Cannibalism 5658 226115628 2008-07-16T21:55:10Z Thijs!bot 1392310 robot Adding: [[ca:Canibalisme]] [[Image:Cannibals.23232.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Cannibalism in [[Brazil]] in 1557 as alleged by [[Hans Staden]].]] [[Image:Cannibalism.jpg|thumb|300px|The spread of Cannibalism in the late 19th century]] [[Image:Leonhard Kern Menschenfresserin.jpg|right|200px|thumb|A Woman-Cannibal, by Leonardo Kern, 1650]] '''Cannibalism''' (from [[Spanish language|Spanish]] {{lang|es|''caníbal''}}, in connection with cannibalism among the Antillean [[Carib]]s)<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-92701/cannibalism cannibalism, or anthropophagy (human behaviour)], Encyclopædia Britannica</ref>, also called '''anthropophagy''' (from Greek: ἄνθρωπος, ''anthropos'', "human being"; and φαγειν, ''phagein'', "to eat") is the act or practice of [[human]]s eating flesh of other humans. In [[zoology]], the term "cannibalism" is extended to refer to any [[species]] consuming members of its own kind (see [[cannibalism (zoology)]]). [[Neanderthal]]s are believed to have practiced cannibalism.<ref>[http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/286/5437/18b?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=Archaeologists+Rediscover+Cannibals&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT Neanderthals Were Cannibals, Bones Show]</ref> <ref>[http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/277/5326/635?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=Archaeologists+Rediscover+Cannibals&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT Archaeologists Rediscover Cannibals]</ref> Among modern humans it has been practiced by various groups<ref>[http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/04/0410_030410_cannibal.html Cannibalism Normal For Early Humans?]</ref> in the past in [[Prehistoric Europe]],<ref>[http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba59/feat1.shtml The edible dead]</ref><ref>[http://arts.monash.edu.au/cgi-bin/inc/print?page=/eras/edition_7/suelzlereview.htm Suelzle, B: Review of "The Origins of War: Violence in Prehistory", Jean Guilaine and Jean Zammit.]</ref> [[Kingdom of Judah]],<ref>{{bibleverse||Ezekiel|5:10|NIV}}</ref> [[Africa]],<ref>[http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Cannibalism Cannibalism - LoveToKnow 1911]</ref> [[South America]],<ref>[http://www.lehigh.edu/~ejg1/natimag/Harry.html Hans Staden Among the Tupinambas]</ref> [[New Zealand]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://wais.stanford.edu/NewZealand/newzealand_maorican1.html|title=Maori Cannibalism|accessdate=2007-07-27}}</ref> [[North America]],<ref>[http://archives.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/09/06/american.cannibals.ap/ Lab tests show evidence of cannibalism among ancient Indians]</ref> [[Australia]],<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-186851/endocannibalism | title = Endocannibalism (ritual) | publisher = [[Encyclopedia Britannica]] | accessdate = 2008-02-13 }}</ref> [[Solomon Islands]],<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,790434,00.html King of the Cannibal Isles]</ref> [[New Caledonia]],<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-92701/cannibalism cannibalism, or anthropophagy (human) -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia]</ref> [[New Guinea]],<ref>[http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/cannibals.html Sleeping with Cannibals]</ref> [[India]],<ref name=India>[http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9842124/from/RL.4/ Indian doc focuses on Hindu cannibal sect], [[MSNBC]]</ref> [[Sumatra]],<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/92701/cannibalism cannibalism -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia]</ref> and [[Fiji]],<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/233880.stm Fijians find chutney in bad taste]</ref> usually in rituals connected to [[endemic warfare|tribal warfare]]. Fiji was once known as the 'Cannibal Isles'. Evidence of cannibalism has been found in the [[Chaco Canyon]] ruins of the [[Anasazi]] culture.<ref>[http://www.archaeology.org/9709/newsbriefs/anasazi.html Anasazi Cannibalism?]</ref> Cannibalism can happen for these reasons: *As sanctioned by a [[cultural norm]] *By necessity in extreme situations of [[famine]] *Caused by [[insanity]]. There are fundamentally two kinds of cannibalistic social behavior; [[endocannibalism]] (eating humans from the same community) and [[exocannibalism]] (eating humans from other communities). There is little evidence that cannibalism was ever practiced as a routine source of nutrition. It is generally agreed the practice usually carried a special meaning for its practitioners, or was occasionally necessary for survival.{{Fact|date=April 2008}} ==Overview== Eating another person is a way to express a relationship of naked power over them. The [[social stigma]] against cannibalism has been used as an aspect of propaganda against an enemy by accusing them of acts of cannibalism to separate them from their [[humanity]]. The [[Carib]] tribe in the [[Lesser Antilles]], for example, acquired a longstanding reputation as cannibals following the recording of their legends by [[Fr. Breton]] in the [[17th century]]. Some controversy exists over the accuracy of these legends and the prevalence of actual cannibalism in the culture. According to a decree by Queen [[Isabella of Castile]] and also later under British colonial rule, [[slavery]] was considered to be illegal unless the people involved were so depraved that their conditions as slaves would be better than as free men. This legal requirement may have led to conquerors exaggerating the extent of cannibalistic practices, or inventing them altogether, as demonstrations of cannibalistic tendencies were considered evidence of such depravity.<ref>Brief history of cannibal controversies; David F. Salisbury, August 15, 2001</ref> The [[Korowai]] tribe of southeastern [[Papua (Indonesian province)|Papua]] could be one of the last surviving tribes in the world engaging in cannibalism. [[Marvin Harris]] has analyzed cannibalism and other [[taboo food and drink|food taboos]]. He argued that it was common when humans lived in small bands, but disappeared in the transition to states, the [[Aztecs]] being an exception. A well known case of mortuary cannibalism is that of the [[Fore (people)|Fore]] tribe in [[New Guinea]] which resulted in the spread of the [[prion]] disease [[Kuru (disease)|Kuru]]. It is often believed to be well-documented, although no eyewitnesses have ever been at hand. Some scholars argue that although postmortem dismemberment was the practice during funeral rites, cannibalism was not. [[Marvin Harris]] theorizes that it happened during a famine period coincident with the arrival of Europeans and was rationalized as a religious rite. In pre-modern medicine, an explanation for cannibalism stated that it came about within a black acrimonious [[Four humours|humour]], which, being lodged in the linings of the [[Ventricle (heart)|ventricle]], produced the voracity for human flesh.