Premium
Devouring the Mother: A Kleinian Perspective on Necrophagia and Corpse Abuse in Mortuary Ritual
Author(s) -
Stephen Michele
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
ethos
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.783
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1548-1352
pISSN - 0091-2131
DOI - 10.1525/eth.1998.26.4.387
Subject(s) - perspective (graphical) , aggression , context (archaeology) , psychoanalytic theory , psychoanalysis , unconscious mind , ethnography , sociology , psychology , criminology , social psychology , anthropology , history , art , archaeology , visual arts
This article argues that the ethnography of corpse abuse and mortuary cannibalism takes on new significance in the context of a Kleinian psychoanalytic paradigm. Kleinian theory suggests that such practices are not merely culturally approved outlets for aggression but explicable in terms of the mourning process itself which involves a complex interaction between unconscious guilt and the need to make reparation. From this perspective, one can understand why the body of the deceased provokes powerful cannibalistic urges; why it is transformed, literally and symbolically, into gifts to be eaten by others; why the corpse may be subjected to multiple constructions and deconstructions; and why a compulsive repetition seems to characterize many of these mortuary rituals.