Fact or Fiction a Critique of the Man-Eating Myth Anthropophagy and Anthropology Essay Example Essay Example

Fact or Fiction: a Critique of the Man-Eating Myth: Anthropophagy and Anthropology Essay Example Paper Fact or Fiction: a Critique of the Man-Eating Myth: Anthropophagy and Anthropology Essay Introduction The Man-Eating Myth: Anthropophagy and Anthropology by William Arens (1979) examines the evidence or lack thereof in determining what constitutes cannibalism or anthropophagy. Throughout history anthropologists as well as other â€Å"explorers† have encountered numerous peoples throughout the world. During their fieldwork they have gathered data which suggest the practice of cannibalism within the communities. There have been countless documents which have substantiated the claim of cannibalism in distant countries. This data has been accepted as fact but in actuality these assumptions contain more fiction that validity. Arens has addressed this issue by scrutinizing these documents and providing secondary information that sheds light on the initial discoveries. Anthropophagy has been an ongoing topic for thousands of years. Cannibals are viewed as exotic, barbaric people whom lack the civilization to realize their customs are inane and fundamentally wrong. Due to this fact, f oreign communities have been labeled cannibals to justify ethnocentric views and actions: â€Å"This avenue of inquiry has led to the conclusion that our culture, like many others, finds comfort in the idea of the barbarian just beyond the gates. (p. 184) Anthropologists, for this reason, have substantiated accusations of cannibalism or anthropophagy without concrete evidence supporting these statements. â€Å".and almost every anthropologist considers it a sacred duty to report that the people studied and lived among were in the past or just recently eaters of their own kind. †(p. 8-9) This agenda is detrimental in finding the actual characteristic of a people because the researchers’ views become clouded by the cannibalistic fascination. Fact or Fiction: a Critique of the Man-Eating Myth: Anthropophagy and Anthropology Essay Body Paragraphs Anthropologist began to formulate ficticous accounts of anthropophagy by combining previously submitted documents along with miniscule true accounts: â€Å".we are to judge by the eye of reason, and not from common account. †(p. 9) First person evidence is the only credible way of substantiating or refuting the argument of cannibalism. Hearsay is only circumstantial in finding the truth on the subject. Arens’ experience with the tribal people in Tanzania added more depth to the anthropophagy debate. While in the field, Arens notice the Tanzanian people referring to him as Mchinja-chinja. Curious of the meaning, Arens asked his guide what the meaning was. Arens was told the meaning of Mchinja-chinja was blood-sucker. â€Å". I learned early on that the majority of the inhabitants either had suspicions or were convinced that I consumed human blood. †(p. 12) This evidence gives rise to the assumption people do not require ample evidence to conclude that a person or a group of people foreign to themselves is or was a cannibal. â€Å". their belief in this common variation on the cannibalism theme without a shred of concrete evidence. †(p. 13) The reason this generalization is prevalent is because everyone is an â€Å"other† to someone. In contrast to this critical position, the idea that Africans, Polynesians, New Guineans, American Indians are or were man-eaters until contact with the benefits of European influence is assumed to be in the realm of demonstrated fact. †(p. 19) The theory of â€Å"others† is associated heavily with anthropology because it helps justify the agenda of â€Å"explorers†. Being an â€Å"other† helps substantiate the assumptions made by travelers arriving in distant lands. The explorers encounter new lands inhabited by people who possess things of value. The easiest way to relinquish them of their possessions is to prove they do not deserve them. Being barbaric and uncivilized w as reason enough to strip a people of their belongings, to conquer and assimilate them to western civilization. This mindset causes the accepted documentation to be skewed and inaccurate; creating a pattern of savagery for future generations to reference. An example of this is seen in Hans Staden’s story of his journey. Hans Staden, a 16th century seaman, supposedly spent a little less than a year as a captive in America. During his stay Staden was captive as well as a guest. He recalled the tribal people whom inhabited his location as being cannibalistic. Staden spoke of an extremely detailed display of savagery. Staden explained how the captives were in cages and he heard women taunting him, saying â€Å"they would eat him†. He was brought, bound, to a spot designated by the painted females were they again taunted him. He then speaks of seeing a victim who is set next to a fire, and then killed by a warrior. The women then begin to collect the body and the village be gins to celebrate. â€Å"I was present and have seen all this with my own eyes. †(p. 23) The Staden example shows the stylized depiction associated with tribal eople. Cannibalism was and is a fascination that has weaved itself into history, although no solid proof has ever been found. Staden’s account has no validity because of the clearly obvious problems within the story. Staden, a 16th century seaman, was able to communicate with a group of people whom didn’t share the same dialect after being around them for less than a year. Secondly, how was it possible for Staden to survive this â€Å"experience† if he was being prepared to be