills members of another, rarely do the attackers have time and luxury to stop and cook up their enemies. Also our image of captives marched back to camp to be cooked is not a feature of their normal warfare; a party trying to march captives back would be subject to reprisal attacks. They simply attacked to do as much damage and send a lesson, then left. Quite often warefare was more ritualistic, sides would meet on a battlefield for war then retreat with their dead when the fight was over.
(Again, going from memory of the book quite a while ago…)
To be fair, Biden did says something like “perhaps he was eaten by cannibals.” But yes, that’s the sort of details a leader should be sensitive about saying in public.
I’m not sure what you’re missing either, but to put it in different words, it’s beyond dispute that there were cannibals in New Guinea in WWII. Those who were indisputably cannibals were members of the armed forces of Imperial Japan though, not the locals. Cannibalism was a frequent occurrence in the Imperial Japanese military, not always linked with starvation, which was also a frequent occurrence in the Imperial Japanese military. Tanaka’s research wasn’t anything groundbreaking, it was just highlighting one of the blind spots modern Japan has about the atrocities the country committed during WWII.
Not comprehensive by any means, just the first three results of googling “ija cannibalism”:
At the end of the war, Tachibana and his staff were arrested by the American occupation authorities and were deported to Guam, where they stood trial for war crimes in connection with the Chichijima Incident in August 1946.[6] However, as cannibalism was not covered under international law at the time, Tachibana was charged with “prevention of honorable burial”.[5] Tachibana was sentenced to death by hanging along with four other defendants, including Major Matoba.[7] He and the other defendants executed were buried in unmarked graves on Guam.
Aside: footage of this is known to exist. Here’s a screengrab from “America in Color”, season 2 episode 5.
My Mother , who also lived and worked in the PNG interior, was a medical doctor. When she was young, people asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up, then laughed at her.
She thought Diamond’s attitudes towards lazy men whose wives did all the work were colored by being a lazy white man who bought his food and had somebody else to do the cooking and cleaning.