Endocannibalism

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Endocannibalism is a practice of cannibalism in one's own locality or community. [1] In most cases this refers to the consumption of the remains of the deceased in a mortuary context. [2]

Contents

As a cultural practice

Herodotus (3.38) mentions funerary cannibalism among the Callatiae, a tribe of India.

It is believed that some South American indigenous cultures, such as the Mayoruna people, practiced endocannibalism in the past. [3] The Amahuaca Indians of Peru picked particles of bone out of the ashes of a cremation fire, ground them with corn, and drank them as a kind of gruel. [4] For the Wari' people in western Brazil, endocannibalism was an act of compassion where the roasted remains of fellow Wari' were consumed in a mortuary setting; [5] ideally, the affines (relatives by marriage) would consume the entire corpse, and rejecting the practice would be offensive to the direct family members. [5] Ya̧nomamö consumed the ground-up bones and ashes of cremated kinsmen in an act of mourning; this is still classified as endocannibalism, although, strictly speaking, "flesh" is not eaten. [6] Such practices were generally not believed to have been driven by need for protein or other food. [3]

Medical implications

Kuru is a type of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) caused by prions that are found in humans. [7] Human prion diseases come in sporadic, genetic and infectious forms. Kuru was the first infectious human prion disease discovered. [8] It spread through the Fore people of Papua New Guinea, among whom relatives consumed the bodies of the deceased to return the "life force" of the deceased to the hamlet. [9] Kuru was 8 to 9 times more prevalent in women and children than in men at its peak because, while the men of the village consumed muscle tissues, the women and children would eat the rest of the body, including the brain, where the prion particles were particularly concentrated. [10] Historical research suggests the kuru epidemic may have originated around 1900 from a single individual who lived on the edge of Fore territory, and who is thought to have spontaneously developed some form of Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, a related prion disease. Oral history records that cannibalism began within the Fore in the late 19th century. Research at University College London identified a gene that protects against prion diseases by studying the Fore people. [11]

Currently there is no treatment to cure or even treatment to control kuru, but there are numerous programs being funded by universities and national institutes, such as the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). This institute is currently funding research into the genetic and cellular process behind the development and transmission of kuru and other TSE diseases. [12]

Prehistory of endocannibalism controversy

Whether or not endocannibalism was commonplace through much of human prehistory remains controversial.

A team led by Michael Alpers, a lifelong investigator of kuru, [13] found genes that protect against similar prion diseases were widespread, suggesting that such endocannibalism could have once been common around the world. [14] [15]

A genetic study with a range of authors published by the University College London in 2009 declared evidence of a "powerful episode" of natural selection in recent humans. This evidence is found in the 127V polymorphism, a mutation which protects against the kuru disease. In simpler terms, it would appear the kuru disease has affected all humans to the extent we have a specialised immune response to it. [16] However, a study drawing from hundreds of resources in 2013 claims further that 127V derives from an ancient and wide spread cannibalistic practice, not related to kuru specifically, but "kuru-like epidemics" which appeared around the time of the extinction of the Neanderthals who co-existed with humans. This allows the suggestion that cannibalistic practises may have caused diseases which killed the neanderthals, but not the humans because of the 127V resistance gene. [17]

List of cultures known for endocannibalism

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease</span> Degenerative neurological disorder

Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD), also known as subacute spongiform encephalopathy or neurocognitive disorder due to prion disease, is a fatal degenerative brain disorder. Early symptoms include memory problems, behavioral changes, poor coordination, and visual disturbances. Later symptoms include dementia, involuntary movements, blindness, weakness, and coma. About 70% of people die within a year of diagnosis. The name Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease was introduced by Walther Spielmeyer in 1922, after the German neurologists Hans Gerhard Creutzfeldt and Alfons Maria Jakob.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human cannibalism</span> Practice of humans eating other humans

Human cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh or internal organs of other human beings. A person who practices cannibalism is called a cannibal. The meaning of "cannibalism" has been extended into zoology to describe animals consuming parts of individuals of the same species as food.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prion</span> Pathogenic type of misfolded protein

A prion is a misfolded protein that can induce misfolding of normal variants of the same protein and trigger cellular death. Prions cause prion diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) that are transmissible, fatal neurodegenerative diseases in humans and animals. The proteins may misfold sporadically, due to genetic mutations, or by exposure to an already misfolded protein. The consequent abnormal three-dimensional structure confers on them the ability to cause misfolding of other proteins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scrapie</span> Degenerative disease that affects sheep and goats

Scrapie is a fatal, degenerative disease affecting the nervous systems of sheep and goats. It is one of several transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), and as such it is thought to be caused by a prion. Scrapie has been known since at least 1732 and does not appear to be transmissible to humans. However, it has been found to be experimentally transmissible to humanised transgenic mice and non-human primates.

Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) also known as prion diseases, are a group of progressive, incurable, and fatal conditions that are associated with prions and affect the brain and nervous system of many animals, including humans, cattle, and sheep. According to the most widespread hypothesis, they are transmitted by prions, though some other data suggest an involvement of a Spiroplasma infection. Mental and physical abilities deteriorate and many tiny holes appear in the cortex causing it to appear like a sponge when brain tissue obtained at autopsy is examined under a microscope. The disorders cause impairment of brain function, including memory changes, personality changes and problems with movement that worsen chronically.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Carleton Gajdusek</span> American medical researcher and Nobel Prize laureate

Daniel Carleton Gajdusek was an American physician and medical researcher who was the co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1976 for work on the transmissibility of kuru, implying the existence of an infectious agent, which he named an 'unconventional virus'.

The Fore people live in the Okapa District of the Eastern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea. There are approximately 20,000 Fore who are separated by the Wanevinti Mountains into the North Fore and South Fore regions. Their main form of subsistence is slash-and-burn farming. The Fore language has three distinct dialects and is the southernmost member of the East Central Family, East New Guinea Highlands Stock, Trans–New Guinea phylum of Papuan languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerstmann–Sträussler–Scheinker syndrome</span> Human neurodegenerative disease

Gerstmann–Sträussler–Scheinker syndrome (GSS) is an extremely rare, always fatal neurodegenerative disease that affects patients from 20 to 60 years in age. It is exclusively heritable, and is found in only a few families all over the world. It is, however, classified with the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) due to the causative role played by PRNP, the human prion protein. GSS was first reported by the Austrian physicians Josef Gerstmann, Ernst Sträussler and Ilya Scheinker in 1936.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Major prion protein</span> Protein involved in multiple prion diseases

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cannibalism</span> Consuming another individual of the same species as food

Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is well documented, both in ancient and in recent times.

Laura Manuelidis is a physician and neuropathologist at Yale University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease</span> Degenerative brain disease caused by prions

Variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (vCJD), commonly referred to as "mad cow disease" or "human mad cow disease" to distinguish it from its BSE counterpart, is a fatal type of brain disease within the transmissible spongiform encephalopathy family. Initial symptoms include psychiatric problems, behavioral changes, and painful sensations. In the later stages of the illness, patients may exhibit poor coordination, dementia and involuntary movements. The length of time between exposure and the development of symptoms is unclear, but is believed to be years to decades. Average life expectancy following the onset of symptoms is 13 months.

Exocannibalism, as opposed to endocannibalism, is the consumption of flesh from humans that do not belong to one's close social group—for example, eating one's enemies. It has been interpreted as an attempt to acquire desired qualities of the victim and as "ultimate form of humiliation and domination" of a vanquished enemy in warfare. Such practices have been documented in various cultures, including the Aztecs in Mexico and the Caribs and Tupinambá in South America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kuru (disease)</span> Rare neurodegenerative disease caused by prions

Kuru is a rare, incurable, and fatal neurodegenerative disorder that was formerly common among the Fore people of Papua New Guinea. Kuru is a form of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) caused by the transmission of abnormally folded proteins (prions), which leads to symptoms such as tremors and loss of coordination from neurodegeneration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bovine spongiform encephalopathy</span> Fatal neurodegenerative disease of cattle

