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Columbus and Other Cannibals: The Wetiko Disease of Exploitation, Imperialism, and Terrorism
by
Celebrated American Indian thinker Jack D. Forbes’s Columbus and Other Cannibals was one of the founding texts of the anticivilization movement when it was first published in 1978. His history of terrorism, genocide, and ecocide told from a Native American point of view has inspired America’s most influential activists for decades. Frighteningly, his radical critique of th
...more
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Paperback, 258 pages
Published
November 4th 2008
by Seven Stories Press
(first published 1979)
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Start your review of Columbus and Other Cannibals: The Wetiko Disease of Exploitation, Imperialism, and Terrorism
UPDATE:
As I have been listening to speeches by native Americans (a propos the polemic Dakota pipeline) this book is timely. From these speeches I took some clarifying (state-of-things) phrases: "we are the majority" (reds and blacks); "([ongoing] concentration camps for Indians"; and the "Catholic Church" should review the "doctrine of discovery".
Inflamed speeches, I would say, with the word "WETIKO".
Oh, one of the speakers said Khadafy is "still alive". WOW.
2nd November 2016
(Jack D. Forbe ...more
As I have been listening to speeches by native Americans (a propos the polemic Dakota pipeline) this book is timely. From these speeches I took some clarifying (state-of-things) phrases: "we are the majority" (reds and blacks); "([ongoing] concentration camps for Indians"; and the "Catholic Church" should review the "doctrine of discovery".
Inflamed speeches, I would say, with the word "WETIKO".
Oh, one of the speakers said Khadafy is "still alive". WOW.
2nd November 2016
(Jack D. Forbe ...more
Dec 17, 2013
ᎤᎶᎩᎳ
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Native American activists, college students, everyone, corporate leaders, political leaders
Shelves:
native-authors
Let me just begin this by saying, EVERYONE MUST READ THIS BOOK, ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN DECOLONIZATION AND INDIGENOUS SOCIAL ISSUES!
This book should be required reading in high school. This book should be required reading for life. Not only does he lay out the Native American paradigm of frustration and oppression so clearly, he gives you examples of it going back to great Native American heroes.
The book presents you with a thesis that the current status quo for today’s dog-eat-dog w ...more
This book should be required reading in high school. This book should be required reading for life. Not only does he lay out the Native American paradigm of frustration and oppression so clearly, he gives you examples of it going back to great Native American heroes.
The book presents you with a thesis that the current status quo for today’s dog-eat-dog w ...more
Makes some compelling points about the prevailing sickness of humankind, and how it is spread and enforced by societies already rife with it. The several chapters near the end are particularly compelling, as they deal with what the author sees as a path forward. Ends with a beautiful poem.
Oct 23, 2007
David
rated it
liked it
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Anyone who wants to save the world
Shelves:
set-down
I will not finish this book this time. It reads kind of like a manifesto. But it reads fairly easy, and it's short, so if you want to remind yourself what's wrong with people, go ahead and read it. But I can sum up what I gathered from it:
Western civilization has grown and prospered entirely by exploiting other human beings. That sucks. It's like a disease - it affects people of all levels of wealth.
Indigenous people aren't like this.
I would recommend Ishmael by Daniel Quinn if you like this bo ...more
Western civilization has grown and prospered entirely by exploiting other human beings. That sucks. It's like a disease - it affects people of all levels of wealth.
Indigenous people aren't like this.
I would recommend Ishmael by Daniel Quinn if you like this bo ...more
I love the thesis of this book, that modern civilization represents a sick psychosis that infects all of its victims with a greed for power and domination. It's an important point and I agree with it wholeheartedly. An especially poignant aspect of this "illness" is that it infects even the people that it destroys (the poor or otherwise downtrodden), making them into wetiko-wannabes who jump at the first chance to oppress their weaker neighbor, rather than uniting with a common spirit of the exp
...more
Wetiko is a disease of aggression against living things. Killing your future, killing your planet, is the mark of a cannibal. Modern education has little to do with ethics, with stopping the murder of the planet. Natives Americans were taught that all things alive come from the same parent. And so, plants, animals and trees killed are thanked, or asked for permission; respect is behind the relationship. You can’t intentionally be an asshole and then get forgiven fast by a man dressed up in women
...more
Five stars because I'm not sure any other book has altered my thinking about so much in the last year. His description of Wetiko Disease -- a disease of greed and exploitation that our society (and most of the world) has been infected with for centuries -- has hooked lots of other new thinking. It's given me language to dive into other aspects of history.
Too preachy! I tried to get through this as the subject is fascinating, but the author spends most of this time standing on a soapbox and complaining instead of proving information about the Native American beliefs.
I liked much of what Mr. Forbes had to say, although there were some points I disagreed upon
Awesome book. The insanity of ecocide, war, imperialism, colonialism, patriarchy and greed finally makes sense to me. The true gem of this book is the last two chapters.
A very coherent and well researched thesis. While I found myself disagreeing with the somewhat rosey representation of nature/anti civilisation I also have to admit that a good 95% of what Forbes puts forward in Columbus and Other Cannibals is worth its weight in gold.
Forbes, toward the end of the book, puts forward that there is nothing sinister or evil about nature on our planet, which dismisses by omission human botflies, malaria, jiggers which burrow into the feet of children and grow under ...more
Forbes, toward the end of the book, puts forward that there is nothing sinister or evil about nature on our planet, which dismisses by omission human botflies, malaria, jiggers which burrow into the feet of children and grow under ...more
Jack D. Forbes asserts a premise that the wetiko disease (cannibalism) is defined as “the violent consuming of another’s life” and is a disease that is spreading- has been spreading for centuries. He traces the disease as an epidemiologist would- first outlining the symptoms, the rate of spread, and the destruction caused by the disease. He believes that this disease is inherent to colonial/imperialist/European/Christian societies and that they infect whomever they come in contact with.
