Boarding schools in Canada have recently unearthed the bones of thousands of nameless Aboriginal children, casting a shadow over this self-proclaimed "peace-loving" and "harmless" country, and also opening up centuries-long conflicts between Aborigines and colonizers.
The statue of Canadian educator Ryerson was torn down. He is seen as the initiator of "separate education" for local Indians. (Photo: Visual China)
To be sure, boarding schools or church schools in Europe and the United States have been very unfriendly to children since their inception, from Brontë's "Jane Eyre" to Dickens's "DongBei Father and Son", "David Copperfield", "Christmas Carol", you can see that it is as harsh as a prison, harsh and even inhuman. This is still true of children of their own people, not to mention the "inferior peoples" they saw at the time.
In the colonies, these schools snatched their children from their indigenous parents in the name of "education" and "enlightenment", and treated them with the condescending mentality of "higher nations", and their behavior was bound to become even worse.
Stills from Jane Eyre
In 1886, a group of teenage girls from the Apache tribe of Florida, USA, who had been held hostage, were sent to an Indian school in Virginia.
Although they apologized today, they also said that these acts were shameful. But all colonists and invaders, regardless of ethnicity or region, have one thing in common, that is, they are "not guilty of the past" and "condescending" to others.
Today I want to tell a story of demonizing the primitive tribe with "the headhunter eats the big young master".
"Guinea" should sound like it's in Africa, while "New Guinea" is in the Pacific Ocean, just north of the Australian continent, the second largest island in the world. There are several primitive tribes living here who believe in animism and have a distinctive feature, which is cannibalism.
"Cannibalism" is of course a barbaric and cruel custom, and cannibalism is also a common behavior in the early days of human society, after all, under the conditions of primitive society, in addition to their own tribes, everything may be food, which is a shortage of materials that "do not kill the enemy and kill you, and it is a pity to kill and not eat". After entering civilized society, almost all peoples will give up, and unless there is a particularly serious famine, everyone will be rational and patient, and they must hide their shame and break the law when they eat.
In these primitive tribes of New Guinea, "cannibalism" is not for food, but rather as a high-level, symbolic prey, and through hunting and eating to gain the ability of the other party or to meet spiritual needs - this is naturally a very primitive behavior.
The Asmat tribes on the island of New Guinea would kill their enemies through battle, eat their brains, leave their skulls to worship as holy relics, and even name their children their enemies.
Asmat People in 1976
Asmat skull hanging for sale online (Photo: https://www.lempertz.com/)
The Dutch colonized the western part of the island of New Guinea for hundreds of years (eastern Papua New Guinea was a British colony) for "civilized indoctrination", and most of the local indigenous people could accept the cognition of "not killing", but also secretly maintained the tradition of eating dead relatives, in order to obtain a part of the deceased, so that they could obtain eternal life by becoming one with themselves.
This seems to be at least a choice that does not harm the living, and contains a complex cult of primitive faith, and the island of New Guinea has become a very popular place for Western intellectuals. Especially after World War II, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands have become a "primitive, romantic, exotic" paradise in the eyes of Westerners, and various scholars have come here to study the primitive prototypes of human society in depth.
In November 1961, a young anthropologist, Mike Rockefeller, at the invitation of Harvard University, arrived on the island of New Guinea with a film crew, while Indonesia was arguing with the Dutch colonial government over the ownership of the island, and the war seemed to be on the verge of breaking out.
The sea area where the accident occurred.
On November 18, Mike Rockefeller and dutchman René Worthing rode in an electric boat on the Eeilanden River, flanked by asparties of the Asmat clan, who searched for suitable venues for the materials. There were also two local Papuans on the way. But something went wrong at the mouth of the sea, and the turbulent currents upended the hull. Papuans, who were familiar with the water nature, soon swam to the shore and reported the crime. So the next day, European and American world newspapers published the news: "The Son of the Rockefellers is missing in New Guinea."
The Rockefellers, followed by Mike Rockefeller on the right.
Yes, Mike Rockefeller was the young master of the famous Rockefeller Group, and his father Nelson was the third generation of the family, then governor of New York State, and later vice president of the United States.
Dutchman René Worthing was found at sea the next day to rescue him, saying that after he and Mike had been adrift at sea for a whole day, Mike, who was good at water, swam to the shore for help and has never been seen again.
