Hamatsa: The Enigma of Cannibalism on the Pacific Northwest Coast

Thomas S. Abler is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Waterloo and the author of A Canadian Indian Bibliography, 1960-1970.

Hamatsa deals primarily with three aspects of the contact between
Europeans and the indigenous peoples of the northern Pacific coast from
the 18th through the 20th century. First, the initial encounters between
early explorers such as Cook and the peoples of the west coast of
Vancouver Island. Second, the encounter between the Kwakiutl and the
professional anthropologists who documented their complex and intense
winter ceremonials. Third, the significance of these ceremonials
(particularly those of ritual cannibalism) for the largely secular
ideology of 20th-century North America.

After assessing the evidence that led European observers to conclude
that cannibalism was practised by the peoples of western Vancouver
Island, McDowell concludes that the ritual practice of cannibalism (in
which the real or simulated consumption of human flesh has spiritual
significance) was mistaken for the gustatory variety (in which human
flesh is an important part of the diet or valued because of its flavor).

McDowell’s examination of the ethnographic observations of the late
19th and early 20th centuries focuses on Franz Boas’s ethnographic
research among the Kwakiutl as reinterpreted by Goldman and Walens.
McDowell leaves the false impression that the attempts of the Canadian
government to outlaw the potlatch were directed against the practice of
cannibalism.

In discussing the significance of cannibalism and cannibals in Western
thought, McDowell argues that the spirituality of the peoples of the
Northwest Coast can provide valuable lessons for secular, urban North
Americans.

The strongest portion of the work by far is McDowell’s careful
documentation of the allegations of cannibalism made by earlier
observers. Readers unfamiliar with the later classic ethnography done on
the Northwest Coast would do well to consult the numerous sources
McDowell has drawn upon.