The 11 s ...more
The 11 s ...more
Very interesting and informative. Brings up an uncomfortable topic for many and highlights things that we ignore because they make part of our day to day wétiko life.
As a Latin American person I did not understand the use of italics for certain words, the lack of “ñ” and the apparently random use of accents for most if not all words. I would’ve also loved for the author to highlight that many Latin American native people, prefer the term Andean over Indian because of the proximity to the Andes ...more
As a Latin American person I did not understand the use of italics for certain words, the lack of “ñ” and the apparently random use of accents for most if not all words. I would’ve also loved for the author to highlight that many Latin American native people, prefer the term Andean over Indian because of the proximity to the Andes ...more
Interesting native American perspective on the cannibalistic nature of European capitalism. Repetitive, so it needed an editor, and cites Castañeda a bit too often. This ties in nicely with Loaded's message about American gun culture: It's all about killing natives to facilitate stealing their possessions, while keeping white males in charge.
Excellent read
I loved this book. Although, I felt that despite its work towards feminist discourse, it did have moments when stereotypical gender roles seemed to be applied to concepts like a human's tendency towards violence.
I loved this book. Although, I felt that despite its work towards feminist discourse, it did have moments when stereotypical gender roles seemed to be applied to concepts like a human's tendency towards violence.
I read this back in 2017 and it was part of my introduction to the term Wetiko. This is a crucial book in helping to gain knowledge on the criminal side of humans and how the Americas were developed.
Aug 21, 2020
Jeff Hudson
added it
So much here to think about. This is a book I will come back to often - helps me think about my school's overarching question: Whose knowledge counts? and why it is so important that the answers reflect diverse ways of knowing and inquiring.
8sideways out of 5 stars, circles, all of IT.
wonderful description of the difference between European imperialist worldview and spirituality, and those of the Native American cultures they devastated.
[review originally written for Razorcake magazine]
An early text that inspired the start of the anti-civilization movement, this short book first published in 1978 lays out Jack Forbes' philosophy of what he calls the wétiko, or cannibal, psychosis. Wétiko is a Cree term referring to a cannibal, or 'an evil person or spirit who terrorizes other creatures by means of terrible evil acts, including cannibalism.' Forbes, a professor emeritus and former chair of Native American Studies at University o ...more
An early text that inspired the start of the anti-civilization movement, this short book first published in 1978 lays out Jack Forbes' philosophy of what he calls the wétiko, or cannibal, psychosis. Wétiko is a Cree term referring to a cannibal, or 'an evil person or spirit who terrorizes other creatures by means of terrible evil acts, including cannibalism.' Forbes, a professor emeritus and former chair of Native American Studies at University o ...more
Written by Native American thinker Jack Forbes, Columbus and other Cannibals is a short and straightforward expression of the idea, familiar to me from Derrick Jensen's writings, that civilized cultures are inherently mentally ill. Forbes calls this illness the "Wetiko" psychosis and attributes to it all the kinds of "cannibalism" prevalent in our culture. Cannibalism, briefly defined, is any kind of literal or metaphorical consumption of the life of another to gain their energy, etc. This canni
...more
This book has a very powerful point to make, but the author's writing simply failed to convey to me the gravity intended. Maybe this is because he simply has the writing skills of an eighth-grader, or maybe his background in native american folklore has tinged his own style with that simplistic mythological assuredness. As he was a long-time professor of Native American Studies at UC Davis, my optimistic assumption is the latter, and I have developed a respect for mythological traditions outside
...more
While I agree with Forbes' main thesis (the one in which he argues that capitalism/imperialism are damaging our world and lifestlyes and that atrocities were committed during the european conquest of the 'uncivilized' world), his manner of writing is very redundant and his arguments start losing their poignancy when he compares every single regime he doesn't agree with to the Nazi Germany, or when he says that "the conquest of space is just an excuse to go lay waste to all of existence".
He does ...more
He does ...more
Jan 20, 2016
Ralphe Wiggins
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
historical,
native-american
This book explained a conundrum that has been bothering me for years. Why are indigenous people treated so badly around the earth. The author explains it in terms of a disease, wetiko, that can be summarized as 'more, more, more.' He does a great job explaining how things are and how they got this way. My impression after finishing the book is that there is little hope of escape from the contagion barring a planetary reset.
Feb 22, 2010
Clayne
rated it
it was amazing
Recommends it for:
anyone who'll read it.
Shelves:
anti-civilization
This book is written simplistically and beautifully. Forbes caught onto a lot of the tendencies of the dominant culture, and I found myself taking in new information despite the general ideas being familiar with me. The Wetiko metaphor is extremely effective, to the point that I believe I'll use it in reference.
An interesting account of how civilization took hold in North America. I learned alot from this text and found alot of the brutality very emotive and well written. I was disappointed by the pacifist ideology later in the book and also found some parts to be almost sexist or less respectful towards women and people who define as other genders.
Jun 23, 2009
Kyle Boggs
added it
I just picked this up at a fundraiser for my local infoshop. Support infoshops! This is a $15 and they gave it to me for $11.
This book is amazing so far.
This book is amazing so far.
If you don't know, you'd better ask someone like Jack.
Oct 22, 2009
Cáitlín
added it
Professor Forbes book just might be the most important book you will ever read. If you want to understand how and why our world is on the brink of destruction, this book is for you.
This will rustle your jimmies in a good way.
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