eating grandma

1976 I was teaching in Kimbe, West New Britain, Papua New Guinea. Late one afternoon I went down to have a chat with my neighbour the local police chief. His deputy came across the road to join in the discussion. They told me they'd been over on Bali Vetu & were very busy arresting the whole island for canibalism. Bali Vetu was visible off the coast on a clear day. An old woman had died & was put into a ground oven for a few days until everyone who was coming to honour her had arrived. With appropriate ceremony, Kundu, hour glass drums, haunting chanting her body was dug up. Afterwards everyone in the tribe joined in the big feast to celebrate her life. Her flesh & internal organs were consumed with love & sadness. The custom is very ancient. Catholics when they celebrate Mass eat Jesus & the priests drink his blood. The people of the island ate their ancestor instead. After talking with the police I went to the end of the street to discuss the feast of the dead with the anthropologists. He, Hungarian MD, PhD & his wife Dutch PhD. They had been on the UN team investigating laughing sickness which is related to madcow disease apparently. The men of the tribe were not affected. It was the women & children who became hysterical after eating the internal organs. Missionaries over a couple of hundred years have attempted to transplant a Middle Eastern religion into Nuigini but many local customs die hard.