Newsgroups: bit.listserv.christia
Date:         Fri, 6 Nov 1992 08:56:11 EST
Comments:     Converted from PROFS to RFC822 format by PUMP V2.2X
From:         Brenda Curry-White <BSCURR01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU>
Subject:      Christian Attitudes About Cannibalism

Center for Urban and Economic Research
Phone: 502-588-6626

> So, what do people think about eating human flesh in order to survive?

I too saw the documentary on the Donner party.  There is a similar story that
I read once about a party of soccer players whose plane crashed in the Andes.
They too resorted to cannibalism to survive, and later found that if they had
gone 1 mile down the mountain on the opposite side than the one they did
try to descend, they would have found a shack stocked with emergency
provisions.  I can't remember the name of this book.  The story of the Donner
party is truly tragic.

It's all well and good to say, "I would * never * do anything like that!"  But
I'm not so sure we (I) could be so self-righteous when death would be the
result.  I would hope that if my loved ones had to make that choice, I would
be lunch.  But I'm not so sure I could feast on anyone.  Of course, one
never knows what one is capable of until put to the test.

As for the Christian response, I think we can look at the Donner party to see
what can happen once cannibalism is accepted.  The first ones to partake of
human flesh were a party of the strongest survivors who had set out to walk out
of the mountains.  They couldn't make it, and four died one night around the
campfire.  Those four (if I'm remembering all this correctly - it was late)
were the first victims.  When there was once again no meat, all but one of the
party turned on the two native Americans in the party, and murdered them for
food.  It's almost as if because they had done the unspeakable, they were able
to justify murder, especially of victims who were probably looked down on as
inferiors.  I don't think Christians should sanction eating human flesh, even
in dire emergencies and even if the victims die of natural causes if it
allows the psyche to justify more heinous (and definitely sinful) acts.
After all, there are a lot of people starving in the world right at this
moment.  Cannibalism could save a few of them.  But do we really want to
say that cannibalism is the answer?  I don't.

It is interesting that cannibalism is a universal taboo.  Except for cases of
severe deprivation, as in the case of the Donner party, no other societies
allow cannibalism.  Even the reports we hear of societies that did allow it
(such as the Aztecs) come to us second-hand.  I have heard one anthropology
professor indicate that if you visit communities in New Guinea that have
been accused of practicing cannibalism and ask them if they do, you get
a response like, "Oh no, we would never do anything like that.  But those
people over there..."  It's just about the worst thing you can say about
an enemy.  There have apparently been cases of ritual cannibalism (where you
kill your enemy and take a bite to indicate your superiority), but no society
allows cannibalism as a mode of subsistence.

Personally, I can't imagine that human flesh is all that nutritious anyway,
at least I don't like to think so (smile).  And I can't imagine that there
was all that much meat left on the bodies of the victims of the Donner party.
After all, most of them had starved to death and were probably nothing but
skin and bones.

Brenda
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