Cannibals (2 page)

Why were the mysterious people of Easter Island maneaters and where did they all go?

Easter Island was one of the world’s most isolated inhabited islands and it is also one of the most mysterious. Easter Island is approximately midway between Chile and Tahiti and sits in the South Pacific Ocean 2,300 miles west of South America. The inhabitants of this charming island called their land: ‘Te Pito o TeHenua’ or ‘The Navel of the World’.

The mystery of Easter Island and its indigenous inhabitants, the Rapanui, has intrigued both archaeologists and travellers for many years. No-one is really sure where these ancient people originally came from. It is believed that Easter Island was colonized around ad 300 by Polynesians from the Marquesas Islands or Mangareva. It appears that this was part of an eastward migratory trend that originated in Southeast Asia around 2000 bc. From this migration perhaps one of the most remarkable cultures in all of Polynesia developed.

These people built long platforms or ‘ahu’ on which they placed slender statues known as ‘moai’. The platforms were built near the coasts, with long retaining walls which faced the sea. Each ahu usually carried around four to six enormous moai which towered four to eight metres high. These statues, or ‘aringa ora’ (living faces), faced inland towards the villages as a form of protection. Some 887 moai have been discovered on Easter Island, of which 288 were actually erected on the ahu.

Most of the moai were cut from the same quarry at Rano Raraku, which contained the yellowish volcanic tuff which the inhabitants shaped with stone tools. Quite how these enormous statues were moved from the quarry to their place on their platforms still remains a mystery today. Some of the statues had a large cylindrical topknot (‘pukao’) carved from the reddish stone of Puna Pau. Eyes were cut out of coral and were fitted into the faces of the standing moai. By 1840 all of the moai had been thrown off their ahu, possibly by earthquakes or rival tribes.

Before the introduction of Christianity, the natives of Easter Island are said to have eaten a number of men, including two Peruvian traders. Every descendant of Easter Island is well aware that his ancestors were man-eaters, or as they knew it, ‘kai-tangata’.

The cannibal feasts were generally held in remote parts of the island and women and children were generally excluded from this ritual. The fingers and toes of their victims were considered to be the tastiest morsels. The captives were held in wooden huts until it was time for them to be sacrificed to their gods.

The Easter Islanders’ cannibalism was not, however, purely a religious rite or indeed the expression of revenge, it was also induced by the fact that they simply liked the taste of human flesh. We have to remember that by 1600 there were more than 15,000 people living on the island, and the pressure over resources would have been tremendous. Unlike other cannibalistic societies, here, cannibalism wasn’t so much for ritual, as for food, and the only large mammal whose flesh was available, was Man.

It was usually women and children who were the principal victims of these deep-rooted cannibals. However an act of cannibalism against a member of a family was deemed to be a terrible insult to the entire family, and the reprisals that followed this deed were acts of extreme violence. Similar to the traditions of the ancient Maoris, those men who had taken part in the ‘meal’ were entitled to show their teeth to the relatives of the victim and say, ‘Your flesh has stuck between my teeth’. Such remarks invoked uncontrollable rage which often resulted in the murder of the perpetrator.

Over the years all the pure Rapa Nui blood died out. Connections with Chile brought new influences, and today there are only a few individuals left with any ties to the original population of Easter Island.

The crew survived for as long as possible without resorting to the inevitable, but malnutrition started to take control of their minds and they began consuming one another

Perhaps one of the most compelling shipwreck stories is that of the whaleship Essex, of Nantucket. This tragedy happened in the year 1820. The first of four previous voyages took place in 1802, and they were heading for whaling areas just off southern Africa. The reason for their journey was to collect whale oil, and also to head for the Pacific to obtain sperm oil.

On August 12, 1819, the Essex left Nantucket in southwest Florida, once again bound for the Pacific. On board that day were a crew of 20 and the Captain, George Pollard. Fifteen months later, on November 20, 1920, the Essex was approximately 2,700 miles west of Ecuador. Two of the ship’s small boats were already out, and the Captain had managed to harpoon a whale. One of the small ships was just returning to the Essex, when the first mate, Owen Chase, noticed that a large sperm whale was charging at the ship.

The crew stood and watched helplessly while the whale’s massive head struck the bow of the ship. The whale then turned around and rammed the ship for a second time, this time staving in the bows and forcing the crew to abandon their ship.

