 |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
||||
 |
 |
 |
|
||
 |
 |
 |
|
||
 |
|
||||
 |
|
||||
A superbe cannibal fork or i cula ni bokola, which was used exclusively for the consumption of human flesh by high ranking chiefs or great priests. The persona of important ranking chiefs and priests was taboo, and as such nothing un-sanctified was allowed to touch them – hence their use of the fork to feed themselves or to be fed with by their attendants. When not in use the fork, a taboo object and treasure in its own right, was hung on the inner wall of the burekalou, or spirithouse until the next meal. There are several forks in the Hooper collection and in the Fiji Museum recorded as being collected on Viti Levu in and around 1876 when cannibalism was still in vogue. Fiji, Polynesia. Iron wood (casuarina esquisetifolia), carved with metal tools with a superbe patina of use and age. 26,3 cm x 3,4 Ø cm. 18th/19th century. Ex coll. : Montero, Château La Bertinie, France ; ex private collection, Paris. Ref. : • Zemouli, Sandra : LE CANNIBALISME A FIDJI ET TONGA, De l’époque Lapita à l’époque historique. Mémoire de maîtrise d’archéologie, Université de Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, Institut d’Archéologie Michelet, septembre 2003.
|
 |
There are several instances of recorded acts of cannibalism in Fiji during the last third of the 19th century. Earlier, the famed chief Ra Udreudre who died some time before 1840 is recorded to have eaten at least 872 people in his long and voracious lifetime. He recorded each victim with a large stone in front of his house. The Reverend Thomas Baker was killed and eaten in Navatusila village on 21 July, 1867 for infringing taboo by trying to touch the chiefs head and retrieve his comb. At the time it was reported that the Fijians even tried to eat the reverends shoes which had been cooked with him (the remains of his shoes are in the collections of the Fiji Museum, Suva). In some cases the eaters of human flesh were arrested by the colonial police and went to court where they were sentenced by the English judges to prison term. One other notable instance is that of an elderly couple working in their garden. The husband told his wife to dig the oven, make the fire, heat the stones and - when she asked what was to be cooked - he crushed her skull with his war-club, cooked her and had lunch. He was arrested by the colonial police and brought to trial. When asked by the judge to justify the murder and feast he patiently explained that he was hungry and that nobody else was available ! DAVID DEGUSTA in his paper “Fijian Cannibalism: Osteological Evidence From Navatu“ in AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 110:215–241 (1999) analysed the humain remains from a midden that was in use from 50 B.C. to 1900 A.D. and gives scientific roof of cannibalism. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|