<ref>{{1728}} [http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/HistSciTech/HistSciTech-idx?type=turn&entity=HistSciTech000900240147&isize=L Anthropophagy].</ref> Some now-challenged research received a large amount of press attention when scientists suggested that early man may have practiced cannibalism. Later reanalysis of the data found serious problems with this hypothesis. According to the original research, genetic markers commonly found in modern humans all over the world suggest that today many people carry a gene that evolved as protection against [[Transmissible spongiform encephalopathy|brain diseases]] that can be spread by consuming human brains.<ref name="Cannibalism Normal in the Past">{{cite web|url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/04/0410_030410_cannibal.html|publisher="National Geographic"|title="Cannibalism Normal?"|}}</ref> Later reanalysis of the data claims to have found a data collection bias, which led to an erroneous conclusion<ref name="">{{cite web|url=http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/22927/|publisher="New Scientist"|title="No cannibalism signature in human gene"|}}</ref>: that in some cases blame for incidents claimed as evidence has been given to 'primitive' local cultures, where in fact the cannibalism was practiced by explorers, stranded sea-farers or escaped convicts.<ref>See [http://www.warriors.egympie.com.au/cannibalism.html ''Cannibalism - Some Hidden Truths''] for an example documenting escaped convicts in Australia who initially blamed natives, but later confessed to conducting the practice themselves out of desperate hunger.</ref> == Historical accounts == {{Cleanup-restructure|date=April 2008}} === Early history era === *Some anthropologists such as [[Tim White (anthropologist)|Tim White]] suggest that cannibalism was common in human societies prior to the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic based on the large amount of “butchered human" bones found in Neanderthal and other Lower/Middle Paleolithic sites.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=-TVHr_XtDJcC&pg=PA338&lpg=PA338&dq=paleolithic+cannibalism&source=web&ots=Aso6yWbVfw&sig=y8t9jwbtzGyQcSpPlintukgjN6A#PPA338,M1|title= Once were Cannibals |work=Evolution: A Scientific American Reader|author=Tim D white |accessdate=2008-02-14}}</ref> Cannibalism in the Lower and Middle Paleolithic may have occurred because of food shortages.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/12/061205-cannibals.html|title=Neandertals Turned to Cannibalism, Bone Cave Suggests |work=National Geographic News |author=James Owen |accessdate=2008-02-03}}</ref> *In [[Germany]] some experts have observed 1,891 signs of cannibalism in the [[caves]] at the [[Hönne]] (BC 1000 - 700). * Cannibalism is reported in the [[Bible]] during the siege of [[Samaria]] (2 Kings 6:25-30). Two women made a pact to eat their children; after the first mother cooked her child the second mother ate it but refused to reciprocate by cooking her own child. A similar story is reported by [[Flavius Josephus]] during the siege of Jerusalem by Rome in 70AD. * Cannibalism was documented in [[Egypt]] during a famine caused by the failure of the [[Nile]] to flood for eight years (BC 1073-1064). * [[St. Jerome]], in his letter ''[[Against Jovinianus]]'', discusses how people come to their present condition as a result of their heritage, and then lists several examples of peoples and their customs. He says that he has heard that [[Attacotti|Atticoti]] eat human flesh; that [[Persian people|Persians]], [[Medes]] have intercourse with their mothers and grandmothers; that [[Massagetae]] and Derbices (a people on the borders of India) kill and eat old people; that [[Tabal|Tibareni]] crucify loved ones before they grow old; and that several other peoples engage in similar customs. The tenor of St. Jerome's writing does not imply that any of this should be taken literally.<ref>{{Citation |editor-first1=Philip |editor-last2=Wace |editor-first2=Henry |title=A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church |series=2nd |volume=6 |contribution=Against Jovinianus&mdash;Book II |date=c.393 |publisher=The Christian Literature Company |publication-place=New York |publication-date=1893 |accessdate=2008-04-03 |pages=394 |url=http://www.archive.org/details/selectlibraryofn06schauoft |}}</ref> * In 2001, archaeologists at the University of Bristol found evidence of [[Iron Age]] cannibalism in Gloucestershire.<ref>[http://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2001/cannibal.htm Cannibalistic Celts discovered in South Gloucestershire] 7 March 2001</ref> === Middle Ages === * While there is universal agreement that some [[Mesoamerican]] people practiced [[human sacrifice]], there is a lack of scholarly consensus as to whether '''[[cannibalism in pre-Columbian America]]''' was widespread. At one extreme, anthropologist Marvin Harris, author of ''[[Cannibals and Kings]]'', has suggested that the flesh of the victims was a part of an aristocratic diet as a reward, since the [[Aztec]] diet was lacking in [[protein]]s. While most pre-Columbian historians believe that there was ritual cannibalism related to human sacrifices, they do not support Harris's thesis that human flesh was ever a significant portion of the Aztec diet.<ref>[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE7DE1F3DF935A35752C0A961948260 To Aztecs, Cannibalism Was a Status Symbol], New York Times</ref><ref>[http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/aztecs/montellano.htm Aztec Cannibalism: An Ecological Necessity?]</ref> * Reports of cannibalism were recorded during the [[First Crusade]], as famished Crusaders reportedly fed on the bodies of their dead opponents following the [[Siege of Ma'arrat al-Numan]]. [[Amin Maalouf]] also discusses further cannibalism incidents on the march to [[Jerusalem]], and to the efforts made to delete mention of these from western history.<ref>{{cite book |author=Maalouf, Amin |title=The Crusades Through Arab Eyes |publisher= [[Schocken Books]] |location=New York |year=1984 |pages= |isbn=0-8052-0898-4 |oclc= |doi=}}</ref> * During Europe's [[Great Famine of 1315–1317]] there were many reports of cannibalism among the starving populations. * The ''canto'' 33 of [[The Divine Comedy|Dante's Inferno]] ambiguously refers to [[Ugolino della Gherardesca]] eating his own sons while starving in prison. * Among the Aztecs, cannibalism was a ritual activity and not one driven by nutritional needs.<ref>Bernard R. Ortiz de Montellano. "Aztec Cannibalism: An Ecological necessity?" ''Science'' 200:611=617. 