11-03-2015, 03:30 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Bullwinkle
From my days as a cultural anthropology student - I remember lectures stressing ritual cannibalism was practiced to absorb the Mana - not so much to gain the power of the diseased - but to prevent the spirit of the slain warrior from continuing the battle from beyond the hereafter
north american indians dismembered the bodies of their slain enemies for the same reason - reinforcing the immigrants flawed belief system that indians were barbaric cultures fit for extermination
Regarding you last paragraph/sentence, we have too many historical accounts of enough predatory Indian tribes with an agenda of exterminating the settlers to keep perpetuating the blaming the white man syndrome ad nauseum. No one was safe, what was done was defensive, period. Good God let it go, you weren't even there.
This is no better than those here rewriting Hawaii's past, romanticizing a barbaric rule. King Kamehameha was exceptionally cruel and slaughtered the majority of the population, yet his statue is right there, larger than life in Hilo with quite an uproar when his symbol of violence, the spear was misplaced. All I can say to that is WTF?
Mass denial resulting in white man blame is so incredibly ignorant, that it's hard to debate.