August 29, 2006
Sleeping with Cannibals
Paul Raffaele in Smithsonian Magazine:
Cannibalism was practiced among prehistoric human beings, and it lingered into the 19th century in some isolated South Pacific cultures, notably in Fiji. But today the Korowai are among the very few tribes believed to eat human flesh. They live about 100 miles inland from the Arafura Sea, which is where Michael Rockefeller, a son of then-New York governor Nelson Rockefeller, disappeared in 1961 while collecting artifacts from another Papuan tribe; his body was never found. Most Korowai still live with little knowledge of the world beyond their homelands and frequently feud with one another. Some are said to kill and eat male witches they call khakhua.
More here.
Posted by S. Abbas Raza at 11:52 PM | Permalink
Comments
In a recently completed long-term study of the Fore peoples of Papua New Guinea, 11 cases of Kuru were found. Kuru is a human form of 'Mad Cow Disease,' believed to be transmitted during the practice of ritual mortuary cannibalism.
Because cannibalism among the Fore had apparently been outlawed by the Australian authorities in the 1950s, the authors of the study concluded that Kuru and related diseases could have very long incubation periods, and cautioned that an epidemic of variant CJD may occur in Europe in the coming decades.
This article in the Smithsonian lends some support to my argument that the ban on cannibalism may not have been implemented as well as was hoped, and that some members of the Fore continued to practice the cannibalistic rituals after the ban.
This would not, however, preclude a long incubation period for the transmissable spongiform encephalopathies (as 'Mad Cow Disease,' Kuru and vCJD are technically called). The length of incubation could perhaps be determined if we knew how long ago the last case of cannibalism among the Fore took place. Was it 5, 10 or 20 years after the ban? Or do some Fore still practice the ritual to the present day? Maybe we'll never know.
Posted by: The neurophilosopher | Aug 30, 2006 7:26:56 AM
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