Cannibalism

by Bill Schutt

  207 Referring to a reported instance of bone ash cannibalism: G. Dole, “Endocannibalism among the Amahuaca Indians,” Transactions of the New York Academy of Science (Series II) 24 (1962): 567–73.

  209 “although the theoretical possibility of customary: W. Arens, The Man-Eating Myth (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979), p. 184.

  210 Scholar Key Ray Chong: Chong, Cannibalism in China (Wakefield, NH: Longwood Academic, 1990), p. 93.

  210 “the gall bladder, bones, hair: D. Korn, M. Radice, and C. Hawes, Cannibal: The History of the People-Eaters (London: Channel 4 Books, 2001), p. 92.

  211 So popular was this practice: K. Gordon-Grube, “Anthropophagy in post-Renaissance Europe: The tradition of medicinal cannibalism,” American Anthropologist 90 (1988): 407.

  212 Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires: R. Sugg, Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires: The History of Corpse Medicine from the Renaissance to the Victorians (London: Routledge, 2011), p. 384.

  212 “human liver . . . oil distilled from human brains: Richard Sugg, “The Aztecs, cannibalism and corpse medicine (1),” Aztecs at Mexicolore (website), http://www.mexicolore.co.uk/index.php?one =azt&two=aaa&id=325&typ=reg.

  213 “One thing we are rarely taught at school: Fiona Macrae, “British royalty dined on human flesh (but don’t worry, it was 300 years ago),” Daily Mail, May 21, 2011, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1389142 /British-royalty-dined-human-flesh-dont-worry-300-years-ago.html.

  213 Additional high-profile advocates of medicinal cannibalism included: Sugg, “The Aztecs, cannibalism and corpse medicine (1).”

  213 With an ever-increasing demand: Gordon-Grube, “Anthropophagy in post-Renaissance Europe,” p. 407.

  213 “privy members cut off: J. Lawrence, A History of Capital Punishment (New York: Citadel Press, 1960), p. 193.

  213 “upon some of the city gates”: Gordon-Grube, “Anthropophagy in post-Renaissance Europe,” p. 407.

  214 Researcher Paolo Modenesi believes: P. Modenesi, “Skull lichens: A curious chapter in the history of phytotherapy,” Fitoterapia 80 (2009): 145–48.

  214 Ideally, the moss from the skulls: Gordon-Grube, “Anthropophagy in post-Renaissance Europe,” p. 406.

  214 “the cranium of a carcass that had been broken: Modenesi, “Skull lichens,” p. 147.

  215 a bizarre medical treatment known as hoplochrisma: Ibid., p. 147.

  215 “choose what is of a shining black: A. Wootton, Chronicles of Pharmacy, 2 vols. (New York: USV Pharmaceutical Corporation, 1972), 2:24.

  216 [The Paracelist Oswald] Croll recommended: Gordon-Grube, “Anthropophagy in post-Renaissance Europe,” p. 406.

  217 Listed as mumia vera aegyptica: Modenesi, “Skull lichens,” p. 148.

  217 “the rise of Enlightenment attitudes: Sugg, Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires, pp. 264–65.

  217 “after having Dad’s ashes: K. Richards, Life (New York: Little Brown, 2010), p. 546.

  Chapter 16—Placenta Helper

  219 It gave me the wildest rush: A. A. Abrahamian, “The placenta cookbook,” New York, August 29, 2011, p. 49.

  219 “Perfect,” “beautiful,” “precious”: Ibid., p. 48.

  224 In 1930, primatologist Otto Tinklepaugh took a break: O. Tinklepaugh and C. Hartman, “Behavioral aspects of parturition in the monkey (Macacus rhesus),” Journal of Comparative Psychology 11, no. 1 (1930): 63–98.

  225 Researchers initially posited: M. B. Kristal, J. DiPirro, and A. Thompson, “Placentophagia in humans and nonhuman mammals: Causes and consequences,” Ecology of Food and Nutrition 51 (2012): 179.

  225 “voracious carnivorousness”: Ibid., p. 179.

  225 He and his colleagues set out to investigate: M. B. Kristal, A. Thompson, and H. Grishkat, “Placenta ingestion enhances opiate analgesia in rats,” Physiology and Behavior 35 (1985): 481–86.

  226 In 2010, researchers at the University of Nevada: S. Young and D. Benyshek, “In search of human placentophagy: A cross-cultural survey of human placenta consumption, disposal practices, and cultural beliefs,” Ecology of Food and Nutrition 49 (2010): 467–84.

  227 “throwing it into a lake”: Ibid., p. 473.

  227 followed by “burial”: Ibid., p. 473.

  227 “hanging or placing the placenta in a tree”: Ibid., p. 473.

  227 the Great Pharmacopoiea of 1596: W. Ober, “Notes on placentophagy,” Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine 55, no. 6 (1979): 596.