1978</ref> In the [[siege of Tenochtitlan]], there was a severe hunger in the city; the Aztecs reportedly ate lizards, grass, insects, and mud from the lake, but there are no reports of cannibalism. * The friar [[Diego de Landa]] reported about [[Yucatán]] instances, ''Yucatan before and after the Conquest'', translated from ''Relación de las cosas de Yucatan, 1566'' ([[New York]]: Dover Publications, 1978: 4), and there have been similar reports by Purchas from Popayán, [[Colombia]], and from the [[Marquesas Islands]] of [[Polynesia]], where human flesh was called ''long-pig'' (Alanna King, ed., ''Robert Louis Stevenson in the South Seas,'' London: Luzac Paragon House, 1987: 45-50). It is recorded about the natives of the captaincy of [[Sergipe]] in [[Brazil]], ''They eat human flesh when they can get it, and if a woman miscarries devour the abortive immediately. If she goes her time out, she herself cuts the [[umbilical cord|navel-string]] with a [[seashell|shell]], which she boils along with the secondine, and eats them both.'' (See E. Bowen, 1747: 532.) *In the Middle Ages, in Europe, "thousands of [[Mummy#Egyptian mummies as a commodity|Egyptian mummies]] preserved in [[bitumen]] were ground up and sold as medicine".<ref>{{Citation |url=http://www.mummytombs.com/dummy/doctors.htm |title=Medieval Doctors and Their Patients |publisher=mummytombs.com |accessdate=[[2007-12-03]]}}</ref> The practice developed into a wide-scale business which flourished until the late 16th century. This "fad" ended because the mummies were revealed to actually be recently killed slaves. Two centuries ago, mummies were still believed to have medicinal properties against bleeding, and were sold as [[pharmaceutical]]s in powdered form (see [[Mellified Man|human mummy confection]]).<ref name="Daly flesh">Quotes from [[John Sanderson (merchant)|John Sanderson]]'s ''Travels'' (1586) in ''[http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0029-5132(199423)28%3A1%3C24%3ATOOODV%3E2.0.CO%3B2-8 That Obscure Object of Desire: Victorian Commodity Culture and Fictions of the Mummy]'', [[Nicholas Daly]], NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction, Vol. 28, No. 1 (Autumn, 1994), pp. 24-51. doi:10.2307/1345912</ref> * In [[North Africa]], as in Europe, there are references to cannibalism as a last, horrible, resort in times of [[famine]].<ref>[http://www.jstor.org/pss/196038 Cannibalism in Early Modern North Africa], British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies</ref> === Early modern era === *The German adventurer [[Hans Staden]] describes his nine-month captivity in 1550 among the [[Tupi]] Indians of [[Brazil]], whom he accuses of cannibalism. His ''True History'' is an important document for historians and anthropologists debating the existence of cannibalism among South American tribes. * In the [[Netherlands|Dutch]] ''[[rampjaar]]'' (disaster year) of 1672, when [[France]] and [[England]] attacked the republic during the [[Franco-Dutch War]]/[[Third Anglo-Dutch War]], [[Johan de Witt]] (a significant [[Netherlands|Dutch]] [[political figure]]) was killed by a shot in the neck; his naked body was hung and mutilated and the heart was carved out to be exhibited. His brother was shot, stabbed, [[Disembowelment|eviscerate]]d alive, hanged naked, brained and partly eaten. * [[Howard Zinn]] describes cannibalism by early [[Jamestown, Virginia|Jamestown]] settlers in his book ''[[A People's History of the United States]]''. * An event occurring in the western New York territory ("Seneca Country") U.S.A., during 1687 was later described in this letter sent to France: “On the 13th (of July) about four o’clock in the afternoon, having passed through two dangerous [[defile (geography)|defile]]s (narrow gorges), we arrived at the third where we were vigorously attacked by 800 [[Seneca nation|Senecas]], 200 of whom fired, wishing to attack our rear whilst the remainder of their force would attack our front, but the resistance they met produced such a great consternation that they soon resolved to fly. All our troops were so overpowered by the extreme heat and the long journey we had made that we were obliged to bivouac (camp) on the field until the morrow. We witnessed the painful Sight of the usual cruelties of the savages who cut the dead into quarters, as in slaughter houses, in order to put them into the pot (dinner); the greater number were opened while still warm that their blood might be drank. our rascally ''outaouais'' ([[Ottawa (tribe)|Ottawa]] Indians) distinguished themselves particularly by these barbarities and by their poltroonery (cowardice), for they withdrew from the combat;..." -- Canadian Governor, the [[Jacques-René de Brisay de Denonville, Marquis de Denonville|Marquis de Denonville]]. * In 1729 [[Jonathan Swift]] wrote ''A Modest Proposal: For Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick'', commonly referred to as ''[[A Modest Proposal]]'', a [[satire|satirical]] [[pamphlet]] in which he proposed that poor [[Ireland|Irish]] families sell their children to be eaten, thereby earning income for the family. It was written as an attack on the indifference of landlords to the state of their tenants and on the political economists with their calculations on the schemes to raise income. * Reports of cannibalism among the [[Texas]] tribes were often applied to the [[Karankawa]] and the [[Tonkawa]].<ref>[http://www.omahapubliclibrary.org/transmiss/congress/tonkawa.html The Tonkawa Tribe]</ref><ref>[http://www.globalpolitician.com/2745-cannibal-human-sacrifice Cannibalism and Human Sacrifice], Global Politician</ref> Though cannibals, the fierce Tonkawas were great friends of the white [[Texas]] settlers, helping them against all their enemies.<ref>[http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/PP/fpl1.html Handbook of Texas Online - Placido]</ref> Among the [[North America]]n tribes which practised cannibalism in some form may be mentioned the [[Montagnais]], and some of the tribes of [[Maine]]; the [[Algonkin]], [[Armouchiquois]], [[Iroquois]], and [[Micmac]]; farther west the [[Assiniboin]], [[Cree]], [[Fox (tribe)|Foxes]], [[Chippewa]], [[Miami (tribe)|Miami]], [[Ottawa (tribe)|Ottawa]], [[Kickapoo]], [[Illinois (tribe)|Illinois]], [[Sioux]], and [[Winnebago]]; in the South the people who built the mounds in [[Florida]], and the [[Tonkawa]], [[Attacapa]], [[Karankawa]], [[Kiowa]], [[Caddo]], and [[Comanche]] (?); in the Northwest and West, portions of the continent, the [[Thlingchadinneh]] and other [[Athapascan]] tribes, the [[Tlingit]], [[Heiltsuk]], [[Kwakiutl]], [[Tsimshian]], [[Nootka]], [[Siksika]], some of the [[California]]n tribes, and the [[Ute]]. There is also a tradition of the practice among the [[Hopi]], and mentions of the custom among other tribes of [[New Mexico]] and [[Arizona]]. The [[Mohawk]], and the [[Attacapa]], [[Tonkawa]], and other [[Texas]] tribes were known to their neighbours as "man-eaters."<ref>[http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/QuebecHistory/encyclopedia/cannibalism.htm cannibalism], James WHITE, ed., Handbook of Indians of Canada , Published as an Appendix to the Tenth Report of the Geographic Board of Canada , Ottawa , 1913, 632p., pp. 77-78.</ref> * Cannibalism was the regular practice in [[Māori]] wars.