Cannibalism has sometimes been practiced as a last resort by people suffering from starvation, even in modern times. Famous examples include the ill-fated Thunder Party (1846-47) and, more recently, the crash of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 (1972), after which some survivors ate the bodies of the dead. In addition, there are cases of people with mental illness who engage in cannibalism for sexual pleasure, such as Jeffrey Dahmer and Albert Fish. There is resistance to officially calling cannibalism a mental disorder. [15] Cannibalism has recently been practiced and strongly condemned in several wars, including in Liberia[10] and the Democratic Republic of Congo. [11] It was still practiced in Papua New Guinea as of 2012 for cultural reasons,[12][13] and in rituals and warfare in various Melanesian tribes. Cannibalism is said to test the limits of cultural relativism because it challenges anthropologists to “define what is and is not beyond acceptable human behavior.” [1] Some scholars argue that there is no clear evidence that cannibalism has ever been a socially acceptable practice anywhere in the world, at any time in history, although this has been constantly discussed. [14] What does this mean for Greg Foot? He can eat his own flesh, an act that did not involve murder or desecration of a corpse. He just has to do it in America. (The British Cannibalism Act was passed in 1884 in Regina v. Perhaps the very first encounter between Europeans and Maori was the cannibalism of a Dutch sailor. In June 1772, Frenchman explorer Marion du Fresne and 26 members of his crew were killed and eaten in the Bay of Islands.[90] [91] In an incident known as the Boyd Massacre in 1809, approximately 66 passengers and crew from Boyd were killed and eaten by Maori on the Whangaroa Peninsula in Northland. Cannibalism was already a regular practice in the Maori wars.

[92] In another case, on July 11, 1821, warriors from the Ngapuhi tribe killed 2,000 enemies and remained on the battlefield and “ate the vanquished until they were driven away by the smell of decaying bodies.” [93] Maori warriors who fought against the New Zealand government during the Titokowaru War on New Zealand`s North Island in 1868/69 revived ancient cannibalism rites as part of the radical Hauhau movement of the Pai Marire religion. [94] The 1913 Handbook of Indians of Canada (reprinted in 1907 by the Bureau of American Ethnology) states that Native Americans who practiced cannibalism.” the Montagnais and certain tribes of Maine; Algonquin, Armouchiquois, Iroquois and Mi`kmaq; further west, the Assiniboine, Cree, Fox, Chippewas, Miami, Ottawa, Kickapoo, Illinois, Sioux and Winnebago; in the south, the people who built the hills in Florida, and the Tonkawa, Attacapa, Karankawa, Caddo and Comanche; to the northwest and west, parts of the mainland, the Thlingchadinneh and other Athabaskan tribes, the Tlingit, Heiltsuk, the Kwakiutl, the Tsimshian, the Nootka, the Siksika, some California tribes and the Utes. There is also a tradition of practice among the Hopi and mentions of the custom among other tribes in New Mexico and Arizona. The Mohawk, Attacapa, Tonkawa and other tribes of Texas were known to their neighbors as “man-eaters.” [88] The forms of cannibalism described included both the use of human flesh during famines and ritual cannibalism, the latter usually consisting of eating a small portion of an enemy warrior. From another source, according to Hans Egede, when the Inuit killed a woman accused of witchcraft, they ate part of her heart. [89] A well-known case of corpse cannibalism is that of the Fore tribe in New Guinea, which led to the spread of Kuru prion disease. [22] Although the cannibalism of forum corpses was well documented, the practice had ceased before the cause of the disease was recognized. However, some scholars argue that although post-mortem dismemberment was the practice during funeral rites, cannibalism was not. Marvin Harris theorizes that this happened during a famine that coincided with the arrival of Europeans and was rationalized as a religious rite. What is surprising, however, is the fact that in the United States – with one exception – there are no laws prohibiting the consumption of human flesh. In 49 states, at least theoretically, you can eat human flesh and drink human blood in front of a police officer and suffer no legal consequences.

But if you try that in Idaho — the only exception — you could spend up to 14 years behind bars.