Monday, March 8, 2010

Cannibalism - Eating of Human by Another Human

Cannibalism  a West Indies tribe well known for their practice of cannibalism), also called anthropophagy, is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings.Cannibalism has recently been both practiced and fiercely condemned in several wars, especially in Liberia and Congo. Today, the Korowai are one of very few tribes still believed to eat human flesh. It is also still known to be practiced as a ritual and in war in various Melanesian tribes.

Reasons for cannibalism

The reasons for cannibalism include the following:
  • As sanctioned by a cultural norm
  • By necessity in extreme situations of famine
  • Caused by insanity or social deviancy
There are fundamentally two kinds of cannibalistic social behavior; endocannibalism (eating humans from the same community) and exocannibalism (eating humans from other communities).
A separate ethical distinction can be made to delineate between the practice of killing a human for food (homicidal cannibalism) versus eating the flesh of a person who was already dead (necro-cannibalism).

There are many forms of spiritual and ritualistic cannibalism worldwide. 
Exocannibalism:
Exocannibalism is defined as a culture, group or tribe's consumption of another culture, group or tribe. This form of cannibalism has been associated with tribal power, murder and aggression and has been used in an effort to scare off possible invading enemies, to get rid of captured enemies of war and slaves. Many cannibalistic tribes believed that consuming one's enemy would allow them to obtain and absorb the spirit and skills of the victim. 

Endocannibalism:
Conversely, the consumption of members within one's own culture, group or tribe is called Endocannibalism, which is often associated with ritual burial ceremonies and has been controversially referred to on occasion as "compassionate cannibalism." Mortuary cannibalism has been considered to be the most widely practiced form of endocannibalism, often excluding murder and focusing on already deceased corpses.


The ancient Aztecs in Mexico were believed to have sacrificed and cannibalized thousands of humans on an annual basis. The Aztecs were believed to have practiced exocannibalism, as well as endocannibalism and survival cannibalism. Human sacrifice and cannibalism was practiced in an effort to create a universal balance between of the world and the cosmos.

Other cultures participated in endo- and exo-cannibalism for similar reasons, such as The North American Indians, known as the Iroquoian. They believed that sacrificing and consuming the bodies of their enemies would satisfy their war god and lead to their spirit being transferred and absorbed into their own bodies. The absorbed spirit was believed to empower the cannibal with the attributes of the dead person. Moira Martingale, author of Cannibal Killers, claims that this form of ritualistic cannibalism was practice by the Iroquoian culture as recently as 1838.

20 comments:

Unknown said...

mast hai yaar

g said...

nice one mate!thanx for the info!BTW the pic is really scary :D

vamsee

sabkuchdilse.blogspot.com

Dan* said...

yew... disgusting !

learn something new everytime i visit your blog :)

VeeKay said...

nice comeback bro..I almost felt u abandoned blogging..Good that u are here again..welcome back..:)

Nethra said...

Its also practiced in India. I saw it on tv.
By the way, nice post. Very informative. :)
You couldn't have chosen a better topic. :)

Blogger said...

an eye opener ..Nice info ..I never knew these things ...Well written !

Anonymous said...

Hey nice to find you on your blog again...really like the article..
Keep updating your blog on regular basis...
:)

SAYAN said...

nice post and cool blog.....!

Anonymous said...

Nice Post

-------
Thanks for submit on
http://blog-linkexchange-blog.blogspot.com/

Vinayak said...

awesome

Anonymous said...

thnks for submit

vineet said...

damn informatv,very good wrk n unique..appreciated

HIMANSHU KARKI said...

@karan, @g, @vinayak, @Blogger, @vineet

thnks for ur comments frnds keep visiting :)

HIMANSHU KARKI said...

@DAN
welcome buddy....

@vamsi
yeah buddy even i miss this blogging
thnks for welcoming :)
keep vising keep blogging

HIMANSHU KARKI said...

@Nethra
yeah true but in south America and in some countries of Europe it still practiced..

nd i tried to have a unique topic so here it is :P :D

HIMANSHU KARKI said...

@vijay

thanks buddy
i will try to find more diffrent topics

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Unknown said...

That was a damn good piece of information.. I never knew Cannibalism has so many sub-types.. I am happy I stumbled across your blog.. :)

HIMANSHU KARKI said...

@thanks pooja for ur comment

keep visiting :) :)

Amogh said...

Its really disgusting how people eat other people..anyways nice post

Amogh
www.ttoe.co.in

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