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brain as food</span>

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References

  1. ↑ Vilaca, Aparecida (2000). "Relations between Funerary Cannibalism and Warfare Cannibalism: The Question of Predation". Ethnos. 65 (1): 83–106. doi:10.1080/001418400360652. S2CID   143616841.
  2. ↑ Metcalf, Peter (1 January 1987). "Wine of the Corpse: Endocannibalism and the Great Feast of the Dead in Borneo". Representations. 17 (17): 96–109. doi:10.2307/3043794. JSTOR   3043794.
  3. 1 2 Dorn, Georgette M. & Tenenbaum, Barbara A. (1996). Encyclopedia of Latin American history and culture. New York: C. Scribner's Sons. pp. 535–37. ISBN   978-0-684-19253-6. Archived from the original on 7 August 2007. Retrieved 5 August 2007.
  4. ↑ Dole, Gertrude (1962). "Division of Anthropology: Endocannibalism Among the Amahuaca Indians". Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences. 24 (5 Series II): 567–73. doi:10.1111/j.2164-0947.1962.tb01432.x.
  5. 1 2 Conklin, Beth (2001). Consuming Grief . University of Texas Press.
  6. ↑ "Endocannibalism of the Yanomami". Users.rcn.com. Retrieved 31 March 2010.
  7. ↑ Wadsworth, J. D. F.; Joiner, S.; Linehan, J. M.; Desbruslais, M.; Fox, K.; Cooper, S.; Cronier, S.; Asante, E. A.; Mead, S.; Brandner, S.; Hill, A. F.; Collinge, J. (2008). "Kuru prions and sporadic Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease prions have equivalent transmission properties in transgenic and wild-type mice". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 105 (10): 3885–90. Bibcode:2008PNAS..105.3885W. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0800190105 . JSTOR   25461336. PMC   2268835 . PMID   18316717.
  8. ↑ Haïk, Stéphane; Brandel, Jean-Philippe (1 August 2014). "Infectious prion diseases in humans: Cannibalism, iatrogenicity and zoonoses". Infection, Genetics and Evolution. 26: 303–12. doi:10.1016/j.meegid.2014.06.010. PMID   24956437.
  9. ↑ Diamond JM (1997). Guns, germs, and steel: the fates of human societies. New York: W.W. Norton. p. 208. ISBN   978-0-393-03891-0.
  10. ↑ Kuru at eMedicine
  11. ↑ "A Tribe in Papua New Guinea Reveals The Upside of Cannibalism". 11 June 2015. Retrieved 1 September 2015.
  12. ↑ "Kuru Information Page: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)". ninds.nih.gov. Retrieved 1 September 2015.
  13. ↑ "A life of determination". Med.monash.edu.au. 27 February 2009. Retrieved 31 March 2010.
  14. ↑ Mead, Simon; Stumpf, Michael P. H.; Whitfield, Jerome; Beck, Jonathan A.; Poulter, Mark; Campbell, Tracy; et al. (2003). "Balancing selection at the prion protein gene consistent with prehistoric kurulike epidemics". Science. 300 (5619): 640–43. Bibcode:2003Sci...300..640M. doi: 10.1126/science.1083320 . PMID   12690204. S2CID   19269845.
  15. ↑ Danny Kingsley (11 April 2003). "Genes suggest cannibalism common in human past". ABC Science Online. Retrieved 31 March 2010.
  16. ↑ Mead, Simon; Whitfield, Jerome; Poulter, Mark; Shah, Paresh; Uphill, James; Campbell, Tracy; Al-Dujaily, Huda; Hummerich, Holger; Beck, Jon; Mein, Charles A.; Verzilli, Claudio; Whittaker, John; Alpers, Michael P.; Collinge, John (2009). "A Novel Protective Prion Protein Variant that Colocalizes with Kuru Exposure" (PDF). New England Journal of Medicine. 361 (21): 2056–65. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa0809716. PMID   19923577.
  17. ↑ Liberski, Pawel (2013). "Kuru: A Journey Back in Time from Papua New Guinea to the Neanderthals' Extinction". Pathogens. 2 (3): 472–505. doi: 10.3390/pathogens2030472 . PMC   4235695 . PMID   25437203.
  18. ↑ Dole, Gertrude Evelyn. "Endocannibalism among the Amahuaca Indians". Yale. Retrieved 19 September 2021.
  19. 1 2 3 4 Castano, Edwin. "Endocannibalism". Martian Herald. Retrieved 19 September 2021.
  20. ↑ Robb, Alice (19 June 2014). "Will Overpopulation and Resource Scarcity Drive Cannibalism?". The New Republic. Retrieved 19 September 2021.
  21. ↑ Thomas, Ben. "Eating people is wrong – but it's also widespread and sacred". Aeon. Retrieved 19 September 2021.
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