Malaveyoyo
Goodenough (Kalauna) · mortal · Goodenough (Kalauna) traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Malaveyoyo is remembered in Kalauna oral history as a fearsome warrior and cannibal leader of the Lulauvile clan, active in the generations before sustained European contact. Tradition casts him as a tyrant whose greed and violence coincided with a devastating famine: he hoarded and commanded food, terrorised neighbouring hamlets, and consumed the flesh of his victims. His story supplies a charter for the ritual authority of Lulauvile, the guardians of prosperity, whose food magic is held to keep hunger anchored and abundance in place. Michael Young recounts his career as a meditation on the Kalauna equation of leadership with the control of food and the perpetual threat of scarcity.
Domains
- cannibalism
- warfare
- famine food control
Powers
- imposes hunger by hoarding and controlling food
- consumes the flesh of enemies
Sources
- Malaveyoyo is a semi-historical warrior and cannibal leader of the Lulauvile clan of Kalauna whose reign is remembered together with a great famine: Michael W. Young, Fighting with Food: Leadership, Values and Social Control in a Massim Society (Cambridge University Press, 1971) (secondary); Michael W. Young, Magicians of Manumanua (1983) (secondary)