<ref>[http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cfm?c_id=252&objectid=10462390 'Battle rage' fed Maori cannibalism], 08 Sep 2007 - Maori news - NZ Herald</ref> In [[New Zealand]] in 1809, 66 passengers and crew of the ship the Boyd were killed and eaten by Māori on the Whangaroa peninsula, Northland. This was utu (revenge) for the whipping of a Māori who refused to work while traveling on the ship from Australia. This remains the bloodiest mass-murder in New Zealand history, and perhaps the largest death-toll from a cannibalistic act in modern times. See the [[Boyd massacre]]. * [[Māori]] warriors fighting the New Zealand Government in [[Titokowaru's War]] in New Zealand's North Island in 1868-69 revived ancient rites of cannibalism as part of the radical Hauhau movement of the [[Pai Marire]] religion. The bodies of slain soldiers were cut up, cooked, and eaten in forest camps, while the hearts of others were cut from their bodies to propitiate Māori war gods.<ref>[http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-Cow02NewZ-c20.html James Cowan, The New Zealand Wars: A History of the Maori Campaigns and the Pioneering Period: Volume II, 1922.</ref> * The survivors of the sinking of the French ship [[Medusa (ship)|Medusa]] in 1816 resorted to cannibalism after four days adrift on a raft. * After the sinking of the [[Whaleship Essex|Whaleship ''Essex'']] of [[Nantucket]] by a whale, on [[November 20]], [[1820]], (an important source event for [[Herman Melville]]'s ''[[Moby-Dick]]'') the survivors, in three small boats, resorted, by common consent, to cannibalism in order for some to survive.<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A671492 The Wreck of the Whaleship Essex]</ref> See [[The Custom of the Sea]]. *[[David Whippey]], an English sailor, deserted his ship in 1820 and lived among the cannibal Fijis for the rest of his life. The Fijis would sometimes capture the crew of a stranded ship for ransom, and eat them if they resisted or violated a tribal taboo. Whippey would try to rescue them but sometimes found only roasted bones. Ultimately he became British Consul to Fiji, and left many descendants among the islands.<ref>ABC Whipple, Yankee Whalers in the South Pacific, Doubleday, New York, p 151</ref> * In 1822 eight convicts escaped from [[Macquarie Harbour]] in South-West [[Tasmania]], [[Australia]] and set out overland toward [[Hobart]]. Lack of supplies led to the group killing one of their number within days of the initial escape, and over the following week all but one of the group died or were killed, leaving one survivor, [[Alexander Pearce]]. Pearce was recaptured near Table Mountain. His account of the fates of his fellow escapees was not believed (it being assumed that the others were alive and in hiding in the bush). Pearce was returned to Macquarie Harbor. He escaped again, this time with one companion, however was recaptured shortly afterwards with remnants of his companion's body in his pockets, even though he still had other food available to him. He was then sent to Hobart and hanged.<ref>Martin, Stephen 1993 ''A new land: European perceptions of Australia 1788-1850'' (Allen & Unwin: St Leonards, Australia) pp.105-109</ref>. The band [[Weddings, Parties, Anything]] included a song 'A tale they won't believe' on their 1989 album [[The Big Don't Argue]] about the incident. * The ''[[Acadian Recorder]]'' (a newspaper published out of [[City of Halifax|Halifax]], [[Nova Scotia]] in the early 1800s) published an article in its May 27, 1826, issue telling of the wreck of the ship 'Francis Mary', en route from New Brunswick to Liverpool, England, with a load of timber. The article describes how the survivors sustained themselves by eating those who perished.<ref>''The Acadian Recorder'', Saturday, May 27, 1826</ref> * Sir [[John Franklin]]'s lost polar expedition<ref>{{Cite web |last=Keenleyside |first=Anne |title=The final days of the Franklin expedition: new skeletal evidence Arctic 50(1) 36-36 1997 |url=http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic50-1-36.pdf |accessdate=2008-01-26}}</ref> is another examples of human cannibalism from the 1840s. There is no dispute that the [[Donner Party]] experienced cannibalism on their ill fated and incomplete trek to California. * The case of ''[[R v. Dudley and Stephens]]'' (1884) 14 QBD 273 (QB) is an [[England|English]] case which is said to be one of the origins of the defense of [[necessity]] in modern common law. The case dealt with four crew members of an English yacht, the '''Mignonette''', which were cast away in a storm some {{convert|1600|mi|km}} from the [[Cape of Good Hope]]. After several days one of the crew fell unconscious due to a combination of the famine and drinking sea-water. The others (one possibly objecting) decided then to kill him and eat him. They were picked up four days later. Lack of unanimous consent to draw lots contravened [[The Custom of the Sea]] and was held to be murder. * In the 1870s, a man named [[Alferd Packer]] was accused of killing and eating his traveling companions while crossing the Rocky Mountains (in what is now the state of [[Colorado]].) He served fourteen years in prison before being paroled on the basis of the [[Grandfather clause]], as the alleged cannibalism happened 6 years before Colorado became a state on [[Ute Tribe|Ute]] tribal land. Throughout his life he maintained that he was innocent of the murders. The story of Alferd Packer was satirically told in the [[Trey Parker]] comedy/horror/musical student film, ''[[Cannibal! The Musical]]''. The main food court at the [[University of Colorado at Boulder]] is named the Alferd Packer Grill. * In parts of [[Melanesia]], cannibalism was still practiced in the early 20th century, for a variety of reasons - including retaliation, to insult an enemy people, or to absorb the dead person's qualities<ref>[http://anglicanhistory.org/oceania/whonsbon-aston1961.html "Melanesia Historical and Geographical: the Solomon Islands and the New Hebrides"], ''Southern Cross'' n°1, London: 1950</ref>. === Modern era === [[Image:Maaselkä cannibalism.jpg|thumb|220px|[[Finland|Finnish]] soldiers displaying the skins of the [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] soldiers who were eaten by their own troops at Maaselkä in 1942.]] ==== [[World War II]] ==== * Many written reports and testimonies collected by the Australian War Crimes Section of the [[Tokyo tribunal]], and investigated by prosecutor [[William Webb]] (the future Judge-in-Chief), indicate that Japanese soldiers, in many parts of the [[Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere]], committed acts of cannibalism against Allied [[prisoner of war|prisoners of war]]. According to historian Yuki Tanaka: "cannibalism was often a systematic activity conducted by whole squads and under the command of officers".<ref>Tanaka, ''Hidden horrors: Japanese War Crimes in World War II'', Westview press, 1996, p.127.</ref> In some cases, flesh was cut from living people. An Indian POW, ''[[Lance Naik]]'' Hatam Ali (later a citizen of [[Pakistan]]), testified that in New Guinea: «''the Japanese started selecting prisoners and every day one prisoner was taken out and killed and eaten by the soldiers. I personally saw this happen and about 100 prisoners were eaten at this place by the Japanese. The remainder of us were taken to another spot 50 miles [80 km] away where 10 prisoners died of sickness. At this place, the Japanese again started selecting prisoners to eat. Those selected were taken to a hut where their flesh was cut from their bodies while they were alive and they were thrown into a ditch where they later died.''»