Now Those Who Oppose Cannibalism Are Racists

A study of Maori cannibalism by historian Paul Moon has prompted a racism complaint to the Human Rights Commission of New Zealand. Sent anonymously to Dr Moon, the complaint said This Horrid Practice "describes the whole of Maori society as violent and dangerous. This is a clearly racist view claiming a whole ethnic group has these traits". The commission said books and publications were covered by the Human Rights Act, however there was a high threshold that had to be met to prevent unwarranted incursion into the right to freedom of expression.

Released in August, the book posits that consuming vanquished enemies' mana had little to do with the underlying reason for Maori cannibalism. Instead cannibalism, in pre-colonial times, was simply about "rage and humiliation". Dr Moon said he was disappointed that a complaint had been made: "I spent several years researching this book, using an enormous body of documentation, and I am not about to denounce it just because it upsets a few people."

Good on him.

The issue here seems to be that Dr. Moon dared to portray Maori cannibals in a negative light. Because we should be sensitive to their "culture", you see. We should take their "cross-cultural context" into account. Such morally relativistic rubbish is getting tiresome. All cultures are not the same. I know that in the liberal mind white Western culture is evil while all others are the same, but that's not how it works. A society that eats each other is a barbaric one, and no amount of explaining will change that. And the fact that they are black Maoris doesn't exempt them from being barbaric. Their culture may simply be worse than ours. End of story.