eaten? The majority of the so-called â€Å"cannibal documents† are similar to the Staden account. It is evident the authors of these accounts are referencing the same source documents to acquire their first hand experiences. â€Å"The main point is that Staden and other seafarers of the time were most likely already c onvinced of Tupinamba savagery and cannibalism before they set foot on the continent, since the idea already had currency. †(p. 28) Staden wasn’t the only explorer of his time who decided to record their adventures. These men all traveled separately and weren’t connected to each other in anyway, but somehow they seemed to have experienced the same exact situation. Through three different accounts the same experiences are felt, almost word for word. â€Å"For example, Las Casas, in his History of the Indies, also written in the sixteenth century, reproduces a letter from some unnamed Portuguese priest among the Tupinamba who describe the cannibalistic rite and point out that the victim says to his executioner ‘that in his day he too killed his enemies, and that his relatives remain to avenge his death. ’†(p. 29) A Frenchman stationed in Brazil also commented on the Tupinamba as cannibals. â€Å"Are you not of the nation called Margaias, who ar e our enemies? Have you not killed and eaten our parents and friends? †(p. 29) Finally, an English man witnessed the exact same situation take place: â€Å"I am he that hath killed many of thy Nation and will kill thee. † (p. 29) These accusations provided Europeans with enough â€Å"evidence† to go throughout the world attempting to civilize the cannibals they came across. Cannibalism as a whole has been perpetuated by the necessity to conquer foreign territories. Anthropophagy gives would be explorers the â€Å"moral† right to invade communities stripping them of their possessions and culture in hope of bringing them to the level of western civilization. Evidence of this form of assistance has been seen throughout history. Most noticeably, the Aztec Indians were ravaged by Cortes and his search for gold. Cortes expressed that the Aztecs were uncivilized and barbaric. The Spaniards ransacked the civilization stripping it of all it possession and at the sa me time killing off its people. To justify this large scale genocide, the easiest thing to do was dehumanize the Aztecs. â€Å"Sometime shortly after the Conquest, it became apparent that in addition to being idolaters the Aztecs were both sodomists and cannibals. †(p. 58) Arens addresses the issue of cannibalism or anthropophagy as being associated to â€Å"others†. Whether a person is from Spain or a remote part of Africa, the foreigner will be classified in a derogatory manner. This is evident throughout the world by each individual’s ethnocentric views. The necessity for superiority is embedded in every culture no matter how sophisticated or simplistic. The necessity to substantiate these claims however, isn’t a priority. â€Å"The most certain thing to be said is that all cultures, subcultures, religions, sects, secret societies, and every other possible human association have been labeled anthropophagic by someone. (p. 139) Evidence is the key in d etermining which groups of people fall within the category of anthropophagy. Arens doesn’t classify individuals in this category; he instead gives examples of false classification. Whether a person is or isn’t a cannibal isn’t the issue. What is at the core of this argument is documentation. The association of a group of people to anthropophagy without proper support to substantiate the claims provides the imagination with room to grow. This has been the case throughout history. One person, Herodotus, in the 5th Century B. C. mentioned people in distant lands resorted to barbaric acts. .felt compelled to inform his readers in the fifth century B. C. that some unknown people, far beyond the pale of civilization, resorted to this barbaric custom. † Since this point in history, future generations have â€Å"borrowed† thoughts of cannibalism from their predecessors. Countries throughout the world have written on the exotic acts barbaric and savage tribe s’ people have participated in, however no solid facts have been submitted to solidify these remarks. The questions remains, If cannibalism is obviously so prevalent throughout distant societies why is finding a piece of concrete evidence so difficult? The answer to this question is because there is no need for evidence. Ethnocentrism is all that is need to substantiate the claims of individuals who say they have witnessed cannibalism. Societies vie to be the most superior and sophisticated civilizations. In this respect it makes sense to belittle competitors for these accolades. These sentiments are passed through the society reaching every part of community until mere thoughts become reality—fact. An example of this is of a German graduate student. He searched meticulously to find actual account of cannibalism but came up short. His search of all the publications from the sixteenth to the twentieth century had failed to produce a single first-hand account of the act itself in this, one of the last preserves of man-eaters. Almost all of the books he read mentioned its existence, but as unusual they were relying on other sources which never materialized as eyewitness accounts. †(p. 173) After concluding his research the graduate student told his professor of his finding and they concluded: â€Å".in light of their knowledge of the massive available evidence on cannibalism for this cultural area, he was mistaken. (p. 174) Although his professors never glanced at the documents their ethnocentric ideas dictated their