cover image Among the Cannibals: Adventures on the Trail of Man's Darkest Ritual

Among the Cannibals: Adventures on the Trail of Man's Darkest Ritual

Paul Raffaele. Collins, $25.95 (278pp) ISBN 978-0-06-135788-6

Australian Raffaele's quest for cannibals sent him around the world from the New Guinea highlands to the streets of Mexico City. Along the way he encountered necrophiliac Indian holy men, the brutalized child-victims of Uganda's civil war, and the iron-pumping king of Tonga. Raeffele's primary goal is to explore exactly what leads different cultures to violate one of humanity's greatest taboos. Yet Raffaele (a Smithsonian feature writer) is not above taking detours and his itinerary includes lessons in Tantric practices, drinking bouts with Tongan transvestites, and a tour of a Frida Kahlo exhibition. Raffaele is a competent adventure writer and has no problem asking questions along the lines of: ""Have you eaten human flesh?"" Unfortunately, he displays a less-than nuanced perspective, leading him to statements such as: ""He is a mass killer whose humanity seems to have been almost entirely sucked out of him.""' The fact that a number of the cultures he investigates haven't engaged in cannibalism in centuries makes his quest often seem misguided. Raffaele also needlessly tries to force the drama by phrasing his issues in the most lurid terms imaginable. What could have been a serious investigation of the most extreme varieties of human experience becomes a kind of cannibal farce.