Re: Cannibalism (was Sentism)

Joe E. Dees (jdees0@students.uwf.edu)
Fri, 28 Aug 1998 00:35:48 -0500

From:           	"Scott Badger" <wbadger@psyberlink.net>
To:             	<extropians@extropy.com>
Subject:        	Cannibalism (was Sentism)
Date sent:      	Fri, 28 Aug 1998 00:12:25 -0500
Send reply to:  	extropians@extropy.com

> Spike Jones <spike66@ibm.net> wrote on
> Date: Thursday, August 27, 1998 9:33 PM:
>
>
> >Scott Badger wrote:
> >
> >> ...An anthropology professor I had told me that it was
> >> one of the most tender and sweet meats in the world, which is why lions
> and
> >> the like become man-eaters...
> >
> >scott i would like to check that reference. i read somewhere that the
> taste
> >of human flesh is revolting, even to those who are cannibals. likewise
> >with chimp flesh. it is easy enough to check: do big cats go
> >for chimps only when hungry, chasing antelope first when available?
> >could your professor have been trying to squick the
> >students just for fun? {8^D spike
>
>
> Wouldn't put it past him. Not that this is a definitive response, but from
> the URL:
>
> http://www.netaxs.com/~trance/cannibal.html
>
> "The Easter Islanders' cannibalism was not exclusively a religious rite or
> the expression of an urge for revenge: it was also induced by a simple
> liking for human flesh that could impel a man to kill for no other reason
> than his desire for fresh meat. (Man was the only large mammal whose flesh
> was available) Women and children were the principal victims of these
> inveterate cannibals. The reprisals that followed such crimes were all the
> more violent because an act of cannibalism committed against the member of a
> family was a terrible insult to the whole family. As among the ancient
> Maoris, those who had taken part in the meal were entitled to show their
> teeth to the relatives of the victim and say, 'Your flesh has stuck between
> my teeth'. Such remarks were capable of rousing those to whom they were
> addressed to a murderous rage not very different from the Maly amok."
>
> So where's the reference for your claim that human meat is revolting?
>
> Scott

Eating someone can apparently cause their relatives to revolt.