Flesh as Bread; Blood as Wine

[Boojatta]

There is no escaping man's origin -- a carnivorous and cannibalistic animal -- and disgustingly so. Dr. Marais, Dr. P. J. van B. Viljoen, and Dr. Uys Pienaar, "are emphatic that no other carnivore will devour a hyena's carcass. They assure us that, on the contrary, they have frequently encountered the mummified carcasses of hyenas in the veld; the carcasses often lie untouched by bird or beast where they have been shot or cast aside from traps. This revulsion against eating hyena flesh was not experienced by human beings such as the ancient Europeans. However nauseating hyena flesh may be to hyenas and to other carnivorous creatures, man, the greatest of all scavengers, whether presapient or sapient, could cope with the flesh of any and every competitor -- even if it happened to be his own flesh and blood."

A modern optimistic writer, while admitting that "cannibalism has been a common practice until recently" is emphatic that "eating your dead enemy or drinking his blood from his empty skull has been a mark of greatest admiration and wish to acquire his virtue. It was a spiritual acknowledgment from the first and in symbolic form survives even in Christian communion." I fear that there are and always have been very few creatures who would welcome this kind of "spiritual acknowledgment." But apart from this, it seems to me that we have to be careful not to confuse the logic of the events. It is not that the crimes of man are bound to have a mark of "spiritualist", but rather that even when man tried to do something "spiritual", he was bound to show the mark of his origin.

From:
Pages 114 and 115 of
The economic history of world population, by Carlo M. Cipolla

[On the Road]

1. I Have to Admit,

I never thought of communion as eating the flesh of my enemy to gain some of his virtue.

[struggle4progress]

2. NINDS Kuru Information Page

What is Kuru? Kuru is a rare and fatal brain disorder that occurred at epidemic levels during the 1950s-60s among the Fore people in the highlands of New Guinea. The disease was the result of the practice of ritualistic cannibalism among the Fore, in which relatives prepared and consumed the tissues (including brain) of deceased family members. Brain tissue from individuals with kuru was highly infectious, and the disease was transmitted either through eating or by contact with open sores or wounds. Government discouragement of the practice of cannibalism led to a continuing decline in the disease, which has now mostly disappeared ... http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/kuru/kuru.htm

Ritual cannibalism may have a variety of meanings. Among the Fore in New Guinea, for example, it seems to have been part of a mourning ritual, honoring dead relatives

[LuvNewcastle]

3. I've always said that when I die,

I want to be cremated and then put into a big pot of gumbo so everyone can eat me.

[pokerfan]

4. Reminds me of a poem/song by Lee Hays

If I should die before I wake
All my bone and sinew take
Put them in the compost pile
To decompose a little while
Sun, rain and worms will have their way
Reducing me to common clay
All that I am will feed the trees
And little fishes in the seas
When corn and radishes you munch
You may be having me for lunch
The excrete me with a grin
Chortling, There goes Lee again
'Twill be my happiest destiny
To die and live eternally

[DeSwiss]

6. Updating cremation options list. n/t

[rd_kent]

5. Yeah, and?....Religions are full of nutty rituals like this.