Cannibal 2

[Johnson, Ellen]

Carl Weber said:
< All of the Amerindians were anthropophagic.

I didn't mean to start a major argument over cannibalism on this list.  I know next to nothing about the subject, but a statement like the above struck me as highly unlikely.  There were thousands of Amerindian languages and, one would guess, at least as many cultural groups, from the Yupik in Alaska to the Araucanians in southern Chile.  To say anything that applied to ALL of them would have to be very difficult, indeed.  Since my knowledge was limited, I asked a Ph.D. historian friend (whose specialty is North American Indian history) to comment.  You may continue the discussion with her if you wish.  kathryn.abbott at wku.edu

Ellen Johnson
Assistant Professor of Linguistics
Dept. of English, Rhetoric, and Writing
Berry College, Box 350
Mt. Berry, GA 30149
706-368-5638
http://fsweb.berry.edu/academic/hass/ejohnson/
ejohnson at berry.edu