Thu 14 Feb 2008
Setting aside entirely the question of murder or wrongful death as a food source, why is cannibalism per se so reviled? Are there known human cultures where it was not so? Are there animal species that don’t follow this intraculinary taboo?
Posted by Josh Millard8 answers so far!
More importantly, in the immortal words of Calvin, “Should cannibalism be cause for leniency in murder since it’s less wasteful?”
I remember hearing somewhere that eating people was poisonous. Maybe it was just mum trying to scare me from becoming one.
I’d guess certain bits would be poisonous, but we don’t just sink our teeth into food animals without some cleaning and prep either, so I don’t reckon that’s the limiting factor.
Cannibalism is one of the most vilified of actions. I can only assume it’s because people (particularly those from cultures who have very specific beliefs about how they want their remains to be handled) might not like the idea of the vessel they once inhabited being used in the same way as a slaughterhouse animal.
Then there is the other side, which isn’t so much a fear of being used as food, as being /hunted/ as food. When you look at modern depictions of cannibals, generally they are serial killers or apocalyptic savages who treat other humans as nothing more than a potential meal.
The idea that we could go from the ‘important’ lives that we inhabit everyday, to running from someone’s efforts to turn you into lunch could be pretty terrifying, if it was a real threat.
Specifically, eating a human brain can be a bad idea. Don’t mess with prions, man.
More on cannibal history here.
This one gives definitions of the various forms of cannibalism and is an easier read, with a bibliography at the end.
I suspect the revulsion could be from people not wishing to believe their loved one is dead or feeling the body has to be preserved for the Resurrection but I don’t really know.
I imagine that, like the incest taboo, the cannibalism taboo is at least partly related to the practice being bad for the species as a whole — especially among mammals, who can’t be replaced as readily as simpler animals. Aside from the brain-eating issues, it just doesn’t seem wise for carnivorous predators to start eating their own dead because once people develop a taste for people, that inevitably will lead to killing one another for food.
Many cultures in New Guinea have ritualistic cannibalism, partly due to protein starvation (very few domestic animals, grains are all protein-poor), and partly just due to being fucking crazy killing machines.
Cannibalism is probably reviled because disease is so easily communicated (see Marie Mon Dieu’s link on prions [the cause of Mad Cow Disease, for one… which uses cow cannibalism as a vector]).
Mary Roach’s book Stiff has a whole chapter on the subject of human cannibalism, if you’re interested in more facts. She goes over where the taboo comes from, and in what circumstances in various cultures the practice is considered to be ok. The book in general is pretty fascinating, too.