Steven V Johnson wrote:
I'm curious. Why do you suspect you might hesitate to sample it? Is it still a cultural issue, like it might be for me? Do you suspect there might be some part of your psyche that still believes it would be like eating "people" . . .
Maybe slightly, but I tend to have a cold blooded, clinical attitude toward such things. I would hesitate mainly because I am squeamish about new foods. (Not as bad as Peter Hagelstein, who wanted to eat nothing but McDonald's food in Japan, until I introduced him to Japanese fast food such as yakitori.)
I would never eat blowfish. Every year people die from it in Japan. I don't care how good it supposedly tastes. As Dave Barry said: "Clearly this is a fish that Mother Nature is telling us we should leave the hell under water, but to the Japanese it is a great delicacy."
I wonder if our species might have acquired a genetic predisposition NOT to eat our own kind unless there are no other options left for getting protein. Evolution wise, I wonder if it played out that eating your own species on a regular basis turned out to be, more often than not, destabilizing to the overall cohesiveness of the group.
There is some debate about that. Many species are cannibalistic. Usually with intelligent mammals it is a form of infanticide, especially by a male that chases off another and takes over a troop. I think this has been observed with several species, especially lions and chimpanzees. Chimpanzee cannibalism is rare according to some sources. On the other hand, at a lecture I saw photos of chimpanzees killed in territorial disputes that had been found with parts eaten out of them, and bite marks. That's probably ritualistic.
Chimpanzees love to eat other primates, so evidently primates like the taste of primates, and we probably would too. Chimpanzee and other primate meat is popular (among people) in Africa. That's terrible, because many of them are endangered.
Among domesticated animals, pigs love to eat pork, and dogs will readily eat dogs. The first person to reach the South Pole, Amundsen, managed to do it partly by shooting and feeding sledge dogs to other dogs as the supplies were used up. He was later criticized for this. It seemed inhuman. He was an effective explorer, interested in succeeding swiftly at minimal risk. (To humans.)
Cannibalism among humans is a complicated and nuanced subject. It is practiced today only in religious ceremonies, as a way of expressing love for the dead. Doctors are trying to discourage this because it may cause Creutzfeld Jacob disease (spongiform encephalopathy). They are trying to ensure that people eat only ash, which is also a custom, and I think more widespread. In European countries, this is only practiced in a purely ritualistic imaginary fashion, in the Catholic Church rite of transubstantiation. I do not recall any other examples of pretend ritualistic cannibalism, but I expect there are some. In anthropology you soon learn there is nothing people have not done, and just about every behavior is criminal in some societies and heroic in others. Someone once remarked that a motorcycle gang would be celebrated in a Bronze Age heroic saga.
- Jed
