Date: Wed, 18 Mar 2009 19:27:58 -0700 (PDT) From: Mervyn Lobo <[email protected]>
Here is a sentence I had previously posted: "Manoel Antonio's fate?? His body and limbs were cut into pieces and distributed to the local witch doctors." The reply to my sentence was an amazing; "Mervyn says General Gouveia ended up as the main course at dinner for a bunch of witch doctors." For those of you without weak bellies, here is how the witch doctor business works. A polished skull displayed prominently near the front door does not command as much awe as a barely noticeable skull, in a smokey corner, with all the flesh on. The witch doctor knows this just as well as the person who is consulting with the witch doctor. The witch doctor does not destroy his human artifacts. In fact, the opposite is closer to the truth i.e. the witch doctor will do his utmost to preserve and hand down his human artifacts as he is assured that awe is rewarded. Mario responds: To begin with, those with no sense of humor would miss the fact that I was being flip about what the witch doctors did with Goanese Goonda General Gouveia's body parts, even if we accept Mervyn's account that his body was dismembered and given to witch doctors, and his subsequent account of what witch doctors do with skulls. Secondly, the incident took place in the late 1800s when cannibalism was known to take place in the African hinterland, so my whimsical scenario was just as plausible as Mervyn's acccount of dismemberment. They may even have preserved the guy's skull while stewing the rest of him. Thirdly, though I am still being flip about a Goanese Goonda General whom Selma and Mervyn were worried may be my ancestor, which, if true, may have put them in physical danger, here are some non-peer-reviewed sources about the "witch doctor business", which Mervyn's non-peer-reviewed thesis seems to have overlooked. If they can do this stuff IN RECENT YEARS, imagine what witch doctors may have dined on 135 years ago. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/16/tanzania-humanrights http://www.wwrn.org/article.php?idd=7743&sec=39&con=58 http://www.factnet.org/discus/messages/3/319.html
