Hans Staden
The True Story and Description of a Country of Naked, Ferocious and Anthopophage Savages Situated in the New World America was one of the most published books about the New World during the XVI Century.The story of young Hans Staden’s adventure, his captivity among the tupinamba tribe in ancient Brazil, contains all the elements of the then emerging travel literature that nurtured the old world’s dreams about the exotic.And better yet, it benefits from its own authenticity by stemming from the author’s direct observation.Staden writes about his adventure, but while doing so he also offers first hand ethnographical data of great value.The most attractive, while at the same time most repulsive, for the European readers is, undoubtedly, the description of the blood soaked anthropophagic rituals, that exerted a visible fascination on the civilized audience.The Brazilian Spectacle, depicted in the wood etchings of the 1547 edition, was transformed into full color pictures by the engraver editor Theodore de Bry.The evoking of such a different cultural universe makes one ponder about the paradox of human nature: sometimes the evil savages appear as having more human qualities that the civilized westerners.In this full color edition prof. Jean-Paul Duviols compares the Staden’s first edition wood etchings with the later stylized full color depictions by De Bry, a comparison that highlights the interpretation the western world gave to the base information conveyed by Staden.