actions. There prejudices toward cannibalism overrode their graduate students meticulously work in examining documents because in their eyes: â€Å".these were South American Indians, not civilized Europeans. †(p. 174) The solution to this problem is taking each instance with a grain of salt. Whether they are cannibals or not, there needs to be clear cut evidence that substantiates any data collected. The previously accept ed way of solidify truth needs to be re-evaluated as to safeguard the reputation of peoples of the world. If this comes to pass the ideal of hearsay being fact will cease to exist as it has in the past: â€Å"Now the notion of a flying sect of heretics had great advantages: it made it possible to account for assemblies which were frequent and often vast, and which nevertheless nobody ever saw. †(p. 185) This new way of addressing cannibalism with finally create a conclusion, a solid conclusion, whether it is fact or fiction. 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Jesus and the gospel in Africa Essay Example

Jesus and the gospel in Africa Essay Example Jesus and the gospel in Africa Essay Jesus and the gospel in Africa Essay A BOOK REVIEW ON JESUS AND THE GOSPEL IN AFRICA -HISTORY AND EXPERIENCE Is the Gospel in Africa? What would Jesus expression like in Africa? These remarks of J. V. Taylor were the flicker to the pursuit of Professor Kwame Bediako’s scholarly probe that gave birth to the book Jesus and the Gospel in Africa. Bedako was a Ghanese bookman, born in Ghana on 7ThursdayJuly, 1945 and he passed off in summer 2008. He gained international repute for his work on the disclosure in Christianity in African Culture Bediako could hold been employed in one of the top Universities of the World but he chose instead to be committed to working out the deduction of his religion in the context of Africa. Jesus and the Gospel in Africa is one of the scholarly plants of Prof. Kwame Bediako, it is a aggregation of articles by Bediako to show in full strong belief that God speaks into the African context, in African parlance and that God is through hearing in African tongues the great things that God has done that African divinity emerges to enlighten non merely the African Church but the whole broad World. Jesus and the Gospel in Africa was originally published in Yaounde , Cameroun by Regnum Africa in 2000 and was republished by Orbis books, USA, in 2004. The book of 124pages is made up of 10 chapters and sub-divided into three parts. Chapter’s 1-3 are grouped in the first portion captioned the African Experience of Jesus. Chapters 4-6 are grouped as the 2nd portion captioned Theology and Culture while chapters 7-10 are the 3rd portion captioned Africa and the History of Christianity. Reappraisal: Part 1 THE AFRICAN EXPERIENCE OF JESUS. In chapter one, Bediako presents the phenomenon referred to as the modern displacement of the Centre of gravitation of Christianity. The thought of this displacement of Centre of gravitation is that the heartlands of the Christian religion has shifted from the West and has found another land of relevancy in the Southern continents of Latin America, Asia, and peculiarly in Africa. He showed that in 1900 80 % of the World’s Christians lived in Europe and Northern America. Today over 60 % of the World’s Christians lived in Latin America and Africa. By AD 2000, there could be between 330 million and 350 million Christians in Africa ( pg3 ) . Bediako used the word surprise to depict the paradigm displacement of the Centre of Christianity. He refuted the term Animism used to depict the cardinal faiths of Africa in 1910 when the World conference was held in Edinburgh, by a adult male who has neer been to Africa. The general perceptual experience of the term Animism was that there was peculiarly no spiritual content in it. They were so locked up in their ain head that no 1 foresaw the outgrowth of vivacious Christian presence in Africa, allow entirely the outgrowth of a distinctively African experience of Jesus Christ. In what Bediako called the surprise factor in the modern missional story . He highlighted the turn of event indicating out the Africa conference held in Le Zoute, Belgium, in September 1927, it appeared that the missional was now reflecting on, and larning from its African experience ( pg4 ) . The Le Zoute conference stood on the rearward way with the Edinbrugh conference of 1910 by confirming the acknowledgme nt that Africans old experience that has high component of spiritual value prepared them for the response of the Gospel. Bediako in reflecting on Africa and the hereafter of Christianity posits that the present displacement of the Centre of gravitation of Christianity to non-Western universe offers rather typical chances for Christian theological contemplation and for new apprehensions. He spoke clearly on Jesus of the deep: divinity from where the religion must populate, utilizing a potion of the self-generated supplication and congratulationss of Jesus by an nonreader Ghanese Christian adult female, he demonstrates the footing of African divinity which besides provides clear grounds that Christianity in Africa is strictly African experience. He disclosed that the pursuit and find of African divinity was launched by Africa’s academic theologists like Bolaji Idowu, John Mbiti and I suppose, himself in the late fiftiess and early 1960s under the changeless whipping from European public impatient with Africa because it was mostly without apprehension of the continent, these and other innovators of African divinity saw it as their undertaking to build the prescribed divinity ( pg16 ) . In chapter 2, Bediako expatiates the