Civilized Cannibals

In the discussion of the Sarah Ott essay, we touched upon the issue of cannibalism while discussing the opposing tensions (paradoxes) within Queequeg. While we agreed that given the context of the time in which the story was written and the general western views of both cannibals (non-Caucasian islanders, typically) and civilization, that this was sufficient to illustrate an opposing tension within the character, Professor Johnson claimed that the idea of cannibalism should, of its inherent qualities, be considered contradictory towards the idea of being civilized.

There are a couple issues at work here. First, without a clearer definition of civilized, beyond the context of the book and Melville's time period, it becomes difficult to determine if cannibalism is contradictory or not. If civilized means having qualities indicative of an organized society, than cannibalism is not a contradiction; there are many societies throughout history which have engaged in cannibalism. If civilized means polite or humane, then it may be contradictory, but there are difficulties with this assessment as well. This leads to the second issue, which is that while some people may conclude that cannibalism is impolite or inhumane, others may disagree with good reasons as well. What of a society that believes in consuming it's dead as opposed to burying them? What if the family of the deceased adheres to this practice as well, and no one connected to the deceased had strong objections in the matter? Would that be an impolite or inhumane act? I think it would be neither. What of a society like Queequeg's, which ate their fallen foes after a battle? Is that inhumane? While a good argument many be formed for the inhumaneness of fighting other humans in the first place, it may be altogether more sensible to consume the dead as opposed to wasting them or defaming them in another fashion. I think that a lot of our trouble with cannibalism is an extension of our pre-conceived cultural notions of taboos and qualms regarding the consumption of human flesh.