Cannibalism, so condemned for ethical and moral issues contemporaries, was a habit existing throughout history. Far from an old connotation that associates the consumption of human flesh with some type of religious ritual, cannibalism is a practice with different motivations and characteristics over time.
In Pre -History, several traces of dismembered bodies and broken bones raise the hypothesis that this type of “diet” was present among some peoples of that time. In Brazil, Hans Staden's accounts reported the presence of tribes that appreciated the consumption of human flesh. The Pacura Indians, from the Amazon, even elaborated a specific type of “fattening” so that the meat of their prisoners was much more palatable.
The existence of cannibal tribes in America was a question present during the process of European colonization, from the 16th century onwards. Cannibalism, in the eyes of the colonizer, was evidence of the savagery to be banished from native cultures, whether through conflict or acculturation. However, we realize that this type of practice involves issues that are very peculiar to each of the cultures where cannibalism was present.
In some civilizations, such as the Tupinambás and Celts, the consumption of the flesh of their enemies was seen as an important strategy of their warrior culture. Ingesting an opponent's body parts could offer the opponent's skill, strength, and intelligence. Thus, the more difficult the defeated opponent, the more coveted the ingestion of their meat and organs.
Being a cause of revulsion and discussion, cannibalism even became part of fictional stories. The Doctor. Hannibal, created by writer Thomas Harris and world famous for his portrayal of Anthony Hopkins in the 1991 film “The Silence of the Lambs”, is part of a trilogy in which a young man, through a life of trauma and brutality, became a feared cannibal.
Sporadically, the isolated action of some serial killers and psychopaths makes this theme come up again. In other cases, extreme situations call into question the limit between cultural values and the struggle for survival. The case of the survivors of the Fairchild F-227 crash in 1972 is one such example. Isolated in the extreme climate of the Andes Mountains, the survivors were forced to consume the meat of those who died in the plane crash.
The current negative value of cannibalism is supported by values where notions of affection, morality and individualism impose extreme censure on this type of act. By becoming a taboo in our culture, it becomes an indigestible and, at the same time, curious topic.