“I Laid My Hands on a Gorgeous Cannibal Woman”: Anthropophagy in the Imperial Imagination, 1492 – 1763
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“I LAID MY HANDS ON A GORGEOUS CANNIBAL WOMAN:” ANTHROPOPHAGY IN THE IMPERIAL IMAGINATION, 1492-1763 Kelly Lea Watson A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY August 2010 Committee: Andrew Schocket, Advisor Laura Landry-Meyer Graduate Faculty Representative Amilcar Challu Susana Peña © 2010 Kelly Lea Watson All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Andrew Schocket, Advisor This dissertation examines European writings about cannibalism in North America from 1492 until 1763, uncovering insights into the establishment and maintenance of imperial power. It contributes to existing scholarship about cannibalism, empire, gender history, and the history of sexuality. Imperial power depended upon the assertion of European superiority and the assumption of Indian inferiority, and the discourse of cannibalism played a key role in the establishment of these hierarchical determinations. Because imperial expansion always involved the conquering of bodies in addition to land and resources, it is imperative to acknowledge and scrutinize the way that conquered bodies were gendered. Cannibalism is an embodied act, and an investigation of the discourse of anthropophagy illuminates the development of early modern ideas about savagery, civilization, gender, and sexuality. Situated at the crossroads of history and cultural studies, this dissertation employs discourse analysis in order to reveal new insights into historical documents and to re- center gender in the study of the discourse of cannibalism. This comparative project traces the discourse of cannibalism in the context of Caribbean exploration, the Spanish empire in Mexico, the French empire in Canada, and the English empire in Atlantic North America, in order to develop an understanding of the ways in which the discourse of cannibalism changed across empires, time-periods, and geographic locations. This project compensates for the lack of scholarly attention that has been afforded to the study of cannibalism in North America. Ultimately, it uncovers some of the ways in which the iv discourse of cannibalism reinforced, created, and shaped developing ideas about gender and empire. v To Jason, you are truly without equal. vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my dissertation chair, Andy Schocket, for his support, patience, eagerness, thoughtfulness, and expertise. Great appreciation is also due to Amilcar Challu and Susana Peña for their unfailing confidence in me. This project would never have been successful without their dedication, attention to detail, and kindness. Thank you all! I would also like to extend thanks to Ruth Herndon, whose careful editing hand and willingness to read countless drafts of this project have been helpful beyond words. Additional thanks are owed to Shirley Green, Chris Eisel, Eve Crandall, and Jim Buss for suffering through many working drafts. Also, thank you to Marcia Watson, Jamie Stuart, Justine Lutzel, and Charlotte Quinney for generously agreeing to help me edit. I am eternally grateful for all of the wonderful friends that I have made during my time in Bowling Green. You are the finest group of people that I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. You each deserve to be recognized, but the list would simply be too long! For always believing that I could succeed in whatever I put my mind to, and for putting up with my stubbornness, I would like to thank my parents, Bill and Wanda Watson. Additionally, I would never have made it this far without the support of my wonderful sister and brother, Tracey Osborne and Bill Watson. And finally, I am forever grateful to Jason Zeh, the kindest, most generous, and most patient person that there ever was. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER I. DISCOVERING CANNIBALS..................................................................... 33 CHAPTER II. CONQUERING CANNIBALS .................................................................... 84 CHAPTER III. CONVERTING CANNIBALS ................................................................... 121 CHAPTER IV. LIVING WITH CANNIBALS .................................................................... 160 CHAPTER V. CONCLUSION............................................................................................. 199 REFERENCES ...................................................................................................................... 212 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1 Wood-cut of Dog-headed Cannibals.......................................................................... 36 2 “The People of the Islands Recently Discovered”..................................................... 74 3 “Amerigo Vespucci: Letter to Soderini - Life Among the Indians”.......................... 75 4 “Nova Reperta: Vespucci Awakens a Sleeping America” ........................................ 77 1 INTRODUCTION I think there is nothing barbarous and savage in that nation, from what I have been told, except that each man calls barbarism whatever is not his own practices; for indeed it seems that we have no other test of truth and reason than the example and pattern of opinions and customs of the country we live in. There is always the perfect religion, the perfect government, the perfect and accomplished manners in all things.1 Michel de Montaigne, “Of Cannibals,” 1580 In his famous essay, “Of Cannibals,” Michel de Montaigne argued that Western societies rarely judged other cultures on their own terms. Rather, they projected negative qualities onto Others and the cultural practices that they observed reflected their own faults. Montaigne used the practice of cannibalism in Brazil to reflect upon European civilization, arguing for a nuanced understanding of difference and a careful examination of cultural practices prior to declaring them barbarous.2 Despite the seriousness of his argument for cultural relativism, Montaigne was not without a sense of humor. He ended the famous essay with the clever joke: “All this is not too bad – but what’s the use? They don’t wear breeches.”3 He indicated that any reason or intelligence possessed by Indians was negated by their lack of clothing. This amusing phrase highlighted the difficulties of the work that Montaigne asked of his reader. No matter how hard one tried, cultural assumptions were difficult to overcome. European writers often cited the lack of clothing among Indians as an important indicator of savagery, but Montaigne underscored the absurdity of this assumption. Simply because they did not don clothing, should they have been assigned a lower place in the hierarchy of humanity? “Of Cannibals,” written in 1580, was an 1 Michel de Montaigne, “Of Cannibals,” in The Complete Essays of Michel de Montaigne, trans. Donald M. Frame (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1968), 159. (Emphasis in original). 2 Ibid., 156. “I may call these people barbarians, in respect to the rules of reason, but not in respect to ourselves, who surpass them in every kind of barbarity.” 3 Ibid., 159. 2 important essay and shaped intellectual thought about imperialism and cannibalism in France, but beyond that, it also highlighted the inevitable tensions that resulted when Europeans encountered cannibals. Montaigne further argued that, “our eyes are bigger than our bellies, and that we have more curiosity than capacity; for we grasp at all, but catch nothing but wind.”4 This clever phrase played with the idea of cannibalism, as it argued for the limitations of the incorporative epistemology of imperialism. Montaigne hinted at the limits of European knowledge about the New World and its peoples as he denigrated the rapid processes of imperialism and colonialism. Europeans rushed forth into the New World, conquered its peoples, destroyed its cities, and exploited its landscape without a thorough understanding of what they were doing and why they were doing it. Montaigne’s passage depicted European conquest of the Americas as greedy and impetuous. European powers claimed lands and divvied up resources successfully, yet as they grasped at everything, they ignored the wider implications of their desires. This metaphor for European imperialism also provides a useful way for thinking about the discourse of cannibalism. This dissertation uncovers insights into the discourse of cannibalism as well as the ways in which this discourse helped in the establishment and maintenance of imperial power in North America. The writings that are discussed rarely connected the supposed acts of cannibalism that they described with the larger issues of imperialism; yet, hierarchy, dominance, and power were implicit in each account. The desire of the writers to record the supposed atrocities of Indigenous Americans for a voracious readership back in Europe masked the true power of anthropophagic accusations. European writers implicitly and explicitly argued that Indians were inferior through their accusations of cannibals. As these conquerors, soldiers, priests, and settlers documented their perception of Indian barbarity, they underscored their belief in their own superiority. 4 Ibid., 150. 3 However, following Montaigne’s pleas that capacity exceeded curiosity, this dissertation examines the sources of cannibalism from a new perspective. Rather than taking descriptions of cannibalism in European accounts as either true representation of