CARIB CANNIBALISM. THE HISTORICAL EVIDENCE

Neil L. WHITEHEAD *

"... fueron llamados Caribes,

nor porque comiesen carne humana,

sino porque defendian bien su casa. "

(Castellanos : quoted in Salas, 1920 :135)

As Castellanos recognised, the endurance of the Carib's resistance to European domination, lasting at least until the end of the 18th century in Venezuela and the Guianas, resulted in the creation of an ethnic stereotype ; well expressed by Brett when he describes the Caribs as :

... the cannibal Vikings of the West, [who] were found, by the companions and successors of Columbus, spreading terror and desolation over very distant shores. (1868 : 456)

and potent enough to be of sociological significance today, even, on occasion, appealing to professional anthropologists. For example, Rouse, Gillin and Steward, in their articles for the Handbook of South American Indians on the so- called Island Carib (more properly called the Kalinago — see Hoff : 1968 and Dreyfus : 1982) and the Caribs of the Guayana area, all appear to accept at face value the lurid Spanish reports, starting with Columbus, which portray these Amerindians as bloodthirsty, savage and cruel eaters of human flesh in contrast to the allegedly peaceful, humane and even noble, Arawaks.

Accordingly the historical basis of this stereotype will be examined with the aim of showing, firstly that there has been a tendency to accept uncritically Spanish allegations of Carib cannibalism and that such allegations must also be understood as a form of imperial propaganda, since such accusations were made against many independent Amerindian groups, at least until their conquest had been achieved. Similarly many such accusations must be judged as simply self- serving since the legal position of any Amerindians considered to be cannibals was such that they were liable to arbitrary enslavement.

Nonetheless, and secondly, it will also be argued that not all such allegations can be dismissed out of hand as there is also the evidence from non-Spanish sources as to the taking of human trophies and the ritual cannibalism of war captives among both the Caribs and other Amerindian groups, such as the Ara- wak and Tupinamba (see Forsyth : 1983).

J.S.A. 1984, LXX : p.* 69 à 88.