Cannibalism in Yellowjackets
When season 1 of Yellowjackets premiered back in November of 2021, I felt pretty alone trying to convince people that this was a show worth watching. It had an exciting storyline (Lord of the Flies meets Lost), compelling characters (both in their younger and older versions), and a unique exploration of violence from a female perspective. The show also has an important religious component, with several hints at a cannibalistic cult created by the survivors of a plane crash in the remote mountains of Canada around some sort of local spirit/god led by a mysterious antler queen. Slowly but surely, the show has become a cult hit, with a small but passionate audience (including my two older kids). The mystery nature of the show has also spun a lot of interesting recaps, podcasts, and Reddit threads that try to figure out all of the mysteries presented by the show.
I don’t want to do a recap of the show (there are several sites like Vulture or the Heavy Spoilers channel that do a great job with that), but I thought that, as a fan of the series that happens to be a religious scholar, it would be fun to write about some of the religious aspects of the show. In this post, I will start by writing about the most discussed theme of the series: cannibalism.
What’s Wrong with Cannibalism?
I think we can all agree that cannibalism is frowned upon in the modern world. There are no modern societies where cannibalism is practiced (although we still find anomalous exceptions from time to time), and it does not form part of any modern religious ritual as it might have been the case in the past. Nonetheless, there is a well-documented history of cannibalism across many societies throughout history, from Neanderthal culture to Mesoamerican societies, to relatively recent examples in New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Fiji (I visited Fiji in 2006 and cannibalism-related objects were omnipresent tourist souvenirs). Some scholars like William Arens (The Man-Eating Myth) have argued that many accounts of cannibalism were exaggerated or fabricated by European explorers and colonizers to justify their own conquests, and he suggests that cannibalism was often portrayed as a barbaric and savage practice to dehumanize indigenous cultures and justify colonization. While this might be true, we do have enough evidence to suggest that cannibalism did exist and that even in a ritualized way, it has played an important role in several religious traditions, as its centrality in the Christian Eucharist shows (more on that later).
The easy and most common way to categorize cannibalism is as a “primitive,” “savage,” or “barbaric” practice, I mean, who thinks cannibalism is an acceptable practice, right? But limiting ourselves to those explanations, would not allow us to understand why cannibalism has been practiced throughout history in the first place. Already in 1580, the great philosopher Michel de Montaigne argued against the Eurocentric tendency to label these practices as barbaric without attempting to understand them in their cultural context. Montaigne saw the cannibal practices of the Tupinambá (an indigenous tribe from Brazil) not as savage acts but as a valid expression of their beliefs and customs. He criticized the hypocrisy of European societies, pointing out that they too committed acts of violence and cruelty but justified them in different ways. One of Montaigne's key arguments was that moral and cultural values are relative, varying from one society to another. He questioned the notion of absolute moral superiority and emphasized the importance of recognizing and respecting different cultural perspectives. Montaigne's exploration of cannibalism ultimately served as a critique of ethnocentrism and an invitation to appreciate the diversity of human customs and beliefs.
More recently, scholars such as Hans Askenasy (in his book Cannibalism) have made a similar point, by arguing that cannibalism has served a variety of social, cultural, and religious functions in different contexts, including as a form of warfare, a ritual act of sacrifice or communion, and a response to extreme environmental conditions. He also explored the psychological and symbolic dimensions of cannibalism and challenged the common assumption that it is a universally repugnant practice. In terms of its ritual power, for example, Askenasy argued that cannibalism had a symbolic function in certain cultures, representing a way of absorbing the power and qualities of the consumed, and thereby achieving spiritual or social transformation. His book is not trying to justify cannibalism, but it does try to explain it as a complex and diverse cultural practice that has existed and played a role in numerous societies throughout history.
In the specific context of Aztec culture, one of the most well-known and popular examples of cannibalism, Burhenn and Herbert, in their article "Understanding Aztec Cannibalism," provide some interesting historical and cultural context for the Aztec civilization, including the ritualistic consumption of human flesh and the use of human body parts for medicinal purposes. They argue that cannibalism was an integral part of Aztec culture and religion, and was viewed as a way to honor the gods and gain spiritual power. They also challenge the use of terms such as "savage" and "barbaric" to describe Aztec culture, and they argue that cannibalism was a complex cultural practice that cannot be reduced to simplistic Western notions of morality.
Cannibalism and Christianity
While cannibalism might be frowned upon, it seems to escape to a lot of Christians that, what they do during the Eucharist is a form of symbolic cannibalism. The Eucharist is, after all, the consumption of the blood and the body of Christ. Sure, for a lot of people, this might be a symbolic ritual (particularly for Protestants), but that is not the case for Catholics, who have theologically justified that during the Eucharist there is a process of transubstantiation that transforms the bread and the wine into the actual body and blood of Christ, which is then ingested by the believer. If that is not cannibalism, I don’t know what it is…
In her fascinating article Cannibalism and the Eucharist: The Ethics of Eating the Human and the Divine, Lucilla Pan argues that there are significant ethical and theological similarities between the two practices, particularly in their use of symbolic cannibalism as a means of connecting with the divine. Pan argues that the Eucharist, like cannibalism, involves the consumption of a human’s body and blood, but that it is a symbolic act that represents a deep spiritual connection between the believer and God.
