"'Primitives' and exocannibalism" Topic

I would never put monkeys, chimps and gorillas on my menu, though many jungle tribes have and still do.

I wonder if eating lower primates made it easier for some tribes to practice exocannibalism:

athenapub.com/8miller1.htm

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CC

This is the article I meant to list first:

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Human See.. Human Do…

Just a thought . . .

Can anyone think of a people or tribe that regularly practiced exocannibalism, yet did not live anywhere near any lesser primates (monkeys and/or apes)?

CC

I've eaten monkeys shot by Bolivian tribesmen in the jungle, but I haven't felt any urge to cook up the beggers that come to my gate (the closest thing I have to enemies – the really bad ones are the healty men who are carrying crutches, not using them, or limping, just carrying them for sympathy, or claiming to have been wounded in the war (I live in Croatia).

All joking aside, the idea is plausable. There does seem to be something wrong with eating a gorilla.

I do know that New Guinea cannibals consider the muscle in the foot to be the choicest part of the human – just a little morbid info.

The Royal Navy?

"Can anyone think of a people or tribe that regularly practiced exocannibalism, yet did not live anywhere near any lesser primates (monkeys and/or apes)?"

Maoris?

S.

CC: Can anyone think of a people or tribe that regularly practiced exocannibalism, yet did not live anywhere near any lesser primates (monkeys and/or apes)?

I'm not sure how often you have to eat your neighbors to meet that 'regularly practiced' criterion. There was frequent ritual cannibalism in North America east of the Mississippi in early historical times, and there's archaeological evidence for dietary cannibalism (people as a major food source) in the west. No hominids or even little monkeys in North America, other than us and maybe the occasional sasquatch.

People,

People who eat people,

They're the hungriest people in the world…

"I'm not sure how often you have to eat your neighbors to meet that 'regularly practiced' criterion."

I guess situational cannibalism is an exception.

However, I am wondering if there is a pattern between tribes who regularly eat lesser primates, and those tribes who see themselves as the only true humans and all others as less than human and thus potential food.

I guess the Maoris are a prime example of how eating lesser primates is not necessarily the first step in developing that behavior and that line of thinking.

CC

People,

Eating other people,

Tasting more like chicken than chicken…

stoppitstoppitstoppit

The great apes today live mostly in central Africa, with some species in south-easternmost Asia. The little monkeys live across Africa, south Asia and South America. I agree, ape bushmeat is creepy, but human cannibalism doesn't seem particularly prevalent or concentrated in those zones. Yeah, there have been _some_ African cannibals, likewise _Some_ in North America and elsewhere.

In general, we think man-eating is creepy. We tell boogie-boogie horror stories about man-eating cats and sharks, and we exterminate any species that even looks like they might develop a taste for us; hunt 'em down, wipe 'em out, wear their body parts as trophies. No critter is ever allowed to take one of our foolish children, or an old person.

So cannibalism does occur, but it's an aberration. In the case of New Zealand, I'm going to guess a lack of other large prey species as a proximate cause – I'll bet the Maoris ate more long pig after they wiped out the Moas. In eastern North America, ritual cannibalism was a deliberate terror tactic. In neither case was it about eating monkeys.

Thought we taste like pork, not chicken?

So, um, what happened to the First Head of Cooper Steve? Or, judging by the topic, would I rather not know?

"So cannibalism does occur, but it's an aberration. In the case of New Zealand, I'm going to guess a lack of other large prey species as a proximate cause"

It's actually more mundane than that. All examples of cannibalism are found in areas of some sort of dietary deficiency. Usually one will find one of the essential amino acids are in very low supply, even with high protein intake. You would not need to eat human flesh regularly to satisfy your amino acid requirement, so cannibalism is almost always a rare occurance and has some form of social and cultural sanctioning.

It's definitely not like modern man eating chicken, about 3 times a week.

