Sweet Tooth for Empire: Sugar and the British Atlantic World

‘Since This is a Horrible Thing to Think About:’
European Perceptions of Native American Cannibalism 1
EVAN C. ROTHERA
Gettysburg College
Contemporary Italian playwright Dario Fo wrote a satirical play entitled Johan Padan and the
Discovery of the Americas which purported to be the account of one Johan Padan, a
contemporary of Columbus, who journeyed to the New World, was shipwrecked, and rescued by
some friendly Indians. At one point, Padan and a group of his fellows discussed the hospitality
of the Indians, who were quite generous. One of them expressed the fear that the Indians simply
care for them so that they will make a splendid feast. Another man remarked, quite scathingly,
“This is the third voyage I’ve made to the Indies and I’ve never met Indians with pieces of arms
and legs hung up to dry in their huts, like those charlatans Amerigo Vespucci and Alfonso
Gamberan talked about…They just told those stories to have an excuse for treating the Indians
like animals: They’re cannibals, so we can make them slaves.” 2 Although Fo is more concerned
with literary conventions that with factual and historical accuracy, he succeeds in tapping into
one idea which partially explains the proliferation of European literature about the Indians and
their cannibalism, namely that cannibalism became a means whereby Europeans could justify
their enslavement of the Indians. However, to say that the practice of cannibalism was simply
used as justification for the enslavement of the Indians would be a grievous understatement,
because cannibalism represented so much more to the Europeans. What was noted down
1 The first part of this title is derived from an account written by Simone dal Verde. I wish to acknowledge
Magdalena Sanchez for providing me with the opportunity to explore this topic, and Brian Matthew Jordan for his
editorial guidance.
2 Dario Fo, Johan Padan and the Discovery of the Americas, (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 28.