According to R. M. and C. H. Berndt the practice of pietistic
burial cannibalism (known also as endo-cannibalism) was very
widespread throughout Australia. In many cases the whole of
the body, except the bones, intestines, and genitalia, was eaten:
however, the Dieri '^ and adjacent tribes of Central Australia
ate only the fatty parts of the face, thighs, arms, and stomach.
G. M. Sweeney ^^ reported instances of the practice of endocannibalism in Arnhem Land as recently as 1939. McCarthy ^''
concluded that the most important functions and meanings of
the whole of the funerary ritual were to assure the subject
"that his death is regretted, and in certain circumstances wUl
be avenged, that his body will be given traditional treatment,
and to ensure that his eternal and immortal spirit will be directed
and delivered so far as possible to its proper spirit home".
If this is correct, members of the deceased's tribal group would
have reason to fear the deceased's spirit if the traditional rites
were not observed. In some cases the participants hoped, by
partaking of the flesh of the deceased, to increase their strength >*;
in others to improve their hunting abiUty.^^
Although not as commonly practised in Australia as burial
cannibalism, acts of revenge cannibalism were nevertheless widespread. There again some ceremonial was almost invariably
observed. By some tribes all of the body except the bones,
intestines and genitalia was eaten; by others, only the flesh of
the arms and legs; by others, only that of the hands and the
feet; by others, only the kidney fat. Howitt 2° made a distinction
between revenge cannibalism and the practice of eating the
kidney fat of both enemies and fellow tribesmen for magical
reasons. Elsewhere ^^ he stated, however, that the Theddora
and Ngarigo ate the hands and the feet of their enemies killed
in raids, and in eating them they acquired, as they thought,
"some part of their qualities and courage". Bates ^'^ came to
similar conclusions after a study of some of the desert tribes
of Western Australia. This belief, however, was in direct
contrast to that of the Maoris of New Zealand as recorded
by Thomson ^^
R. M. & C. H. Berndt 24 concluded that the practice of
killing the very young seemed to have been carried out
occasionally over almost all Aboriginal AustraUa, but that
infanticide was not invariably followed by eating the flesh.
Howitt 25 found instances where young children were eaten by
members of the Kaura tribe near Adelaide during hard
summers; and where the flesh of young children of the
Wotjobaluk tribe was eaten by their elder brothers and sisters
to make them strong.26 He reported also 2? that all the tribes
of the Wotjo nation and on the Murray River frontage used
at times, when an older child was weak and sickly, to kill its
infant brother or sister and feed it on the flesh. Bates 2«
also recorded examples of the practice of infant cannibalism
by the desert tribes of South and Western AustraUa.
Thomas 2^ recorded a case on the Gascoigne River in Western
Australia where an Aboriginal girl was killed and eaten by
a native who decoyed her away. "She was very plump; the
object of killing her was to acquire this desirable quality".
Bleakle> ^^ also referred to "rare cases .. . of the killing and
eating of a young girl on a special ritual occasion"; but his
information is not documented. Bates ^"^ wrote of the
Kaalurwonga east of the Boundary Dam who killed and ate
fat men, women, and girls. Elsewhere she stated ^°^ that
"wanton women in any camp" (i.e., among the West Australian
desert tribes) could be lawfully killed and eaten, and this
may be a key to the motivation for some cannibalistic practices
of this nature.
https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/data/UQ_242712/Qld_heritage_v1_no7_1967_p25_29....
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