I was on the subway Thursday innocently listening to my iPod when a Stuff You Should Know podcast began playing titled “How Cannibalism Works“.
The description of the podcast:
“Cannibalism is one of humanity’s near-universal taboos, but it has been practiced in widely varying circumstances throughout history. Check out this HowStuffWorks podcast to learn the difference between the three types of cannibalism.”
In this podcast they describe the three types of cannibalism which I will now do for you as well:
Survival cannibalism is the act of person(s) eating other person(s) to survive. Those people they feed upon can be dead from natural or untimely causes (including murder by others than those involved in the act of cannibalism), by murder at the hands of the cannibal, or by suicide at the hands of the person being consumed.
Learned cannibalism is passed down from generation to generation and is broken up into two categories:
Endocannibalism: Eating members of your tribe or family. This is most often done to honor the dead person or to capture some characteristic the person possessed in life. It, obviously, can be done for more nefarious reasons.
Exocannibalism: Eating members outside of your tribe or family. This is generally done with the nefarious intent of scaring a group of people, stealing a person’s life force, or just for shits and giggles (as in, “I’m hungry, I think I’ll eat that guy!”).
Autocannibalism is the term applied to a person who eats his or her own flesh. This practice is not very common in everyday life, it is more a mechanism of torture or war crime, or can refer back to survival cannibalism where it is necessary to eat a portion of yourself to stay alive.
The one thing the How Stuff Works podcasters couldn’t find were laws specifically outlawing cannibalism on the books. There were references to it being illegal, but the podcasters concluded that the reason there were no laws on the books was because the topic was so taboo, so heinous, that we don’t actually need to have laws banning cannibalism.
What ass backwards thinking. If there is an action that is deemed punishable by society’s standards for healthy and harmonious living we cannot assume that there are some actions so absolutely horrible that no law needs to be made against it. I personally wouldn’t torture anybody, but I’m very glad there are rules on the book about it. I personally wouldn’t forcibly rape anybody, but I’m very glad there are rules on the book about it. I personally wouldn’t stalk someone, but I’m very glad there are rules on the book about it.
But, if given the “right” circumstances, I probably would resort to survival cannibalism or autocannibalism. Books or not, if I am in a self preservation circumstance then Meat is Meat and I’m gonna eat it to stay alive. If that means I’m going to jail, so be it.
I did a bit of googling and found no specific reference that cannibalism itself is specifically illegal, but the act committed prior to eating the flesh is:
IC 35-45-11-2
Abuse of corpse
35-45-11-2 Sec. 2. A person who knowingly or intentionally:
(1) mutilates a corpse;
(2) has sexual intercourse or sexual deviate conduct with the corpse; or
(3) opens a casket with the intent to commit an act described in subdivision (1) or (2);
commits abuse of a corpse, a Class D felony.
As added by P.L.249-1993, SEC.1. Amended by P.L.52-1997, SEC.56.
Sources: http://www.in.gov/legislative/ic/code/title35/ar45/ch11.html
In order to eat a person’s flesh you kind of need to filet or somehow tear them up a bit, thus mutilating. So… what happens if your BFF filets someone and you just eat the flesh? Just the butcher goes down but you’re in the clear? Sticky situation, that.
You can find out waaaaaay more about the hows, whys, and whats of cannibalism at HowStuffWorks.com. Enjoy!
Funny story – A few years ago, there was a case of consentual cannibalism in Germany. Two guys met on the internet, and then in real life, for the express purporse of one eating the other.
Which he did.
Well, not entirely. He wasn’t able to finish the leftovers before he was arrested.
And here, too, justice suddenly had to face the fact that eating someone isn’t technically illegal. I do think that work was invested into adding a corresponding law, though.
Creature, the podcast does actually discuss that case, and how there was such public outcry in Germany that they retried him for murder. According to the podcast, the two men met and ate one man’s penis. The man whose penis they ate went into the shower and passed out, at which point the other man killed him and kept him and eventually carved off and consumed 44 lbs of his body before he was arrested for a completely different crime.
Yeah, that sounds about right.
However, whenever you hear of a “public outcry” happening in Germany, you can be 90% that it was instigated by a single publication: The “Bild” newspaper. Fear it, for it is evil and dumb.
^90% certain, I mean.
:ill:
In the “learned cannibalism” category is a New Guinea tribe who would honor their dead by eating parts of the cadaver. Unfortunately, many tribe members died from Kuru, a disease in humans related to mad cow disease, passed on by the act of eating the dead. Once the method of transmission was detected, the disease died out — it took some time though.
So… uh… when yous asked about having dinner tonight, does this mean you want to have me for dinner?
Time to go to the food store.
Huh. I’m wondering if I’m strange because the only part of your post that I found truly disgusting and bizarre was autocannibalism? I totally get consuming human flesh to steal someone’s life force, but eating your own foot? Gross.
This reminds me of an X-Files episode where the whole town was into cannibalism. The town motto was: “Good people, good food”
:grins:
Wow, I need to get this podcast on my iPod. I never knew that I wanted to know anything about cannibalism. Thanks for alerting me to it’s presence!
Gee, I think that I would be put off my the smell of the embalming fluid when I opened the coffin. That might put me off my lunch plans
Rammstein did a great song that talks about the case that CreatureSH brought up. I don’t think I’d like to try it. And I’ll think twice before going to dinner at your house! :pfft:
Well, Poppy, I learned a lot from this entry.
love the lol cat photo. although i will admit to skimming this post. really, really don’t think my stomach could handle it this evening.
Creature, good to know about that news source.
Steph, at least I named it “cannibalism” and didn’t trick you about the post’s content!
Colleen, at least they weren’t so ingrained in tradition that they let the will of disease take over the will to survive.
No, Dawgy, you are always my dessert. :winks:
Faiqa, if my leg were numb from cold and it meant surviving if I ate a bit of my leg I’d do it. None of this grosses me out as long as I’m not looking at pictures, though. :ill:
Mikey, that’s a most excellent motto. :grins:
Brandon, my only criticism is that I almost fell asleep because of the lull of the podcaster’s voice… and so did his co-podcaster.
Maman, I don’t think you eat embalmed people unless you yourself have a death wish.
MM, Britt can attest to the fact that we serve regular non-human food here… or, at least, we don’t turn our guests into dinner. :pfft:
Bearette, I’m starting to get into a phase where I want to pass on knowledge so this might be the first of many learning opportunities.
Hola, I tried not to be too gruesome in the post. The podcast itself and the link to the full web entry are much more gruesome because they include real world examples.
I eat my neighbors regularly when they annoy me.
I think I’ll stay a vegetarian today, thank you very much. I remember learning about “cannibalistic” tribes in my college anthropology class, and it turns out that most of them just keep up the reputation of being cannibals so that other people won’t bug them. But in reality, it’s almost a universal taboo, so they don’t really do it.
But for those particular exceptions you mentioned, of course.
Brings new meaning to internet sex and when somebody says, “Eat me” do they really mean “eat me” or do they mean…. :pfft:
This helps a lot!!!
I’ve been meaning to do some, er, research on the subject. ::belch::
Bite me.