In the spirit of Red Dragon...

[J.R.]

Cannibalism's a complicated subject. What makes one a cannibal, and how does a flesh-eater operate in today's society? I've come up with a few perplexing questions about the subject-

If one were to eat dandruff, their own or someone else's, would that be cannibalism? It is dead skin after all.

The human body is rather large, do cannibals sometimes just take quarters or halves, as with chicken?
 
If we did evolve from lower animals, does that mean that if I were to eat a fish fillet,  I'd technically be gnawing on an ancestor?

[Flangepart]

My guess....No, its dead, and only a "body part"....Yes, for reasons of portability.....and, no, as cannibalisim seems defined as in-species consumsion,not applicable after that much genetic mutation.
....Now my question....red wine, or white wine?

[Chadzilla]

Flangepart wrote:
>
> ....Now my question....red wine, or white wine?
>

Lesson learned in From Russia with Love

DO NOT order red wine with fish, it will p**s of James Bond and he will kill you.

[Dano]

What makes one a cannibal,
*****  Eating the flesh of those of its same species.

and how does a flesh-eater operate in today's society?
*****  Carefully lest he get thrown in a bullet-proof glass cage in a musty basement to seve as an FBI profiler.

If one were to eat dandruff, their own or someone else's, would that be cannibalism? It is dead skin after all.
*****  Man, that's gross.  I'll put it this way.  If you scraped some icing from a cake and ate it, would you feel that you had eaten some of the cake?  I don't think it counts.

The human body is rather large, do cannibals sometimes just take quarters or halves, as with chicken?
*****  Cannibals don't strike me as calm individuals who weigh how hungry they are when dividing a human carcas.  I think feeding-frenzies are their preferred mode of consuming "food."  While they may gravitate toward greasy ribs or meaty thighs as is their preference, I generally do not think they consider much what parts they devour.  Of course the rules change if they are zombies.  For them it's mostly scalp, skull, and brains.

If we did evolve from lower animals, does that mean that if I were to eat a fish fillet, I'd technically be gnawing on an ancestor?
*****  More like a distant cousin who just couldn't get with the times.  I don't know what the moral implications are, although the Catholic church doesn't seem to have much trouble with it.

[Chadzilla]

Cannibalism is performed via two factors - survival (i.e. the Argentinian soccer team stranded in the Andes, or the Donner Party) or ritual (i.e. tribal burial rights, etc.)

Survival mandated cannibalism leads to all edible parts of the body being eaten.

Ritual cannibalism focuses on certain parts (brain, heart, etc).  Some tribes will eat the brain of a dead relative to 'recycle' the relatives being within the family.  Warriors will eat the flesh of their dead enemies to either defile their memories/families/bloodline or to absorb their fierce power (a belief used to good effect in the thriller Ravenous).

Eating another species (no matter what the evoluntionists say about where we come) is not a form of cannibalism.  However human flesh tastes like pork (hence cannibal tribes references to human flesh as "long pig"), so the next time you're knoshing on canadian bacon wonder just WHAT canadian that might have come from.  Or Jimmy Dean sausages.  Bacon?  Pork chops?

Chimps are the closest to us genetically that you can get.  Eating a chimp might be considered cannibalism by PETA, I guess.

Eating someone's dandruff, toe clippings, or body hair is not cannibalism.  Neither is drinking their blood.  So you blood fetishists out there need not worry.

[Dano]

Cannibalism is performed via two factors - survival (i.e. the Argentinian soccer team stranded in the Andes, or the Donner Party) or ritual (i.e. tribal burial rights, etc.)
*****  Category 3:  Insanity.  Lecter of fantasy, Dahmer of reality.

Chimps are the closest to us genetically that you can get. Eating a chimp might be considered cannibalism by PETA, I guess.
*****  Not just PETA...  I think there's a reason you don't see monkey meat on supermarket shelves.

[Chadzilla]

Dano wrote:
>
> Category 3:  Insanity.  Lecter of fantasy, Dahmer of reality.
>  

Oops, forgot about that one.  Probably psychological.  Besides Dahmer, has there been any other high profile cannibal?

Jack the Ripper taunted the police with letters that implied he ate a portion or two of his victims.

Contrary to legend, Ed Gein was not a cannibal but a simple necrophile.  He just enjoyed 'playing' with the dead bodies, or parts thereof.  No real evidence was ever found that he ate human flesh (although sensationalistic reports of the time loved to imply that he did).

Anything to add to this tasteful subject?

[Dano]

Oops, forgot about that one. Probably psychological. Besides Dahmer, has there been any other high profile cannibal?
*****  Yes, and damnit I cannot think of his name or where he was, but it was in the mid-80s and he was murdering and eating young children.  As I recall, they caught him and electrocuted him pretty quickly after the conviction.  I'm at a loss for the name though.  There have also been smaller-profile ones; smaller-profile because they only killed one or two people.  

Jack the Ripper taunted the police with letters that implied he ate a portion or two of his victims.
*****  That's right... IF those letters were actually written by Jack.  I was in London this past summer and happened to wander into Mitre Square which is still there and was the site of one of the murders.  Creepy.  There's a bank there or something and a bench with some flowers.  Didn't see any plaques.  Most of the murder sites are long gone, built over during the years.

Anything to add to this tasteful subject?
*****  LOL.  Ew.

[Chadzilla]

The Fishman!  King and Straub 'borrowed' the story of Albert Fish (at least I think that was his name) a kindly old grandfather type that brutally murdered numerous children and ate their flesh (raw?).  That was back in the 1920s though, I think.

They zapped him pretty fast though, once  the trial was out of the way.

I don't know about the one in the eighties though.

[Dano]

The 80s thing is something I remember as a kid.  It's possible I just heard a story about Fish and became alarmed because I thought it was current events, but I really do remember something about the guy getting caught and the cops searching his house and finding lots of remains in his freezer.  I remember being REALLY relieved when he was caught although I don't think he was really near where I was living.

[Dano]

Crimelibrary.com didn't have anything on the guy I am thinking of -- maybe I'm remembering an urban legend.  But I did learn that Andrei Chikatilo, a Russian serial killer who was the subject of an HBO movie called Citizen X, did cannibalize some of his victims.

[Mofo Rising]

Some anthropologists like to include the "gastronomic" category, which is eating human meat just because it tastes good.  Not too many, if any, real life examples there though.

There's also endocannibalism, eating within one's own tribe; exocannibalism, eating outside one's tribe; and autocannibalism, eating one's self.

Do you remember that episode of THE SIMPSONS where the devil turned Homer's head into a donut, and Homer kept picking away at it because he was so "sweet and tasty".  Well that would be an example of gastronomic autocannibalism.

I used that example in a high school report on cannibalism.  One of my finer moments.

[John]

I've been practicing minor autocannibalism on the peeling skin of my finger while reading this thread.