Katie Zacharia’s resurfaced post on the US president’s social media platform regarding pediphile cannibals (evidently a response to the movie Bones And All) brings to mind (at least the cannibal part) a curious bit of Colombian history.
The Spanish chronicler and soldier Pedro Cieza de León described Indigenous peoples and their customs in the region of Antioquia, Colombia in his book Crónica del Perú the first part of which was published in 1553. Here is an excerpt regarding the Paucura. They occupied the western slope of the Central Cordillera and river valley roughly half way between modern day Manizales and Medellin. From chapter XX written sometime in the 1540s:
“Close to the house of the principal chief, whose name was Pimana, there was a wooden idol, the size of a tall man. Its face was turned towards the rising sun, and its arms were spread out. Every Tuesday the Indians sacrificed to the devil in this province of Paucura, and the same was done in that of Arma, according to what the Indians told us; but I was unable to learn whether the victims were their own countrymen, or prisoners taken in war. Among the houses of the chiefs they have stout canes planted in a circle so as to form a cage, from which those who are put in cannot possibly escape. The captives taken in war are put into this cage and very well fed, and when they are fat, they are taken out on days of festivity, killed with great cruelty, and eaten. I saw several of these cages, or prisons, in the province of Arma. It is worthy of note, that when they wish to kill any of these unfortunates, with the intention of eating them, they make them kneel down and bow their heads, and then give them a blow on the back of the neck with such effect that they never speak again. I have seen what I describe, and the victim never speaks, even to ask for mercy; nay, some even laugh when they are killed, which is a very marvellous thing, but it proceeds more from bestiality than from courage. The heads of those who are eaten are stuck on the points of the canes”
The Spanish chronicler and soldier Pedro Cieza de León described Indigenous peoples and their customs in the region of Antioquia, Colombia in his book Crónica del Perú the first part of which was published in 1553. Here is an excerpt regarding the Paucura. They occupied the western slope of the Central Cordillera and river valley roughly half way between modern day Manizales and Medellin. From chapter XX written sometime in the 1540s:
“Close to the house of the principal chief, whose name was Pimana, there was a wooden idol, the size of a tall man. Its face was turned towards the rising sun, and its arms were spread out. Every Tuesday the Indians sacrificed to the devil in this province of Paucura, and the same was done in that of Arma, according to what the Indians told us; but I was unable to learn whether the victims were their own countrymen, or prisoners taken in war. Among the houses of the chiefs they have stout canes planted in a circle so as to form a cage, from which those who are put in cannot possibly escape. The captives taken in war are put into this cage and very well fed, and when they are fat, they are taken out on days of festivity, killed with great cruelty, and eaten. I saw several of these cages, or prisons, in the province of Arma. It is worthy of note, that when they wish to kill any of these unfortunates, with the intention of eating them, they make them kneel down and bow their heads, and then give them a blow on the back of the neck with such effect that they never speak again. I have seen what I describe, and the victim never speaks, even to ask for mercy; nay, some even laugh when they are killed, which is a very marvellous thing, but it proceeds more from bestiality than from courage. The heads of those who are eaten are stuck on the points of the canes”
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