It seems that human history is filled with people other people idolized, Pharaohs, for example. Certain military and political leaders, even tyrants, have had their crazed fans. How else explain the rise of Napoleon and Hitler, the armies of Attila, and the sometime suicidal loyalty of the Japanese to their emperor during WWII? You can find examples today, but I won’t mention any lest I insult your idol. And of course, the TV show American Idol comes to mind. Now a reference to an ethnographic story I read when I was a teen.
The Jesuit missionary Jean de Brébeuf(1593-1649), honored by three Canadian Christmas stamps, by sainthood in the Church, and by school and towns in Quebec, lived among the Huron and reported on his time there, Huron language, and culture. His experiences included seeing, if I remember correctly—it wasn’t yesterday—a warrior captured in battle with another tribe, probably, if memory serves me, an Iroquois. The captured warrior tried to attack his captors who cut off his hands and feet. But that didn’t stop him. He went after them on knees and elbows, gnashing at them. They ripped flesh from him to eat to gain his ferocity and courage. And, as the story goes, when de Brébeufhimself was tortured and killed by the Iroquois, they drank his blood to acquire the courage he showed during his ordeal. Why the cannibalism?
They wanted what he exhibited. Turn now to any human idolized by others, even a rock star idolized by teens. What drives one to idolize, and is idolizing a form of cannibalism?
Is there something of figurative cannibalism in the idolization of humans? Is there something about following and idolizing that attests to some unspoken, and maybe even unconscious, belief that whatever the idol is or has, the idolizers can somehow absorb through objects, if not the flesh, associated with the idol?
You could, if you desire, read the many volumes of Sir James Frazer’s The Golden Bough to see accounts similar to that told by de Brébeuf. If you read T. S. Eliot’s The Wasteland, you know Frazer’s book. It’s filled with the kinds of tales that anthropologists are wont to collect, especially when they try to understand the mythology and cultural heritage of various peoples. Frazer refers to the process of consuming as “eating the god,” a process that, whether one wants to admit it, is reminiscent of Communion.*
Now, there are many who would argue that an English prince is different from a clerk at a big-box store, is somehow “better,” but there are also those who see no separation in human value, regardless of social or economic status. There are some who look for the latest news coverage, even a tabloid story, about actors or actresses, singers or politicians, and royalty and the superrich, seeing in them something of note, something “elevated.” But there are those who couldn’t care less about the rich and famous, the movers and shakers, and the darlings of the Press. Also, there are some who strictly adhere to beliefs that prohibit any kind of human idolization, any worship of a golden cow.
Here’s one of Frazer’s tales. “As usual, the corn-spirit is believed to reside in the last sheaf; and to eat a loaf made from the last sheaf is, therefore, to eat the corn-spirit itself. Similarly at La Palisse, in France, a man made of dough is hung upon the fir-tree which is carried on the last harvest-waggon [sic.]. The tree and the dough-man are taken to the mayor’s house and kept there till the vintage is over. Then the close of harvest is celebrated by a feast at whch the mayor breaks the dough-man in pieces and gives the pieces to the people to eat” (49).
This is what my sister told me about her experience at a Beatles concert in Pittsburgh. She, like so many teenagers, liked the band. She lined up with others to see them and actually saw them walking across the lawn to the venue. There she saw a girl about her age reach down and pick some grass on which they walked and proceed to eat it. As a rational human, you would say as my sister, a teen at the time, said, “That’s just plain crazy,” or “dumb,” or “foolish.” Some popular idols engender similar behavior in fans who swoon, faint, cry, or buy souvenirs and signed pictures.
Where do you fall on the spectrum of idolization? Where do you stand with respect to figuratively “eating the god” to acquire attributes as the Huron and Iroquois warriors did during the time of Jean de Brébeuf, and a young girl did at a concert?
*Frazer, James George, The Golden Bough : Volume VIII, Part V: Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, Volume 2 of 2. “Eating the God,” Chapter X. New York, MacMillan and Co., 1912., p. 48. The Gutenberg Project. Online at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42336/42336-h/42336-h.html#toc13
The Jesuit missionary Jean de Brébeuf(1593-1649), honored by three Canadian Christmas stamps, by sainthood in the Church, and by school and towns in Quebec, lived among the Huron and reported on his time there, Huron language, and culture. His experiences included seeing, if I remember correctly—it wasn’t yesterday—a warrior captured in battle with another tribe, probably, if memory serves me, an Iroquois. The captured warrior tried to attack his captors who cut off his hands and feet. But that didn’t stop him. He went after them on knees and elbows, gnashing at them. They ripped flesh from him to eat to gain his ferocity and courage. And, as the story goes, when de Brébeufhimself was tortured and killed by the Iroquois, they drank his blood to acquire the courage he showed during his ordeal. Why the cannibalism?
They wanted what he exhibited. Turn now to any human idolized by others, even a rock star idolized by teens. What drives one to idolize, and is idolizing a form of cannibalism?
Is there something of figurative cannibalism in the idolization of humans? Is there something about following and idolizing that attests to some unspoken, and maybe even unconscious, belief that whatever the idol is or has, the idolizers can somehow absorb through objects, if not the flesh, associated with the idol?
You could, if you desire, read the many volumes of Sir James Frazer’s The Golden Bough to see accounts similar to that told by de Brébeuf. If you read T. S. Eliot’s The Wasteland, you know Frazer’s book. It’s filled with the kinds of tales that anthropologists are wont to collect, especially when they try to understand the mythology and cultural heritage of various peoples. Frazer refers to the process of consuming as “eating the god,” a process that, whether one wants to admit it, is reminiscent of Communion.*
Now, there are many who would argue that an English prince is different from a clerk at a big-box store, is somehow “better,” but there are also those who see no separation in human value, regardless of social or economic status. There are some who look for the latest news coverage, even a tabloid story, about actors or actresses, singers or politicians, and royalty and the superrich, seeing in them something of note, something “elevated.” But there are those who couldn’t care less about the rich and famous, the movers and shakers, and the darlings of the Press. Also, there are some who strictly adhere to beliefs that prohibit any kind of human idolization, any worship of a golden cow.
Here’s one of Frazer’s tales. “As usual, the corn-spirit is believed to reside in the last sheaf; and to eat a loaf made from the last sheaf is, therefore, to eat the corn-spirit itself. Similarly at La Palisse, in France, a man made of dough is hung upon the fir-tree which is carried on the last harvest-waggon [sic.]. The tree and the dough-man are taken to the mayor’s house and kept there till the vintage is over. Then the close of harvest is celebrated by a feast at whch the mayor breaks the dough-man in pieces and gives the pieces to the people to eat” (49).
This is what my sister told me about her experience at a Beatles concert in Pittsburgh. She, like so many teenagers, liked the band. She lined up with others to see them and actually saw them walking across the lawn to the venue. There she saw a girl about her age reach down and pick some grass on which they walked and proceed to eat it. As a rational human, you would say as my sister, a teen at the time, said, “That’s just plain crazy,” or “dumb,” or “foolish.” Some popular idols engender similar behavior in fans who swoon, faint, cry, or buy souvenirs and signed pictures.
Where do you fall on the spectrum of idolization? Where do you stand with respect to figuratively “eating the god” to acquire attributes as the Huron and Iroquois warriors did during the time of Jean de Brébeuf, and a young girl did at a concert?
*Frazer, James George, The Golden Bough : Volume VIII, Part V: Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, Volume 2 of 2. “Eating the God,” Chapter X. New York, MacMillan and Co., 1912., p. 48. The Gutenberg Project. Online at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42336/42336-h/42336-h.html#toc13
RSS Feed