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lower races, such as the Fuegians or Red Indian tribes, but also among civilized races, as the records of sieges and shipwrecks show. (ii.) Simple food cannibalism is common in Africa; the Niam-Niam and Monbuttu carry on wars for the See also:

SAKE

sake of obtaining human flesh; in West Africa human flesh could formerly be seen exposed for See also:

sale in the See also:

MARKET (Lat. mercatus, trade or place of trade)

market like any other See also:

ARTICLE (from Lat. articulus, a joint)

article of See also:

commerce; and among some tribes it is the practice to sell the corpses of dead relatives for See also:

CONSUMPTION (Lat. consumere)

consumption as food. (b) In curious contrast to this latter See also:

CUSTOM (from O. Fr. costume, costume or coustume; Low Lat. costuma, a shortened form of consuetudo)

custom is the practice of devouring dead kinsfolk as the most respectful method of disposing of their remains. In a small number of cases this practice is combined with the custom of killing the old and sick, but in the great See also:

MAJORITY (Fr. majorite; Med. Lat. majoritas; Lat. major, greater)

majority of peoples it is simply a form of See also:

BURIAL

burial; it seems to prevail in most parts of Australia, many parts of Melanesia, Africa and South America, and less frequently in other parts of the See also:

WORLD

world. To this See also:

GROUP

group belong the customs described by Herodotus; we may perhaps regard as a variant form the custom of using the See also:

SKULL

skull of a dead man as a drinking-See also:

CUP (in O.E. cuppe; generally taken to be from Late Lat. cuppa, a variant of Lat. cupa, a cask, cf. Gr. KuaeXXov)

cup. This practice is widely found, and the statement of Herodotus that the skull was set in See also:

gold and preserved by the See also:

ISSEDONES

Issedones may point in this direction; from the See also:

account given of the Tibetans some seven See also:

HUNDRED

hundred years ago by See also:

William of Ruysbruck (See also:

RUBRUQUIS (or RUBROUCK), WILLIAM OF

Rubruquis) it appears that they had given up cannibalism but still preserved the use of the skull as a drinking See also:

VESSEL (O. Fr. vaissel, from a rare Lat. vascellum, dim. of vas, vase, urn)

vessel. Another modification of an See also:

ORIGINAL

original See also:

RITUAL (from Lat. ritus, a custom, especially a religious rite or custom)

ritual cannibalism is the custom of drinking the ashes of the dead, which is practised by some See also:

AFRICAN

African and South See also:

AMERICAN

American tribes. The custom of holding burial feasts has also been traced to the same origin. More incomprehensible to the See also:

EUROPEAN

European than any other form of cannibalism is the custom of partaking of the products of putrefaction as they run down from the See also:

BODY

body. The Australians See also:

SMOKE (from O. Eng. smeocan, to smoke, reek, cf. Dutch meek, Ger. Schmauch, probably allied to Gr. vol9caiv)

smoke-dry the bodies of tribesmen; here, too, it is the custom to consume the portions of the body which are rendered liquid by the See also:

HEAT (0. E. haktu, which like " hot," Old Eng. hat, is from the Teutonic type haita, hit, to be hot; cf. Ger. hitze, heiss; Dutch, hitte, heet, &c.)

heat. (c) The ritual cannibal-ism just mentioned shades over into and may have been originally derived from magical cannibalism, of which three sub-See also:

SPECIES

species may be distinguished.

(i.) Savages are accustomed, on the one See also:

hand, to abstain from certain foods in See also:

order that they may not acquire certain qualities; on the other hand other foods are eagerly desired in order that they may by partaking of the flesh also come to partake of the See also:

MENTAL

mental or bodily peculiarities of the man or animal from which the See also:

MEAT

meat is derived; thus, after the See also:

BIRTH (a word common in various forms to Teutonic languages from the root of the verb " to bear ")

birth of a See also:

child, especially the first-See also:

BORN, IGNAZ, EDLER VON (1742–1791)

born, the parents are frequently forbidden the flesh of slow-moving animals, because that would prevent the child from learning to walk; conversely, eating the See also:

heart of a See also:

lion is recommended for a See also:

WARRIOR

warrior to make him brave; from this point of view therefore we readily under-stand the motives which See also:

lead to the eating of those slain in battle, both See also:

friends and foes. (ii.) We may term protective an entirely different See also:

KIND (O. E. ge-cynde, from the same root as is seen in " kin," supra)

kind of magical cannibalism, which consists in the consumption of a small portion of the body of a murdered man, in order that his See also:

GHOST (a word common to the W. Teutonic languages; O.E. vest, Dutch, 'geest, Ger. Geist)

ghost may not trouble the murderer; according to Hans See also:

EGEDE, HANS (1686–1758)

Egede, the See also:

ESKIMO, ESKIMOS

Eskimo, when they kill a See also:

WITCH

witch, eat a portion of her heart, that she may not haunt them. (iii.) The practice is also said to have the effect of causing the relatives of the murdered man to lose heart or to prevent them from exercising the right of revenge; in this See also:

case it may be brought into relation with the ceremony of the See also:

BLOOD

blood See also:

covenant in one of the forms of which the parties drink each other's blood; or, it may point to a See also:

REMINISCENCE (from Lat. reminisci, to remember)

reminiscence of a ritual eating of the dead kinsman. The See also:

LATE

late survival of this See also:

IDEA (Gr. Ibia, connected with i&eiv, to see; cf. Lat. species from specere, to look at)

idea in See also:

EUROPE

Europe is attested by its mention by See also:

DANTE

Dante in the Purgatorio. (d) The custom of eating food offered to the gods is widespread, and we may trace to this origin Mexican cannibalism, perhaps, too, that of Fiji. The Aztec See also:

WORSHIP (i.e. " worth-ship," O. Eng. weor8scipe)

worship of the See also:

god of See also:

war, See also:

HUITZILOPOCHTLI

Huitzilopochtli, led to the See also:

SACRIFICE (from Lat. sacrificium; sacer, holy, and facere, to make)

sacrifice of prisoners, and the custom of sacrifice to their frequent wars. The See also:

PRIEST (Ger. Priester, Fr. pretre)

priest took out the heart, offered it to the See also:

sun, and then went through the ceremonies of feeding the idol with the heart and blood; finally the bodies of the victims were consumed by the worshippers. (e) We reach an entirely different set of motives in penal and revenge cannibalism. For the origin of these ideas we may perhaps look to that of protective magic, dealt with above; but it seems possible that there is also some idea of influencing the See also:

lot of the criminal in a future See also:

LIFE

life; it may be noted that the whole of the body is seldom eaten in protective cannibalism; among the Battas, however, the criminal, and in parts of Africa the debtor, are entirely consumed. Other cases, especially where the victim is an enemy, may be due to See also:

mere fury and bravado. (f) In the west of North America a See also:

PECULIAR

peculiar kind of cannibalism is found, which is confined to a Certain body of magicians termed " Hametzen " and a necessary See also:

CONDITION (Lat. condicio, from condicere, to agree upon, arrange; not connected with conditio, from condere, conditum, to put together)

condition of See also:

ADMISSION

admission to their order. Another kind of initiatory cannibalism prevailed in the south of Australia, where a magician had to eat a portion of a child's body before he was admitted.

The meaning of these ceremonials is not clear. 2. Most kinds of cannibalism are hedged See also:

ROUND (O. Fr. rond, Lat. rotundus, the Fr. is the source also of Du. rond; Ger., Swed., Dan. and Nor. rond)

round with ceremonial regulations. Certain tribes, as we have seen above, go to war to provide human flesh; in other cases it is only the nearest relatives who may not partake of a body; in other cases again it is precisely the nearest relatives on whom the See also:

DUTY (from " due," that which is owing, O. Fr. deu, dil, past participle of devoir; Lat. debere, debitum; cf. " debt ")

duty falls. A curious regulation in south-east New Guinea prescribes that the killer of the victim shall not partake in the feast; in some cases the whole of the See also:

CLAN (Gaelic clann, O. Ir. cland, connected with Lat. planta, shoot or scion, the ancient Gaelic or Goidelic substituting k for p)

clan to which belonged the man for whom revenge is taken abstains also; in other cases this clan, together with any others of the same intermarrying group, takes part in the feast to the exclusion of (a) the clan or group with which they intermarry and (b) all outside clans. Some peoples forbid See also:

WOMEN

women to eat human flesh; in others certain classes, as the See also:

MURI

Muri of the Bambala, a tribe in the Kassai, may be forbidden to eat it. In Mindanao the only See also:

PERSON, OFFENCES AGAINST THE

person who might eat of a slain enemy was the priest who led the warriors, and he was not permitted to See also:

ESCAPE (in mid. Eng. eschape or escape, from the O. Fr. eschapper, modern echapper, and escaper, low Lat. escapium, from ex, out of, and cappa, cape, cloak; cf. for the sense development the Gr. iichueoOat, literally to put off one's clothes, hence to sli

escape this duty. In See also:

GRAND

Grand Bassam all who had taken part in a festival at the See also:

FOUNDATION (Lat. fundatio, from fundare, to found)

foundation of a new See also:

VILLAGE

village were compelled to eat of the human victim. But the See also:

variations are too numerous for any general account to be given of ceremonial limitations. S. R. See also:

STEINMETZ, KARL FRIEDRICH VON (1796-1877)

Steinmetz has proposed a division into endoand exo-cannibalism; but these divisions are frequently of See also:

minor importance, and he has failed to define satisfactorily the limits of the groups on which his classification is based.

Origin.—It will probably never be possible to say how cannibalism originated; in fact the multiplicity of forms and the diversity of ceremonial rules—some prescribing that tribesmen shall on no account be eaten, others that the bodies of none but tribesmen shall provide the See also:

MEAL

meal of human flesh—point to a multiple origin. It has been maintained that the various forms of endo-cannibalism (eating of tribesmen) See also:

SPRING (from " to spring," " to leap or jump up," " burst out," O. Eng., springau, a common Teut. word, cf. Ger. springer, possibly allied to Gr. QnrFpxecOac, to move rapidly)

spring from an original practice of food cannibalism which the human race has in common with many animals; but this leaves unexplained inter alia the See also:

LIMITATION, STATUTES OF

limitation of the right of participation in the funeral meal to the relatives of the dead man; at the same See also:

time it is possible to argue that the magical ideas now associated with cannibalism are of later growth. Against the view put forward by Steinmetz it may be urged that we have other instances of magical foods, such as the eating of a lion's heart, which do not point to an original custom of eating the animal as food. We shall probably be justified in referring all forms of endo-cannibalism to a ritual origin; otherwise the limitation is inexplicable; on the other hand exo-cannibalism, in some of its forms, and much of the See also:

EXTENSION (Lat. ex, out ; tendere, to stretch)

extension of endo-cannibalism must be referred to a See also:

DESIRE

desire for human flesh, grown into a See also:

PASSION (post-classical Lat. passio, formed from pati, passus, to suffer, endure)

passion.

End of Article: CANNIBALISM

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