  227 “coldness of the sexual organs: Ibid., p. 596.

  228 On a more recent and Western note: S. Benet, Song, Dance and Customs of Peasant Poland (New York: Roy, 1951), pp. 196–97.

  228 “I Ate My Wife’s Placenta: N. Baines, “I ate my wife’s placenta raw in a smoothie and cooked in a taco,” Guardian, April 30, 2014, http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/apr/30/i-ate-wifes-placenta -smoothie-taco-afterbirth.

  234 In a 1954 study, Czech researchers: E. Soyková-Pachnerová, B. Golová, and E. Zvolská, “Placenta as a lactagogon,” Gynaecologia 138 (1954): 617–27.

  238 The Somosomo people were fed: Online Etymology Dictionary, “Extract of a letter from the Rev. John Watsford, dated October 6, 1846,” in “Wesleyan Missionary Notices,” September 1847, http://www.etymonline .com/index.php?term=long+pig&allowed_in_frame.

  239 “I sautéed the steak of Bernd with salt: Spiegel Online International, “First TV interview with German cannibal: ‘Human flesh tastes like pork,’ ” October 16, 2007, http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist /first-tv-interview-with-german-cannibal-human-flesh-tastes-like-pork -a-511775.html.

  239 compared his victim’s flesh to raw tuna: T. Kosuga, “Who’s hungry?” translated by Lena Oishi, Vice, January 2, 2009, http://www.vice.com /read/whos-hungry-502-v16n1.

  240 “It was good, fully developed veal: W. Seabrook, Jungle Ways (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1931), p. 272.

  241 “Animals eat their placenta: BBC News, “Why eat a placenta?” April 18, 2016, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4918290.stm.

  Chapter 17—Cannibalism in the Pacific Islands

  244 According to research biochemist Colm Kelleher: C. Kelleher, Brain Trust (New York: Paraview Pocket Books, 2004), p. 115.

  244 By 1987, there were over 400 confirmed cases: Ibid., p. 117.

  247 Fore elders told the foreigners: W. Anderson, The Collectors of Lost Souls (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), p. 14.

  248 the locals were “difficult people to deal with”: Ibid., p. 21–22.

  248 “Actually these people are ‘bestial’ in many ways”: Ibid., p. 25.

  248 “Dead human flesh, to these people: Ibid., p. 24.

  249 A decade later, the not-yet-controversial anthropologist: W. Arens, The Man-Eating Myth (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979), p. 99.

  249 Arens was particularly galled by Berndt’s description: Ibid., p. 99.

  249 “Now you have cut off my penis!”: R. Berndt, Excess and Restraint (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962), p. 283.

  250 He studied rabies and plague: R. Rhodes, Deadly Feasts (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997), p. 32.

  250 I am in one of the most remote: Anderson, The Collectors of Lost Souls, p. 61.

  251 But Gajdusek had never seen any actual cannibalism: Ibid., pp. 62–80.

  251 their initial findings were published in the prestigious: D. C. Gajdusek and V. Zigas, “Degenerative disease of the central nervous system in New Guinea: The endemic occurrence of kuru in the native population,” New England Journal of Medicine 257 (1957): 974–78.

  252 “The closest condition I can think: Anderson, The Collectors of Lost Souls, p. 80.

  252 Another NIH scientist noticed a similarity: Kelleher, Brain Trust, pp. 29–31.

  252 Scrapie, which was present in European sheep: Ibid., pp. 31–32.

  253 Miffed that medical researchers were now intruding: Anderson, The Collectors of Lost Souls, p. 81.

  253 Bennett proposed that a mutant kuru gene: Ibid., p. 124.

&
nbsp; 254 In the eastern highlands of New Guinea: Anonymous, “The laughing death,” Time, November 11, 1957, pp. 55–56, http://www.time.com/time /magazine/article/0,9171,867948-1,00.html#ixzz0sAV5Fs00.

  254 For his part, Gajdusek hated the media coverage: Anderson, The Collectors of Lost Souls, p. 81.

  256 Finally, any society has practices considered: J. Diamond, “Talk of cannibalism,” Nature 407, no. 6800 (September 7, 2000): 25-26.

  258 Nevertheless, Robert Glasse published his and his then-wife’s: R. M. Glasse, “The social effects of kuru,” Papua New Guinea Medical Journal 7 (1964): 36–47.

  258 Finally, Glasse calculated that kuru: John D. Mathews, Robert Glasse, and Shirley Lindenbaum, “Kuru and cannibalism,” Lancet 2 (1968): 449–52.

  259 Nearly 50 years after Glasse published: J. Whitfield, W. Pako, J. Collinge, and M. Alpers, “Mortuary rites of the South Fore and kuru,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 363 (2008): 3721–24.

  259 As for how the funerary practices: Ibid., p. 3722.

  260 “nothing was lost on the ground: Ibid., p. 3722.

