Page 31 - Melanesia

History of Fiji: Warfare and Cannibalism

I t is claimed cannibalism started some- Museum reveals cannibalism existed in Fiji flesh lay not in nutrition or in any native
where in the Nakauvadra mountain range about 400 BC and was the major cause of belief that the living qualities of the eaten
would be absorbed by the eater, but in
and was related to tribal wars. From the bloodshed. Archaeological evidence from pursuit of vindictive vengeance beyond the
grave, cannibalism being the consummate
stories passed down to some villagers in Lakeba establishes that cannibalism was insult of a society founded upon ancestor
worship.
Rakiraki by their forefathers, the place where firmly entrenched in Viti from 2500 years

it started in the mountains was called bole. ago until the mid to late 1800s, butchered

But there are documented reports stating human bones forming a common relic in

cannibalism existed in Fiji well before the food waste middens throughout that time.

birth of Jesus Christ. A research by the Fiji The drive behind consumption of human