CANNIBALISM Flashcards
Was there such thing as discoveries in the 15th century?
Peter Dear “Revolutionising the Sciences” 2009
No space for newness as everything was created by God during the 7 days of creation.
When were Christopher Columbus’ 4 voyages?
1492, 1493, 1498, 1502.
What was the aim of Columbus’ first voyage in 1492?
To devise a new spice route to Asia as the Spanish have increasing competition to finding routes to India and China.
Describe the problems with the provenance of the log of Columbus’ first voyage?
When Columbus returned to Spain in 1493 the log was given to the monarchs at royal court of Barcelona.
Queen Elizabeth ordered log to be copied (Barcelona Copy)
Barcelona copy was returned to Columbus before his second voyage in 1493.
Left to Columbus’ son after his death who wrote a biography on him in 1538.
Bartolome de la Casas used this information to write “A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies” 1552
Other than the work of De las Casas, what evidence do we have of Columbus’ first voyage?
Letter to the King and Queen of Spain from February 1493 when Columbus was aboard Nina.
What is the principal idea Columbus takes from Marco Polo for his first voyage in 1492?
“The Travels of Marco Polo” 1300
Travels between 1271-95.
Polo lives at the court of Kublai Khan.
Columbus believes that he will meet the subjects of the Great Khan.
What is the problem with the provenance of “The Travels of Marco Polo” 1300?
Polo returned to Venice and was arrested after his travels.
He dictated his notes to a fellow prisoner and it is therefore never a first hand account.
What map relies heavily on the work of Marco Polo?
Fra Mauro “World Map” 1450.
Also relies on the work of geographers such as Ptolemy.
Depicts Cipangu (Japan) as the land of extraordinary riches.
The map is upside down.
What are the horrendous races that Columbus prepares to meet?
Cyclopes: Giants with single eye.
Sciapodes / Monopodes: single, large foot extending from a leg centred in the middle of the body.
Blemmyes: Headless men.
Cynocephalus: Dog-headed species of man.
Anthropophagus: man eaters.
Before Columbus, who wrote about man-eaters?
Herodotus “Histories” 440 BC
Pliny the Elder
Isiodore de Seville “The Etymologies” (dictionary).
Describe the events of Columbus ‘discovering’ cannibalism?
Heard about it November 1492 a few weeks after reaching Northern coast of Cuba.
Interpreters told him “there were men with only one eye and others…who ate men”.
26th November 1492: Arawaks of Cuba tell Columbus of ‘Caribs’, which is mistaken for ‘Caniba’
Caribs were the enemy tribe of the Arawaks located in the Lesser Antilles.
‘The Caniba are none other than people of the Great Khan’.
Who exaggerates the findings of Columbus in the 16th century?
Peter Martyr “Decades of the New World” 1511
“De orbo novo” 1530
Quotes Columbus’ letters.
Interviews travellers.
Quoted reports from the Spanish Council of the Indies.
No longer uses the story of the Great Khan.
What image depicts cannibalism as a projection of European habits onto the New World?
Lorenz Fries “Auslegung der Mercarthen oder Cartha Mariana” 1525
Butcher shop.
Name 2 maps that depict cannibals?
Sebastian Munster “World Map” 1550
Martin Waldseemuller “Universalis Cosmographia” 1507
Decribe an event during which New World inhabitants were used to celebrate European discovery?
Entry of Henry II and Catherine of Medici in Rouen 1550.
Festival of mermaids, mythical figures, imported Tupinamba.
Give some quotes from Amerigo Vespucci’s most important work?
“Mundus Novus” 1503
‘The men have as wives those who please them, be they mothers, sisters, or friends’.
‘They also eat each other, even those who are slain, and hang the flesh of them’
‘They have as many women as they wish’.
‘They divorce from their marriages’.
Who uses the work of Amerigo Vespucci and is the first to describe hierarchies within New World inhabitants?
Andre Thevet “Singularities of France Antarctique” 1557
Accompaned Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon and a group of Huguenots to find refuge.
Antarctique = french colony south of the equator 1555-1567.
Who writes about cannibalism in Europe?
Jean de Lery
“History of a Voyage to the Land of Brazil” 1578
“History of the City of Sancerre” 1574
Writes about Brazil after he experiences the butchery of the protestant / catholic civil war.
‘Those who will read these horrible thing, exercised ritually between the barbarous nations of the land of Brazil, can come somewhat closer to understanding such dangers among ourselves’.
Who puts forward the idea that cannibalism is a cultural ritual to be understood on its own terms?
Michel de Montaigne
“On Cannibals” 1580
“On Coaches”
‘I think…that there is nothing barbaric or uncivilised…except that everyone calls barbarism whatever he is not accustomed to’.
