Cannibalism (redirected from Chinese cannibalism)

cannibalism (kăn`ĭbəlĭzəm) [Span. caníbal, referring to the Carib], eating of human flesh by other humans. The charge of cannibalism is a common insult, and it is likely that some alleged cannibal groups have merely been victims of popular fear and misrepresentation. Nevertheless, archaeological research suggests that ancient societies did practice cannibalism, and it has been observed in Africa, North and South America, the South Pacific islands, and the West Indies. Widespread cannibalism is usually not found in state-level societies, which have the means to tax and control surplus labor. Nevertheless, one of the most famous cases of cannibalism is that of the Aztecs, who sacrificed their prisoners of war and undoubtedly ate some of them. According to available evidence, most authorities consider the partaking of human flesh almost always to be a ritual practice. A minority of anthropologists, however, believe cannibalism emerged as a cultural response to chronic protein shortages. In modern Western society, cannibalism is commited only by the deranged or by people who otherwise face death from starvation (see Donner Party). In contrast, various traditional cultures are known to have encouraged their members to eat part of their kinsmen's corpses out of respect for the deceased in a practice known as endocannibalism. For example, Foré women of New Guinea, who dispose of the dead, ritually ate their deceased relatives' brains. Some anthropologists believe that head-hunting evolved from cannibalism. Among a few peoples the head of the enemy is preserved and the rest of the body or selected parts of it are eaten; this may represent a connecting link between cannibalism and head-hunting. The term cannibalism is also used in zoology to describe species who prey upon their own kind, such as lions, crabs, ants, and some kinds of fish.

Bibliography

See P. Brown and D. Tuzin, ed., The Ethnography of Cannibalism (1983); A. W. B. Simpson, Cannibalism and the Common Law (1984).

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cannibalism

The usually ritualistic eating of human flesh by humans. The term derives from the Spanish name (Caríbales or Caníbales) for the Carib people, first encountered by Christopher Columbus. Reliable firsthand accounts of the practice are comparatively rare, causing some to question whether full-blown cannibalism has ever existed. Most agree that the consumption of particular portions or organs was a ritual means by which certain qualities of the person eaten might be obtained or by which powers of witchcraft and sorcery might be exercised. In some cases, a small portion of the dead person was ritually eaten by relatives. Headhunters (see headhunting) sometimes consumed bits of the bodies or heads of deceased enemies. The Aztecs apparently practiced cannibalism on a large scale as part of the ritual of human sacrifice.

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cannibalism

In zoology, the eating of any animal by another member of the same species. Certain ants regularly consume injured immatures and, when food is scarce, eat healthy immatures; this practice allows the adults to survive the food shortage and live to breed again. Male lions taking over a pride may kill and eat the existing young. After losing her cubs the mother will become impregnated by the new dominant male, thereby ensuring his genetic contribution. Aquarium guppies sometimes regulate their population size by eating most of their young.

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Cannibalism

Alive

account of cannibalism among air crash survivors. [Am. Lit.: Alive]

Antiphates

chieftain of Laestrygones, man-eating giants of Italy. [Gk. Lit.: Odyssey; Rom. Lit.: Metamorphoses]

Beane, Sawney

highwayman who fed his gang on victims’ flesh. [Br. Culture: Misc.]

black giants

kill, roast, and devour Sindbad’s companions. [Arab. Lit.: Arabian Nights in Magill II, 50]

Caliban

his name is anagram of cannibal. [Br. Lit.: The Tempest]

Clymenus

eats child who is product of incestuous union with daughter Harpalyce. [Gk. Myth.: Howe, 114]

Cronos

swallowed his children at birth; they lived again when he was forced by Zeus to disgorge them. [Gk. Myth.: EB (1963) VI, 747]

Donner Party

of 89 emigrants to California, 47 survive by eating others (1846-1847). [Am. Hist.: EB, III: 623]

Hansel and Gretel

fattened up for child-eating witch. [Ger. Fairy Tale: Grimm, 56]

Laestrygones

man-eating giants encountered by Odysseus. [Gk. Lit.: Odyssey]

Lamia

female spirit in serpent form; devours children. [Gk. Myth.: Zimmerman, 146; Br. Lit.: “Lamia” in Benét, 563]

Lycaon

turned to wolf for cannibalistic activities; whence, lycanthropy. [Gk. Myth.: Espy, 37]

Modest Proposal, A

Swift’s satire suggesting that children of the poor be used as food for the rich (1729). [Br. Lit.: “A Modest Proposal” in Harvey, 793]

Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, The

for four days, survivors feed on Parker’s flesh. [Am. Lit.: Poe, “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym” in Magill I, 640–643]

Pelops

cut up and served as meal to gods. [Gk. Myth.: Brewer Dictionary, 817]

Tereus

wife Procne murders son Itys and serves him to Tereus. [Gk. Myth.: Howe, 144]

Thyestean banquet

banquet where Atreus serves Thyestes’ sons to him as food. [Gk. Myth.: Brewer Dictionary, 1081]

Ugolino

when his children die of starvation in prison, he devours them. [Ital. Poetry: Inferno]

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Cannibalism 

(1) The practice of eating human flesh, widespread in the past among certain tribes and peoples. There were two basic forms of cannibalism: as a source of food and as a religious and magical ritual. Cannibalism as a source of food, as shown by excavated bones that had been burned and split open for extracting the marrow, probably was practiced in the early Stone Age. Later on, with the development of the primitive communal system, the improvement in production, and the increase in food resources, cannibalism as a source of food survived only as an exceptional phenomenon caused by famines. Numerous tribes and peoples practiced religious and magical cannibalism: they ate various parts of slaughtered enemies, prisoners of war, and deceased kinsmen (endocannibalism). The custom was based on the conviction that the victim’s strength and other properties would be transmitted to the eater. Vestiges of religious and magical cannibalism have survived in certain rites of modern world religions—for example, communion (the eating of bread and wine symbolizing the body and blood of Christ) in Christianity.

A. I. PERSHITS

(2) The eating by animals of members of the same species.Cannibalism is one of the manifestations of intraspecific competition and a factor in natural selection. It is most often observed with unfavorable environmental conditions: an overconcentration of population and a shortage of food or water. Thus, in harsh winters when small mammals have died off, wolves, lynxes, and other large carnivores sometimes eat one another. A lack of food or other bad conditions will cause females to eat their young. Mealworm beetles (Tenebrio) feed on their own eggs when their population density becomes high, thereby preventing an increase in the population. Those species that have a more expressed inclination for cannibalism are more likely to survive than other species under unfavorable conditions. Instances are also known of permanent, or obligate, cannibalism that develops in evolution as a useful adaptation. Thus, female karakurts and praying mantises eat the males after mating.

The male American salamander satisfies its hunger by consuming a portion of the eggs from the clutch it is guarding. The parasitic larvae of certain ichneumon flies (Galesus) attempt to destroy their colarvae since the host can sustain only one specimen of the parasite. Certain predatory fishes (for example, the Balkhash perch) consume their young and thus can subsist in a body of water when there is no other food for them.

REFERENCE

Mekhanizmy biologicheskoi konkurentsii: Sb. st. Moscow, 1964. (Translated from English.)

I. KH. SHAROVA