Product Description

In 1550 the German adventurer Hans Staden was serving as a gunner in a Portuguese fort on the Brazilian coast. While out hunting, he was captured by the Tupinambá, an indigenous people who had a reputation for engaging in ritual cannibalism and who, as allies of the French, were hostile to the Portuguese. Staden’s True History, first published in Germany in 1557, tells the story of his nine months among the Tupi Indians. It is a dramatic first-person account of his capture, captivity, and eventual escape.

Staden’s narrative is a foundational text in the history and European “discovery” of Brazil, the earliest European account of the Tupi Indians, and a touchstone in the debates on cannibalism. Yet the last English-language edition of Staden’s True History was published in 1929. This new critical edition features a new translation from the sixteenth-century German along with annotations and an extensive introduction. It restores to the text the fifty-six woodcut illustrations of Staden’s adventures and final escape that appeared in the original 1557 edition.

In the introduction, Neil L. Whitehead discusses the circumstances surrounding the production of Staden’s narrative and its ethnological significance, paying particular attention to contemporary debates about cannibalism. Whitehead illuminates the value of Staden’s True History as an eyewitness account of Tupi society on the eve before its collapse, of ritual war and sacrifice among Native peoples, and of colonial rivalries in the region of Rio de Janeiro. He chronicles the history of the various editions of Staden’s narrative and their reception from 1557 until the present. Staden’s work continues to engage a wide range of readers, not least within Brazil, where it has recently been the subject of two films and a graphic novel.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #166324 in Books
• Published on: 2008-06-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 296 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780822342311
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Review
"There is no doubt that this volume has returned Hans Staden's narrative to its place as a basic text of European expansion and one of the most important accounts of cannibalism. His 1557 text is important for the wealth of its ethnographic observations, taken at first hand by Staden, and for the narrative structure, which makes it comparable to the journal of Columbus, Raleigh's Discoveries, or Jean de Lery's Histoire." Stuart Schwartz, George Burton Adams Professor of History, Yale University "Neil Whitehead's introduction contextualizes Staden's account with amazing richness. This is the definitive English edition." Mary Louise Pratt, Silver Professor of Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures, New York University "I was quite astonished to find out that no version of Hans Staden's account had been printed in English since 1929. Not only is it the earliest eye-witness narrative of the Tupi peoples written by a European; it deals with the heated and enduring debate about the role of cannibalism in human experience." Irene Silverblatt, author of Modern Inquisitions: Peru and the Colonial Origins of the Civilized World "This book can be considered as classic literature to those who are concerned with violence, cannibalism, captivity and gender relations of torture. It is a book that still captures the imagination with horror and terror, providing insight as to how we as humans confront these emotions. Even after 40 years since the chronicle's publication, it reveals the similarities of living in a highly ideological world, where the performance of terror is used as a convenient commodity, and torture is accepted as a means of building discourse with the unintelligible 'other'. The account by Staden continues to be an inspiring force in thinking about ourselves, the other, and the differences in belief systems that collide in conflicts that take place in exotic lands. The is new translation from significant introduction and detailed analysis by anthropologist Neil Whitehead that places this magnificent text in perspective and creates a high standard for future editions of primary sources of information...Staden's work continues to bring into question the meaning of cannibalism that he observed. Professor Whitehead has, indeed, put us on the track of a new understanding of this chronicle that is a landmark of history, anthropology, and literature." Augusto Oyuela-Caycedo, Bulletin of Latin American Research, Vol. 28. No. 3, July 2009

From the Publisher
"There is no doubt that this volume has returned Hans Staden's narrative to its place as a basic text of European expansion and one of the most important accounts of cannibalism. His 1557 text is important for the wealth of its ethnographic observations, taken at first hand by Staden, and for the narrative structure, which makes it comparable to the journal of Columbus, Raleigh's Discoveries, or Jean de Lery's Histoire."-- Stuart Schwartz, George Burton Adams Professor of History, Yale University

"Neil Whitehead's introduction contextualizes Staden's account with amazing richness. This is the definitive English edition."-- Mary Louise Pratt, Silver Professor of Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures, New York University

"I was quite astonished to find out that no version of Hans Staden's account had been printed in English since 1929. Not only is it the earliest eye-witness narrative of the Tupi peoples written by a European; it deals with the heated and enduring debate about the role of cannibalism in human experience."-- Irene Silverblatt, author of Modern Inquisitions: Peru and the Colonial Origins of the Civilized World

From the Back Cover
“There is no doubt that this volume has returned Hans Staden’s narrative to its place as a basic text of European expansion and one of the most important accounts of cannibalism. This 1557 text is important for the wealth of its ethnographic observations, taken at first-hand by Staden, and for the narrative structure, which makes it comparable to the journal of Columbus, Raleigh’s Discoveries, or Jean de Léry’s Histoire.”—Stuart Schwartz, George Burton Adams Professor of History, Yale University

Customer Reviews

Contextualizing Cannibals
An extraordinarily detailed account of Hans Staden's captivity by Brazilian cannibals in the early 16th century, complete with reproductions of woodcuts that accompanied the original publication. This edition features a lengthy, informative, and intriguing introduction by Neil L. Whitehead, who places European accounts of cannibal cultures during early exploration of the New World at the forefront of modernist ethnography. He brilliantly exposes ways in which these early ethnographies constructed and highlighted Otherness in the newly discovered American cultures.