Hans Staden (c. 1525 in Homberg (Efze) — c. 1579 Wolfhagen or Korbach) was a German soldier and mariner who voyaged to South America. On one voyage, he was captured by the Tupinambá people of Brazil whom he claimed practiced cannibalism. He wrote a widely read book describing his experiences.
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Staden had received a good education and was in moderate circumstances when desire for travel led him to enlist in 1547 on a ship that was bound for Brazil. He returned from this first trip on 8 October 1548, and, going to Seville, enlisted for a second trip as a volunteer in an expedition for Río de la Plata which sailed in March 1549. On reaching the mouth of the river, two ships sank in a storm. After vainly trying to build a barque, part of the shipwrecked crew set out overland for Asuncion. The rest of the crew, including Staden, sailed upon the third vessel for the island of São Vicente, but were also wrecked. Staden, with a few survivors, reached the continent in 1552.[1]
A few weeks later, while engaged in a hunting expedition, Staden was captured by a party belonging to the Tupinambá people of Brazil. They carried him to their village (the precedessor of today's Ubatuba) where he claimed he was to be devoured at the next festivity. He allegedly won the friendship of a powerful chief, whom he cured of a disease, and his life was spared. The Portuguese tried several times to negotiate for Staden's ransom, but the Indians declined all overtures. At last he made his escape on a French ship, and on 22 February 1555, arrived at Honfleur, in Normandy, and from there went immediately to his native city.[1][2]
After his return to Europe, the support of Dr. Johann Dryander in Marburg enabled Staden to publish an account of his captivity, entitled Warhaftige Historia und beschreibung eyner Landtschafft der Wilden Nacketen, Grimmigen Menschfresser-Leuthen in der Newenwelt America gelegen (True Story and Description of a Country of Wild, Naked, Grim, Man-eating People in the New World, America) (1557).
The Warhaftige Historia provided detailed descriptions of Tupinambá life and customs, illustrated by woodcuts.
The book became an international bestseller and was translated into Latin and many other European languages, reaching a total of 76 editions. Theodor de Bry produced illustrative engravings of Staden's story for his book Grand Voyages to America (1593), volume 3.[3]
The aspect of the book that received the most attention, from the time of publication up to the present, was cannibalism. Staden claimed that the Tupinambá were cannibals, gave vivid eyewitness accounts of the killing, preparing and eating of war captives. According to one anecdote, the Indians at one point gave him a delicious soup; after finishing his dinner, he found in the bottom of the cauldron some small skulls, which he later found out to be those of the children in his choir.
Some scholars have challenged the book's reliability, arguing that Staden invented its sensational accounts of cannibalism.[4] Others defend the book as an important and reliable ethnohistorical source.[5]