What's your perspective on cannibalism?

[Llamadragon]

In general? Disgusting. Like someone said, it tends to be the ultimate act of objectifying a person.

But disgusting things are usually interesting because turning emotionally loaded concepts on their heads is fun to explore in fiction. There's apparently a tribe somewhere that are disgusted by how people in the west tend to bury our dead in the ground. To them, it's equivalent to tossing their dead in a landfill, to be eaten by maggots and worms and insects. They eat their dead themselves, as a funeral ritual. They apparently consider it to be more respectful to make their dead part of themselves, to live on in the community in some way, than it is to leave the bodies to let rot take them.

I'm not sure what I think about that, except I'm a little worried about any diseases that may or may not have operated on the logic of 'goes around, comes around' for who knows how long? (I'm also a little worried by how often the topic of cannibalism comes up on Scribblehub because this is what, the third time in two weeks?) In general, when cannibalism turns up in stories I read, I rarely see it explored past "this MC is so cool and edgy" or occasionally even "this is the authors poorly disguised kink" and that's, uh, that's stuff that should come with ALL of the warning tags please for the love of god there's gore and then there's that.

 

[2wordsperminute]

Pretty sure it's legal in America as long as you get permission from the person you eat before they die.

 

[cabbag3]

Pretty sure it's legal in America as long as you get permission from the person you eat before they die.

Funny enough. I read an old reddit thread about Salvador Alvarenga, who got lost at sea for 438 days, yesterday and there were weird discussions about the legality of cannibalism. He had somebody along with him but died due to poisoning (ate a bird that ate a sea snake, and died after a few days) or so he says. Most countries don't have a definite law on cannibalism, so it's technically not illegal. I just can't, forthe life of me, accept that it's technically legal, so technically not illegal it is.

Alvarenga stated the he didn't eat the guy due to moral implications, religion and also because he promised the kid that he wouldn't do so. At the point he was getting crazy coz it took a week to sink in that his companion was dead and rotting before throwing the body overboard and fainted. Many of the commenters read Alvarenga's book and just gave excerpts from the book.

So basically, eating people isn't illegal, but unaliving/murdering people to eat them is. It's the unaliving part that's against the law. lol I read that there are some other old rules like when sailors get lost at sea and drawing straws to choose who gets served first, etc.

I personally find cannibalism unsettling but that wouldn't stop me from a good read tbh.

Last week I watched a Q&A vid about crimes on Youtube and there was one about cannibalism. They said that criminal psychologist tend to write serial unalivers view on eating their victims as asserting their dominance and control over them, or as you said, they want their victims to be part of them, to be connected in their lives, for the serial unalivers to be understood.

Bones And All (2022) might offer another insight for you.

I'm not really into this stuff but the one time I clicked a video about the Aghori, all the other suggested videos are about True Crime and cannibalism. HAHAHAHA

 

[ConansWitchBaby]

How else are we supposed to teach sorcerers not to fuck with us?

How else are we supposed to deepen the bond in a revolution so no one can out one another?

 

[CharlesEBrown]

There are serious health issues inherent in eating one's own kind ("Mad Cow Disease" stemmed from beef proteins being added to cattle feed IIRC), so, regardless of social or moral issues it is always problematic and best to be only considered as a last-ditch thing.

It is a great way to express the dangers a primitive society can pose on explorers, or how evil someone like Hannibal Lecter is - but can also be used in the way it was in "Stranger in a Strange Land" (which I borrowed, sort of, for my old AD&D world's elves) - a great hero, artist or leader is cooked and eaten by the tribe/community to keep him or her a permanent part of the tribe (those elves considered that evil souls had to be encased in earth and rock to keep their spirits from returning and corrupting the world; normal people would have their bodies tossed into large bodies of water or left in the woods to become a part of the cycle of life; people who performed great deeds but did not want to live on in the tribe or had also done bad things that might taint the tribe were incinerated, and only the "best and brightest" became evening stew).