Soon Mike's father and sister, as well as dozens of journalists from all over the world, arrived on a chartered plane, and the locals were all mobilized to search along the coast, and the Australian Air Force and the Dutch Navy also came to assist in the search. Anyone who can find a spectacle leg, lighter, or piece of clothing can be paid exorbitantly. But people get nothing.
New Guinea crocodile, up to 4 meters long.
Police mobilized manpower around the area to find Mike Rockefeller.
On Nov. 28, 10 days after the accident, Mike Rockefeller's father decided to return to New York, and he thanked him for a lap and didn't say anything more because he listened to too much speculation: swimming until he was exhausted, drowning or being eaten by a crocodile, and there was also a sound: being eaten by the locals.
These must have been unbearable for a exhausted father. The local Dutch governor did not want to leave a bad impression on the rich man with a bright political future, and vowed to investigate the matter clearly.
But things never worked out, and the young anthropologist seemed to disappear out of thin air. The absence of truth is often a hotbed of rumors and urban legends, so the story of "cannibals eat Mike" gradually takes shape.
The story comes mainly from a Dutch official, Wim van de Waal, who lived in the local village of the "accident" for two months, and the locals knew that a young white man was looking outside, and de Waal learned through various clues that the local tribe found a weary Mike Rockefeller at the water's edge at high tide, killed him with a spear, and ate him according to the traditional method.
De Val claimed to have managed to obtain Mike's skull and handed him over to the local government. But the local government claimed that the skull belonged to the locals rather than europeans and Americans, and the skull was never returned to him. De Waal believed that the Dutch government was deliberately concealing the truth and went around spreading the word.
Asmat and their traditional ark. (Photo: Visual China)
This story is too in line with the curious tastes of European and American society, an excellent young man born in a top rich family and studying in a higher education institution is eaten in the tropical primeval jungle, and the matter is covered up by the local government. Even the details are vividly spoken:
A tribal member stabbed Michael in the ribs with a spear, and the young man tried to swim to survive. After being beheaded, he was stripped of his scalp and cut from the base of his nose to the back of his neck. His ribs were cut off with an axe, his sternum was torn, his hands and feet were cut off, his internal organs were pulled out, some were eaten directly, and some were put into a pot and boiled. The feast of the tribe begins with the chanting of the sutras. Then people began to fall into a state of revelry, fornication and madness. After that, they covered their bodies with Michael's blood and danced like they were possessed like crazy..." — Paul Hoffmann (National Geographic Reporter)
So far, all the stories have been told by either Dutch priests, Dutch officials or Western journalists, and none of the locals have come forward to say: We ate or didn't eat the white boy. But this did not prevent the widespread spread of this curious story in the West.
Asmat art, which embodies the close connection between ancestor worship and generations.
And these Westerners also provide another clue, that is, in 1957, when the Dutch colonial government tried to quell the tribal dispute, it accidentally killed several indigenous people, thus forming a beam, and the indigenous people may see Mike and decide to take revenge through him. Therefore, the Dutch colonial government at that time could not give an answer, so as not to poke out the old things at that time and "send heads" to the rival Indonesian government.
In this curious story, no one cares why those few aborigines died, and even less people mention that 4 of the 5 aborigines who died were very noble leaders of the tribe, and the Dutch did not know them when they shot, and only covered up the past with "wrongful killing".
At the end of the 19th century, when an English prince visited Papua New Guinea, the indigenous representatives sitting on the floor and the prince on the high ground were in stark contrast.
Perhaps in the eyes of the natives at that time, the killing of Mike Rockefeller was the best way to let the souls of their compatriots rest in peace, even if it was an accident, I am afraid that it was "providence" in the eyes of the indigenous people. The "cannibal legend" has become the "hope of the people" on both sides.
Western readers, on the other hand, are voracious by the story of the "cannibals." To this day, what you see online is still how primitive these tribes are, do not wear clothes, live in trees and their backward customs, and no one cares how many times the colonists have been "wrong". No one cared how many times they had been hurt by the colonizers.
New Guinea Aboriginal Headdress (Photo: Visual China)
A mysteriously missing American young master can immediately alarm the Australian Air Force and the Dutch Navy, while countless dead New Guinean aborigines and thousands of Canadian children will have to wait 4, 40 or even 100 years for the outside world to be known for their grievances.
Is the gap caused by differences in civilizations?
Bibliographic reference:
https://anderetijden.nl/
《Missing: Michael Rockefeller》
http://www.travelmarbles.com/
《THE LAST CANNIBALS》
https://www.vox.com/
《53 years ago, a Rockefeller son was eaten by cannibals