<ref>[[Lord Russell of Liverpool]] (Edward Russell), ''The Knights of Bushido, a short history of Japanese War Crimes'', Greenhill books, 2002, p.121</ref> *A well-documented case occurred in [[Chichijima]] in February 1945, when Japanese soldiers killed and consumed five American airmen. This case was investigated in 1947 in a war crimes trial, and of 30 Japanese soldiers prosecuted, five (Maj. Matoba, Gen. Tachibana, Adm. Mori, Capt. Yoshii, and Dr. Teraki) were found guilty and hanged.<ref>{{cite journal | format = pdf | url = http://www.pegc.us/archive/Articles/welch_naval_MCs.pdf | title = Without a Hangman, Without a Rope: Navy War Crimes Trials After World War II | chapter = Cannibalism | last = Welch | first = JM | journal = International Journal of Naval History | volume = 1 | issue = 1 | month = April | year = 2002 | accessdate = 2007-12-03}}</ref> *In his book ''[[Flyboys: A True Story of Courage]]'', James Bradley details several instances of cannibalism of World War II Allied prisoners by their Japanese captors. The author claims that this included not only ritual cannibalization of the livers of freshly-killed prisoners, but also the cannibalization-for-sustenance of living prisoners over the course of several days, amputating limbs only as needed to keep the meat fresh.<ref>{{cite book |last = Bradley |first = James |authorlink = James Bradley |title = Flyboys: A True Story of Courage |origyear = 2003 |url = http://books.google.com/books?id=09sgEfKbRaAC |format = softcover |accessdate = 2007-12-26 |edition = first |publisher = Back Bay Books |location = Boston, MA |language = English |isbn = 0316159433 |pages = 404 |quote = pg 229:"This document is curious, not just because it approved cannibalism of ''gaizin'', but because it had to be written at all.", pg 230:"US and Australian WWII archives hold many files detailing numerous acts of Japanese army cannibalism.", pg 311:"We had suspected beheadings, of course, but never cannibalism!"}}</ref> * During the 872-day [[Siege of Leningrad]] during [[World War II]], reports of cannibalism began to appear in the winter of 1941-1942, after all birds, rats and pets were eaten by survivors. People were [[murdered]] for their flesh and Leningrad police had to form a special division to combat cannibalism.<ref>[http://it.stlawu.edu/~rkreuzer/pcavallerano/leningradweb.htm 900-Day Siege of Leningrad]</ref><ref>[http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?id=7014&action=tdihArticleCategory This Day in History 1941: Siege of Leningrad begins]</ref> *Following the Soviet victory at [[Battle of Stalingrad|Stalingrad]] in February of 1943, roughly 100,000 German soldiers were taken Prisoner of War ([[POW]]). Almost all of them were sent to POW camps in [[Siberia]] or [[Central Asia]] where, due to being chronically underfed by their Soviet captors, many apparently resorted to cannibalism. Fewer than 5,000 of the prisoners taken at Stalingrad would survive captivity.<ref>Beevor, Antony. '''Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege.''' Penguin Books, 1999.</ref> * During his service in World War II, [[John F. Kennedy]] believed that a boy from the [[Solomon Islands]] bragged of eating a Japanese soldier. Native islanders in their historical culture also practiced [[headhunting]].<ref> PT 109 by Donovan (book)</ref> * During the Nanking Massacre, the Japanese were also cutting and eating dead Chinese civilians. Hundreds were found without their limbs or other body parts, most of the people who survived remembered that 'they always found burned or boiled body parts in pots where the Japanese were camping'. [[Image:Aghori1.jpg|right|190px|thumb|Gauri Shankar Mishra, [[Aghori]] [[Sadhu|Baba]] drinking from a human skull. Photo by Dolf Hartsuiker.<ref name=India/><ref name=Aghori/>]] ==== Other cases ==== *The [[Aghori]]s of northern [[India]] consume the flesh of the dead floated in the [[Ganges]] in pursuit of [[immortality]] and supernatural powers. Members of the Aghori drink from [[human skull]]s and practice cannibalism in the belief that eating human flesh confers spiritual and physical benefits, such as prevention of aging.<ref name=India/><ref name=Aghori>[http://www.abc.net.au/rn/encounter/stories/2006/1782966.htm Aghoris], [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]]</ref><ref>[http://www.channel4.com/life/microsites/K/kumbhmela/plgrm_agoris.html The Aghoris], [[Channel 4]]</ref> * During the 1930s, multiple acts of cannibalism were reported from [[Ukraine]] during the [[Holodomor]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3229000.stm|title=Ukraine marks great famine anniversary|date=2003-11-22|accessdate=2007-07-27}}, see also ''The Black Deeds of the Kremlin - Volume 2 The great famine in Ukraine in 1932-1933'' (Federation of Ukraine Prisoners, ed. DOBRUS, 1955), ''Harvest of sorrow'' (Robert Conquest)</ref> * Cannibalism is proved to have occurred in China during the [[Great Leap Forward]], when rural China was hit hard by [[drought]] and [[famine]] <ref>''The black book of communism'' (Stephane Courtis, Nicolas Werth and others, Harvard U. Press), ''Wild swans: three daughters of China'' (Jung Chang, Touchstone Press), ''Daughter of the river: an autobiography'' (Hong Ying, Grove Press), ''Hungry ghosts: Mao's secret famine'' (Jasper Becker, Holt Press), ''Mao Tze Tung'' video of History Channel</ref>. Reports of cannibalism during the [[Cultural Revolution]] in [[People's Republic of China|China]] have also emerged. These reports show that cannibalism was practiced for ideological purposes.<ref>[[Nicholas D. Kristof]] and [[Sheryl WuDunn]], [[China Wakes|''China Wakes: the Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power'']] (Times Books, 1994) p. 73-75. ISBN #0-8129-2252-2, ''Scarlet Memorial: Tales Of Cannibalism In Modern China'' (Zheng Yi, Westview Press)</ref> * Prior to 1931, ''[[New York Times]]'' reporter [[William Buehler Seabrook]], allegedly in the interests of research, obtained from a hospital intern at the [[Sorbonne]] a chunk of human meat from the body of a healthy human killed by accident, and cooked and ate it. He reported that, "It was like good, fully developed veal, not young, but not yet beef. It was very definitely like that, and it was not like any other meat I had ever tasted. It was so nearly like good, fully developed veal that I think no person with a palate of ordinary, normal sensitiveness could distinguish it from veal. It was mild, good meat with no other sharply defined or highly characteristic taste such as for instance, goat, high game, and pork have. The steak was slightly tougher than prime veal, a little stringy, but not too tough or stringy to be agreeably edible. The roast, from which I cut and ate a central slice, was tender, and in color, texture, smell as well as taste, strengthened my certainty that of all the meats we habitually know, veal is the one meat to which this meat is accurately comparable."