Cannibalism

The word cannibalism itself gives chills to everyone, well not for those people who likes eating the flesh of another people. Cannibalism in humans simply is the act or practice of human eating the flesh or internal body organs of other human beings and the person who practice cannibalism is called a cannibal.

Cannibalism is a very vast topic to discuss on. No one exactly knows from when humans started eating each other as well. The oldest human bone fossils found in Ethiopia shows this sign as well. Cannibalism has always been a hidden topic in our society since ages. In some societies, especially tribal societies, cannibalism is practices as a social or cultural norm. Researchers have found that some tribal people eat the flesh of the dead member of their group as a sign of love and respect for the soul of the departed one. Some of the Brazilian societies, African societies and countries like New Zealand, New Guinea, Congo are supposed to have cannibals in their society (tribal society). The list of those myths goes on and on.

So why did human start cannibalism? The question doesn’t have an exact reason. But anthropologist suggests that early human may have practiced excessive cannibalism. Due to lack of easy meals, hunting spaces and in the race of survival they might had started eating each other. Researchers found that we, modern humans carry those gene of cannibals. The gene evolved as a protection against a brain disease that can be spread by consuming human brains.

Cannibals are tried to introduce in our societies as the character of a story and movies. The Witch from the famous story “Hansel and Gretel “is a perfect example of a cannibal. Movies like the silence of the lambs, Manhunter, Hannibal, Hannibal rising tries to introduce the concepts of cannibalism and how evil and dangerous a cannibal could be.