Before leaving in three clinker-built whaleboats, the crew managed to salvage some food and water, two quadrants and two sextants to help with their survival, as they did not know how long they would be at sea before being rescued. They pulled away from their ship just in time to see the Essex sink and began their search for land. They knew the closest land lay to the west and, in fact Tahiti was only about a two-week sail away. However, very few ships had ever ventured as far west, and so the crew had no idea what to expect on the islands around Tahiti. The only knowledge they had of the islands was that there was the possibility of cannibals living there. Due to this fear they decided to attempt a far longer journey to the remote Easter Island, around 20,000 miles away.

The first mate, Chase, mentioned in his account of the forthcoming disaster that their captain, Pollard, would have preferred to take the risk of landing in Tahiti, but did not have the confidence to force his wishes upon his fearful crew. And so it was for this reason that the hapless crew set sail south and east, in the hope of reaching the latitude of the trade winds.

There was a total of three boats that left the wreck of the Essex, commanded by Captain Pollard, first-mate Chase, and second mate Joy. On the sixth day at sea the first mate reported that his boat had been attacked by a killer whale, although in all probability it was a shark. However, it was large enough to bite a large portion out of the stern of Chase’s boat, splintering and splitting it in the process. For 22 days the crew suffered, managing to survive on the few meagre supplies they had managed to salvage from the Essex.

Exhausted and thoroughly despondent they managed to reach Dulcie’s Island.

When they arrived at Dulcie’s Island, the crew started a frantic search for essential food and water. They were successful in the search for water, but the only food they could find were sea-birds and their eggs; hardly enough to feed 21 starving men. Not knowing the area at all, they were unaware they they were only one day away from Pitcairn Island. Realising that Dulcie’s Island could not support them, the men once again took to sea in search of Easter Island, leaving three of the crew behind at their own request.

It appears, however, that luck was not on the side of the crew of the Essex because, before they could reach their destination, their small craft was hit by a series of powerful storms which blew their small vessels off course, several hundreds of miles south of Easter Island. Unsure of what to do, the Captain suggested that they continue another 2,500 miles and try to make the coast of South America. Once again they were hit by a storm, and this time the three boats became separated. Chase’s boat was the first one to get blown away from the others, and after a week of Chase’s disappearance, Pollard’s boat and the third boat also became separated.

Due to the lack of water and food, and to their constant exposure to inclement weather, the men were soon in a very weakened state. In the Pollard boat, and on the brink of starvation, Charles Rhamseldel was the first of the men to suggest that they resorted to cannibalism in an effort to survive. Pollard was nauseated by the suggestion, but as the days went by and the crew became weaker and weaker, it was obvious that they would either all die from starvation, or alternatively allow themselves to sustain one another!

In the end, Owen Coffin, finally convinced Pollard that one of the men would have to be sacrificed. Ironically enough it was Coffin himself who drew the short straw. Coffin was Pollard’s cousin, and had been entrusted into his care at the age of 14 by his mother. Pollard demanded that he took his place, but Coffin denied him this and said it was his right to save the remaining crew of the Essex.

To settle the matter the crew decided to draw straws again, and this time it was the fate of Charles Rhamseldel who drew the short end of the stick. However, being the childhood playmate of Coffin, Rhamseldel pleaded with Coffin to exchange places. The matter was settled when Rhamseldel eventually executed Coffin himself, by shooting him in the head with a musket. The crew quickly devoured their companion, with the exception of Pollard who said that there was no way he could eat one of his own relatives.

It appears that the other two boats resorted to similar measures. In Chase’s boat it was a black crew member who died first, only this time from natural causes, and he was simply thrown overboard. However, on realizing that this man could in fact have saved their lives, when a second black crew member died, a short time later, he was consumed by the remainder of the crew.

The third man to die in Chase’s boat was yet another black sailor, only this time he was the victim of drawing straws for a cannibalistic sacrifice.

The men survived in this hellish way for several months, slowly eating one another to stave off malnutrition, all the time suffering from exposure to the salt and sun of the ocean. It would be many more days before some of the men found salvation.

