CANNIBALISM

Anthropophagy (cannibalism)

Anthropophagy (cannibalism)

Introduction

“I do not believe, from what I have been told about this people (Tupinamba), that there is anything barbarous or savage about them, except that we call barbarous anything that is contrary to our own habits. . . . I consider it more barbarous to eat a man alive than to eat him dead. . . . We are justified on calling these people barbarians by reference to laws of reason, but not in comparison with ourselves, who surpass them in every kind of barbarity.” Montaigne, "Of Cannibals," Essays, 1581

Cannibalism, which is also called anthropophagy, is the eating of human flesh by humans. The word Cannibal came from when Christopher Colombus first met the Carib Indians from the Caribbean whom he called caribales. These people from the Caribbean were mistaken as cannibals and their name was mispronounced canibales. There are many different types of cannibalism in the world.

Discussion

There are great difficulties in understanding the psychological aspects of the earliest years of life(Bernard, Ortiz, 2007 ). The immature human infant, like the non-human animal, is an organism grossly different from the adult scientist who studies him. Because of this difference, there has always been a tendency to adultomorphize the infant, and to anthropomorphize the animal. In addition, there is rapid growth and development in the infant which is influenced both by inherent maturational factors, and by experiential environmental factors.

Such rapid change makes the study of a phenomenon difficult, especially where the variables are multiple and complex(Beth, 2007 ). Furthermore, the infant, being pre-verbal, cannot communicate information about his thoughts and feelings, and thus our most useful tool in understanding psychological phenomena is lost.

Examples from Different Culture

One type of cannibalism has to do with tribal rituals and magic, such as said to be practiced in New Guinea, Fiji and other remote places. Another type is a result of starvation from an accident, such as what happened in the ordeal of the plane crash victims shown in Alive and of the survivors of the Donner Party in the Sierra snow in 1846. Also, there are psychological kinds of cannibalism because of being mentally ill, including cannibalism practiced by certain types of serial murderers who eat their victims(Dark, 2005 ). This paper will explore the cases of serial murderer cannibals in this century, includin!

Fritz Haarmann ("The Vampire of Hanover"), Jeffrey Dahmer ("The Milwaukee Monster"), and Andrei Chikatilo ("The Mad Beast"). In ...