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“Handsome Death”

The Taking, Veneration, and Consumption of Human Remains in the Insular Caribbean and Greater Amazonia

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The Taking and Displaying of Human Body Parts as Trophies by Amerindians

Part of the book series: INTERDISCIPLINARY CONTRIBUTIONS TO ARCHAEOLOGY ((IDCA))

Abstract

Against death, the Tupinamba adopted the best defense: attack. Making a virtue of necessity and a necessity of virtue, they transformed the natural given of death into a social necessity and a personal virtue: warfare vengeance was a method of instituting society. Indeed, vengeance was not made necessary because men die and need to be rescued from the flux of time; rather, it was necessary to die in order that there could be vengeance—and to die, preferably, in enemy hands. This is what Anchieta [a Portuguese missionary] called the “handsome death” …; the stomach of one’s adversary was the “bed of honor.”

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Authors
  1. JAMES B. PETERSEN
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  2. JOHN G. CROCK
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Winthrop University, Rock Hill, 29733, South Carolina, USA

    RICHARD J. CHACON

  2. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Memphis, 38152, Memphis, Tennessee, USA

    David H. Dye

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PETERSEN, J.B., CROCK, J.G. (2007). “Handsome Death”. In: CHACON, R.J., Dye, D.H. (eds) The Taking and Displaying of Human Body Parts as Trophies by Amerindians. INTERDISCIPLINARY CONTRIBUTIONS TO ARCHAEOLOGY. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-48303-0_21

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