ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author begins Cannibal Culture with the story of the two Aztec god-brothers, Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl, as a way of exemplifying a problem of representation and power. The Aztecs recognized that vision is linked to an imperial moment and that the act of gazing into a mirror lies at the root of the triumph of human sacrifice and militarism. Even at the heart of Western culture there have always been some signs of unease with the imperial capture of the spirit world, even if this disquiet has been construed ambivalently. Cannibal stories are a way of seeing the imperial exemplar for what it is. The beautiful dead Asian women, the Native clan key chains, the vast numbers of museums and galleries stuffed with booty, are all food for the monster, which continues to grow and grow and becomes hungrier with each meal.
