Does cannibalism...?

Question

Does cannibalism (self-cannibalism) still exists?

Answer 1

The basic fact is that we are endlessly hungry, and huger is the most basic motive in the mind necessitating many of our actions. For instance, there has been an incident a few years ago, where a plane carrying a football team crashed in the Andes, in Latin America. It is well documented now that the people who survived the crash lived on human flesh of the ones who died for well over few weeks, until they were eventually rescued. But this is an instance of an extreme situation, and under extreme situations like this one, human instinct for survival takes precedence upon all other matters to become a valid reason of its own; it is instinctual in the human nature to survive above and beyond all that could be oppositely suggestive in the mind. This, therefore, despite being indigestible to the mind of a normal human being and unforgettably horrid in nature, is not an act demonstrative of human cannibalistic capabilities at their best, for the best is to be found within the normalities of the common people we see around us and live our lives with.

The practice of cannibalism, in my view, is still ripe as a normality in human societies, but it rages in its most subtle and sophisticated forms nowadays; after all we have come a long way since the age of cavemen, jungle dwelling, shortage of food and lack of intelligence.

It is only when we take into consideration the full spectrum of human needs, we could see a whole lot better. We could realise that it is not physical hunger that drives people into eating fellow human beings, we have other needs too: we have needs for social approbation, needs for approval, for protection, for honour, for self-justification, needs to enjoying ourselves in all situations, need for power, for success, etc, just to name a few out of many. And for instance: I have seen people being eaten alive in an instant, and people being pecked regularly and most teasingly, perhaps just to add bit of fun in the delight to maximise the taste; then there are people who inhabit other people to eat them from the inside out; and the people who are born parasites, who live on other people, live their lives, and when the supply runs out, or when the poor host drops dead they without any resentment move on to find another host. And then there are people who are like saprophytes. They eat their host and when food runs out they die too alongside their host … In short human feeding frenzy goes on and on endlessly … as I have not touched upon countries eating countries and communities engulfing communities, and then the are ideologies, but I think I should stop here and move on. This also is true that people eat themselves too, but the motives are always external.


The acts of abuse, suppression and bullying, in my view, is also some advanced forms of cannibalism - as you may have seen a very fine depiction of which in the film Lord of the Flies from the novel by William Goulding.

Other more sophisticated forms of the age-old practice of cannibalism also include social, domestic, personal abuse. It is only just that we have moral standards to watch out, and the law of jungle being valid no more, there are laws in human societies to be observed ideally humanly, then there is the fears of the general public attention and notoriety, not miss the mention of health and safety hazards, but all that should not be a problem, as we could always find our way round things using our intelligence and trickery, just to satiate our endless appetite for human flesh, blood, mind, heart, spirit and all the rest.

Most painful aspects of cannibalism in modern human societies, however, manifest themselves when we I see people being bullied and then being broken into one nasty mess of a person. This is highly psychological, as when people lose their spirit they lose there will to survive, the anger and resentments may run deep and stay deep inside the mind. They may not resist further onslaughts of cannibalistic attempts, as once a person is taken a bite off of his being then it is very likely that they subconsciously attract other predators in the vicinity; the acts of merciless killing in the mind stay embossed in the mind of the victim, and some people once subjective to such things keep giving out victim signals themselves – you too can have a go at me, come on … you could also take a bite etc.

Answer 2

It has been said that the only contemporary taboos are incest and cannibalism. However, cannibalism is practiced in various parts of the world. When the fall of communism happened in Russia, people were starving, and cannibalism became a problem. Mostly, people do it out of necessity (as in the soccer team that was lost in the Andes in the '80s, and, as mentioned, the Donner party); some people do it because they're twisted (Dahmer and others), but in some societies that have, as yet, been relatively untouched by other cultures, cannibalism is practiced as part of culture. Robert Louis Stevenson (Treasure Island) wrote a great deal about cannibalism as it was practiced in Samoa, where he lived part of his life. The cooked human was referred to as "long pig" and the community would get together to eat that person. It wasn't an everyday thing, but usually part of some ritual or celebration. The result of eating human flesh is very similar to what a "mad cow experiences"--people eventually go nuts, lose control of their nervous systems and so on.

Answer 3

No, cannibalism finished Wednesday. Oh wait, I have some left overs in the fridge

Answer 4

yes, in parts of africa and probably in tribes of india, though unlikely.
cannibalism may have decreased globally, but it takes one tragedy for it to arise again.
famine , being stuck in a cold climate with minimal food, this happened in the 19th century, the donner party was stuck in the sierra nevada mountains, ran out of food , people who died were eaten by the others, children eating the father, friend eating the friend, also happened a few decades ago to the argentinian rugby team when their plane crashed in the andes, the surviving players ate their dead teammates and the pilots.
when stalin was starving parts of the soviet union, people resorted to cannibalism.

it is known that when u are hungry, a human being contains fats and proteins in much better balance for another human being than say a chicken.

Answer 5

Yes.... and you can bite your nails (self cannibalism). haha.

There ARE people who do eat other human beings... (it's not legal as far as I am aware so its all hush societies)

So be careful who asks you for dinner as you might be THE dinner.

Now... do you want to come over for dinner? :-D

Answer 6

talkin about self cannibalism. i was driving to work yesterday and i saw this man picking his nose and eating his own booger.wow.

Answer 7

Hello,

Yes, even in America. Remember Dahmer?
Has happened in Indonesia, (Borneo, Pau Pau New Guinea), Africa and even in 25 years back when that plane carrying the Chileno soccer team crashed in the Andes.

Michael

Answer 8

Yes, but mostly in areas where there is little or no modernization/industrialzation such as many parts of Africa and Asia. Of course those ppl do it as a cultural thing, but there are some crazy ppl who kill ppl and eat them too.

Answer 9

Yes

Answer 10

Probably, perhaps in very deep South-American Rainforest there are still tribes that do, but there are differences. For example, they only eat people in their own tribe, but then there are others that capture rivals from other tribes and eat them.

Answer 11

oh yeah, like recently with those two guys who met online and the one wanted to be eaten by the other. I guess it's just one of those things that will never go away.