www.Wary_of_the_Wari'_Ways.com

In North America, traditional disposal of the dead usually consists of inhumation (burial in the ground) or cremation (burning the body... above ground). For many, these methods are deemed the "proper" way to dispose of the dead; but there are other options - one of which being mortuary cannibalism. 

Although the Wari' do not practise mortuary cannibalism any more, the process of disposing of their dead was once handled with great respect. Any other way was simply unfathomable and conjured up feelings of disgust and horror (much like endocannibalism does for many North Americans - lol).

When I imagine funerals, I always think of the food that awaits. Selfish? Perhaps. But if I'm going to be uncontrollably weepy all day, I think setting up camp at the dessert table isn't a bad idea. I can say (without having tried it) that shake'n'bake grandma is not my idea of a picnic. I can say, also, that it never particularly excited the Wari'. They were not eating the dead for enjoyment...

The Wari’ consider the ground to be dirty, polluted, wet, and cold: it is a very inappropriate resting site for the body of someone so beloved. They take this idea of the ground being dirty very seriously; Conklin reports adults that respect their body do not even sit on the ground, objects used in rituals never touch the ground, and people are very cautious with food so it never drops. Further extending this idea, people would volunteer to be human cutting boards when dismembering and preparing the deceased to prevent any blood of the dead from touching the cold earth (Conklin, 1995, 85).

All living things have a human spirit believe the Wari'. If a body is sent to rot underground, its spirit cannot find a new body to enter. The village shaman is able to see the spirit of the recently departed once he or she has claimed a new body. The shaman can then report back to the family and the grieving ceases.

Conklin sums up the belief to be that whoever wishes to eat must eventually become food themselves one day (1995, 89). 

I'm not totally onboard with the consumption of 3-day old rotting corpse (I've taken enough anthropology classes to know what happens to a body in Amazonian heat) but I am fully committed to the mantra hakuna matata and I believe in the circle of life. We get out of this world what we put in - the Wari' are right about that!

*queue Rafiki and the zoo-orchestra, raise Simba to the sun*

Works Cited

Conklin, B. A. (1995). ‘Thus are our bodies, thus was our custom’: mortuary cannibalism in an amazonian society. American Ethnologist, 22(1), 75-101.