Research Catalog

Title

This horrid practice : the myth and reality of traditional Maori cannibalism / Paul Moon.

Author

Moon, Paul

Publication

Rosedale, N.Z. ; New York : Penguin, 2008.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

303 p.; 24 cm.

Summary

This Horrid Practice uncovers an unexplored taboo of New Zealand history - the widespread practice of cannibalism in pre-European Maori society. Until now, many historians have tried to avoid it and many Maori have considered it a subject best kept quiet about in public. Paul Moon brings together an impressive array of sources from a variety of disciplines to produce this frequently contentious but always stimulating exploration of how and why Maori ate other human beings, and why the practice shuddered to a halt just a few decades after the arrival of Europeans in New Zealand. The book includes a comprehensive survey of cannibalism practices among traditional Maori, carefully assessing the evidence and concluding it was widespread. Other chapters look at how explorers and missionaries saw the practice; the role of missionaries and Christianity in its end; and, in the final chapter, why there has been so much denial on the subject and why some academics still deny that it ever happened.

Subject

• Cannibalism > New Zealand
• Māori (New Zealand people) > Social life and customs
• Māori (New Zealand people) > History
• Kōrero nehe
• New Zealand > History

Genre/Form

History

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 273-295) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

INTRODUCTION -- Cannibalism as history -- Dividing lines -- SECTION ONE. POPULAR CANNIBALISM -- Ch. 1. Footprints -- Ch. 2. 'A modest proposal' -- Ch. 3. 'I restrained my resentment' -- Ch. 4. 'Frightful tales' -- Ch. 5. 'Fe fi fo fum' -- SECTION TWO. PORTRAITS OF MAORI CANNIBALISM -- Ch. 6. Standards of evidence -- Ch. 7. The oral legacy -- Ch. 8. The stuff of legends -- Ch. 9. Cook's first visit -- Ch. 10. A French connection -- Ch. 11. 'A people who show so much friendship for me' -- Ch. 12. Thoughtful encounters -- Ch. 13. The experiment -- Ch. 14. Cannibal Cove -- Ch. 15. The Boyd -- Ch. 16. Hidden rites -- Ch. 17. The curtain closes -- Ch. 18. 'In the hands of cannibals' -- Ch. 19. Revival -- Ch. 20. The archaeological imprint -- Ch. 21. Case closed -- SECTION THREE. AN ANATOMY OF MAORI CANNIBALISM -- Ch. 22. The cannibal and the kumara -- Ch. 23. Death's 'permanent aggression' -- Ch. 24. Ordering cannibalism -- Ch. 25. Just an appetite? -- Ch. 26. Rage against the body -- Ch. 27. In the blood -- Ch. 28. Emotional insensitivity or moral transgression? -- Ch. 29. Ideological cannibalism -- Ch. 30. The autopsy -- SECTION FOUR. ABOLITION -- Ch. 31. Abolition immediately -- Ch. 32. Unfinished sublimation? -- Ch. 33. The evolution of symbolic cannibalism in Maori society -- Ch. 34. Shame -- Ch. 35. The hope of abolition -- Ch. 36. Official participation -- Ch. 37. No new performance -- Ch. 38. Success? -- SECTION FIVE. THE REVISIONIST APOSTASY -- Ch. 39. Who are the cannibals? -- Ch. 40. A method in the madness -- Ch. 41. Propaganda cannibalism -- Ch. 42. The cannibal conspiracy -- Ch. 43. The willingness to disclose cultural traits -- Ch. 44. A South Pacific allegory -- Ch. 45. Dual standards of evidence -- Ch. 46. Personal, all too personal -- CONCLUSION.

ISBN

• 9780143006718 (pbk.)
• 0143006711 (pbk.)

LCCN

^^2008431068

OCLC

• 232968849
• SCSB-11042273

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library