Synopses & Reviews
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 Tupinambandaacute;, an indigenous people who had a reputation for engaging in ritual cannibalism and who, as allies of the French, were hostile to the Portuguese. Stadenandrsquo;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.
Stadenandrsquo;s narrative is a foundational text in the history and European andldquo;discoveryandrdquo; 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 Stadenandrsquo;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 Stadenandrsquo;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 Stadenandrsquo;s narrative and its ethnological significance, paying particular attention to contemporary debates about cannibalism. Whitehead illuminates the value of Stadenandrsquo;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 Stadenandrsquo;s narrative and their reception from 1557 until the present. Stadenandrsquo;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.
Review
andldquo;I was quite astonished to find out that no version of Hans Stadenandrsquo;s account had been printed in English since 1929. Not only is it the earliest eyewitness 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.andrdquo;andmdash;Irene Silverblatt, author of Modern Inquisitions: Peru and the Colonial Origins of the Civilized World
Review
andldquo;Neil L. Whiteheadandrsquo;s introduction contextualizes Stadenandrsquo;s account with amazing richness. This is the definitive English edition.andrdquo;andmdash;Mary Louise Pratt, Silver Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures, New York University
Review
andldquo;There is no doubt that this volume has returned Hans Stadenandrsquo;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, Raleighandrsquo;s Discoveries, or Jean de Landeacute;ryandrsquo;s Histoire.andrdquo;andmdash;Stuart Schwartz, George Burton Adams Professor of History, Yale University
Review
andldquo;At long last an English edition of Hans Stadenandrsquo;s account of his captivity among the Tupinambandaacute; of mid-sixteenth-century Brazil is available for scholars, teachers, and students. . . . This book, with an extensive introduction written by anthropologist Neil Whitehead and a new English test translated from the German by historian Michael Harbsmeier, is an attractive, accessible, and reliable resource for teaching and research.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;In this superb new English translation of his account, Whitehead and Harbsmeier make it possible for a new generation of US students to learn of Staden's travails. A sophisticated essay that places Hans Staden in his proper historical context serves as the introduction to the translation. . . . Highly recommended.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;The book is a critical edition. . . . The book has become a cornerstone for discussion concerning native practices of cannibalism, but at the same time it is one of the earliest accounts available describing Brazil. Thus Whitehead and Harbsmeier seek to ransom the book from its place in the debate over cannibalism and place it rather within the literature of European contact with the native peoples of the Americas.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;This new translation into English of Hans Stadenandrsquo;s Warhaftige Historia, or True History, originally published in 1557 in Marburg, will fill a gap in the study of both European colonialism and travel literature. . . . Illustrated with plentiful woodcuts and underscored by ethnographic descriptions, Stadenandrsquo;s book is a keystone to the history of colonial Brazil and of Tupi-Guarani societies, as well as to current refashionings of the colonial past. . . . Despite its exceptional quality among early colonial texts, there has not been an English-language version since Malcolm Lettandrsquo;s edition of 1928. Whiteheadandrsquo;s and Harbsmeierandrsquo;s accurate transcription and annotated translation of Stadenandrsquo;s first edition remedy this neglect. Moreover, their introductory study not only reconstructs the textandrsquo;s legacies in a variety of contexts and disciplines, but also demonstrates its persistent appeal for current debates.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Whitehead and Harbsmeier have provided a lucid and readable translation that preserves the choppy rhythm and colloquial feel of the original German without sacrificing accessibility. . . . Hans Staden's True History is usefully true and usefully history. . . . Scholars of early modern Germany and of European colonialism, in addition to scholars of Brazil, now have a wonderful text with which to explore these and other issues with their students. With this translation, Whitehead and Harbsmeier have significantly advanced the study of the early modern world.andrdquo;
Synopsis
Discourse on cannibalism as seen through the writings of German adventurer, Hans Staden, who was captured in South America in 1550 by the Tupi Indians, who had a reputation of cooking and eating their enemies. This is a new edition.
About the Author
Neil L. Whitehead is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is the author of Dark Shamans: Kanaimandagrave; and the Poetics of Violent Death and the editor of Terror and Violence: Anthropological Approaches (with Andrew Strathern and Pamela Stewart); In Darkness and Secrecy: The Anthropology of Assault Sorcery and Witchcraft in Amazonia (with Robin Wright); Histories and Historicities in Amazonia; and The Discoverie of the Large, Rich and Bewtiful Empire of Guiana by Sir Walter Ralegh. Dark Shamans and In Darkness and Secrecy are both also published by Duke University Press. Michael Harbsmeier is Associate Professor of History at Roskilde University in Roskilde, Denmark. He is the author of two books in German.
Neil L. Whitehead is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is the author of Dark Shamans: Kanaimandagrave; and the Poetics of Violent Death and the editor of Terror and Violence: Anthropological Approaches (with Andrew Strathern and Pamela Stewart); In Darkness and Secrecy: The Anthropology of Assault Sorcery and Witchcraft in Amazonia (with Robin Wright); Histories and Historicities in Amazonia; and The Discoverie of the Large, Rich and Bewtiful Empire of Guiana by Sir Walter Ralegh. Dark Shamans and In Darkness and Secrecy are both also published by Duke University Press. Michael Harbsmeier is Associate Professor of History at Roskilde University in Roskilde, Denmark. He is the author of two books in German.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction xv
The True History and Description of a Country Populated by a Wild, Naked, and Savage Man-munching People, situated in the New World, America . . . / Hans Staden 1
Appendix 147
Notes 151
Bibliography 181
Index 197