Reading Todd Balf's book, "The Darkest Jungle," about the American attempt to find a passage through the Darrien of Panama for a canal in 1854, we find the typical tale of Europeans in the tropical jungles: disease, starvation, desperation - and the prospect of cannibalism. I call it the "green hell" syndrome, the name given by many explorers to the Amazon region, and it scared the hell out of me before my own explorations in southern Venezuela some 20 plus years ago. Oddly, in my two years in Indian country, I was never healthier, although my co-worker did get malaria and almost died from a burst appendix. Still, life was good there, in large part because we lived with accommodating natives who knew the territory. For them, and those like myself who lived with them, living there was no more difficult than in any other fairly benign area of the world.
But not so for the intrepid explorers going it alone. Led by naval officer Isaac Strain, the supposedly short jaunt across 40 miles of isthmus turned into a nearly 3 month trek into hell. Vasco Balboa had done it first through the Darien in the early 1500's, but he was supported by friendly Indians. After the more brutal conquistadors took over from him, the Indians were no longer friendly, and gave, at best, no help to anyone. Thus Strain and his men withered in the tropical mountains. At one point, one of his group became so starved that two men plotted to kill some of the others for meat. This was nothing new to Strain: he had been in California during the 1849 gold rush, where thousands were left broken on the beaches to starve to death. Hundreds of dead were found in those years, including many who had had limbs gnawed at by fellow humans.
Revolting, especially to the American Navy. In this time of exploration and whale hunting, cannibalism came to be known as "the custom of the sea," where not only those who had died naturally were eaten, but lots were chosen as to who should be killed to keep the others alive by the desperately shipwrecked. The navy would have none of it, for their world was built on hierarchy and discipline. For those attempting such cannibalism, they received the firing squad, and as such, Strain's men did not resort to living on each other.
But cannibalism was never as rare as we would wish to believe. In the late 19th century, China was in such a precarious state that starving families sold newborns to others for meat pies, so that they could buy other food themselves. Familial cannibalism existed in New Guinea until the 1960's, although that occurred only among relatives on the corpse of the recently dead. In the Americas, it was reportedly very common (although many anthropologists rejected the information as biased, it is simply too overwhelming.) In coastal Brazil, captives were treated and fed well for 6 months or a year before they were made into a great banquet. Apparently human flesh was a delicacy, although it is more likely it served some war-like spiritual notion. The Caribbean Ocean was so named for the "Caribs," a group of Indians that terrorized the others with conquest, war, and cannibalism ("carib" related to "carrion" or meat). It was with horror that 19th century American and Europeans discovered that some doomed parties of explorers to the polar regions probably ate each other, and the Donner party became a national sensation when it was found that the stranded pioneers killed each other for meat. Such is also the evidence from the lost Jamestown colony in early 17th century Virginia.
Starvation is a powerful thing, but so it social custom. We can see how the taboo against some sorts of cannibalism, universal even among those who might eat enemies or their dead relatives (they did not eat those out of the prescribed categories) came about: reflective humans could not live well with one another knowing that at any moment they could become a stew for their neighbors. And yet, there is something more: the eating of things, especially of animals by animals, for theirs is an active hunt, is something of a holy thing. It is an expression of the "whole," of our interconnective natures, of cosmic law. It is not for nothing that Brazilian Indians of the lower Xingu river refer to sex as eating, and certainly many of us understand this notion: in the throws of passion, we want to consume each other, to become one. It is not a feeling of compassionate love, but of magnetic need, the call of the wild. We tame it and neutralize it to some extent, but the drive is there and bleeds into everything: to consume, dominate, merge, to engulf. This sense has run nations, and runs commerce to this day. It is a prime directive.
And it is also a prime directive to ameliorate this drive, not just to maintain society, but to rise above both that and our selves. Precisely, the very call of nature for corporate union in the form of sex and eating and consuming in general is that which is most targeted by religion. We as humans have thus divided the world for as long as we can know into the sacred and the profane, as if the world were split in two by moral darkness and light. Freud claimed that we were all driven by the sexual urge, and that the primary task of socialization was to redirect, or sublimate, this drive towards greater social rather than individualistic ends. But is seems much more than that. It seems, rather, that the call towards union has both its gross and sublime aspects in the cosmic order. It is humans who have the ability to act on both levels, and in this we make our choice: the spiritual and sacred, or the physical and profane. We might do both, as most of us do, but in that one or the other is lessened.
There are some who dislike the idea of "levels," but in this, the concept does seem appropriate. One level here feeds into the other, off the other, but both inhabit a very different dimension. We are compelled towards union in the profane world, just as we are compelled, at least at some time, towards sacred union. Both ultimately derive from the same source. Which is the more correct can be determined by its fruits, but even that is not so simple. In the animal world, the profane is the law, as spiritually correct as it could be. But in the human world, we are forced to be more discriminating. We cannot violate other's directives for survival and procreation and still have our essential social structure. We also find that the profane form of union never satisfies for long. It is as if the social is the precursor, or profane template, of the spiritual: still mired in greed and injustice, but tinged by the spiritual directive to live beyond one's smaller self. If societies could be safely placed outside the realm of other more ravenous societies, the fruits of the ones based on the sacred level would undoubtedly be sweeter and infinitely more durable.
