Does cannibalism exist?
Over the last decade, scholars have asserted that ritual cannibalism, which was reportedly practiced by many premodern cultures, arose from chronic nutritional stress, from psychosexual impulses or from particular creation myths and other cultural symbols. Other scientists argue that cannibalism has scarcely existed at all except in isolated, dire emergencies and that the real question is why people so often project an odious practice onto others. Cannibalism ”is never just about eating,” concludes a new book on the ritual consumption of human flesh in one of the few statements that students of the topic can agree upon.
