Book Review of Cannibal Culture

Introduction

The cannibal at the heart of culture and society remains a unique and actual part of our behavior even though it has in part, been ignored and vociferously denied, both in cultural anesthetization, and in the adjuration of our consumptive attitudes towards cultural differences. States have been defined and treated, perhaps as barbaric, despotic and dictatorial because of their consumptive tendencies. The old Aztec kingdom of Mexico was and still is the purest representation of pagan barbarism by our western civilization largely because of its mass sacrifice of human, and maybe, its occult cannibalism, yet the contrast it draws with the Spaniards who destroyed it is relative to the imperial glory of the western power and the mass killing that ultimately marked the demise of the Aztec at the hands of the colonial powers. The same was true in Europe in the first and Second World War. Cannibal power is an integral part of culture and society. Power must be organized; the cannibal forces of Hitler had to be confronted by an equally potent force of cannibalism from the rest of the west. If that had not happened, the inevitable consumption of a culture we have all come to call civilization would have been the reality today in Europe and maybe America. The anesthetization of the way of life in the west has also been balanced by the consumptive invasion of the Iraqis and the Libyans by our own military (always in defense of our culture). This book tries to connect the thread between wealth and death, power and destruction. Wealth and security in the west could perhaps mean death in the vast desert region of Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, and other regions such as Congo and Nigeria in Africa. The true nature of power would be simple to understand only if we looked into the smoking mirror the Aztecs called Tezcatlipoca. When we look in the mirror we see the violence and destructive consumption that are immanent to power and balance in society.

What this book does best is the surreal relation it draws with cultural anthropology. The essence of power as is related in this book is to preserve the society, create wealth, and give dignity. It is hidden behind the mirror of our traditions and ways of life here in the west, but it is reflected if we dare look in the mirror and behold the absolute display of its cannibal might in land where our military and diplomats fight for interest inherent to the sustenance of our traditions and ways of life. Power demands death and suffering for it to survive, and even though it has been continually disavowed and elided within our society, our western civilization is in reality no different from the Aztec Mexican culture that celebrated violence and consumption of flesh. The colonial power who later exercised monopoly right over lands, arts and aesthetics of cultural and religious importance to local communities were not different from the Aztecs who exercised tribute right over people in place to which their kingdom had expanded even though they obviously had not displayed their cannibal power as explicitly as the Aztecs did. This argument could not have been made better by this author.

The authenticity and persuasiveness of this author's approach is inherent in the fact that the research field of this book was not confined to the museums, art galleries, libraries and institutions of western malls, but was stretched far beyond the Duffer in malls in Toronto, among native Canadians to the streets in Mexico City and Kahn awake.

It is evident in this book how the author has tried to relate the similarity between the Aztec Mexicans and western culture. This is perhaps, a work in cultural anthropology at its best.

Chapter One

Chapter one begins with the story of two brothers but it juxtaposes the gruesomeness of death and flesh consumption of Aztec Mexico with the anesthetization of death and violence of western culture. It posits that the ultimate demand of society and power is the consumption of human flesh. The cannibal culture of the Aztec Mexican may have been celebrated but is no different from violence and death that have wasted across the lands to which the imperial power of the west has been put to use. The morbidity of western consumptive tendencies might be hidden behind the aesthetics of civilized culture but a gaze in the "mirror that smokes" would reveal the actual behavior of the western society. It is the same power that creates wealth and security that inflicts untold suffering. It is the same power that bestows dignity that also consumes flesh. Cannibal power is driven by the same goals; imperial and aristocratic dreams. It held true with the Aztecs. It held true with the colonial power that ultimately conquered them. It hold true today with the endless pursuit of interest needed for the security of western culture in other lands.

Chapter two

Chapter two begins with the Butterfly Madam and goes on to elucidate an issue in cultural anthropology which lays bare the share potency of cultural cannibalism. The west, in making cultures that are different commodities sellable in market, is actually acting true to the Aztec Mexican culture of cultural and economic dominance, and though it may not be as explicit as the mass sacrifice of foreigners by the Aztecs for their cultural and religious demand, is nevertheless just as consumptive. The use of stereotypes and tropes