For many people, the ones they love most are their young children. Born of sexual union, they seem to bring the greatest love to the terrestrial-bound person. Again, it is an animal instinct, to protect the young, but it is also a directive from another level: this form of love gives the most satisfaction, and yet it gives no sensual gratification, no food or goods or sexual pleasure. Society is built on the family, this love, and as such, is exactly that precursor to spiritual union when stripped of intrigue and selfishness. Yet, like religion, it, too, is profane, earth bound. Like cannibalism is to sex, so society, and the religion of our society, is to holy union, to the higher level. Each mirrors the other, one earth bound, the other opening beyond all boundaries. FK
But not so for the intrepid explorers going it alone. Led by naval officer Isaac Strain, the supposedly short jaunt across 40 miles of isthmus turned into a nearly 3 month trek into hell. Vasco Balboa had done it first through the Darien in the early 1500's, but he was supported by friendly Indians. After the more brutal conquistadors took over from him, the Indians were no longer friendly, and gave, at best, no help to anyone. Thus Strain and his men withered in the tropical mountains. At one point, one of his group became so starved that two men plotted to kill some of the others for meat. This was nothing new to Strain: he had been in California during the 1849 gold rush, where thousands were left broken on the beaches to starve to death. Hundreds of dead were found in those years, including many who had had limbs gnawed at by fellow humans.
Revolting, especially to the American Navy. In this time of exploration and whale hunting, cannibalism came to be known as "the custom of the sea," where not only those who had died naturally were eaten, but lots were chosen as to who should be killed to keep the others alive by the desperately shipwrecked. The navy would have none of it, for their world was built on hierarchy and discipline. For those attempting such cannibalism, they received the firing squad, and as such, Strain's men did not resort to living on each other.
But cannibalism was never as rare as we would wish to believe. In the late 19th century, China was in such a precarious state that starving families sold newborns to others for meat pies, so that they could buy other food themselves. Familial cannibalism existed in New Guinea until the 1960's, although that occurred only among relatives on the corpse of the recently dead. In the Americas, it was reportedly very common (although many anthropologists rejected the information as biased, it is simply too overwhelming.) In coastal Brazil, captives were treated and fed well for 6 months or a year before they were made into a great banquet. Apparently human flesh was a delicacy, although it is more likely it served some war-like spiritual notion. The Caribbean Ocean was so named for the "Caribs," a group of Indians that terrorized the others with conquest, war, and cannibalism ("carib" related to "carrion" or meat). It was with horror that 19th century American and Europeans discovered that some doomed parties of explorers to the polar regions probably ate each other, and the Donner party became a national sensation when it was found that the stranded pioneers killed each other for meat. Such is also the evidence from the lost Jamestown colony in early 17th century Virginia.
Starvation is a powerful thing, but so it social custom. We can see how the taboo against some sorts of cannibalism, universal even among those who might eat enemies or their dead relatives (they did not eat those out of the prescribed categories) came about: reflective humans could not live well with one another knowing that at any moment they could become a stew for their neighbors. And yet, there is something more: the eating of things, especially of animals by animals, for theirs is an active hunt, is something of a holy thing. It is an expression of the "whole," of our interconnective natures, of cosmic law. It is not for nothing that Brazilian Indians of the lower Xingu river refer to sex as eating, and certainly many of us understand this notion: in the throws of passion, we want to consume each other, to become one. It is not a feeling of compassionate love, but of magnetic need, the call of the wild. We tame it and neutralize it to some extent, but the drive is there and bleeds into everything: to consume, dominate, merge, to engulf. This sense has run nations, and runs commerce to this day. It is a prime directive.
And it is also a prime directive to ameliorate this drive, not just to maintain society, but to rise above both that and our selves. Precisely, the very call of nature for corporate union in the form of sex and eating and consuming in general is that which is most targeted by religion. We as humans have thus divided the world for as long as we can know into the sacred and the profane, as if the world were split in two by moral darkness and light. Freud claimed that we were all driven by the sexual urge, and that the primary task of socialization was to redirect, or sublimate, this drive towards greater social rather than individualistic ends. But is seems much more than that. It seems, rather, that the call towards union has both its gross and sublime aspects in the cosmic order. It is humans who have the ability to act on both levels, and in this we make our choice: the spiritual and sacred, or the physical and profane. We might do both, as most of us do, but in that one or the other is lessened.
There are some who dislike the idea of "levels," but in this, the concept does seem appropriate. One level here feeds into the other, off the other, but both inhabit a very different dimension. We are compelled towards union in the profane world, just as we are compelled, at least at some time, towards sacred union. Both ultimately derive from the same source. Which is the more correct can be determined by its fruits, but even that is not so simple. In the animal world, the profane is the law, as spiritually correct as it could be. But in the human world, we are forced to be more discriminating. We cannot violate other's directives for survival and procreation and still have our essential social structure. We also find that the profane form of union never satisfies for long. It is as if the social is the precursor, or profane template, of the spiritual: still mired in greed and injustice, but tinged by the spiritual directive to live beyond one's smaller self. If societies could be safely placed outside the realm of other more ravenous societies, the fruits of the ones based on the sacred level would undoubtedly be sweeter and infinitely more durable.
For many people, the ones they love most are their young children. Born of sexual union, they seem to bring the greatest love to the terrestrial-bound person. Again, it is an animal instinct, to protect the young, but it is also a directive from another level: this form of love gives the most satisfaction, and yet it gives no sensual gratification, no food or goods or sexual pleasure. Society is built on the family, this love, and as such, is exactly that precursor to spiritual union when stripped of intrigue and selfishness. Yet, like religion, it, too, is profane, earth bound. Like cannibalism is to sex, so society, and the religion of our society, is to holy union, to the higher level. Each mirrors the other, one earth bound, the other opening beyond all boundaries. FK
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