Endocannibalism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Endocannibalism (from Greek Endo- "internal" or "from within" and cannibalism) is the term which describes the practice of eating dead members of one's own culture, tribe or social group. The practice may have a variety of purposes, including an attempt to absorb the characteristics of the deceased, the belief that by eating human flesh there is a regeneration of life after death,[1] the incorporation of the spirit of the dead into living descendants, or to ensure the separation of the soul from the body.
Contents |
[edit] As a cultural practice
Some Indigenous Australians performed such practices as acts of respect for the dead person (presumably as a sign of the dead person's worth),[2] as well as some Native American cultures such as the Mayoruna people.[3] Ya̧nomamö consumed the ground-up bones and ashes of cremated kinsmen in an act of mourning. This still is classified as endocannibalism, although, strictly speaking, "flesh" is not eaten.[4] The Aghoris of northern India consume the flesh of the dead floated in the Ganges in pursuit of immortality and supernatural powers.[5]
Such practices were generally not believed to have been driven by need for protein or other food.[3]
[edit] Medical implications
Kuru is a incurable prion disease that causes neurological deterioration.[6] It spread through the women and children of the Fore tribe of Papua New Guinea, who ate the brains of their deceased relatives.[7] The Kuru epidemic which is recorded to have began in the 1920s is believed to have been started by the consumption of a single individual with Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, which then spread through the population. Oral history records that cannibalism began within the Fore in the late 19th century. Cannibalistic practices were largely eliminated as Australian law enforcement and Christian missionaries spread through the island in the mid 20th century, though the long incubation period of the disease meant cases occurred into the 1990s.[8]
A team lead by Michael Alpers, a lifelong investigator of the Kuru disease,[9] found genes that protect against similar prion diseases were widespread around the world, indicating that such endocannibalism was once common around the world.[8][10]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Cannibalism". Encyclopedia of Death and Dying. http://www.deathreference.com/Bl-Ce/Cannibalism.html. Retrieved 2008-02-13.
- ^ "Endocannibalism (ritual)". Encyclopedia Britannica. http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-186851/endocannibalism. Retrieved 2008-02-13.
- ^ a b Dorn, Georgette M.; Tenenbaum, Barbara A. (1996). Encyclopedia of Latin American history and culture. New York: C. Scribner's Sons. ISBN 0684192535. http://personalwebs.oakland.edu/~dow/personal/papers/cannibal/cannibal.html. Pages 535-537.
- ^ Endocannibalism of the Yanomami
- ^ "Indian cannibal sect eats human corpses, believing it give them supernatural powers". Pravada. 2005-10-25. http://newsfromrussia.com/world/2005/10/27/66369_.html. Retrieved 2008-02-13.
- ^ Wadsworth JD, Joiner S, Linehan JM, et al. (March 2008). "Kuru prions and sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease prions have equivalent transmission properties in transgenic and wild-type mice". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 105 (10): 3885–90. doi:. PMID 18316717. PMC 2268835. http://www.pnas.org/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=18316717.
- ^ eMedicine - Kuru : Article by Paul A Janson
- ^ a b Simon Mead, Michael P. H. Stumpf, Jerome Whitfield, Jonathan A. Beck, Mark Poulter, Tracy Campbell, James Uphill, David Goldstein, Michael Alpers, Elizabeth M. C. Fisher, John Collinge (2003), "Balancing Selection at the Prion Protein Gene Consistent with Prehistoric Kurulike Epidemics", Science 300 (5619): 640-643
- ^ http://www.med.monash.edu.au/news/2009/michael-alpers-biography.html
- ^ http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2003/04/11/828800.htm?site=science_dev&topic=latest&listaction=unsubscribe
 |
This article relating to anthropology is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
