Tag: Cannibal

The representation of the "Savage", between taboos and stereotypes: the case of "Cannibal Holocaust"

Published on: Last updated on: Written by: Categorized into: Anthropology, Cinema and TV

Disney's recent policy aimed at underlining the problematic nature of minority representations and especially indigenous communities in the last century has raised quite a few criticisms by virtue of the perspective used, which ultimately betrays an ill-concealed Eurocentrism and evident hypocrisy all western in style. The analysis of a controversial and epochal film like "Cannibal Holocaust" by Ruggero Deodato, released in theaters 41 years ago, can help us understand why.

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Shamanic initiation and the ways of the afterlife in the North American tradition

Published on: Last updated on: Written by: Categorized into: Anthropology, Esotericism, folklore, Shamanism, History of Religions

Similarly to the European tradition, also the North American one recognizes in the period of the winter solstice the "gateway" to the world of the dead and of the spirits and, therefore, the suitable time for youth initiations and masked ceremonies, including the Iroquois one of the โ€œFalse Facesโ€ and the kwakiutl one of the โ€œCannibal Spiritโ€. These beliefs and practices, as well as the analysis of shamanic journeys to the "Village of the Spirits", allow us to understand the doctrines of the native peoples of North America on the various souls that make up the human being and on the relationship entertained by the living with the spirit world. .

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