Back in the day I enjoyed some of the work of Marvin Harris, who was an enthusiastic proponent of the notion that Aztec cultures would not have had access to boars and beavers or any other source of protein. The question of being easy to hunt was irrelevant since they used human sacrifices.
But I’m not sure if others take Marvin Harris all that seriously.
…maybe for you.
Ah but what if you stuffed a human with a beaver and then maybe stuffed the beaver with a ham I guess. Delicious AND nutritious.
Yeah, there are actually a fair number of cultures that practiced cannibalism for purely cultural reasons into the 20th century. I don’t know about them always being important factors in their religions. There are a lot of cultural (religious and social) reasons for practicing cannibalism, with varying degrees of importance: in honoring/connecting with deceased family members, honoring/stealing the strength of enemies, for (as it turns out, bogus) medicinal reasons (this has been true up into the 20th centuries in China and Europe), as a way of insulting a person or their family (by negating and dominating the eaten individual), even culturally done for purely culinary reasons (really)… and don’t get me started on people eating placentas now.
You may joke, but I’ve been seeing references to “Chinese culinary cannibalism” in my reading - it’s disturbing. There’s not a lot of detail outside a couple books which I have yet to get ahold of, but apparently at different times in Chinese history, it was cultural practice where people were actually being killed (presumably mostly the poor) because they were desirable as meat (for presumably the rich), and there were actual markets for human meat fed by military actions (civilians were literally being butchered). This may not have entirely stopped until some time after the Cultural Revolution. (Though there appears to be a black market for medicinal cannibalism still in China.)
Hu-Beav-Am?
You know that piece of gristle in cheap steak?
That’s what I feel the entirety of the Keith Richards burger is like.
I’m a Huboon, baby, I’m a cross between a human and an ape.
That’s sad. What could be healthier than eating doctor?
No, no, no, you haven’t been paying attention. What you need is retired athletes; Lots of good, quality protein, yet well-marbled with a nice fat pad for flavor. Triathletes and the like, however, are only good for soups, stews or pot roast.
Self-propelled ration packs:
Yup.
[Retracted as I was comparing the calories / kg calculation in Cole’s paper with the calories / lb figure in the media ]
If you’re thinking about the Völkner incident, the claim that his eyeballs were swallowed appears to be a colonial atrocity-story invention.
So… Would that be called a Hubeavham?
There were incidents of cannibalism during the Great Leap Forward in China due to simple starvation.
Thanks!
Di nada. It’s a fascinating campaign, and I can’t recommend this highly enough. Only one section is on Titokowaru, but the whole book is a great read. There’s also this, by the same author, but I haven’t started reading it yet.
Also good on Titokowaru (the exhibition catalog incorporates an essay by Belich):