So to recap: In the real world, it is dangerous, regardless of morality (and generally considered pretty vile).
In fiction, especially fantasy fiction, it may be something completely different.

 

[T.K._Paradox]

An abominable act preformed by the most vile or desperate.

Whether a forced act of starvation or perverted choice it withers away at what makes you human.

 

[Alski]

Humans are just the other other white meat.

 

[TheMonotonePuppet]

An abominable act preformed by the most vile or desperate.

Whether a forced act of starvation or perverted choice it withers away at what makes you human.

Humans are just the other other white meat.

Seeing Alski’s comment right after T.K. Paradox’s is pretty darn hilarious.

 

[QuercusMalus]

Pretty sure it's legal in America as long as you get permission from the person you eat before they die.

As long as you are not in Idaho, then- Yes, it is legal.

 

[RepresentingEnvy]

Ask the zombies that are definitely not in my castle, definitely not in my basement, and most certainly not feeding on a corpse as we speak.

 

[QuercusMalus]

Ask the zombies that are definitely not in my castle, definitely not in my basement, and most certainly not feeding on a corpse as we speak.

As a vampire that sucks neck to survive, isn't that essentially just cannibalism without the chewing?

 

[RepresentingEnvy]

As a vampire that sucks neck to survive, isn't that essentially just cannibalism without the chewing?

No, because we are not the same. "They not like us."

 

[ConansWitchBaby]

Is x-rated stuff cannibalism?

 

[QuercusMalus]

No, because we are not the same. "They not like us."

Ah, yeah, it's only cannibalism if its your own species, so if vamps aren't human...

 

[Aader]

Speaking from a survival perspective, it's a bad option. There is so much food available in nature. Me a 6 buddies spent 3 months in a Nat. Forest. We were actually lost, yet we ate well. You just have to learn. I don't travel without finding out what is edible at my destination

 

[TheMonotonePuppet]

Speaking from a survival perspective, it's a bad option. There is so much food available in nature. Me a 6 buddies spent 3 months in a Nat. Forest. We were actually lost, yet we ate well. You just have to learn. I don't travel without finding out what is edible at my destination

It’s a better option in some places that are particularly hostile to outside forays (example: the Arctic). Sometimes leaving shelter in those kinds of places leads to you losing limbs to the cold.
Obviously, more hands the better, so cannibalism is definitely the last of last resorts, but it does have its places.
For another example, locations with toxic wildlife (polar bears are not good for you. Even cutting out the bad parts can still leave a toxic amount of vitamins.
And if someone is already dead, well, waste not want not.

But it’s rough that you were out there that long! My goodness!

 

[Cipiteca396]

I don't travel without finding out what is edible at my destination

If you bring "food" with you, then you'll always know what's edible at your destination~.

 

[RepresentingEnvy]

Easy just never put yourself in any situation that could result in cannibalism. Never go hiking. Never ride on a plane. Definitely don't go to an indigenous people village. Don't take your friend on a boat in the ocean. Also works if you Never want to eat or drink turtle blood.

 

[Alski]

If you bring "food" with you, then you'll always know what's edible at your destination~.

that's why I always choose a destination with people, or bring along other people if the pickings are looking scarce.

 

[Jocelyn_Uasal]

But to others it is a hard, rock-solid line worse than the majority of evil deeds.

Makes sense, for a very, veryyyy long time in European cultures it was seen as the height of sin and the single greatest evil you could possibly commit. Many shipwreck survivors who were saved, were then shortly after put to death for even just suspicions of cannibalism.

The book "In the Heart of the Sea" goes greatly in depth about this, with the survivors of the famous whale ship essex (the boat they were on in Moby Dick). I think it's a really interesting topic about humanity, differing values and ethics clashing, and who eats/submits to being eaten. It is much less common for someone to be actually killed for the sake of food, than for someone to give up their own life, and I think that says so much about our relationship with our body.