<ref>William Bueller Seabrook. ''Jungle Ways'' London, Bombay, Sydney: George G. Harrap and Company, 1931</ref> *References to cannibalizing the enemy has also been seen in poetry written when China was repressed in the [[Song Dynasty]], though the cannibalizing sounds more like poetic symbolism to express the hatred towards the enemy. (See ''[[Man Jiang Hong]]'') The Chinese hate-cannibalism was reported during World War II also. (Key Ray Chong:Cannibalism in China, 1990) *The [[USSR|Soviet]] writer [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]], in his novel ''[[The Gulag Archipelago]]'', describes cases of cannibalism in the twentieth-century [[USSR]]. Of the [[Russian famine of 1921|famine in Povolzhie]] (1921-1922) he writes: ''"That horrible famine was up to cannibalism, up to consuming children by their own parents - the famine, which Russia had never known even in [[Time of Troubles]] [in 1601-1603]..."''<ref> A.Solzhenitsyn "[[The Gulag Archipelago]]" part I, chapter 9</ref>. He says of the [[Siege of Leningrad]] (1941-1944): "Those who consumed human flesh, or dealt with the human liver trading from dissecting rooms… were accounted as the political criminals…".<ref> A.Solzhenitsyn "[[The Gulag Archipelago]]" part I, comments to chapter 5</ref> And of the building of Northern Railway Prisoners Camp (''"SevZhelDorLag"'') Solzhenitsyn writes: ''"An ordinary hard working political prisoner almost could not survive at that penal camp. In the camp SevZhelDorLag (chief: colonel Klyuchkin) in 1946-47 there were many cases of cannibalism: they cut human bodies, cooked and ate."''<ref>A.Solzhenitsyn "[[The Gulag Archipelago]]" part III, chapter 15</ref> *The Soviet journalist [[Yevgenia Ginzburg]], former long-term political prisoner, who spent time in the Soviet prisons, [[Gulag]] camps and settlements from 1938 to 1955, describes in her memoir book "Harsh Route" (or "Steep Route") the case, which she was directly involved in late 1940s, after she had been moved to the prisoners' hospital.<ref>Yevgenia Ginzburg "Harsh Route", part 2, chapter 23 "The Paradise On A Microscope View"</ref> ''"...The chief warder shows me the black smoked pot, filled with some food: 'I need your medical expertize regarding this meat.' I look into the pot, and hardly hold vomiting. The fibers of that meat are very small, and don't resemble me anything I have seen before. The skin on some pieces bristles with black hair (...) A former smith from Poltava, Kulesh worked together with Centurashvili. At this time, Centurashvili was only one month away from being discharged from the camp (...) And suddenly he surprisingly disappeared. The wardens looked around the hills, stated Kulesh's evidence, that last time Kulesh had seen his workmate near the fireplace, Kulesh went out to work and Centurashvili left to warm himself more; but when Kulesh returned to the fireplace, Centurashvili had vanished; who knows, maybe he got frozen somewhere in snow, he was a weak guy (...) The wardens searched for two more days, and then assumed that it was an escape case, though they wondered why, since his imprisonment period was almost over (...) The crime was there. Approaching the fireplace, Kulesh killed Centurashvili with an axe, burned his clothes, then dismembered him and hid the pieces in snow, in different places, putting specific marks on each burial place. (...) Just yesterday, one body part was found under two crossed logs."'' *Cannibalism was reported by the journalist Neil Davis during the South East Asian wars of the 1960s and 1970s. Davis reported that [[Cambodia]]n troops ritually ate portions of the slain enemy, typically the [[liver]]. However he, and many refugees, also report that cannibalism was practiced non-ritually when there was no food to be found. This usually occurred when towns and villages were under [[Khmer Rouge]] control, and food was strictly rationed, leading to widespread starvation. Any civilian caught participating in cannibalism would have been immediately executed.<ref>Tim Bowden. ''One Crowded Hour''. ISBN 0-00-217496-0</ref> *Cannibalism has been reported in several recent [[Africa]]n conflicts, including the [[Second Congo War]], and the civil wars in [[Liberia]] and [[Sierra Leone]]. A [[U.N.]] human rights expert reported in July 2007 that sexual atrocities against Congolese women go 'far beyond rape' and include [[sexual slavery]], forced [[incest]], and cannibalism.<ref name="farbeyond">[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/30/AR2007073001849.html Congo's Sexual Violence Goes 'Far Beyond Rape'], July 31, 2007. ''The Washington Post''.</ref> Typically, this is apparently done in desperation, as during peacetime cannibalism is much less frequent. Even so, it is sometimes directed at certain groups believed to be relatively helpless, such as Congo [[Pygmies]].<ref>[http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/01/09/1041990047245.html Cannibals massacring pygmies: claim]</ref> It is also reported by some that [[witch doctor]]s sometimes use the body parts of children in their medicine. In the 1970s the [[Uganda]]n dictator [[Idi Amin]] was reputed to practice cannibalism.<ref name="BBC_Idi_Amin_dies">{{cite news | title = 2003: 'War criminal' Idi Amin dies | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/16/newsid_3921000/3921361.stm | publisher = [[BBC News]] | accessdate = 2007-12-04}}</ref><ref name="Riccardo_Orizio_2003">{{cite news | first = Riccardo | last = Orizio | title = Idi Amin's Exile Dream | url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F01EFDA1F30F932A1575BC0A9659C8B63 | publisher = [[New York Times]] | date = 2003-08-21 | accessdate = 2007-12-04}}</ref> * It has been reported by defectors and refugees that, at the height of the famine in 1996, cannibalism was sometimes practiced in [[North Korea]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A41966-2003Oct3?language=printer|title= Opening a Window on North Korea's Horrors: Defectors Haunted by Guilt Over the Loved Ones Left Behind|date=2003-10-04|accessdate=2007-07-27}}</ref> * [[Médecins Sans Frontières]], the international medical charity, supplied photographic and other documentary evidence of ritualized cannibal feasts among the participants in [[Liberia]]'s internecine strife in the 1980s to representatives of [[Amnesty International]] who were on a fact-finding mission to the neighboring state of [[Guinea]]. However, Amnesty International declined to publicize this material; the Secretary-General of the organization, [[Pierre Sane]], said at the time in an internal communication that "what they do with the bodies after human rights violations are committed is not part of our mandate or concern". The existence of cannibalism on a wide scale in Liberia was subsequently verified in video documentaries by [[Journeyman Pictures]] of [[London]].