...and a small dash of Cannibalism

Photos

...and a small dash of Cannibalism

see larger image

uploaded by djussila

   Love, not unlike any other human feeling, has many sub-genres. Robert Plutchik, inventor of the “emotion wheel” would define them as advanced emotions. Love breaks down into such sub-sects like friendship, affection, or affiliation to name a few. However, like all relatives they each possess a familiar mannerism. The desire, physically or emotionally, to make contact with other human beings. That being the case, and contact with people is underlying trait inherited by all these emotions, then cannibalism or the act of ingesting human tissue would be the most pure emotion that an individual could ever wish to possibly reach. No emotion, no physical act, could ever achieve brining a person closer to another human being then cannibalism.

 Free-thinking aside, cannibalism has a long and often unsettling history alongside human progress. There isn’t a region in any continent on the planet where people like yourself, haven’t been eating other people. What contrasts region to region however, is the different motive behind the devouring of human flesh. Tribal warfare, insanity, food deprivation and even cultural norms are all excellent examples. Rationale aside, there are two different categories of cannibalism: endocannibalism and exocannibalism. Endocannibalism is the act of eating a person from ones own community or social group. So this could mean your friends, politicians, accused witches, or even members of your own family. The latter category is the act of eating an individual outside of ones own community. Primarily the cannibals would ingest the human tissue hoping to gain knowledge, power, or another valuable trait. Eating an enemy soldiers heart to gain supernatural strength or immortality is one example.

 Cannibalism is an expression of blatant unclothed power . The strength in cannibalism relies on its simplicity. The cannibal has the power over the life of another, and the death of an individual. The weak shall serve the powerful by being eaten. Having power over death, and thereafter, is cannibalisms power. Psychologically, cannibalism has a traumatizing authority over people, including enemies. The Aztecs in pre-Columbian America would eat the flesh of captures soldiers to, not only commune with their gods, but to disturb and disrupt the enemy forces morale. This would continue to be a successful technique for intimidation, up until the Spanish conquistadors under Herman Cortes eliminated the Aztec and their empire. It seems that Cortes considered them “savages”.

 Cannibalism has yet to fade to myth, even in our supposed modern civilized society. The United Nations Security Council has strongly condemned massacres and human rights violations, including cannibalism, by rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Incidences like forced cannibalism on families, and the rape and eventual consummation of young girls haunt the citizens of Africa like a guilty conscience. Exocannibalism occurrences like these, past or present, are easy enough to recognize - and their motive is obvious. To control people, through fear and terror. Exocannibalism is likely the simplest form of terrorism. At least you needn’t any training camps.

 Typically the differences between the two forms of cannibalism is as clear as water. To eat a complete stranger (for whatever motive), or to eat somebody you know. However there are occurrences where both exocannibalism and endocannibalism fail to possess dominion over a freak and rare event. An example of this hybrid of the two forms would be the case of Armin Meiwes in Germany. Meiwes sent out an internet ad looking for a “well-built 18 to 30-year-old to be slaughtered and then consumed”. Eventually, after many failed offers, Bernd Jürgen Brandes responded to the call. On a fixed date, Brandes met Meiwes at his home, in the small village of Roteburg. True to his word, Meiwes murdered Brandes and continued to eat his body over the remainder of the year, slicing off pieces and keeping them in the freezer. Meiwes and the victim even attempted to eat the Brandes’s severed penis together. This episode is unique as it combines both forms of cannibalism together. It is exocannibalism, in the sense that they were two complete strangers, and it wasn’t (and more near the endocannibalism spectrum) because the victim volunteered. As mentioned, endocannibalism is the act ingesting an individual from your own social group. Most of the “victims” of endocannibalism volunteer, or at least, not forced to be ingested.

 In non-modern, primitive societies, cannibalism is the cultural norm as gift giving is to others. Individuals accept these traditions within their group, not knowing any other reality except the behaviours passed through generations. Primitive ignorance and blind rituals are one of the leading cause of endocannibalism. The Korowai people of west New Guinea have survived for thousands of years with little to no contact with the outside world. Cannibalism is part of their culture and is as normal to them as Christmas is to Christians. Margaret Mead, renowned anthropologist, said “The natives ( in New Guinea ) are superficially agreeable, but they go in for cannibalism, headhunting, infanticide, incest, avoidance, and biting lice in half with their teeth” To these primitive pre-moderns, cannibalism is simply a way of life. Endocannibalism doesn’t end at simply primitive traditions however. Survival cannibalism is also a sub-genre of endocannibalism. One of the most famous example of survival cannibalism is, of course, the Donner party. In the gold rush years of the early 19th century, a group of nearly 100 men, women and children endeavoured the cold winter of the Sierra Nevada to try to make a new life in California. After being snowed in, a small group of members resorted to cannibalizing the victims of starvation and cold. 

 Cannibalism could be defined as the relationship between at least two people, and their stomachs. In modern culture, the cannablizing of people is a primitive vice for sub-humans. An archaic and depraved practice for ancient Neanderthals. The slow modernization and reconstruction of humans as a species will, like all primitive beliefs, put an end to cultural cannibalism. In a modern society with enlightened principals, people would have no need for cannibalism. Power, and progress, is achieved through cooperation and civility, as opposed to anarchy and fear. To continue the quest to become more human, and less animal, we have to influence ourselves to let go of our savage lawlessness. Cannibalism is the summation and lowest common denominator of all primordial and animalistic behaviours. To deny cannibalism, would progress the evolution of humanity. Civility is the key to civilization. Anything else is anarchy.