Jesus in African Culture and relates it to Ghanaian position. Here Jesus Christ is presented to both African Churches and African Christians and the universe at big as a cosmopolitan Saviour. However, one salient point is his recognition of the missionary’s attempt in pass oning the Gospel which the full community affirms. There is ever more to the hearing of the Word of God than can be contained in existent sermon of it by human agents ( pg20 ) . Bdiako as a Pastor and a sermonizer used the Bible to hit his ends. He demonstrated how The Apostle Paul grasped steadfastly the catholicity of the Gospel of Jesus the Messiah which includes all peoples without modesty, it is this idea that African theologists now portion. Again, it is notable that the rapid spread of Christianity is associated with the contact it had with other cardinal faiths correspondent to African Traditional Religion. And that the presences of these faiths were critical read ying for the Gospel. The averment that traditional faith forms the spiritual belief of more or less rearward and graded peoples all over the World and that it held no readying for the Christianity is refuted. The truth is that the cardinal faiths have been the most fertile dirt for religion of the huge bulk of Christians of all ages and all states ( pg21 ) . In his Jesus as the Godhead vanquisher in the African world , Bediako pictured the consciousness and intense consciousness of forces and powers at work that threaten the involvement of life and harmoniousness and with apprehension of human exposure in the spirit universe. Jesus Christ is seen as the 1 who possesses supreme power and authorization and is winning over the religious kingdom. Bediako created an ambiance that Jesus is all powerful to protect people over evil forces. He depicts Jesus as the Saviour who belongs basically to the more powerful kingdom of deity and stresses that there needs to be a deeper grasp of the traditional African universe, whose clasp is so strong that it exercises a powerful influence on the mode of apprehension and sing the Christ image ( pg22 ) . Bediako described Jesus as the One who fulfils and surpasses the map of the Ancestor. This has been the job of understanding Christ genuinely in the African universe. Africans believed that ascendants are powerful in their relationship with homo ; they reward the good workss and render penalty to evil. However, Biblical grounds has proved that the work of Christ surpasses the function of ascendants in what He has done and what He can make. Bediako decidedly pointed that the good intelligence as our narrative is no longer a inquiry of seeking to suit the Gospel in our civilization ; hence the Gospel is our narrative ( pg 25 ) . From Biblical point of position, Bediako argues that the epistle to the Hebrews is a missive to the Africans sing the function of Jesus Christ as a High Priest who fulfils absolutely the terminal that all forfeits search for to accomplish and the Priestly mediation of Christ which overrides all human priestly mediation. He positively appraised the work of Chris tian towards development claiming that each of us with the Bible in our mother-tongue can truly claim to hear God talking in our ain language ( 32 ) . Chapter 3 offers some galvanizing penetration into one of the most of import treatments in the survey of faith. Here Bediako efforts supplying an reply to the inquiry of how Jesus Christ is Lord amid African spiritual pluralism . He demonstrated with critical observation the singularity of Christ in the pluralistic environment of the African faith, indicating that Christ is alone in relation to other Godheads. Bediako sees the singularity of Christ non as an averment but as Christian avowal and acknowledgment. He states a Biblical avowal refering the singularity of Christ is non arbitrary claim or averment ( pg 38 ) . The singularity of Christ besides can be arrived by decision drawn from position of other universe faiths to show that Christ inhabit those universes as Lord, because faith is a tradition of response to the world and revelation of the Transcendent. Bediako draw our attending to that which Christ has confronted us with viz. : the Incarnation which is supremely the alone mark and presentation of godly exposure in history, the cross of Christ which shows His agony and redemptional work as expressed by His Godhead head and the logic of love and in conclusion, the Communion at the Lord’s tabular array which is an invitation to all who are united in religion. Consequently all faiths are invited by religion to react to this paradigm revelation of Jesus Christ in religion, penitence and obeisance. Part 2 – THEOLOGY AND CULTURE. Bediako started this portion with understanding African divinity in the 20th century in chapter 4. He elaborated on the two distinguishable tendencies that emerged from the African Christian idea in the post-missionary epoch of 1950s to the late eightiess, taking to the Black divinity of release in the African scene with the purpose of accomplishing integrating between the African pre-Christian spiritual experience and the African Christian committedness in ways that would guarantee the unity of African Christian individuality and selfhood. He looked at the African spiritual yesteryear as the premier theological issue in the argument, critics of early literature in African divinity has characterized it as unhealthy. However, African theologists have demonstrated that the African spiritual experience and heritage were non illusive ( pg 50 ) . To Bediako African Theology should be shaped and interpreted in a manner that it will reflect African theological individuality.