<ref>{{cite journal |last = Gillison |first = Gillian |title = From Cannibalism to Genocide: The Work of Denial |journal = The Journal of Interdisciplinary History |volume = 37 |issue = 3 |pages = 395–414 |publisher = MIT Press Journals |date = 2006-11-13 |doi = 10.1162/jinh.2007.37.3.395 |accessdate = 2007-12-26}}</ref> * In [[March 2001]] in Germany, [[Armin Meiwes]] posted an [[Internet]] ad asking for "a well built 18 to 30 year old to be slaughtered and consumed". The ad was answered by Bernd Jürgen Brandes. After killing and eating Brandes, Meiwes was convicted of [[manslaughter]] and later, murder. The song "Mein Teil" by [[Rammstein]] is based on this. * In September 2006, [[Australia]]n television crews from ''[[60 Minutes (Australian TV program)|60 Minutes]]'' and ''[[Today Tonight]]'' attempted to rescue a six-year-old boy who they believed would be ritually cannibalized by his tribe, the [[Korowai]], from [[West Papua]], [[Indonesia]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s1743768.htm|title=Why 7 Ate 9 OR Wawa's TV Dinner|publisher=ABC TV Mediawatch|accessdate=2007-10-03}}</ref> *On [[January 13]], [[2007]], Danish artist [[Marco Evaristti]] hosted a dinner party for his most intimate friends. The main meal was [[agnolotti]] pasta, which was topped with a meatball made with the artist's own fat, removed earlier in the year in a [[liposuction]] operation.<ref>''[http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21052655-13762,00.html Artist Cooks meal in own Body Fat]'', January 13, 2007</ref> * On [[September 4]], [[2007]] Police stated that they had identified 26-year-old Danijel Jakupek Zak. He killed a 5 year old boy and his uncle (26), who was Jakupek's schoolmate and also the son of Jakupek's school teacher. Police reported that Jakupek rehearsed several cannibalistic acts on approximately 20 cats which were buried in his backyard and that 10 live cats were also found in his apartment, probably awaiting future experiments. He stated that he had to try the practice on a human being. As stated, he obviously enjoyed the massacre of his alleged victims, drank their blood and even tried their meat. In his apartment police found a stack of cannibalistic and satanic literature. He also claimed that in the prosecution of his two victims "He entered his body". Jakupek was questioned regarding the aforementioned unnamed person who only goes by the name "He" and he replied that "He" is a "superior mighty lord" but not pointing out any specific icon. Neighbors described him as being very strange, having a "sparkly look" and he obviously indicated that he is mentally distorted.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/09/01/europe/EU-GEN-Serbia-Sect-Killing.php?WT.mc_id=rssap_news | title = Serbia: Police arrest man suspected of killing two in satanic ritual |publisher=[[International Herald Tribune]] | date = 2007-09-01 | | accessdate = 2007-12-21}}</ref> * On [[September 14]], [[2007]], a man named [[Özgür Dengiz]] was captured in [[Ankara]], the Turkish capital, after killing and eating a man. Dengiz in his initial testimony said he "enjoyed" eating human flesh. He frequently burst into long laughing sessions during the testimony, police officers said. In 1997, he was jailed for murder of a friend, when he was 17, but he got out of jail on [[parole]] after serving three years. Dengiz said he did not know Cafer Er, his 55 year old victim, who worked as a garbage collector. Dengiz shot Er in the head with a firearm, because he felt Er was making the area "too crowded." After cutting slices of flesh from his victim's body, Dengiz distributed the rest to stray dogs on the street, according to his own testimony. He ate some of Er's flesh raw on his way home. Dengiz, who lived with his parents arrived at the family house and placed the remaining parts of Er's body in the fridge without saying a word to his parents. Also in his testimony he said, "I have no regrets, my conscience is free. I constantly thought of killing. I had dreams where I was being sacrificed. I decided to kill, to sacrifice others in place of me."<ref>[http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=122330 Newspaper ''Today's Zaman'' September 17, 2007]</ref><ref>[http://www.milliyet.com.tr/2007/09/16/guncel/agun.html Newspaper ''Milliyet'' September 16, 2007] {{tr icon}}</ref> * In January, 2008, [[Milton Blahyi]], 37, confessed being part of [[human sacrifice]]s which "included the killing of an innocent child and plucking out the [[heart]], which was divided into pieces for us to eat." He fought versus [[Liberia]]n president [[Charles Taylor (Liberia)|Charles Taylor]]'s [[militia]].<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7200101.stm news.bbc.co.uk, I ate children's hearts, ex-rebel says]</ref> * During Charles Taylor's [[war crime]]s trial on March 13, 2008, Joseph Marzah, Taylor's chief of operations and head of Taylor's alleged "death squad", accused Taylor of ordering his soldiers to commit acts of cannibalism against enemies, including peacekeepers and [[United Nations]] personnel.<ref>[http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/03/13/warcrimes.taylor.ap/index.html AP:Top Aide testifies Taylor ordered soldiers to eat victims], CNN.com, March 13, 2008 (accessed same date)</ref> == During starvation == Cannibalism has been occasionally practiced as a last resort by people suffering from [[famine]]. In the [[United States|US]], the group of settlers known as the [[Donner party]] resorted to cannibalism while snowbound in the mountains for the winter. The last survivors of Sir [[John Franklin]]'s Expedition were found to have resorted to cannibalism in their final push across King William Island towards the Back River.<ref>Beattie, Owen and Geiger, John (2004). ''Frozen in Time.'' ISBN 1-55365-060-3.</ref> There are disputed claims that cannibalism was widespread during the famine of [[Ukraine]] in the 1930s, during the [[Siege of Leningrad]] in [[World War II]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://observer.guardian.co.uk/life/story/0,6903,605454,00.html|title=Orchestral manoeuvres (part one)|date=2001-11-25|accessdate=2007-07-27}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://condor.depaul.edu/~rrotenbe/aeer/aeer13_2/Dickenson.html|title=Building the Blockade: New Truths in Survival Narratives From Leningrad, Autum 1995|accessdate=2007-07-27}}</ref> and during the [[Chinese Civil War]] and the [[Great Leap Forward]] in the [[People's Republic of China]]. There were also rumors of several cannibalism outbreaks during World War II in the concentration camps where the Jews were malnourished. Cannibalism was also practiced by Japanese troops as recently as World War II in the Pacific theater.<ref>{{cite book |author=Tanaka, Toshiyuki |title=Hidden horrors: Japanese war crimes in World War II |publisher=Westview Press |location=Boulder, Colo |year=1996 |pages= |isbn=0-8133-2717-2 |oclc= |doi=}}</ref> A more recent example is of leaked stories from [[North Korean]] refugees of cannibalism practiced during and after a famine that occurred sometime between 1995 and 1997.