  260 The head of the deceased: Ibid., p. 3724.

  260 including reproductive organs and feces: Rhodes, Deadly Feasts, pp. 22–23.

  261 By tracing the path of the kuru reports: S. Lindenbaum, “Cannibalism, kuru and anthropology,” Folia Neuropathologica 47, no. 2 (2009): 139.

  261 Whitfield, who conducted nearly 200 interviews: Shirley Lindenbaum and Jerome Whitfield, personal communications.

  262 In 2008, Michael Alpers wrote: M. Alpers, “The epidemiology of kuru: Monitoring the epidemic from its peak to its end,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B, Biological Sciences 363, no. 1510 (2008): 3707–13.

  Chapter 18—Mad Cows and Englishmen

  263 Unfortunately, the custom of consuming human flesh: B. Fagan, The Aztecs (New York: W. H. Freeman, 1984), p. 233.

  263 In England, however, where there is no substantial soybean: C. Kelleher, Brain Trust (New York: Paraview Pocket Books, 2004), p. 118.

  264 In searching for answers, the British government enlisted: P. Yam, The Pathological Protein (New York: Copernicus Books, 2003), p. 110.

  265 Previously, dangerous solvents had been used: Kelleher, Brain Trust, p. 120.

  265 The first was a significant increase: Rhodes, Deadly Feasts (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997), p. 180.

  266 In 1947, an outbreak of what would become known: Rhodes, Deadly Feasts, pp. 81–82.

  267 they inoculated a trio of chimpanzees: Ibid., p. 87.

  269 In a February 1966 article: D. C. Gajdusek, C. Gibbs, and M. Alpers. “Experimental transmission of a kuru-like syndrome to chimpanzees,” Nature 209 (February 19, 1966): 794–96.

  269 “The mechanism of spread of kuru: D. C. Gajdusek, “Kuru in the New Guinea highlands,” in Tropical Neurology, edited by J. D. Spillane (New York: Oxford University Press), pp. 376–83.

  270 In a 2002 interview, the NIH researcher: R. Uridge, “BSE: The untold story,” Fortune City, January 23, 2002, http://www.fortunecity.com /emachines/e11/86/bse.html.

  271 At the forefront of the mystery: Rhodes, Deadly Feasts, pp. 120–22.

  272 In another set of experiments, South African radiation biologist: T. Alper, D. Haig, and M. Clarke, “The exceptionally small size of the scrapie agent,” Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 22 (1966): 278–84.

  272 After reading over Alper’s work: J. S. Griffith, “Self-replication and scrapie,” Nature 215, no. 5105 (1967): 1043–44.

  272 But Stanley Prusiner, a young biochemist: Anderson, The Collectors of Lost Souls, pp. 190–94.

  273 In 1982, Prusiner published his lab findings: S. Prusiner, “Novel proteinaceous infectious particles cause scrapie,” Science 216, no. 4542 (1982): 136–44.

  274 “invaded and colonized the work: Rhodes, Deadly Feasts, p. 203.

  274 accusations that he had used the peer review: Ibid., pp. 203–5.

  Chapter 19—Acceptable Risk

  276 a “blue ribbon” panel: C. Kelleher, Brain Trust (New York: Paraview Pocket Books, 2004), p. 125.

  277 offering them only 50 percent of market value: P. Yam, The Pathological Protein (New York: Copernicus Books, 2003), p. 118.

  277 “Spongiform Fear Grows”: L. Cahill, “Spongiform fear grows,” Farming News, April 22, 1988.

  277 “Raging Cattle Attacks”: D. Brown, “Raging cattle attacks,” Sunday Telegraph, April 24, 1988.

  277 An earlier paper in Nature also demonstrated: C. Gibbs Jr. and D. C. Gajdusek, “Transmission of scrapie to the cynomolgus monkey (Macaca fascicularis),” Nature 236 (1972): 73–74.

  278 “the risk of transmission of BSE: Southwood Working Party, The BSE Inquiry, vol. 4: The Southwood Working Party, 1988–89, National Archives, http://collections.europarchive.org/tna/20090505194948/http://bseinquiry.gov.uk/report/volume4/chapt102.htm#888456.

  278 The authors of the Southwood report: Kelleher, Brain Trust, p. 140.

  278 In 2007, she and her coworkers identified: L. Manuelides, Y. Zhoa-Xue, N. Barquero, and B. Mullins, “Cells infected with scrapie and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease agents produce intracellular 25-nm virus-like particles,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104, no. 6 (2007): 1966–70.

  280 In 1993, two British dairy farmers died: Rhodes, Deadly Feasts (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997), p. 187.

  280 In May of the same year, 15-year-old Victoria Rimmer: Ibid., pp. 187–88.

  281 “Think about the economy”: Ibid., p. 188.

