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 .
Civilized people have to resort to cannibalism from time to time, as a mean of survival, under desperate circumstances. The story of the is one of the more tragic incidents in American frontier history. A group of about 90 immigrants led by George Donner was caught in a blinding snowstorm high in the Sierra Nevada range of California in October 1846. Survivors, who made their way out early in 1847, had been forced to resort to eating the flesh of their dead colleagues to survive.
Other notorious cases include the retreat of Napoleon's troops from Moscow in 1812, the survivors of the sinking of the frigate Medusse (they drifted in a raft for many days)
In 1816, the boiling and eating of a Chinese officer sent to "pacify" the inhabitants of a region of Kwangsi (China) in 1901.
The Sumatran punishment of convicts in the 19th century (cannibalism was part of the judicial process of punishing malefactors),
The sacrifice and consumption of a 12 year-old girl as part of a ceremony in Haiti (1912).
And the one of Fritz Haarman, the "Hanover Vampire," who in 1924 Germany was convicted of killing at least 27 boys, making sausage out of their flesh, eating them and also selling it to unsuspecting people for human consumption.
One of the most horrible cases of cannibalism is undoubtedly the one of Alexander "Sawney" Bean, whom in the time of Scotland's King James VI (later King James I of England) led his incestuous descendants in a secretive robbers' band consisted of himself, his wife, 8 sons, 6 daughters, 18 grand-sons, and 14 grand-daughters. They lived in a cave in the woods, and alternated to robbing passers-by to support themselves. Not to get caught, they made certain that all of their victims were in no position to tell the tale, by killing each and everyone of them. To feed his ever-growing family, Alexander provided them with the only plentiful source of food available, human flesh. They would mutilate the bodies, eating some and pickling the rest. Over the years, they are estimated to have killed and eaten close to 1000 people, until getting caught and executed. Sawney and all of the adult males of his family were dismembered and allowed to bleed to death, while the women and children were burned at the stake.
While researching the latest stories of cannibalism I found this article:
“13:46 2001-04-18
ACT OF CANNIBALISM SHOCKS USA
Another case of cannibalism is reported from the USA, in which a 21-year-old man is accused of having killed three people this month. The motive: cannibalism.
The young man in question is reported to have killed three other young men of 25, 22 and 16 years of age respectively. The accused shot the first victim and stabbed the other two and then cut off their limbs. Curiously, the victims were killed at two locations, the first and last in Kansas City, State of Kansas and the second in Kansas City, Missouri.
The accused was an admirer of Jeffrey Dahmer, who in 1991 killed 17 young men, mutilated and violated the bodies and ate them.
Such savagery belongs to the realms of psychiatry but as a parting thought, could it not be that films such as Hannibal Lecter could not send an unstable mind over the edge into insanity? How much influence has television in today’s world of increasing violence, when it is a proven statistic that the average youngster has seen no less than 100,000 scenes of extreme violence before reaching the age of 12?
If this is how we use this medium today, giving the younger populations access to sophisticated treatments of violent scenes at an impressionable age, maybe it would be better for the authorities to alter the laws because what we see today is the tip of the iceberg.
TIMOFEI BYELO,
PRAVDA.RU”
This article states one of the latest cases of cannibalism which is dated just last year!!!!!
Surely what separates man from animal is her conscience therefore the idea of cannibalism in our society is totally unacceptable however if I found myself stranded in a situation such as “The Donner party” (mentioned above) I could imagine myself being a cannibal to survive.
I can also appreciate the fact that cannibalism forms a very important spiritual part of a few remote societies. What rights have we to interfere with their cultural heritage.
After my research I cannot help wondering what human flesh tastes like!!