Re: Flesh Eating Names

Auleri have various taboo words for certain animals: thus hartu "bear" or
engu "horse" are only used of the living animals in a general nomenclative
sense. If one is addressing (say) a bear prior to killing it as Auleri
beliefs insist, this term would not be used, instead some honorific such as
eiro hanin (lit "treasured man-being") since on the animal's death its soul
would be expected to be reborn into the body of the thing that took it away,
and thus to call it a man would be to acknowledge its role in that process.
However, since the Auleri only ever eat meat as a rare - no pun intended! -
ritual act (including ritual cannibalism of revered people, which is
considered a huge honour, similar to the way the Hawaiians thought of
Captain Cook) then provided the above etiquette has been observed the name
of the animal (or personage) can, and indeed must in the case of people, be
used again, possibly with the explanatory muin "food" thus muin hartu "bear
meat"
Mike
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