Ralph

During the 1980s, while on trips to investigate future suppliers of my then profession; I ran into a couple of cases of modern day cannibalism… More than a couple acutally…

I even had one of my travelling comparions put a stop to one case…

The first was in Rio de Genero. The slums there have been overrun by children who have literally displaced the rats who used to be the local scavengers (They ate them all). It seems that these children are killed just like rats as well by the locals, and the bodies left on the streets. The still living would wait until night, and then rush out of their hidey-holes to drag the dead back in.. I am pretty sure that they were not burying them due to the number of bones found in the sewers and storm drains.

I think that this situation has been relieved somewhat during the 90s. First, as the men who were just driving through the neighborhoods shooting these kids stopped leavingt he bodies out to feed the living, and then by proper relief. I would be willing to bet that it still happens though due to the incredibly HUGE number of homless…

Then, in India and parts of the Far east, I was warned by several of the children who were had hired that we should NOT venture into certain parts of the "city" (read: slum here) as were would be butchered (It took us a little while to get a proper pronounciation of th eword he was using). We later found out that rampant overpopulation had forced the population into resorting to cannibalism (at least a portion of it).

I saved the last as I saw personally evidence of it, and the guy who I had hired to acompany to protect my body during this trip fixed that problem… We were in the mountains in Venezuela when we came upon this villiage that was run by this guy who was a buyer of cocao leaves from the growers in the mountains.. REALLY fat guy, too… The villiage was pretty poor, and did not produce a very good cocao crop, and when the growers found out what else he was doing they stopped coming to him, so that only made the situation worse.

he was the only person in the villiage who owned a gun, and he had a couple of sons who shared his "problem".. They were holding several women hostage, having children by them, and then eating the children bit at a time…. The guy who was with me when he saw what was going on just walked up to the guy, and blew his brains out. the village finished off the sons……

Cannibalism is alive and well… For some reason… I seem to have this literary fixation on it now, with much of what I write dealing with cannibalistic situations or in one case a civilization… Imagine… A land that is completely isolated from EVERYTHING (maybe magically, or in some other dimension). The only things in this place are water, dirt, and people….. They have always said… You are what you eat…

Judas, if you hadn't written that you personally saw and heard all of this, I wouldn't have believed a word. Would you mind telling us your former profession in the 1980s, that led you down such interesting paths? I suppose any statute of limitations has expired, since you're telling these stories. (Is there a statute of limitations on homicide in Venezuela?) I'm considering a career change, and I think I want to avoid whatever it was you were doing…

Most of what I did involved the sale and movement of certain commodities (commodoties??? How do you spell that?). I am not sure that what happened would even be considered "homicide" in the situation. It was in a Pretty remote area where the villiage was barely more than a few dozen people (Possibly around 100 total). The whole experience led me into a rather dismal depression that I still suffer from. Seeing a small child with their legs cut off because they are being eaten is a tad upsetting/disturbing…

The world is a very dark and dangerous place once you leave the safe confines of the first world nations… Life is VERY cheap and easily lost to a variety of causes, and only the hope that you will be a boon to those who live in these places exstence will keep you alive if you choose to travel through them (and sometimes not even then)…

The event in and of itself could give quite a lot of flavor to any modern or sci-fi scenario. A group of soldiers/merc/whatever are charged with capturing a cannibalistic drug-lord in the mountains of some third world country. Maybe you could throw in some head-hunters or hostile natives as well (Never encountered too many of those)

Sad to say, but even in the OT (Old Testament) and, much later, the writings of Josephus about the fall of Jerusalem to Rome's legions, when famine struck, children where always the first to go.

In this country (US), I have seen and reported on children (some infants) being prostituted for crack and other drugs. Basically the same there, in my book.

CC

Basically, if you dehumanize an enemy, rival or other victim, does it then make it easier to take the next gruesome step?

I am not taking situational cannibalism (famines, etc.), but something that the local society assumes as a regular practice against other people not deemed "people".

CC

"taking situational cannibalism?" Please, it should be "talking".

Oh, my . . .

CC