The Geography of Cannibalism: Specificity in Sixteenth-Century New World Cartography and Literature

Abstract

There has long been debate about the practice of cannibalism by Amerindians. Many scholars argue that Columbus, Vespucci and the other Europeans that came to the New World used the specter of cannibalism to justify the conquest, enslavement, and death of the indigenous populations. William Arens, in his book, TheMan-Eating Myth, goes further and asserts that the belief that cannibalism was a prevalent Amerindian practice represented the prejudice and racism of the Europeans encountering unknown peoples. Excluding incidents of survival cannibalism, Arens claims that are no credible first-hand accounts of cannibalism.1 I disagree with his assessment of the accounts. Delving into the extant maps, travel logs and literature, I have come to a different understanding of the accounts and, often, graphic imagery of savages roasting and gnawing on human limbs found on, and in, the early primary sources from the Columbian Encounter. Almost all references to cannibalism and the accompanying illustrations in sixteenth-century literature refer to areas of the New World from the Gulf and Mesoamerica to South America. During the first centennial of contact, journals, logs, letters and histories of the Columbian Encounter are replete with commentary about the practice of cannibalism. This literature is geographically specific. The cartography that accompanied the European exploration and mapping of this fourth part of the world is also geographically specific in its depictions of cannibalism. As stated earlier, the preponderance of journals and imagery on maps discussing or illustrating cannibalism respectively, were located in the Lower Antilles, Mesoamerica and South America (especially the northern Gulf region and the interior of Brazil the elbow or bulge). The indigenous people of North America were not literally or graphically depicted as cannibals. I assert that the lack of literary or graphic reference to the indigenous peoples of North America as cannibals is not an omission. It is instead an affirmation that Europeans encountered the practice of cannibalism in specific areas of the New World. The encounters in the Lower Antilles and Mesoamerica were chronicled in accounts by early and the cartography of the first decades of exploration contained labels indicating the presence of cannibals in the Lower Antilles. However, for over a century, the tales of encounters and the vast majority of cartographic depictions of cannibals were located in South America. From initial contact, Columbus began to fuse expectations, myths and reality in his description of the Amerindians. During his first voyage, Columbus interpreted hand signals and facial expressions as a description of a fierce rival tribe, caniba or carib.2 His log entry for 23 November 1492 contained a description of a rival tribe that Columbus extrapolated through the language barrier from the Taino, the gentle Arawak people of first contact. This description referred to another island where there were people on it who had one eye in their foreheads,