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Compares attitudes toward Caribbean cannibalism & African American slave religions to explore how stereotypical images of culturally legitimate violence continue to influence attitudes toward Caribbean cultural concepts. An overview of the history of Caribbean cannibalism indicates that these acts were considered legitimate because they almost always fulfilled a social function for the community. Concepts of Caribbean cannibalism in colonial discourse led to the negative stereotyping of a culture in which cannibalistic acts were an important facet of religion & a core aspect of the symbolic universe. Colonial stereotypes affected European behavior/attitudes toward African slaves, who were considered dangerous/savage because of their religions, especially Jamaican Obeah & Haitian Vodou, which incorporated violent practices & violent images, respectively. It is argued that European notions of cannibalism not only became a key factor in the encounter between different cultural systems, & a symbol in perceptions of "Others," but generated an atmosphere of violence in colonial discourse that suggested all non-Christian ideas/practices were nonhuman & should be eliminated. 34 References. J. Lindroth

An introductory chapter focuses on theoretical foundations of the study of violence. It is noted that Georg Simmel (1908) laid the groundwork by shifting notions about violence from evolutionist thinking to treating it as part of the cultural inventory. Contemporary anthropologists view violent confrontations as social actions associated with the interests & beliefs of conscious actors. Operational, cognitive, & experiential approaches to the study of conflict, war, & violence are explored, along with the dichotomy of practice & imaginary that is seen as a key to understanding violence as a total social fact. An examination of dimensions of violence that are accessible to comparative analysis is followed by a discussion of violent imaginaries & how they are represented through narratives, performances, & inscriptions. It is maintained that violence can be viewed as conflict, as war, or as a form of interpersonal relations in everyday cultural reality. Examples of each phenomenological dimension are explored & suggestions are made for future anthropological research on violence & its many forms of social realization. 47 References. J. Lindroth