  281 In 1994, a 16-year-old schoolgirl: Ibid., p. 188–89.

  281 On March 8, 1996, the hammer fell: Kelleher, Brain Trust, p. 165.

  281 The new disease was initially: J. Ironside and J. Bell, “Florid plaques and new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease,” The Lancet 350, no. 9089 (November 15, 1997): 1475.

  281 By October 2013, the number of definite: A. Hodgekiss and J. Hope, “One in 2,000 people in the UK carry ‘abnormal proteins’ linked to mad cow disease,” Daily Mail, October 15, 2013, http://www.dailymail.co.uk /health/article-2461354/Mad-cow-disease-One-2-000-people-UK-carry -abnormal-proteins-linked-vCJD.html

  282 “anonymous appendix samples: British Medical Journal, “Researchers estimate one in 2,000 people in the UK carry variant CJD proteins,” October 14, 2013, http://www.bmj.com/press-releases/2013/10/14 /researchers-estimate-one-2000-people-uk-carry-variant-cjd-proteins.

  282 The researchers and their colleagues: S. Mead, J. Whitfield, M. Poulter, P. Shah, J. Uphill, J. Beck, T. Campbell, H. Al-Dujaily, M. Alpers, and J. Collinge, “Genetic susceptibility, evolution and the kuru epidemic,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, B 363 (2008): 3741–46.

  282 In 2015, Collinge and his research team: E. Asante, M. Smidak, A. Grimshaw, R. Houghton, A. Tomlinson, A. Jeelani, T. Jakubcova, S. Hamdan, A. Richard-Londt, J. Linehan, S. Brandner, M. Alpers, J. Whitfield, S. Mead, J. Wadsworth, and J. Collinge, “A naturally occurring variant of the human prion protein completely prevents prion disease,” Nature 522, no. 7557 (2015): 478–81.

  285 “I raise the virus issue”: Rhodes, Deadly Feasts, p. 251.

  Epilogue—One Step Beyond

  289 “an older homosexual tramp: J. Green, Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang (London: The Orion Publishing Group, 2005), p. 240.

  289 “He is guilty of nothing more: S. Larimer, “New York’s ‘cannibal cop’ released after judge overturns 2013 conviction,” Washington Post, July 1, 2014, http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/07 /01/new-yorks-cannibal-cop-released-after-judge-overturns-2013 -conviction/.

  290 “are people who have a tremendous desire to destroy: B. Robinson, “Why killers cannibalize,” ABC News, May 22, 2002, http://abcnews .go.com/US/story?id=90012.

  291 “Viewing anything that involves violence: F. Rice, “Whodunnit then? Here’s why we’re all so obsessed with violent crime,” Marie Claire, March 9, 2015, http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/blogs/548712/whodunnit-then -here-s-w
hy-we-re-all-so-obsessed-with-violent-crime.html.

  291 In the Darfur region of the Sudan: O. Brown and R. McLeman, “Climate change as the ‘new’ security threat: Implications for Africa,” International Affairs 83, no. 6 (2007): 1141–54.

  291 where researchers Daniel Griffin and Kevin Anchukaitis used soil: D. Griffin and K. Anchukaitis, “How unusual is the 2012-2014 California drought?” Geophysical Research Letters 41 (2014): 9017–23.

  292 According to the United Nations Environmental Programme: Ibid., p. 1143.

  294 as well as in “ancient Egypt, ancient Greece and Rome: L. Petrinovich, The Cannibal Within (Piscataway, NJ: Transaction, 2000), p. 171.

  Recommended Books on Cannibalism and Related Topics

  Warwick Anderson, The Collectors of Lost Souls (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008).

  William Arens, The Man-Eating Myth (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979).

  Hans Askenasy, Cannibalism—From Sacrifice to Survival (New York: Prometheus Books, 1994).

  Catalin Avramescu, An Intellectual History of Cannibalism, translated by Alister Ian Blyth (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009).

  John Barber and Andrei Dzeniskevich, eds., Life and Death in Besieged Leningrad, 1941–44 (Hampshire, UK: Palgrave MacMillan, 2005).

  Francis Barker, Peter Hulme, and Margaret Iversen, eds., Cannibalism and the Colonial World (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998).

  Jasper Becker, Hungry Ghosts: Mao’s Secret Famine (New York: The Free Press, 1996).

  Ronald M. Berndt, Excess and Restraint (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962).

  James Gillespie Blaine, James William Buel, John Clark Ridpath, and Benjamin Butterworth, Columbus and Columbia: A Pictorial History of the Man and the Nation (Richmond, VA: B.F. Johnson and Company, 1892).

  Robert Bloch, Psycho (New York: Random House, 1958).

  Daniel James Brown, The Indifferent Stars Above (New York: William Morrow, 2009).

  Robert Chambers, Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (London: John Churchill, 1844).