Cannibalism has been around for a long time and in a lot of places – the Aztecs used cannibalism in human-sacrifice rituals

The earliest records show that the Aztecs migrated from the north into the Valley of Mexico as early as the 12th century ad. They were a rather abject civilization who were forced to live on the worst lands in the valley.

They were a poor, ragged race who ate rats, snakes, and stole food, but above all sacrificed human flesh to their gods. They were considered just too wild and nasty by neighbouring tribes, and consequently they were driven from one place to another.

In 1300, the Tenochcas, as they were then known, escaped to settle on an island in the middle of Lake Texcoco. It was here that they were to build their city and started to thank their god, Huitzilopochtli, for his assistance with human sacrifices. The city they built was called Tenochtitlan or ‘place of the Tenochcas’.

It was very hard to build Tenochtitlan because the Aztecs only had a very small piece of land in the surrounding marshes. The Aztecs made the swampy, shallow lake into a habitable place by piling up mud from the lake bottom. These mud islands were used as their city foundations. To start with they built a few thatched mud huts, and some small temples.

Next they built causeways and bridges to connect the city to the mainland. They dug canals and lined them with stone so that people could move easily around.

By 1376, the city was growing quickly and people came from miles around to live in the city of Tenochtitlan. The Aztecs slowly became more powerful and more skilled at defending themselves, although they had no real form of military strategy.

At least half of the Aztec population were farmers, and they worked on the reclaimed areas of the lake, which they covered with soil and then cultivated. The city itself consisted of a large number of priests and crafts people, and soon Tenochtitlan was becoming a true urban centre.

The Aztecs had two clearly differing social classes. At the bottom were the macehualles or ‘commoners’, and at the top the pilli or ‘nobility’. All male children went to school to learn history, the religion of the Aztecs, and the art of war and fighting. Women were regarded as the subordinate of men in Aztec society, and were required to behave with chastity and high moral standards.

Aztec laws were simple and yet harsh. Almost every crime was punishable by death, while minor offences involved corporal punishment or mutilation. As an example, if they were found guilty of slander they would lose their lips.

Their religion consisted of a very complicated structure, due to the fact that most of it was inherited from people they conquered. They were dominated by three gods – Huitzilopochtli ‘hummingbird wizard’, Tezcatlipoca ‘Smoking Mirror’, and Quetzalcoatl ‘Sovereign Plumed Serpent’. Under these three dominant gods were an infinity of other gods.

The overwhelming aspect of Aztec religious life, however, was their predominance of human sacrifice. Although it is known that this was practiced throughout the Mesoamerican world, the Techochca performed it at a scale never seen before, or indeed since. The Aztecs believed that their gods would only give things to human beings if they were constantly nourished by human beings. To satisfy their gods, the Aztecs would draw their own blood by piercing their tongues, ears, extremities or even genitals. However, Aztec theologians also developed the idea that the gods would be best nourished if they were given the living hearts of sacrificed captives. This theology led to widespread fighting in search of sacrificial victims, both captured in war and paid as a tribute by the conquered people.

Some of these sacrifices were small, involving the giving up of a slave to a minor god. Others were spectacular, involving hundreds or even thousands of captives, but no matter what the size, the actual sacrifice was always carried out in the same manner. The victim would be restrained by four priests on an altar which would be placed at the top of a pyramid structure or a raised temple. The officiant then made an incision just below the rib cage and pulled out the victim’s living heart. Next the heart was burned and the corpse was pushed down the steep steps. If the captive was very noble, or had been extremely brave, then his body would be carried down the steps.

Even more disturbing than these human sacrifices, was the practice of ritual cannibalism that was carried out at these ceremonies. After the hearts were removed and the bodies tossed down the temple steps, the limbs were removed and later cooked. As repugnant as cannibalism is to us today, back then to the Aztecs, cooked human bodies were looked upon as great delicacies. The favoured parts of the body were the hands and thighs, and it has been said that the Aztec emperor, Moctezuma, was reported to have been partial to cooked thighs served with tomatoes and chili pepper sauce. Although this thought might turn our stomachs, it must also be remembered that the Aztecs had no domestic livestock from which to obtain their protein, and so the ritual sacrifice was a way for the Aztec royalty to obtain vital nutrients. Thus in the Aztecs we can see a mixture of religion and nourishment which resulted in human sacrifice.