I would like to announce my new book "Edible People: The Historical Consumption of Slaves and Foreigners and the Cannibalistic Trade in Human Flesh", published by Berghahn Books.

While human cannibalism has attracted considerable attention and controversy, certain aspects of the practice have been largely overlooked. These include the strong connection between cannibalism and xenophobia: the capturing and consumption of unwanted strangers that was an important pattern of socially accepted cannibalism in several regions of the world. Likewise ignored is the connection to slavery, the fact that in some societies slaves and persons captured in slave raids were allowed to be killed and eaten. There are important connections between cannibal acts, imperialist influences (especially in late nineteenth century Africa) and the role of capitalist trading practices that are highly important for the history of the slave trade and for understanding the colonialist history of Africa and other regions of the world where cannibalism played, until the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, a certain role.

Further aspects, including the commercialization of human flesh or of corpses destined for consumption and the role of products produced in the West (such as firearms) or intended for the West (such as ivory) in intensifying slave raiding, warfare, and cannibalism have also received little attention.. Exploring these largely forgotten connections between forms of cannibalism that were, in some limited historical contexts and communities, socially accepted practices, and the influences of external factors such as Western imperialism is the purpose of this book.

For a while, especially in the 1980s and 1990s, it was fashionable to deny that cannibalism as a socially accepted practiced did ever exist anywhere in the world. While such denialism has largely faded in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, cannibalism as a social practice remains a neglected and understudied topic. One might get the impression that "the taboo on cannibalism has become transformed into a taboo on thinking about cannibalism," as Robert N. Bellah once observed. This book breaks the taboo by studying in a systematic and thorough manner the reasons for cannibal acts that can be neither explained by hatred (such as the consumption of killed enemies in war) nor by love (such as eating the remains of deceased relatives in a funerary rite). It also shows that such acts cannot be understood in isolation, but only as part of a network of social relations and interactions that include ways of displaying prestige and status, establishing patriarchal dominance patterns, and fostering international trade relationships. Cannibalism in the Congo basin and parts of West Africa was much closer connected to the transatlantic slave trade than was known and understood either then or now.

The historian Paul Moon (Auckland University of Technology) says about the book: "Christian Siefkes' work on cannibalism explores areas of the phenomenon that are still little understood, and makes an important and significant addition to the existing literature on the topic. His research is broad-ranging, and his perspectives are particularly insightful."

The anthropologist Paul Collinson (Oxford Brookes University) calls it "a remarkable book [that as] a historical archive detailing the extent of cannibalism in various parts of the world ... is largely unmatched and breaks new ground in the sheer volume of material presented."

Publisher's web page: https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/SiefkesEdible

The book on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Edible-People-Consumption-Cannibalistic-Anthropology-ebook/dp/B09SH8DC73/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Edible-People-Consumption-Cannibalistic-Anthropology/dp/1800736134/

If you would like a review or examination copy, you can use the link "Request a Review or Examination Copy (in Digital Format)" on https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/SiefkesEdible or get in contact with me.

Best regards
Christian Siefkes