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A41966-2003Oct3?language=printer | title = Opening a Window on North Korea's Horrors: Defectors Haunted by Guilt Over the Loved Ones Left Behind | date = 2003-10-04 | accessdate = 2007-07-27}}</ref> [[Lowell Thomas]] records the cannibalisation of some of the surviving crew members of the [[Dumaru]] after the ship exploded and sank during the [[First World War]] in his book, ''The Wreck of the Dumaru'' (1930). Documentary and forensic evidence supports eyewitness accounts of cannibalism by Japanese troops during World War II. This practice was resorted to when food ran out, with Japanese soldiers killing and eating each other when enemy civilians were not available. A well-documented case occurred in Chichi Jima in 1945, when Japanese soldiers killed and ate eight downed American airmen. This case was investigated in 1947 in a war-crimes trial, and of 30 Japanese soldiers prosecuted, five (Maj. Matoba, Gen. Tachibana, Adm. Mori, Capt. Yoshii and Dr. Teraki) were found guilty and hanged. When [[Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571]] crashed into the [[Andes]] on [[October 13]], [[1972]], the survivors resorted to eating the deceased during their 72 days in the mountains. Their story was later recounted in the books [[Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors]] and [[Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home|Miracle in the Andes]] as well as the film [[Alive (1993 film)|Alive]], by [[Frank Marshall]], and the documentary [[Alive: 20 Years Later]]. == As cultural libel == {{seealso|Blood libel}} Unsubstantiated reports of cannibalism disproportionately relate cases of cannibalism among cultures that are already otherwise despised, feared, or are little known. In antiquity, Greek reports of '''anthropophagy''' were related to distant, non-Hellenic [[barbarians]], or else relegated in [[Greek mythology|myth]] to the 'primitive' chthonic world that preceded the coming of the Olympian gods: see the explicit rejection of human sacrifice in the cannibal feast prepared for the Olympians by [[Tantalus]] of his son [[Pelops]]. According to ABC Whipple in '''Yankee Whalers in the South Seas''' (Doubleday, New York, 1954), all South Sea Islanders were cannibals so far as their enemies were concerned. When the [[whaleship Essex]] was rammed and sunk by a whale in 1820, the captain opted to sail 3000 miles upwind to Chile rather than 1400 miles downwind to the Marquesas because he had heard the Marquesans were cannibals. However, Herman Melville happily lived with the Marquesan Typees for a time after the other two tribes on the island told him they were cannibals. [[William Arens]], author of ''The Man-Eating Myth: Anthropology and Anthropophagy'' (New York : Oxford University Press, 1979; ISBN 0-19-502793-0), questions the credibility of reports of cannibalism and argues that the description by one group of people of another people as cannibals is a consistent and demonstrable ideological and rhetorical device to establish perceived cultural superiority. Arens bases his thesis on a detailed analysis of numerous "classic" cases of cultural cannibalism cited by explorers, missionaries, and anthropologists. His findings were that many were steeped in racism, unsubstantiated, or based on second-hand or hearsay evidence. In combing the literature he could not find a single credible eye-witness account. And, as he points out, the hallmark of ethnography is the observation of a practice prior to description. In the end he concluded that cannibalism was not the widespread prehistoric practice it was claimed to be; that anthropologists were too quick to pin the cannibal label on a group based not on responsible research but on our own culturally-determined pre-conceived notions, often motivated by a need to exoticize. He wrote: {{Cquote| Anthropologists have made a no serious attempt to disabuse the public of the widespread notion of the ubiquity of anthropophagists.&nbsp;… in the deft hands and fertile imaginations of anthropologists, former or contemporary anthropophagists have multiplied with the advance of civilization and fieldwork in formerly unstudied culture areas. …The existence of man-eating peoples just beyond the pale of civilization is a common ethnographic suggestion.<ref>Quoted under '' "Cannibalism" as cultural libel'' in {{Citation |url=http://www.cannibalworld.com/Historical_accounts.html |title=Historical accounts |publisher=cannibalworld.com |accessdate=2008-07-07}}<!--direct quotes require supporting cites, per [[WP:V]]-->{{verify credibility|date=July 2008}}</ref> }} Aren's findings are controversial, and have been cited as an example of [[postcolonial]] [[Historical revisionism|revisionism]] <ref>Timothy Taylor, 'The Buried Soul: How Humans Invented Death', Pages 58-60, Fourth Estate 2002</ref>. His argument is often mischaracterized as "cannibals do not and never did exist," when in the end the book is actually a call for a more responsible and reflexive approach to anthropological research. At any rate, the book ushered in an era of rigorous combing of the cannibalism literature. By Aren's later admission, some cannibalism claims came up short, others were reinforced. Conversely, [[Michel de Montaigne]]'s essay "Of cannibals" introduced a new multicultural note in European civilization. Montaigne wrote that "one calls 'barbarism' whatever he is not accustomed to." By using a title like that and describing a fair indigean society, Montaigne may have wished to provoke a surprise in the reader of his ''Essays''. == Themes in mythology and religion == Cannibalism features in many mythologies. Examples are the [[witch]] in ''[[Hansel and Gretel]]'' and [[Baba Yaga]] of [[Slavic folklore]]. A number of stories in [[Greek mythology]] involve cannibalism, in particular cannibalism of close family members, for example the stories of [[Thyestes]], [[Tereus]] and especially [[Cronus]], who was [[Saturn (mythology)|Saturn]] in the Roman pantheon. The story of [[Tantalus]] also parallels this. These mythologies inspired Shakespeare's cannibalism scene in ''[[Titus Andronicus]]''. [[Hindu]] mythology describes evil beings called "asura" or "rakshasa" that dwell in the forests and practice extreme violence including of devouring their own kind, and possess many evil supernatural powers. These are however the Hindu equivalent of "demons" and do not relate to actual tribes of forest-dwelling people. The [[Encyclopædia Britannica]] (2005 edition) recounts how the "Binderwurs of central [[India]] ate their sick and aged in the belief that the act was pleasing to their goddess, [[Kali]]."<ref>[http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/14544 Cannibalism and Human Sacrifice], American Chronicle</ref> == See also == {{commonscat}} *[[Androphagi]] *[[Asmat people]] *[[Manifesto Antropófago]] *[[Placentophagy]] *[[Self-cannibalism]] *''[[Soylent Green]]'' *[[Transmissible spongiform encephalopathy]] *[[Wendigo]] *[[Vorarephilia]] == References == {{reflist|2}} == External links == * [http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/psychology/cannibalism/ All about Cannibalism: The Ancient Taboo in Modern Times (Cannibalism Psychology)] at [[CrimeLibrary.com]] * [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_054.html The Straight Dope] Notes arguing that routine cannibalism is myth * [http://www.straightdope.com/columns/050923.html Did a mob of angry Dutch kill and eat their prime minister?] (from [[The Straight Dope]]) *[http://www.lehigh.edu/~ejg1/natimag/Harry.html Harry J. 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