Sunday, January 4, 2009: 12:30 PM
Concourse E (Hilton New York)
This paper will treat cannibalism tales as they have long circulated
on the island of Hispaniola from the eighteenth century until the
U.S. Occupations of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. At the height
of the eighteenth-century sugar boom, reports emerged among slaves
that Europeans were consuming human flesh; these allegations later
surfaced once again during the Haitian revolution as Haitians'
purported consumption of French planter remains was seen as evidence
of former slaves' savagery. During the U.S. Occupation in 1922, a
Haitian woman in the Dominican Republic was convicted of kidnapping a
Dominican child, killing and eating him, a case which served to
further confirm Marine beliefs regarding the depravity of Haitian
ritual practices. Ironically, in this particular case, however, the
story may actually been true since the boy may have been the son of the
enormously popular Dominican faith healer Olivorio Mateo who was
drawing clients from across the island at that time until his death
at the hands of U.S. Marines. Since Haitians are presumed to be
superior sorcerers, Mateo's child's consumption may have been a means
of embodying his powers. This chapter will explore the circulation of
the trope of cannibalism as it moved from slaves to colonial
planters, U.S. Marines and Dominicans during the occupation, and how
its meaning shifted in turn.
on the island of Hispaniola from the eighteenth century until the
U.S. Occupations of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. At the height
of the eighteenth-century sugar boom, reports emerged among slaves
that Europeans were consuming human flesh; these allegations later
surfaced once again during the Haitian revolution as Haitians'
purported consumption of French planter remains was seen as evidence
of former slaves' savagery. During the U.S. Occupation in 1922, a
Haitian woman in the Dominican Republic was convicted of kidnapping a
Dominican child, killing and eating him, a case which served to
further confirm Marine beliefs regarding the depravity of Haitian
ritual practices. Ironically, in this particular case, however, the
story may actually been true since the boy may have been the son of the
enormously popular Dominican faith healer Olivorio Mateo who was
drawing clients from across the island at that time until his death
at the hands of U.S. Marines. Since Haitians are presumed to be
superior sorcerers, Mateo's child's consumption may have been a means
of embodying his powers. This chapter will explore the circulation of
the trope of cannibalism as it moved from slaves to colonial
planters, U.S. Marines and Dominicans during the occupation, and how
its meaning shifted in turn.
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