Human cannibalism
Human cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh or internal organs of other human beings. A person who practices cannibalism is called a cannibal. The meaning of "cannibalism" has been extended into zoology to describe animals consuming parts of individuals of the same species as food.
Both anatomically modern humans and Neanderthals practised cannibalism to some extent in the Pleistocene,[1][2][3][4] and Neanderthals may have been eaten by modern humans as the latter spread into Europe.[5] Cannibalism was occasionally practised in Egypt during ancient and Roman times, as well as later during severe famines.[6][7]
The Island Caribs of the Lesser Antilles, whose name is the origin of the word cannibal, acquired a long-standing reputation as eaters of human flesh, reconfirmed when their legends were recorded in the 17th century.[8] Some controversy exists over the accuracy of these legends and the prevalence of actual cannibalism in the culture.
Cannibalism has been well documented in much of the world, including Fiji (once nicknamed the "Cannibal Isles"),[9] the Amazon Basin, the Congo, and the Māori people of New Zealand.[10] Cannibalism was also practised in New Guinea and in parts of the Solomon Islands, and human flesh was sold at markets in some parts of Melanesia[11] and of the Congo Basin.[12][13] A form of cannibalism popular in early modern Europe was the consumption of body parts or blood for medical purposes. Reaching its height during the 17th century, this practice continued in some cases into the second half of the 19th century.[14]
Cannibalism has occasionally been practised as a last resort by people suffering from famine. Well-known examples include the ill-fated Donner Party (1846–1847) and the crash of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 (1972), after which the survivors ate the bodies of the dead. Additionally, there are cases of people engaging in cannibalism for sexual pleasure, such as Albert Fish, Issei Sagawa, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Armin Meiwes. Cannibalism has been both practised and fiercely condemned in recent several wars, especially in Liberia[15] and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.[16] It was still practised in Papua New Guinea as of 2012, for cultural reasons.[17][18]
Cannibalism has been said to test the bounds of cultural relativism because it challenges anthropologists "to define what is or is not beyond the pale of acceptable human behavior".[19] A few scholars argue that no firm evidence exists that cannibalism has ever been a socially acceptable practice anywhere in the world,[20] but such views have been largely rejected as irreconcilable with the actual evidence.[21][22]
Etymology
The word "cannibal" is derived from Spanish caníbal or caríbal, originally used as a name for the Caribs, a people from the West Indies said to have eaten human flesh.[23] The older term anthropophagy, meaning "eating humans", is also used for human cannibalism.[24]
Body parts and culinary practices
Nutritional value of the human body
Archaeologist James Cole investigated the nutritional value of the human body and found it to be similar to that of animals of similar size.[90]
He notes that, according to ethnographic and archaeological records, nearly all edible parts of humans were sometimes eaten – not only skeletal muscle tissue ("flesh" or "meat" in a narrow sense), but also "lungs, liver, brain, heart, nervous tissue, bone marrow, genitalia and skin", as well as kidneys.[91] For a typical adult man, the combined nutritional value of all these edible parts is about 126,000 kilocalories (kcal).[92] The nutritional value of women and younger individuals is lower because of their lower body weight – for example, around 86% of a male adult for an adult woman and 30% for a boy aged around 5 or 6.[92][93]
As the daily energy need of an adult man is about 2,400 kilocalories, a dead male body could thus have feed a group of 25 men for a bit more than two days, provided they ate nothing but the human flesh alone – longer if it was part of a mixed diet.[94] The nutritional value of the human body is thus not insubstantial, though Cole notes that for prehistoric hunters, large megafauna such as mammoths, rhinoceros, and bisons would have been an even better deal as long as they were available and could be caught, because of their much higher body weight.[95]
Hearts and livers
Cases of people eating human livers and hearts, especially of enemies, have been reported from across the world. After the Battle of Uhud (625), Hind bint Utba ate (or at least attempted to) the liver of Hamza ibn Abd al-Muttalib, an uncle of Muhammad. At that time, the liver was considered "the seat of life".[96] French Catholics ate livers and hearts of Huguenots at the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in 1572, in some cases also offering them for sale.[97][98]
Medical aspects
A well-known case of mortuary cannibalism is that of the Fore tribe in New Guinea, which resulted in the spread of the prion disease kuru.[156] Although the Fore's mortuary cannibalism was well-documented, the practice had ceased before the cause of the disease was recognized. However, some scholars argue that although post-mortem dismemberment was the practice during funeral rites, cannibalism was not.[157] Marvin Harris theorizes that it happened during a famine period coincident with the arrival of Europeans and was rationalized as a religious rite.
In 2003, a publication in Science received a large amount of press attention when it suggested that early humans may have practised extensive cannibalism.[158][159] According to this research, genetic markers commonly found in modern humans worldwide suggest that today many people carry a gene that evolved as protection against the brain diseases that can be spread by consuming human brain tissue.[160] A 2006 reanalysis of the data questioned this hypothesis,[161] because it claimed to have found a data collection bias, which led to an erroneous conclusion.[162] This claimed bias came from incidents of cannibalism used in the analysis not being due to local cultures, but having been carried out by explorers, stranded seafarers or escaped convicts.[163] The original authors published a subsequent paper in 2008 defending their conclusions.[164]