Forensic Anthropology
Cannibalism Research Report
Cannibalism has long been a topic of interest to humans throughout history. There have been countless reports and evidences presented that point to cannibalism occurring since the dawn of man. It simply seems as if, if put if a very dire situation, people would turn to other people as a source of sustenance. Fortunately, not many people have had to take such great lengths as this to survive; some people would say they would rather die than eat the flesh of a fellow human being. This shows a great taboo in cannibalism. Up until the past couple hundred years, cannibalism was viewed as a relatively normal happening. People commonly used to chow down on their fellow man for both survival and ritualistic purposes. Only recently has cannibalism taken on a taboo status and only become synonymous with primitive tribes, psychotic killers, and as last a ditch effort to survive very severe situations.
Purposes of cannibalism can be divided into two basic subcategories. The first type of cannibalism is survival cannibalism in which the victim is consumed for nutritional values. This is the most easily identifiable case and is what really humanizes cannibalism. This is the instance of cannibalism in which common people are thrown into bad situations and have a very strong will to live. It is interesting to see sane people lose their mind and do the unthinkable to survive. No one really knows what they would do in the situation, and that is what makes the human mind so unpredictable. Some people say that if placed in a situation where cannibalism is the only viable option for survival, they would not eat anyone, but there is really no real way to tell. The nicest people can turn ruthless ...
... middle of paper ...
...of the action, then their culture should be preserved, as humanity needs the diversity of cultures to thrive. Despite the mental and biological tolls that cannibalism takes on humans, people still ignore the consequences and take part in it. Then, every once in a while, the world encounters a westernized person who decides to go against cultural norms (often illegally) and cannibalize someone. This is once again where cannibalism can go from an interesting cultural phenomenon to a sickening fantasy, and the location in which the line can be boldly drawn. That being said, while cannibalism is strictly discouraged in almost all societies now, it is a part of human history and was one of the primitive mediums of intimidation and survival. The times have changed, but the motives of people have not and they still seek to conquer others, just through different tactics.
As they look for food, they meet or see other humans. Some of these humans are not the same as the man and the boy. They are, however, cannibals. The need for food drove them to an unspeakable act of cannibalism. The other person they see is a normal human trying to survive. The very altruistic boy wants to help the others and share his own food. Unfortunately, the man knows that the more people they have in their group, the less amount of food they will have and the possibility of a shorten life span (Bo 32).
Every society has it’s own cultural traditions and norms. Many of the traditions are passed down from generation to generation for so long that they become the norms of the culture. The Wari’ are no different than anyone else in that their traditions become cultural norms. In Consuming Grief: Compassionate Cannibalism in an Amazonian Society, Beth A. Conklin travels to the Wari’ people in order to study illness and death from both before and after they had foreign contact. While there she finds herself going into depth on the lifestyle of the Wari’ people and how their norm of cannibalism came about and how it was phased out by the outside world.
The Donner Party experienced harsh measures and had to come to extremely important decisions regarding survival. Many still deny the possibility that the party resorted to cannibalism in spite of a serious lack of proof and virtually no records of the events stating otherwise. On the other hand, many just “want to tell the story of their life over those final months, not just of cannibalism. [They] wasn’t to restore the humanity to the members of that party – and to their descendants” (Bailey, 1). Despite such controversy, the party has ultimately been linked to cannibalism, and based on the events, that is most obviously what occurred.
In the events preceding the selected passage of Des Cannibales, Montaigne gives several situations of events in which man’s honour has been tested and proven, citing the example of the Hungarian’s merciful attitude towards their captured enemies, whom they released unharmed after having defeated them in battle. The classical reference to Seneca with the quote, “Si succiderit, de genu pugnat” foreshadows the passage in question, in which the captured Brazilians refuse to surrender or feel fear, but rather taunt their captors and remain defiant until their last breath. The passage then develops into an observation of the polygamous culture of the New World, which Montaigne praises and later goes onto defend as natural, arguing that it was customary in Biblical times and therefore should not be condemned by supposedly superior and cultured Europeans.
...lism is from the character of Shrimper when he enthusiastically tells Turner about “delicious long pork,” and closest portrayal of cannibalism is Jack Sparrows tentative nibble of toenail. It seems that while the filmmakers may not have offered an accurate portrayal of “Pelegostos” or Carib life, they may have inadvertently offered a relatively accurate portrayal of early European colonists’ misinterpretations of “Pelegostos” or Carib life. As stated previously, “Early chroniclers did not explore alternative interpretations of the circumstantial evidence for cannibalism. Bones might have been kept for religious reasons, or boiled and cleaned for use as tools, household items, or musical instruments” (Myers 177); however, a more accurate portrayal of the indigenous people would have been contrary to the implicit goal of the filmmakers: to entertain and make money.
Hannibal Lecter Undoubtedly somebody with the desire to eat another human has gone through some life altering event in which they're not the same after. During World War 2 in eastern Europe, Hannibal's parents were killed by burglars going through houses to steal supplies. Him and his sister were captured, and as the winter dragged on food supplies ran out. They grabbed his sister, and took her away. She never came back, and the group used her for food. From no treatment or support
Jorge Donor was a settler who was emigrating to the west with a group of settlers (Known as the Donor Party) to settle there. During the expedition Jorge Donor decided to take a shortcut called the Hastings Cutoff to eliminate the time of the voyage (Ironically this elongated their journey and caused a lot of tragedies). In order to survive they began eating their animals and then progressed to cannibalism to survive until they were rescued.
“Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind” (Genesis 9: 5-7). If God created man in his image, what does eating a fellow human being suggest? We would certainly agree that it is wrong to eat the image of God. Unlike vices like murder or lying, cannibalism is hard to justify even when you’re deserted on an island with a few others with no food in sight. However, to believe that cannibalism is wrong or unnatural in every case might make us ignorant of what it can tell us about the breadth of human culture or about the balance between revenge and justice. Either way, our stance on cannibalism depends on our understanding of what it represents and the role it plays, as reflected
Is it morally permissible to eat meat? Much argument has arisen in the current society on whether it is morally permissible to eat meat. Many virtuous fruitarians and the other meat eating societies have been arguing about the ethics of eating meat (which results from killing animals). The important part of the dispute is based on the animal welfare, nutrition value from meat, convenience, and affordability of meat-based foods compared to vegetable-based foods and other factors like environmental moral code, culture, and religion. All these points are important in justifying whether humans are morally right when choosing to eat meat. This paper will argue that it is morally impermissible to eat meat by focusing on the treatment of animals, the environmental argument, animal rights, pain, morals, religion, and the law.
“The assumption that animals are without rights, and the illusion that their treatment has no moral significance is a positively outrageous example of Western crudity and barbarity. Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality."(Schopenhauer). I always wondered why some people are not so drawn to the consumption of meat and fed up with only one thought about it. Why so many people loathe of blood, and why so few people can easily kill and be slaughter animal, until they just get used to it? This reaction should say something about the most important moments in the code, which was programmed in the human psyche. Realization the necessity of refraining from meat is especially difficult because people consume it for a long time, and in addition, there is a certain attitude to the meat as to the product that is useful, nourishing and even prestigious. On the other hand, the constant consumption of meat has made the vast majority of people completely emotionless towards it. However, there must be some real and strong reasons for refusal of consumption of meat and as I noticed they were always completely different. So, even though vegetarianism has evolved drastically over time, some of its current forms have come back full circle to resemble that of its roots, when vegetarianism was an ethical-philosophical choice, not merely a matter of personal health.
As a human being, by nature are we meant to be meat-eaters? Giehl et al. argues that “It has been discovered that the diet of any animal in its natural state fits to its anatomical structure and established body functions. With attentive analysis, it is evident that humans are not naturally suited to a diet which includes flesh.” For example, when you look at meat animals such as wolfs, lions, hyenas, etc their fang teeth are built to rip flesh and devour meat. It would be vir...
Cannibalism occurs prevalently in both Tarzan and Heart of Darkness, and is a controversial topic with which the public is largely unfamiliar. Although cannibalism is generally thought of in a primitive animal sense, experts have revealed that cannibalism can be identified as a sexual disorder (O’Connor). A cannibal is scientifically classified as an anthropophagus (“Anthropophagus”), which falls under the category of Anthropophagy. Anthropophagy by definition is the sexual gratification by consumption of human flesh or blood. Although rather disturbing, sexual cannibalism is now accepted as the more common variety of cannibalism (O’Connor).
Jeanette Winterson’s Gut Symmetries seamlessly weaves together science and art to explore the boundaries of the body, relationships and life and in doing so reveals how inseparable love and consumption are. Using intimate first person narratives that confront the reader personally, Winterson takes us deep into the minds of Alice, Stella and Jove who find themselves caught in a love triangle that culminates in perhaps the most intimate act: cannibalism. The lives of Alice, a young physicist, Jove, a Princeton professor, and his wife Stella, an emotionally charged poet, collide when Alice meets Jove at sea. As Alice falls in love with both Jove and Stella it becomes painfully clear that in order to love one must consume their beloved forcing them to confront their own knowledge, fate and identity. Set against the infinite background of a quantum universe, both literally and metaphorically each of the narrators consumes those they love as well as themselves. Although the consumption of the bodies of the beloved may seem like a mutual expression of passion, through the intimate musings of Stella and Alice, Winterson’s prose reveals how the lines between our hearts and food are blurred and the female body in particular, becomes a cannibal feast for the men they love.
For several years the issue of eating meat has been a great concern to all types of people all over the world. In many different societies controversy has began to arise over the morality of eating meat from animals. A lot of the reasons for not eating meat have to deal with religious affiliations, personal health, animal rights, and concern about the environment. Vegetarians have a greater way of expressing meats negative effects on the human body whereas meat eaters have close to no evidence of meat eating being a positive effect on the human body. Being a vegetarian is more beneficial for human beings because of health reasons, environmental issues, and animal rights.
Let me begin with the words by George Bernard Shaw: ‘Animals are my friends and I don’t eat my friends’. This indicates the ethic aspect of meat consumption. In fact, people often don’t realize how animals are treated, but they can see commercial spots in their TV showing smiling pigs, cows or chickens, happy and ready to be eaten. My impression is that there can’t be anything more cruel and senseless. It is no secret that animals suffer ...