Save for Mad Cow Disease, Cannibalism Makes Art and Survival Sense
Cannibalism has never been a widely accepted art form but when, in 2003, Zhu Yu, a Chinese man, ate a still born baby and filmed himself at it, he called it an art and found nothing wrong with his act. The British Channel 4 TV actually broadcast the Beijing Swings footage and earned a censure from the Independent Television Commission for showing a “lack of respect for human dignity” and having “exceeded the boundaries of acceptability.”
“The broadcast of such images raises serious questions, not only about the morality of the artists in using dead babies in pursuit of their artistic expression, but of the broadcasters’ responsibility not to infringe their dignity,” ITC said.
Cannibalism can be more than art as has been documented among the Yanomami, Coaque and Anasazi Indians. Beth Conklin, an American anthropologist concluded in 2001 that cannibalism had a human face after spending time with the Wari’ Indians in the Amazon.
But this month, nine passengers who survived for four days after their plane crashed in the freezing southern forests of Chile confessed they considered eating the body of the dead pilot. “We thought about the pilot, I don’t know how to say it … to feed ourselves from him. We thought about this, but some people were not in agreement because the situation was already so extreme,” one survivor told newsmen.
In 1972, a Uruguayan rugby team survived for 72 days in the cold Andes mountains after eating their dead team mates.
Mad cow disease (MCD) was found after British cattle farmers tried to boost the growth rate of cattle by feeding them food supplements composed of the ground up carcasses of cattle and sheep.
If humans eat diseased tissue from cattle, they may develop the human form of mad cow disease known as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in its classic form usually occurs in older people through an inherited tendency of the brain to change or spontaneously for no apparent reason.
The type identified as occurring from eating diseased cattle occurs in younger people and has prominent psychiatric or sensory symptoms at the time of clinical presentation and delayed onset of neurologic abnormalities, including ataxia within weeks or months, dementia (loss of memory and confusion) late in the illness, within a duration of at least 6 months.
In April while commenting on climate change, CNN founder Ted Turner, argued that inaction on global warming could turn catastrophic and wipe out humanity from the face of the earth but those who will survive could be forced to turn into cannibals.
So when South Koreans take to the streets in a candle light vigil to oppose US beef imports that many fear may be tainted with mad cow disease or when a nation rises against a popularity dipped president Lee Myung-bak for agreeing to resume U.S. beef imports without restriction, they may be out for a good cause - all in real fear of mad cow disease. But where it all makes cannibalistic sense, it has all been in the annals of history.
Further reading: Mad Cow Truth
Image Credit: Deanj at Flickr under a Creative Commons license
