Taboo or Magic Practice? Cannibalism as Identity Marker for Giants and Human Heroes in Medieval Iceland
Cannibalism has been connoted negatively among many Western civilizations throughout history, medieval Iceland included. Icelandic giants were characterized by a diet consisting mainly of horsemeat (banned by the Church) and human flesh (an ancient taboo). But cannibalism was also connoted positivel...
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ftunivbari:oai:ricerca.uniba.it:11586/382913 2023-06-18T03:41:19+02:00 Taboo or Magic Practice? Cannibalism as Identity Marker for Giants and Human Heroes in Medieval Iceland MARASCHI, A Maraschi, A 2020 http://hdl.handle.net/11586/382913 https://doi.org/10.1353/pgn.2020.0056 eng eng volume:37 journal:PARERGON http://hdl.handle.net/11586/382913 doi:10.1353/pgn.2020.0056 - info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2020 ftunivbari https://doi.org/10.1353/pgn.2020.0056 2023-06-07T16:43:41Z Cannibalism has been connoted negatively among many Western civilizations throughout history, medieval Iceland included. Icelandic giants were characterized by a diet consisting mainly of horsemeat (banned by the Church) and human flesh (an ancient taboo). But cannibalism was also connoted positively when it was performed by heroes in accordance with the laws of sympathetic magic: in this case, eating specific parts of the human body would transfer the qualities of the eaten to the eater. The intention of this article is to discuss the role that the human body played as identity marker, and its different connotations depending on who consumed it. Article in Journal/Newspaper Iceland Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro: CINECA IRIS Parergon 37 1 1 25 |
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Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro: CINECA IRIS |
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English |
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- MARASCHI, A Taboo or Magic Practice? Cannibalism as Identity Marker for Giants and Human Heroes in Medieval Iceland |
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Cannibalism has been connoted negatively among many Western civilizations throughout history, medieval Iceland included. Icelandic giants were characterized by a diet consisting mainly of horsemeat (banned by the Church) and human flesh (an ancient taboo). But cannibalism was also connoted positively when it was performed by heroes in accordance with the laws of sympathetic magic: in this case, eating specific parts of the human body would transfer the qualities of the eaten to the eater. The intention of this article is to discuss the role that the human body played as identity marker, and its different connotations depending on who consumed it. |
author2 |
Maraschi, A |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
MARASCHI, A |
author_facet |
MARASCHI, A |
author_sort |
MARASCHI, A |
title |
Taboo or Magic Practice? Cannibalism as Identity Marker for Giants and Human Heroes in Medieval Iceland |
title_short |
Taboo or Magic Practice? Cannibalism as Identity Marker for Giants and Human Heroes in Medieval Iceland |
title_full |
Taboo or Magic Practice? Cannibalism as Identity Marker for Giants and Human Heroes in Medieval Iceland |
title_fullStr |
Taboo or Magic Practice? Cannibalism as Identity Marker for Giants and Human Heroes in Medieval Iceland |
title_full_unstemmed |
Taboo or Magic Practice? Cannibalism as Identity Marker for Giants and Human Heroes in Medieval Iceland |
title_sort |
taboo or magic practice? cannibalism as identity marker for giants and human heroes in medieval iceland |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/11586/382913 https://doi.org/10.1353/pgn.2020.0056 |
genre |
Iceland |
genre_facet |
Iceland |
op_relation |
volume:37 journal:PARERGON http://hdl.handle.net/11586/382913 doi:10.1353/pgn.2020.0056 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1353/pgn.2020.0056 |
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Parergon |
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37 |
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25 |
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1769006839786110976 |