-----Original Message----- From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org] On Behalf Of Doug Henwood Sent: Monday, September 27, 2004 11:56 AM To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] sick perversions
Lance Murdoch wrote:
>You do not see dogs, monkeys, or people in hunter-gatherer cultures
>engaged in sado-masochism? Why? Because it's unnatural - and sick.
Neither do you find dogs or noble savages composing poems or building computers - should we follow those models too?
As i recall, your first post to this list was a homophobic blast, and you continue in your distinguished tradition of bigotry and ignorance.
Who the hell are you, anyway?
Doug
Yes, but, Doug, he's right you know. It's all health and balance in the kinship societies:
"The Yanomamo are historically a tribe of "endocannibals" (which means that they eat their own people). This rare form of cannibalism usually only occurs after death. The body of the deceased is set afire in a remote region away from the village (so as not to dirty the village or its food) and then the remaining bones and ash are pulverized into a fine powder which is mixed into a beverage (often juice from the plantain). The beverage is then consumed by the deceased person's relatives. This "drinking of the dead" is thought to be the way for the deceased's soul to enter the body of their living descendants, thus providing spiritual and physical strength to combat the evils of the jungle. The act of cannibalism may seem shocking to most Westerners, however a form of cannibalism called "theophagy" is practiced by many Catholics on a weekly or daily basis. The Communion (the symbolic eating of the body and blood of Christ) may seem like a natural ritual to us, but may make little sense to the Yanomamo. They prefer the real thing.
"Although the Yanomamo are known as endocannibals (choosing to eat from their own tribe) they are an aggressive and violent clan who have very tumultuous relationships with anyone perceived as being "other than" their tribe, or towards out-and-out foreigners. Anyone discerned as being "other" than the tribe, is considered to be subhuman. The laws and ethics that may keep a village from succumbing to warfare within its own walls, thereby do not apply to anyone perceived as being subhuman. In other words, war is hell and the Yanomamo will do anything including kidnapping, raping, killing and abusing people from opposing tribes."