Beyond cannibalism. No zombies required.
February 1, 2005 10:22 PM   Subscribe

An Indonesian man was recently jailed for digging up and eating his neighbour's corpse and a Zambian man has been arrested for exhuming, cooking and eating his grandson's corpse. Most cultures have a strong taboo against eating the dead, even indirectly. This taboo has been exploited for intimidation and torture and by artists, writers and even game programmers (the latter resulting in bizarre code documentation). The practice of corpse eating is the subject of ancient myths and is embraced by at least one contemporary religious sect.
posted by Deepspace (14 comments total)
 
Heh, as soon as I saw the "Game Programmers" link, I immediately thought of the Undead race in World of Warcraft. They have this rather unique ability:
Cannibalize - active
Increase health regeneration by 200% while consuming a corpse - lasts 15 sec - 3 min cooldown

It allows you to to heal faster by eating the corpses of your enemies.
posted by Sangermaine at 1:27 AM on February 2, 2005


What you want to do is cremate them, then drink the powder in a milkshake or similar. Avoids the whole prion problem.
Loses most of the nutritional value though.
posted by asok at 2:47 AM on February 2, 2005


This is only tangentially related, but it's what I thought of when I saw this thread: Jeremy Bentham, the founder of Utilitarianism, requested in his will that his corpse be preserved and brought out for meetings--and it was [picture within, and more deatiled info here]. Bentham also used our reverential treatment of dead bodies as way of tackling superstition in western society, and in fact dedicated an entire work, entitled Auto-Icon, to various ways we could use dead bodies.

I actually thought about digging up some more links on this a few days ago and posting it as an fpp, but this shortened version relates interestingly, if only tangentially, to this post, so ya know.

Fun with bodies!
posted by The God Complex at 3:07 AM on February 2, 2005


(dead bodies, that is--everyone knows you can have fun with bodies)
posted by The God Complex at 3:07 AM on February 2, 2005


I still want to be eaten when I die. And not simply because of Stranger in a Strange Land or Friends.

And it's not to do with Chthulu's "Who will be eaten first?"

I've always wanted to taste human flesh. So long as the person's not killed expressly for the eating, what's the problem? So long as you're careful, you don't have to worry about disease being communicated. I may not be able to taste flesh in my lifetime, but I'd hate to deny others that priveledge. Just so I can shut up all those idiots who think we taste "just like chicken".
posted by Eideteker at 4:31 AM on February 2, 2005


Noone's done this already?!

...and is embraced by at least one contemporary religious sect.
posted by Aknaton at 6:57 AM on February 2, 2005


I was looking up links as you were posting, Aknaton. It was the first thing that came to mind when I saw this post.
posted by TedW at 7:03 AM on February 2, 2005


One man's meat is another man's person.

(Watch out for ColdChef!)
posted by languagehat at 7:08 AM on February 2, 2005


The ancient Greek historian Herodotus writes in his "Histories" of tribes beyond the Urals (the Issidones, distant relatives of the Tibetans) who cooked their dead with lamb's meat and eat them as a sign of respect. They also preserved the skulls, finished them with gold and used them as wine goblets.
posted by acrobat at 7:22 AM on February 2, 2005


This post comes right on the heels of a movie night that has fondly been dubbed a "Death Fest" by a few of my friends. Without really planning a theme, we ended up seeing Delicatessen, The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover, and Kissed all in the same evening. (The last movie being about death in general, rather than cannibalism of any type.)

A bunch of interesting links in this post and the subsequent comments. Thanks, Deepspace & The God Complex!
posted by abiku at 7:43 AM on February 2, 2005


Wow. It really is all about the canninalism these past couple of days. *quick glance over shoulder*
posted by raedyn at 7:46 AM on February 2, 2005


One man's meat is another man's person.

One man's meat is another girl's...oh never mind. But it does occur to me that many of the sexual acts are akin to cannibalism: nibbling, biting, licking, sucking, eating, swallowing.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 9:06 AM on February 2, 2005


Stop it Gravy, you're makin' me hungry.
..and sweet front page post Deepspace! Full of that deep, linky goodness.....
posted by Floydd at 4:02 PM on February 2, 2005


I still want to be eaten when I die. And not simply because of Stranger in a Strange Land or Friends.

The will I had before my son was born specified that my remains were to be cremated, then mixed in with 5 pounds of the best pot money could buy...and then distributed equally amongst my friends. Grok me, indeed. ;)

(After my son was born, my attorney mentioned that perhaps I wanted a "legal" will this time. ;)
posted by dejah420 at 5:42 PM on February 4, 2005


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