This Horrid Practice by Paul Moon

Author:Paul Moon
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780143006718
Publisher: Penguin Random House New Zealand
Published: 2010-12-22T00:00:00+00:00

There is an obvious motif of recurring rage in this macabre culture of warfare and its immediate aftermath. Partaking in cannibalism against an enemy would cause trauma to the relatives of the slain, thereby prompting cannibalistic urges within them that would have to be satisfied by returning the favour and performing cannibalistic acts on others, thus continuing the cycle. Likewise, initiating battles or punishing members of the community with death for breaking the law added a home-grown source of trauma for Maori. In the agitated euphoria of victory in battle, the consideration given to allies, and even members of one’s own community, was occasionally just as indiscriminate as that shown to the slain enemy. Slaves captured by the winning side in a battle might be forced to eat their dead relatives and companions; and, as Polack noted after a major Nga Puhi victory:

The gluttony of the victors has been such, that numbers have sunk under the horrible debauch unable to recover from their brutal orgies. On the field it is scarcely possible to distinguish friend from foe, as the limbs become so mangled, heads dissevered, &c., that it becomes impossible to distinguish individuals from either party, neither sex is spared, and infants or children are alike barbarously devoured by the insatiate monsters.194

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