Cannibalism, also known as anthropophagi.

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Cannibalism

Also known as anthropophagi. The eating of human flesh by humans. The eating of its own kind. The word itself comes from the Arawakan language name for the Carib Indians of the West Indies (Arawakan was a major South American Indian language group). The Caribs were well known for their practice of cannibalism. The word cannibalism is also used in a zoological sense to refer to the eating of any animal species by another member of the same species. Wolves, for instance, will devour each other when desperately hungry.

Among humans cannibalism has been widespread in prehistoric and primitive societies on all continents. It is still believed to be practiced in remote areas of the island of New Guinea. It existed until recently in parts of West and Central Africa, Sumatra, Melanesia, and Polynesia; among various Indian tribes of North and South America; and among the aborigines of Australia and the Maoris of New Zealand.

The reasons for cannibalism have varied. Sometimes there was simply limited food. Some groups liked the taste of human flesh. But mostly the reasons had to do with revenge or punishment for crimes, ceremony and ritual, or magic.

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 Some victorious tribes ate their dead enemies. In some rituals the deceased body was eaten by relatives, as a manner of reverence for their ancestors, or in a pious desire for the soul of the dead to be reborn in the body of the consumer. This is called endocannibalism. In primitive rites that involved human sacrifice, parts of the body were often eaten. Headhunters, for example, often consumed certain parts of a body to gain powers of the dead person. Also, in Mexico, men representing the gods were periodically sacrificed and eaten to identify the participant with the .

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