Yellowjackets seems to be using cannibalism as a way to explore some of the themes discussed above. On the one hand, cannibalism is presented as a form of social and cultural regression to some sort of primitive state (think of Tom Hanks in Cast Away… if Tom Hanks had crashed with other people and started eating them). On the other hand, cannibalism is explored as a ritual/religious practice that brings the survivors together and allows them to connect with a mysterious spirit.
Cannibalism and “Primitive Culture”
One of the compelling aspects of the show is to see how the group survives in the wilderness. The show here is a little bit Lost, a little bit Cast Away, and a lot of Lord of the Flies. Episode after episode, we see the gradual dissolution of conventional social norms, structures, and morals, including a reversal of gender dynamics, with women being in charge and empowered by the situation in which they find themselves. What would not have been acceptable in the civilized world, now finds a way to be explained out of necessity, but also out of some sort of regression to a primitive state.
Now, I am very much aware that the term “primitive” as in “primitive society,” or “primitive culture” is outdated and problematic. The term has been used in the past to describe societies that are considered less technologically, socially, or culturally advanced than Western societies. However, scholars like Franz Boas, and Claude Lévi-Strauss have exposed this term as widely ethnocentric, colonial, and inaccurate, since it implies a linear progression of human development from "primitive" to "civilized" societies, with the model for “civilized” being mostly Western societies.
It is the traditional and problematic conception of the term “primitive,” though, the one that is used by the show. When the plane crashes in the Canadian wilderness, the group eventually reverts to what is traditionally associated with primitive living: hunting and gathering, violence, the importance of fire, etc. There is a sense of danger, but also of purity to this type of living that the characters slowly embrace (and those who do not will probably die soon). The primitive state resets social norms and structures allowing people to reposition themselves in ways that were not possible in the civilized world. Jackie, who was one of the leaders of the group in the “civilized” world, quickly loses her power when she has to survive in the harsh wilderness. On the other hand, characters like Misty and Lottie rise to the occasion and establish themselves in leadership positions. Misty is insecure and ignored in the civilized world, but finds a sense of purpose in the wilderness. Lottie’s visions back home are treated as a mental illness, while in the wilderness she is a shaman of sorts and, eventually, the Antler Queen, the leader of the cannibalistic ritual cult.
Cannibalism and Religious Ritual
The famous anthropologist and scholar of religion Mary Douglas argued in her book "Purity and Danger," that the act of consuming human flesh can be seen as a powerful ritualistic act of incorporation and transformation. According to Douglas, the ingestion of human flesh symbolizes the assimilation of the qualities and powers associated with the consumed individual, resulting in a spiritual and social communion with the divine. She suggested that cannibalistic rituals serve as a means of reinforcing social order, strengthening communal bonds, and affirming religious beliefs. This is not really far off from how it is depicted in the show. When Shauna eats Jackie’s ear (that was quite a shocking scene), she is clearly literally and symbolically consuming Jackie. She is making Jackie part of her, a way of dealing with her own guilt and sense of loss for how she died, but she is also absorbing Jackie within herself. They are both one now.
Cannibalism is also shown as a form of religious ritual, a religious practice that strengthens the bonds among those who partake in it while alienating those who don’t (like Coach Ben). In this sense, there are interesting connections to the Eucharist, since the act of communion is, as the word says, a communal act, an act that brings people together by ingesting the same body. The consumption of human flesh is also seen as a way to communicate with the spirit realm or the divine. This is not to deny that in the show they eat Jackie’s body because they are starving, which they are, but that when they do, it is depicted as a ritual that brings them and bonds them together, and also as a form of sacrifice to a dark spirit that helps them tap into forces that will allow them to survive and even transcend the plight they find themselves in. We still do not know much about this dark spirit, although we keep hearing from the contemporary versions of the characters that they “brought it back with them.” That’s also an interesting point that I will explore in future posts. The same forces that allowed them to survive in the wilderness, can upset and destroy the main characters in the civilized world.
In 1993, Levi-Strauss wrote that “the concept of cannibalism and its direct or indirect applications belong to all societies,” and that, when examined in all its complexity, “we are all cannibals.” That might be one of the reasons that makes Yellowjackets so compelling. There is something abhorrent but also deeply human about the practice of cannibalism, either in its literal or symbolic form. When the Yellowjackets are eating Jackie in what is clearly presented as a ritual feast, we are horrified, but we cannot take our eyes off the screen.
Very interesting thread - and it makes me want to watch Yellowjackets! I watched The Last of Us this winter and one of many post-apocalyptic communities depicted was a charismatic leader cult that fed the community ‘venison’ that was actually human. The cannibalism seemed to be a comment on the leaders moral failing but I don’t know, it seems that the greater moral failing could be to let the community starve instead.
Another early cultural reference (to me anyway) is in Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land. The Martian culture describes a ritual of the community sharing a meal of the deceased elder as a way of honoring him/her/it, which I think was defended to his human benefactor as being similar to the intent of the Eucharist.
My father died this winter and the Orthodox rabbi who led his funeral (we were not raised Orthodox) explained to my sibs and I how the Jewish rituals around death, preparing the body & burial, presuppose that a portion of the soul remains in the body. This matches up with your description of how historically cannibalism was intended to connect with & subsume qualities of the person being eaten.
I just have to say your field of speciality is really fascinating!