In what ways can we say that cannibalism exists in a normative cultural framework?
Cannibalism is the act of eating human flesh. It is also known as anthropophagy in which a person is not bound to eat human flesh but his/her different organs as well. The act was first identified in the tribe of West Indies. The origin of the term ‘Canibales’ is quite controversial as many narratives said that Christopher Columbus mistakenly called them ‘Canibales’ instead of Caribs. Cannibalism was common in different parts of the world. If its say that the concept was more related to the cultural norm or practice, then it is not wrong. In the past, the act was associated with certain isolated South Pacific cultures which are now the tropical parts of Africa. The most shocking finding is that Cannibalism was practiced in Solomon Islands and New Guinea and to facilitate the human carving, flesh markets also existed in those parts of the world. Today, the act of Cannibalism is not just practiced but condemned in the numerous ways. The concept of Cannibalism is being used by different governments for their personal gains. For instance, government officials at the time of war spread false reports that Cannibalism existed in Poland, Russia, and Ireland, etc.
The social scientists have seen the prevailing act of Cannibalism in three ways: utilitarian/adaptive cannibalism, it is the adaptation of hunger; psychogenic cannibalism, a person needs to satisfy the psychosexual fantasies or mythic; the last one is the hypothetico-deductive in which is considered as the normative function in society. Cannibalism exists deep rooted in different cultures. It is considered as the standard norm to follow to satisfy any human desire whether it is survival desire, revenge, spiritual, personal desire, etc. There are different acts of Cannibalism one of them is Exocannibalism. This act is practiced in wars to satisfy the revenge desire, where a person eats another tribal member. Endocannibalism is one in which person eats human flesh of own’s tribe. Survival or Emergency Cannibalism is one of the most common types, in which human is being consumed to increase the survival chances of another person. Chaotic cannibalism is practiced to destroy the power or force of another person. The last type is Lunatic-fringe, in which human eats other due to mental illness. It is hard to filter out the genuine cases and incidents of Cannibalism as different tribes and authorities usually spread the wrong the news because of some personal gains.
However, two most authentic incidents that depict that Cannibalism does exist in the society are as follows: When Miamian police authorities raid on the Owininga people of Papua New Guinea on the account of Cannibalism allegations; the second one is when the Nobel Prize holder Daniel studied Kuru people who had been suffered from nervous system diseases, according to him, the cause of disease is due to eating of human flesh. The act of Cannibalism exists in different cultures in the form of mythology. For instance, in the American and European cultures, the fantasies of evil characters like a witch, vampire, werewolves, etc. involve in the act of Cannibalism. However, there is the BiminKuskusmin culture of Papua New Guinea, in which different stories are famous about witches, devils, and vampires who ate human flesh to gain power.
It has been proved that those groups of people who are involved in such acts have some similar traits. These traits are as follows: they come from the homogeneous political background where the supreme power belongs to the local government; they come from the societies where they strive hard for food; they associate themselves with those societies which have any historical or maternal cultural dependence (Scott & Mcmurry, 2011). There are different cases reported pertinent to survival, rituals and another form of Cannibalism in the real world. In 1918, a ship named as ‘Dumaru’ sank in Portland; the crewmembers left with nothing just lifeboats spent three weeks there without food, shelter. After that, they started exhausted and to regain their energy; they started depending on ‘Survival Cannibalism.’ A ‘Ritual Cannibalism’ incident reported in 1991 in the Thanksgiving weekend when a famous model ‘Omaima Aree Nelson’ who was the newly married girl sacrificed his husband, Bill. To perform the ritual, she butchered her husband alive, cooked him and frost his organs in the fridge.
In what way is cannibalism associated with mental illness?
The psychological field has studied criminal Cannibalism. It has been proven by different theorists that Cannibalism is associated with a harmonal disturbance in the brain. Many theories have been suggested that Cannibalism is not a normal activity, this criminal activity arises when the person is mentally ill. According to Dr. Clancy McKenzie, who is the psychology professor, stated that most of the people are involved in Cannibalism activities due to trauma which they experienced in their childhood. He further justified his point that children often get over nurtured by their parents and by their separation they get mentally disturbed. They find out Cannibalism as the way of expelling out their frustration, anxiety and anger.
Dr. Park Dietz, who is the criminal expert, explained that it is not necessary that the childhood worst experiences and stress would lead a person to indulge in Cannibalism practices. He justified that by stating an incident of a person Dahmer, who ate his first victim because he experienced family broke up in his adulthood. The stress, frustration, and anger came out for Dahmer by brutally killing and eating human flesh. It has been proven that many Cannibals are the patients of Schizophrenia (Lindenbaum, 2004). Due to personality disorder, hallucinations, delusion and loss of reality, they involve in the Cannibalism criminal activities. One of the most interesting cases has been reported of Cannibal, who ate another man by his consent. Armin Meiwes is a 42 years old Berlin computer expert. He advertised on the internet in which he asked for the young built man who is willing to be eaten up by him. In response to that advertisement, the victim, Mr. Brandes came up at his place, where Meiwes cut his penis and both of them ate it and at last he killed the victim. It was reported that the fantasy and desire for killing and eating human being arose in Meiwes after the death of her mother to whom he was very closed. On further investigation of the case, the findings depicted that Brandes was suffering from severe mental illness.
On the other hand, Meiwes was also the victim of the phychiatric disorder. After eating Brandes, he admitted that he felt more stable and happier, yet his English has been improved since Brandes was good at spoken English. The psychologist said that in the criminal Cannibalism, the cannibal tries to overcome his complexes through killing and eating those who have much better personality traits. They assume that by eating person with good/bad traits influence their personality in that way.
Opinion about Cannibalism
According to me, Cannibalism is the immoral and unethical act. Cannibalism has been originated in various forms based on different logics. I believe that the act is not justifiable if it is done for pleasing some sexual desire, rituals, culture or norms. However, to some extent, the act is acceptable for life-threatening cases because, for survival, people have to do those acts as well which are ethically and morally incorrect. One of the cases of Survival Cannibalism is discussed earlier in this paper. If I would have to commit cannibalism activity, then it would be when I face nothing to eat in the surrounding and just for the sake of my survival I would choose to eat human flesh. If I am in a life boat with no living being around except human, then I would prefer killing that person with or without the consent. The rational of my act is that human being is a selfish creature who can do anything for his/her survival. The ethical and moral grounds of any act are human built and to break them when there is no option left is somehow acceptable for me. Except survival cases, I condemn this act, as it is one of the brutal, reckless and criminal act which needs to be stopped immediately by the government officials by passing and implementing proper laws on such insensitive and life-threatening issue.
References
Lindenbaum, S. (2004) “Thinking About Cannibalism”. Annual review of Anthropology, vol. 33 pp.475-498.
Scott, G.R. and S. Mcmurry (2011) The Delicate Question: Cannibalism In Prehistoric And Historic Times in an Archaeology of Desperation: Exploring the Donner Party's Alder Creek Camp, Dixon, K.J., J.M. schablitsky and S.A. Novak (eds), pp. 211-244. University of oklahoma press
