Cannibalism: Who Is The Next Fad Diet?

Through outdated travel writings, general myths, and false truths many had come to believe the stereotype that many people in Africa practice cannibalism in the past. There is not much, if any, evidence of this but despite this misconception is still believed by some

In the introduction to “The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Our National Eating Disorder,” author Michael Pollan argues that many American’s in today’s contemporary society have lost touch with where their food comes from and which foods actually are nutritious. We have become an unaware society and allowed our daily simple routine of eating healthy meals to become a complex mess of fear for being unhealthy. I feel that Pollan is making an effective argument in stating his beliefs and factual knowledge on the confused relationship our nation has with food by using factual knowledge and evidence to persuade the audience that he is credible.

Cannibalism: It Still Exists By: Linh Kieu Ngo and Love: The Right Chemistry By: Anastasia Toufelis are the two selections assigned to go with the concept essay. In the Cannibalism essay author Ngo explains a different side of cannibalism. The side of cannibalism that is practiced for dietary reasons, ceremonial purposes, and survival. Toufexis’ essay on love talks about the “physical” more chemical and biological aspect of love, relationships, and romance. It delves into the comical explanation for passion and why people fall in love.

Animal meat has all necessary nutrients, especially protein that is necessary for the human body to grow and function properly. Besides, it plays a vital role in brain development. As suggested by Smil (2013), “Killing animals and eating meat have been significant components of human evolution…have inevitably contributed to the evolution of human intelligence…” (p.1). According to the findings of the University of Colorado (2012), anthropologists have excavated a toddler’s “skull fragment” in Tanzania that is the abnormally tiny size of skull, due to a protein deficiency in the diet and led to youth mortality; this condition was very rare in 1.8 million years ago. This indicates that animal meat is a paramount in the human body, without the essential amino acids that exists in animal meats; human evolution cannot happen (p.1).

Around the globe, there is vast misunderstanding in nearly every culture that it is a natural instinct for humans to kill and eat animals. As science has proved time and time again, this simply is not true. Many believe that we as humans have evolved to be omnivores, but surprisingly it was not until recently (historically speaking) that humans began to consume meat (Greer). This is a simple misunderstanding that costs many their lives and is also detrimental to our planet. As humans, we physically do not need to eat animals to survive, it is inhumane, and it is taking a huge toll on our environment.

Replacing all the meat in the human diet with vegetables and fruit is difficult. At the expense of refraining from eating meat, we are expected to partake in excessive

Cannibalism, before the witch craze, was associated with heresy (Roper, 2004, p. 72). As this era's events unfolded, so too did this era's fantasies. Cannibalism, like witchcraft, was used as a horrible venue for abstract cultural fears. Roper, writing on the Thirty Years War, states that "...rumours of cannibalism...expressed the terrifying disorientation and collapse of German society," (2004, p. 72).

Among humans, cannibalism has been widespread in prehistoric societies on all continents. It is still believed to be practiced in remote areas of the island of New Guinea. It existed until recently in parts of West and Central Africa, Sumatra, Melanesia, and Polynesia. It also existed among various Indian tribes of North and South America and among aborigines of Australia and the Maoris of New Zealand.

Cannibalism isn’t something that any person believes they will have to face during their lifetime. This prospect was even less likely for people during the late 1800’s, however that is exactly what happened to the Donner Party. After setting off on a journey across country to California, a series of unfortunate events and poor decisions forced these family to do the unthinkable.

(Feuchtwang 262). They same way many may be thinking that future cannibalism will not occur is the same way the people before the time of the Great Leap did. However once the horrific times of the Great Leap occurred so did cannibalism and humans used every part of the human body down to the fingernails for consumption. Once humans try flesh and feel the power of taking over another life it will not stop

Although frowned upon by some, the partaking of cannibalism actually exists in societies today. Eating the placenta of a newborn could be considered immoral, but in China it’s a common, cultural practice a mother carries out. Besides culture, factors such as geographical surroundings and physical needs could also be argued to play a role in the morals/actions of individuals. In The Road by Cormac McCarthy, the man is influenced by the death as well as society which in turn: diminishes his hope for survival, perception, and finally moral standards. This internal struggle caused by his environs progresses the plot and provides meaning to the work as a whole.

An intense, aggressive moral scrutiny has sparked interest in the meat eating community. Eating is an activity that we as humans do frequently, and the variety of food is immense. We decide what we are about to eat and how it will affect our bodies. In different societies, controversy has arisen over the morality of eating meat from animals. However, the moral and ethical arguments of eating meat is not a new debate. Roger Scruton’s essay, “A Carnivore’s Credo”, addresses both carnivores and vegetarians by using an appeal to pathos and ethos to persuade people of the need to “remoralize” eating meat, and extrapolating that to mean that human beings have the conscious ability to choose and stand up for moral right and wrong.

I personally believe that humans should be eating a much larger variety of meat for

There are many variations on human cannibalism, but the main three are survival cannibalism, endocannibalism and exocannibalism. Survival cannibalism is the practice of human beings eating other human beings as a necessity in order to survive. This type of practice

     Survival cannibalism is one type of cannibalism that clearly without a doubt has occurred and is well documented. "Simply put, survival cannibalism occurs when people are trapped without food in some way -- in a boat adrift on the ocean, on a mountain by snowfall -- and resort to eating other members of the group" (qtd. in The myths and perturbing realities of cannibalism p.1). The most notable case of survival cannibalism is the case of the Donner party of 1846. A group of 90 immigrants led by George Donner was caught in a blinding snowstorm high in the Sierra Nevada range of California in October 1846. Survivors, who made their way out early in 1847, had been forced to resort to eating the flesh of their comrades in order to survive. The survivors openly admitted to the media